Aloha!

The Image Of The Week comes from the 1973 Aloha From Hawaii concert. I have been listening to it a lot the last few days.

EW concert event announced

The fallowing was found on elvis.com

“Elvis at the International, a Celebration Concert” reunites many of those who were on stage with Elvis in Las Vegas at the International Hotel" in 1969 for his historic return to live performances.40 years after Elvis Presley triumphantly returned to the stage at the International Hotel in Las Vegas, Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc. will reunite many of the original cast for an Elvis Week 2009 concert celebration. Live musical performances along with video and audio will create a magical music experience that will be almost as exciting as being there in the summer of 1969.
The concert will be held during Elvis Week 2009 on Friday, August 14 at 8:00 p.m. at the Cannon Center for the Performing Arts in Memphis, TN.
Performers currently scheduled to participate include; Joe Guercio, Elvis’ orchestra conductor for many of his Vegas performances; The TCB Band members James Burton and Glen D Hardin; Elvis’ back up singers The Imperials, including Joe Moscheo, Terry Blackwood, Sherman Andrus and Gus Gaches, The Sweet Inspirations, including Myrna Smith, Estelle Brown, Portia Griffin, and Millie Kirkham.
Additional vocals will be provided by Terry Mike Jeffrey and Andy Childs.
Other artists will be announced as their appearance is confirmed.
“This will be one of the most unique concerts we have produced,” said Kevin Kern, EPE spokesman. “We have an entire team researching all the elements that went into producing that show so we can create a completely new experience that takes the audience back in time.”
On July 31, 1969, the first night of what would become Elvis’ Las Vegas career opened to an invitation-only, celebrity filled audience. This was only the beginning of what would become a record-breaking run in Las Vegas that shattered all records and created a style of entertainment that is still seen today.

This sounds pretty neat and I will be there for sure. I just wish they would do one more concert with the whole band, Elvis and all. I only got to go to one before, during the 30th anniversary in 07. That was the coolest thing ever! Anyway this is already getting me excited for EW 09.

THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM

Tonight I am going to talk about the FTD, The Impossible Dream. This CD contains a concert from Elvis in vegas in Vegas in 1971. I had been wanting this release for a long time and finally got it this past August. I had heard mixed reviews of it but still felt the need to have it. I do not have many live recordings from 71 and needed to hear some. First of all it was clear that by this time Elvis was already tired of the Vegas thing. I already knew that this was the case, but hearing this was just more proof. He has been told to make his shows go by faster, something else that must have pissed him off and in turn effected his shows. This show does not come close to the Vegas stuff from 70 or some of the stuff from the tours in 72. Though some nice things can be found on this recording. It's Now Or Never is heard one here and is one of the first times Elvis sings this in concert in the 70's. I prefer to hear the original studio version any day but it is neat to hear it here live for possibly for the first time. I will have to say the version of The Impossible Dream is freaking awesome. I love this song and Elvis does it beautifully on here. The other songs are fine and I enjoy listening to this CD but it is not Elvis at his best. I wouldn't consider this even close to one of the ten best Elvis shows on CD from the 70's. The songs seem to be rushed but Elvis does seem to be in a good frame of mind and is doing the best he can under the circumstances. This is probably not a release for casual fans but real Elvis fans should enjoy this anyway even if it does not rank up there with On Stage or An Afternoon In The Garden or any other of the great live shows I have been privileged to listen to.

ELVIS NEW YARS EVE

I am going to review one of the FTD's I picked up in August when I was in Memphis. It is a 2 disc live show from December 31 1976 in Pittsburgh PA. The common perception from many people has Elvis had lost it in his later years. While it is true that he did show some odd behavior at times and at other times was not in good health and it affected his show, he still brought it on most nights. These CD's are kinda of rough sounding but it is a historic moment and I am glad to have it. Elvis actually rolled up into Pittsburgh looking pretty good and in good spirits. Elvis has been in bad shape towards the last of 76 and his last Vegas shows were pretty poor from what I have heard. When this concert rolled around he had turned it around, like he always did when he REALLY WANTED TO! As I said the sound it not that great, as it was recorded by a fan in attendance. You still can hear Elvis well, and his voice sound great and he seems to be having a good time. Elvis would sing almost 30 songs over a two hour period and he is good from beginning to end. The first CD has 16 songs on it and a few songs that standout to me are My Way and Trying To Get To You. My Way is done beautifully and Trying To Get To You as a cool vibe to it and it is the best version I can remember hearing from the later tours. The second disc has 17 songs on it. Love Letters is awesome and Elvis' voice is top notch. Hurt is also good, and I enjoy hearing this live. I have always loved this song. Reconsider Baby is also sung, one of my favorite songs Elvis did live. It does not match some of the other live versions from earlier in the decade, but it is pretty good. Also Elvis bust into Rags To Riches at the piano. It is awesome! I have never heard this live before and from what I know it is the only time he done it on stage. Overall I give this FTD very high marks just because of the great show Elvis puts on. it really does show he still could bring it to the stage despite the troubles he was going through and his bad health. Despite the bad sound quality I highly recommend this for any Elvis fan.

Above is footage from the show of Elvis singing Hurt. Just awesome! I wish I could have been there to see it.

Today In Elvis History

July 4, 1956 Elvis arrived in Memphis just coming off a trip to New York which he had appeared on the Steve Allen show and also had a recording session in which he made some of the best music ever. Anyway, Elvis would hop off his train and walk across town to his home on Audubon and spend the day with his girlfriend and family. That night he put on a show at Russwood Park which was one of his greatest ever. This is the concert which he announced no one was gonna change him. He was pissed about the way he was treated on Allen's show and came home and tore the freakin place down. I have heard stories about people blocks away feeling what was going on in that park with all the noise and such. If I could go back and see some of Elvis performances they would almost all be the 50's and this would be at the top of my list. Just listening to the stories you know that it was really special.

IMAGE OF THE WEEK

Elvis in concert sometime during 1970

How Great Thou Art

Ive worked 24 hours out of the past 2 days, im tired so I wont be blogging very much tonight. Im gonna leave you all with my favorite Elvis gospel song "How Great Thou Art" ‘Til we meet you again, may God bless you. Adios

Elvis rockin in 72

I don't really have the time to blog tonight with all my favorite athletes or sports teams on. I have to get back to watching the Gators but I will be back with a review of one of my favorite soundtracks tomorrow. Since I don't have anything useful to talk about, please enjoy the video of Elvis in 1972 below. Man just about anything from Elvis in 72 is gold. What a year, on of my favorites.

Elvis at his best

I picked up a copy of the DVD Elvis #1 Hit Performances. This has been out a while but I had not got around to getting it. The reason is that I have all of the performances on one thing or another. I felt I needed this thought for the collection. For the average fan that might not have a serious collection of Elvis's work this would be great. This has some of his best work. A lot of good stuff that could have been added was left off, but I am going to focus on the positives. Hound Dog could have had several different performances chosen, but they went with the performance from the second Sullivan show. They hit a home run there, that is one of Elvis's greatest performances, period. This DVD showcases Elvis from early 1956 to 1973. My favorite performances on here besides Hound Dog are, Stuck On You and Return To Sender. A cool thing as well is the two bonus interviews on here. I have seen them both a million tomes but they are great. They are the 1960 press confrance at Graceland and the 72 press conference in New York for the Madison Square garden shows. Overall this is a pretty good DVD even though it does not really aim for the serious fan. I am sure a lot of casual fans will love this.

New FTD's for April

In April FTD is releasing some new material. They will have a classic album release of That's The Way It Is. It will be the 7" with the booklet. It is going to be two disc. They will also re-release The Way It Was as a standard 5" disc. That was a CD that came with the book that FTD came out a few years ago. I am very excited to get The Way It Was. I missed out on getting the book and you cant buy it anymore. This CD has some great music that is not on the three CD set that came out years back. I have been yelling about wanting to hear it for a long time. Most of the stuff that is on the classic albums release is the same stuff on the set that came out a few years ago from what I can tell. Although the sound should be a lot better from what I have heard. Either way I will pick both releases up as soon as I possibly can.

TTWII(part three)

I am back to finish my thoughts on TTWII the two disc set. I am so glad they came out with this. I have enjoyed the 2001 special edition ever since I first seen it back in 01. I have always wanted to see the entire 1970 production though. I can't really say which one I like the best. If I had to pick one I would go with the 01 edition because it has so much more music. For historic purposes it is important to have the original. Also some of the music that is so great on the first one is left off the second disc from 2001. I still cant get over Just Pretend being left off of it. It is one of the best but most underrated songs of Elvis's from the 1970's. Watching TTWII and really putting some thought into what I thought of it over the last few days has got me to thinking. This documentary was shot over the period of five or six shows. You see bits and pieces of the shows on the documentary, but I wish we could see all the shows in their entirety. Most of the footage they have has been put on these discs. I bet a lot more footage existed at some point and has been lost and was done away with. What a shame it is we don't have all the shows from this engagement from start to finish. Wouldn't that be something. Elvis gave some of his best performances ever during these shows. He had not done a show at this level in over 12 years. He still had it up to the end in spots from time to time, but he probably never reached this level again putting the whole package together for an extended period of time. TTWII is an important part of the Elvis musical history that has been wonderfully preserved in the new two disc special edition.

TTWII( part two)

I am back to talk more about TTWII. I am going to talk about the 2001 special edition. Where the original edition was kind of took from the fans prospective at times, the 01 special was more of the process from Elvis's view. A lot more music is included in this edition. You see a lot more of Elvis rehearsing with his band and singers. One part I really dig that's not in the original is Elvis singing Love Me during the rehearsal on the MGM lot. The concert footage made of of several shows is pretty good. Several songs that are not in the original edition can be found on this disc. Though a lot of the songs on the 70 version is left off the 01 edition. I can't get over Just Pretend being left off, this song freaking rocks. The sound on the 2001 edition is top notch. Also they have a special look at the way they came up with the new edition of TTWII. A lot of footage that had been shot had not been used. For the longest people thought the unused footage was lost. So they went digging and found the footage no one thought was still around. It is a neat and interesting story of all it all came together. That does it for part two of my review. Tomorrow I will be back with part three with my final thoughts on not only the two versions of this release but my over all thoughts on the event. Also we will have track listing for the two discs and compare the two.

ELVIS-That's The Way It Is(part one)

I am going to talk some tonight about the two disc set that came out last year for That's The Way It Is. One disc is the 2001 special edition and the other disc is the original 1970 theatrical version. I am going to start off talking about disc two first. I was very excited to see the original version. I had seen parts of it before but not the whole thing. When you see it, you see that there is quite a bit of a difference from the two versions. The 1970 version is kind of took from the fans point of view. There is a lot of segments on there with fans. They talk about how they became Elvis fans, what they like about, how they honor him, etc. This cuts into quite of bit of the music. The original does not show all that much of the rehearsal with Elvis and his band or his backup singers. The concert also has a lot of different songs then they 2001 version. Keep in mind the documentary was shot over a period of six shows so Elvis mixed up some of the songs as usual. One thing I loved in this version that was missing from the new one is Elvis's rehearsal of The Next Step Is Love. That was freaking great. I lost it when he came out with "the next step is sex" instead of "the next step is love". Also in showing the interaction with the fans on this disc, they show some of the many celebrities that where at these shows. They showed Juliet Prowse being interviewed and she said she had been to see the show twice. She was about to see it for the third time and thought it was great. I got a kick out of that, she probably wanting a fling with E for old times sake. Also on this disc is many songs that don't make it on to either disc in the outtakes section. That was pretty neat, Little Sister was awesome. I had heard it on disc before, but to see it was neat.This was part one of three of my TTWII review. I will be back shortly with my take on the 2001 special edition.

SOUTHERN NIGHTS

I am going to talk about the FTD Southern Nights. This live concert CD is from April and May of 1975. The shows were in Georgia and Louisiana. This is a pretty damn good CD. We all know that towards the mid 70's some Elvis shows really didn't live up the the standard he had set. Hell, some of his shows were just terrible compared to anyone's standards. This CD lets us know that Elvis could still bring it when he wanted to. I'll Remember You is done well and is one of my favorite songs Elvis does live. Little Darlin' is a treat to hear. I would have loved to hear Elvis record this song in the early 60's. Elvis sings Trouble here before eventually doing T-R-O-U-B-L-E. Hearing Trouble is pretty cool because I have never heard this performed in concert before. I cant fail to mention the version of It's Midnight. Elvis did this song a lot from what I understand around this time. Every time I hear this song it kills me. That song rocks and Elvis does it great. Overall I would rank this CD pretty high when it comes to the live stuff. To all the people who say Elvis was way past being good in 75, go get this CD. If you still think that Elvis did not have it, then go fuck off.

Lets spend an afternoon in the garden

I have recently got the album AN AFTERNOON IN THE GARDEN. Elvis played Madison Square Garden in June of 1972. It was the first time Elvis had ever performed in concert in New York. June 9-11 Elvis would play four shows there. On Saturday Elvis was to preform two shows. RCA planned on recording them for an album to be released fallowing the stint in NY. RCA ended up taking the second show and adding three songs from the afternoon and releasing the album we know as ELVIS AS RECORDED AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN. Almost a half a century later they finally released the material from the afternoon show in AN AFTERNOON IN THE GARDEN. This is one of the best live shows I have listened to in a long time. You can tell the energy was off the charts and Elvis gives a hell of a show. From start to finish this is gold. My favorites from this performance are You Don't Have To Say You Love Me,Reconsider Baby,For The Good Times, and I Can't Stop Loving You. Reconsider Baby being the real standout for me. I would suggest running out and getting this CD If you are an Elvis fan and don't have it in your collection yet. You will not be disappointed.