Review by Piers Beagley & Geoffrey McDonnell - Elvis Information Network
FTD sure have a strange release policy. Why on earth follow up Murfreesboro 74 a March 1974 live double-soundboard with another 1974 double-soundboard from only three months later?
It wasn’t until his Las Vegas summer season that Elvis would shake up his set-list, so here we get the same old spring 1974 material with the only change being the new addition of ‘Big Boss Man’ (which he added on his May 1974 tour).
In the six months after October 2015 FTD released five similar 1976 soundboards causing many FTD collectors to moan. What a breath of fresh air this set would have been had it been released back then - and of course it would have been greeted with more enthusiasm. Sadly this set, where the sound-mix is extremely fine and the evening concert finding Elvis in fabulous form, will be somewhat ignored coming so soon after the previous 1974 release.
This FTD double-pack features two concerts from Elvis’ third tour of 1974. It was the first time Elvis had played Ohama, Nebraska since 1956 and it was the penultimate city on this 25 performance tour. Elvis played three shows over two days, and a six week holiday was in sight.
The Design.
The fold out pack features nine photos of Elvis in his Peacock suit (four placed under the CD holders), all taken on 26th June.
Taken by George Hill four days before the Omaha concerts these will probably be familiar to collectors and nicely capture Elvis looking on good form.
The presentation is fine- even though there is no nice booklet.
The fact that the Evening Show has never been available in any form before and is therefore being heard for the first time is an especially nice bonus from FTD. These are consistent performances from another ‘'Good'’ tour - before the emotional turmoil of the Las Vegas Summer Festival kicked in.
AUDIO.
The mix is very fine on both shows with the audience reaction well placed. It is a cracker mix for a soundboard with band, orchestra, brass and vocals all nicely audible. A real bonus is you can hear the audience interaction capturing the excitement of the show and making it very unlike the usual “dry” soundboard feel.
The sound on both discs is very good with lots of mid-range and bass and no usual cassette distortion. In quality it is similar to the very fine soundboard tape released from Elvis’ Cleveland show of June 21 ‘74. You can play it loud and really enjoy it.
Some fans have noted that again the concerts have been mastered a little slow especially when compared to the June 21 Cleveland show released on the fabulous ’74 double-pack Sold Out which was also mastered by Jan Eliasson so how can they be so different? This is annoying however they are certainly not as bad as the Murfreesboro set and the incorrect running speed didn’t stop me enjoying both shows. There are also a couple of audio dips that should have been fixed by audio masterer Jan Eliasson.
Disc 1- June 30, 1974, Afternoon show 2:30PM - Suit Blue Swirl
Being an afternoon performance it is no surprise that Elvis has to warm himself up. He’d played two shows in Kansas City the day before and so no doubt woke up to do yet another afternoon concert.
Both shows are missing the ‘2001 theme’ and ‘opening vamp’ thus nearly fitting onto one side of a C120 cassette.
‘C.C. Rider’ is performed ‘'ok'’ but absolutely nothing special about it. Unsurprisingly Elvis’ vocal sound far less punchy than it would do at the evening show and later in the concerts he admits to having just got out of bed. Why any performer would say this to their paying audience I am not so sure.
While his performance is fine, he doesn’t sound slurry as he sometimes would in concerts later in the year, it seems that Elvis is not working at full power and even notes to the audience, ''Good afternoon. Afternoon? is that right?''
After the usual ‘well, well, wells” Elvis launches into ‘I Got A Woman’ / ‘Amen’ sounding fine “She saves her lovin’ for early in the morning, oooh yeah!” and thankfully is short and sweet with only the one J.D. Sumner dive-bomber ending.
After introducing himself as Wayne Newton the next song is a fine ‘Love Me’ while throwing scarfs to his loving fans and joking “turn around”.
Elvis then teases Charlie Hodge for being late coming on stage, “When you came on stage they thought it was me... shrunk!”
And then tells the crowd that, “The next song I don’t really feel like doing” and “Lord have mercy, it's early. I just got up, you know that don’t you? Have you ever tried to sing when you’ve first got up folks? There’s cobwebs in your throat, ugh!”.
Perhaps because of this Elvis tries hard to kick in with a strong vocal and ‘Tryin’ to Get to You’ is a first concert highlight and very well performed indeed. (There are a couple of audio dips here that should have been fixed)
‘All Shook Up’ is the usual throwaway.
Before the next song Elvis strangely says ''My first movie was called ‘Wild In The, no... not ‘Wild In The Country’, what was it? ‘Love Me Tender’” - perhaps he was sleepier than he sounds. ‘Love Me Tender’ is the usual crowd-pleaser if nothing special.
‘Hound Dog’ is a rushed as usual even if the crowd obviously lap it up.
‘Fever’ with a nice prominent Duke Bardwell bass-line is jokingly played to the crowd “When you call my name - ELVIS” and messing with the lyrics "Captain Smith and Pocahontas, .. whoever that was". A crowd pleaser but not so good on tape.
By now Elvis has woken up, ''Take it on baby!" and ‘Polk Salad Annie’ benefits from not only Elvis enthusiasm but also the good mix, a great sounding bass, piano, tight percussion, brass and J. D’s voice.
Elvis then asks The Stamps to perform ‘Why Me Lord’ which is another highlight as it’s a sincere performance, with no usual Elvis teasing, and with a nice Kathy Westmoreland vocal.
‘Suspicious Minds' is ‘'ok'’ but predominantly features Charlie Hodge’s duet vocal, the benefit being the fine mix and nice clean percussion for a cassette soundboard.
The Introductions are purely routine and luckily, in 1974, they were still super-short.
‘I Can’t Stop Loving You’ with Glen Hardin’s piano nice and high in the mix, is performed ok if nothing as powerful as a few years previously.
In comparison ‘Help Me’ “A new song we have out” is beautifully and sincerely sung with Sherrill and another highlight.
‘An American Trilogy’ unfortunately receives both the usual “Disneyland” joke comment as well as a mock high voice “sing it” from Elvis towards the start. The rest of it however is well performed with “All My Trials” and the flute solo capturing the quality of the show, the recording, as well as the audience appreciation.
‘Let Me Be There’ sounded REALLY good this afternoon – helped by the fine sound mix - and is yet another highlight as both band play well and enthusiasm comes across too. Not surprisingly Elvis adds a reprise to reward the crowd.
As usual Elvis then asks, ''I'd like to turn the house lights up and take a look at you.... Weird building man!” And showing his good mood, jokes to a loving fan, “Honey you can have the scarf but you can't have the pants leg!”
Elvis also nearly starts singing ‘I’ll be There’ before a routine ‘Funny How Time Slips Away’ noting mid-song, “Never know when I’ll be back in town… tonight!” At the end Elvis reprises the last line featuring deep-bass J.D. Sumner plus adds some odd comments about how last week someone has cleaned his jump-suit with Gasoline!
Elvis then kicks on to a fine ending with ‘new song’ ‘Big Boss Man’ which sounds just fine along with a nice bonus of ‘Steamroller Blues’ featuring a fine bass-line and great Orchestra backing!
Sincerely noting, ''I’d like to tell you that you’ve been a good audience and it's been a pleasure working for you. We will be back here tonight Ladies and Gentlemen and so until we see you we bid you an affectionate farewell” the show closes with the usual ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’ which is a fine ending. The Closing Vamp kicks in and “Elvis has left the building”.
While there is no doubt that Elvis’ energy could have be stronger at the start (and the fact that he admits that he has just got out of bed) - for an Afternoon Show it is a pretty good performance with Elvis in great spirits. While the Evening Show would be even better I’d still rate this as 7/10.
Disc 2 - June 30, 1974, Evening show 8:30PM- Suit Peacock
Again the tape starts with ‘C.C. Rider’ but this time Elvis is obviously wide awake and rocking out and enjoying himself. The audio mix is even clearer than at the afternoon show, with a perfect mix of enthusiastic audience reaction, and it sounds great for a soundboard. There’s no need to wake up at this show, it is a fine start.
The regular "well, well, well” teasing follows and an energetic ‘I Got A Woman’ / ‘Amen’ with Elvis rocking his hips to Ronnie’s back-beat causing his fans to scream and noting, “Well, that's about all I can think off right now!''. Again it’s the short version with only one J.D ending.
After a few “son-of-a-bitch” microphone issues tonight Elvis introduces himself as Jimmy Dean “I’m here to sell some Pork Sausages”!
(Weird fact 1: Actor / singer Jimmy Dean, who Elvis knew from Vegas, in 1969 started his own brand of breakfast ‘'Pure Pork Sausage'’)
‘Love Me’ is better performed than the previous show with the great line, ''Begging on my knees, please stop scratching flees, please love me!''
On ‘Tryin’ to Get to You’ Elvis seems distracted and it isn’t quite as well sung as the A/S but still '‘o'k’.
‘All Shook Up’ is the usual wasted throwaway kiss-the-girls version.
Unlike the A/S show where Elvis said his first movie was Wild In The Country tonight he jokes that first movie was ‘Behind the Green (Door)’ which is greeted with knowing laughter from the guys.
(Weird fact 2: ‘Behind the Green Door’ was at the time a well-known Marilyn Chambers 1972 porn flick. Supposedly an influence for Stanley Kubrick's last film Eyes Wide Shut!)
After correcting himself ‘Love Me Tender’ is performed ‘'ok'’ while his fans scream for kisses.
Next there’s a real surprise for this Sunday with a performance of, “A song we recorded about six years ago” ‘How Great Thou Art’ believed to be the only time Elvis sang this in the whole tour. It is a real concert highlight sung very well and with no ‘overblown’ phrasing.
It’s surprising that Elvis didn’t include it at every show as he obviously loved singing it, noting afterwards, “Thank you Stamps. That’s out-of-sight, everybody”.
A throwaway ‘Hound Dog’ is next before ‘Fever’ which is performed much better than the A/S. You can hear the whole audience clapping along (did I say the audio mix was fabulous?) and Elvis takes it more seriously than usual. There’s no “Call my name - ELVIS” tonight and with clean percussion and bass it’s a very fine version.
‘Polk Salad Annie’ “yeah baby” is next and it’s a fine 1974 version with Elvis getting into the solos “play it James, get it Ronnie!” and obviously throwing in crowd-pleasing karate action at the end.
Unfortunately after this hard work-out “Whoo - well anyhow!” ... Elvis then turns ‘Why Me Lord’ into the usual ‘joking' 1974 version. Afterwards Elvis apologises but notes, ''That was good I enjoyed that. Sorry JD”.
Oddly Elvis actually pretends he is going to sing ''Where Do I Go From Here'' a Freddy Bienstock number you’d think Elvis would have never thought about again after recording it back in 1972.
‘Suspicious Minds’ next is powerful (for 1974) sounding quite fine with cool band support. Again Elvis is in good humour joking in the middle break, “’Cos honey you know I’ve never lied to you... Charlie you are short enough, you don’t need to sit down!” Ronnie Tutt thrashes out a blistering ending.
Noting his silly mood Elvis also adds that “You're a good audience. You're a lot of fun, really. You have to be to put up with all this nonsense!”
The Introductions are different this evening with The Stamps members getting introduced individually and introducing Kathy Westmoreland Elvis teases “You’ve got on your see-through-blouse, don’t you honey” - and that Joe Guercio is from Omaha, Nebraska!
‘I Can’t Stop Loving You’ after the intros has two false starts “I can’t get my belt tightenend up!” but is again performed fine for ‘74.
"This next song is a new record we’ve got out” notes Elvis and ‘Help Me’ is again beautifully fully and sincerely sung.
‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ (fairly rare in 1974) is a nice change from the usual ‘An American Trilogy’ and very well performed it is too. Elvis sings it very tenderly through the first verse and adds a few nice touches, “I’ll take your part, when darkness falls… you know I will”.
A fine ‘Let Me Be There’ follows (no reprise tonight) and then Elvis asks for the house-lights to be turned up - ''There are people out here! A whole bunch of folks!” he jokes to his screaming fans.
Before the next song Elvis does a nice thing and sings a spontaneous “Happy Birthday” to Sylvia Shemwell of The Sweet Inspirations.
‘Funny How Time Slips Away’ is played to the audience with Elvis laughing along and again has Elvis mentioning that he’ll be back again tomorrow night.
Once again Elvis asks for JD and “the last line again of the song”. For some weird reason amongst the joking Elvis starts singing “What a friend we have in Jesus” (the band even starts playing along) before getting back on track. Afterwards with a lovely laugh Elvis notes, “Oh Lord, thank You. That's out of sight J.D."
Why Elvis suddenly decided to perform an ‘odd’ one-liner during ‘Funny How Time Slips Away’ only he knows. Perhaps he had practiced a quick gospel sing-along before coming on, it was Sunday after all.
‘Big Boss Man’ is nice and punchy, well performed again and sounds great.
Elvis then states ‘MY WAY’, as far as we know the song was performed less than a handful of times since Aloha back in ‘73! So perhaps wisely, after a long piano intro, he abandons it. It is possible that Charlie did not have a lyric sheet he needed.
Changing his mind Elvis announces, “Okay, stop it. I’ll tell ya.. Steamroller!'' Jumping in a little quickly Elvis then performs another fine sounding ‘Steamroller Blues’ (great Glen D piano) which is sadly incomplete and the tape recording ends.
Perhaps the greatest disappointment is that we don’t get the complete show. There is no doubt that Elvis was in great humour this Sunday tonight and was clearly putting out a solid performance which is well-worth repeated listening.
With the fabulous sound mix it deserves 8/10 and truly makes this double-set yet another very fine FTD release.
Overall Verdict:
Elvis was in great form when on tour in the first half of 1974 – how things would change in just a few months – and this release is a very fine double-set of powerful mid-1974 performances. The audio quality and mix is top-notch for a soundboard and captures Elvis in good humour as he heads to the end of his third tour. The only setback to this release being that it comes straight after a very enjoyable double-set from just three months before. Elvis may take a while to warm up on the Afternoon performance but the previously unreleased Evening Show is a gem which makes this a fine two-fer. Very enjoyable listening, but perhaps deserving of a better planned release schedule.
Note - if you don't own the 'Classic Album' 7" Sold Out double live set from 1974 please read the review below. A real classic 1974 collection from FTD.
