Review by Piers Beagley & Geoffrey McDonnell - Elvis Information Network
As we all know things started going terribly wrong for Elvis in 1976. The beauty and on-stage power that he still exuded the previous year was fast fading away.
Despite having already released 27 concerts from this rather sad year, FTD have released yet another three 1976 performances and they are not good.
The recent 2023 FTD set Elvis From Louisiana and Memphis featured three concerts from July 1976, Elvis’ summer Tour 19, yet here we have three more summer concerts from his rather terrible ‘Tour 20’.
When the Hampton Roads 1 August 1976 show was released on bootleg back in 1994 as The Bicentennial Elvis Experience the review nicely summed it up with…
“Elvis Presley needed to be anywhere, but on a stage performing. The majority of the songs were struggles for him just to stay on key. He seemed actually ill, rather than just being over medicated. The concert was one of Elvis’ worst performances, completely forgettable.”
And yet FTD have decided to release it! To be honest the sound quality is great but that only helps reveal Elvis’ dreadfully weak voice and lack of energy - and the two other concerts, Charleston July 24 and Springfield July 29, aren’t that much better.
Last year FTD released Elvis’ July 5 1976 Goodbye Memphis. It was closing night and Elvis was sounding fine and up for fun. The concert ran 90 minutes and included surprises such as ‘One Night’, ‘That’s All Right’, ‘It’s Now Or Never’, ‘How Great Thou Art’ even ‘Softly As I Leave You’. For 1976 it was a fine performance.
In the short break between these tours Red and Sonny West and Dave Hebler were fired while Elvis hid himself away in Las Vegas under Dr Ghanem’s “care”. Whatever happened certainly didn’t benefit Elvis’ health as, from the start of this tour, it then went from bad to worse.
It was less than three weeks after the Memphis show that Elvis kicked off this tour in Louisville, Kentucky. Elvis’ opening concerts usually featured something extra – often running over 70 minutes – but Louisville only included the routine 1976 set-list. However it is worth noting that Elvis’ energy levels were definitely good and he didn’t seem to struggle through the opening show. This was recently released as an Audience recording by the E.P. Collector label and while only a “standard” 1976 concert it does prove how quickly Elvis’ health and performance faded away.
On all the three performances released on this Summer of '76 set Elvis' voice is notably weak and wavering and at times he struggles to even stay on key. As noted above, Elvis should not have been on stage doing one night stands. Parker was a bad manager with little care for his client.
The Package
Presented in the now regular four-panel 5” Digi pack it features the usual selection of photos and memorabilia. Most of the photos claim to be of Elvis at the Charleston afternoon show with Elvis wearing his less-than-flattering Bi-Centennial jumpsuit.
The inside photos, including two from Hampton Roads, do not show Elvis at his best and it is obvious that several images have been photo-shopped to make Elvis look thinner.
As a “collectors label” with this pack featuring some terrible performances one wonders what is the point of not showing the reality of what Elvis looked like at the time.
Four of the main on-stage photos also feature Elvis messing around - holding toys etc - rather than actually singing. But the soundboards do feature the concerts and it’s a rather sad affair.
Audio Quality:
The sound was mastered by Jan Eliasson and it is excellent for soundboard tapes, with a nice mix, lovely bass, percussion, guitar and backing-vocals plus a good amount of audience excitement and feedback. As previously noted the quality of Elvis soundboard recordings vastly improved as Elvis' performances sadly declined.
The Music
CD.1 - Charleston, West Virginia, Afternoon Show, July 24 1976 - 56 minutes
Elvis was booked for two concerts a day and would have flown in late the night before, what was his manager thinking!?
With the ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’ intro the show kicks off with massive loud drumbeats great chicken-pickin’ guitar and the sound is very good.
‘C.C. Rider’ has Elvis sounding surprisingly awake and ‘up’ for the show and the crowd is screaming in adoration. Elvis says “balder-gel” whatever than was.
(*We know that Elvis was watching a lot of Monty Python in this period, so we suspect this was a Python joke. If you know the reference please contact us!)
‘I Got a Woman’ / ‘Amen’ is smooth and enthusiastic with a drawn out ‘Amen’ but thankfully and just one J.D ending. Elvis he “just has to wake everything up folks, that’s all” but sounds fine. It’s not a bad start.
Elvis says “Good afternoon” but complains about the lights blinding him and says of one light “I will shoot out the son of a bitch.”
‘Love Me’ is slow and Elvis’ wavering voice is noticeable. ‘If You Love Me (Let Me Know)’ is ok with plenty of J.D and Sherrill Nielsen helping Elvis along.
‘You Gave Me A Mountain’ has Elvis changing the words to '‘blamed for the loss of my sight'’ in reference to the blinding stage lights. While Elvis’ wavering vocal suits the emotion of the lyrics there is the feel of the band pushing Elvis along.
The oldies ‘All Shook Up’ / ‘(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear’ / ‘Don't Be Cruel’ are all totally perfunctory crowd pleasing versions. In good humour Elvis jokes, “Don’t go completely crazy”.
‘And I Love You So’ is again a lovely version (apart from a “what honey?” comment part way through) but again Elvis' vibrato is all over the place and he sounds tired.
‘Jailhouse Rock’ is ok but again it’s the band creating the excitement. Nevertheless the crowd love it.
‘Fever’ is another real crowd pleaser, and has the fans screaming, if very routine.
Elvis explains “Ladies & Gentleman since it’s our bi-centennial year I would like to do our version of 'America' the Beautiful for you.” While it is a rather sensitive version Elvis vocal is very wavering on the notes he has to hold. Despite that the power-ending does impresses the fans.
Indicating his tiredness Elvis then tells Charlie “No Polk Salad!” and in fact he wouldn’t sing it at any afternoon show this tour.
The Introductions are dragged out, as usual for ’76, to 15 minutes. Discussing “farther or further” he sings one line of ‘Father Along’. Elvis also jokes that a lot of the band are from West Virginia.
The usual solo songs are short, Elvis says “Wake up you guys in the band” during ‘Early Mornin’ Rain’ which runs only 50 seconds as do ‘What'd I Say’ and ‘Johnny B. Goode’.
Elvis would have done much better to sing a full version of ‘Johnny B. Goode’ and cut back on the drum, bass and piano solos that all run longer than Elvis’ introductions songs!
With the usual David Briggs introduction ‘Love Letters’ is painfully slow with Elvis’ voice wavering and straining to stay on key.
After the final ‘School Day’ Elvis tells the crowd, “We have a new record out I would like to sing for you at this moment.” The RCA single was in fact released 4 months previously! ‘Hurt’ gets a huge applause, with Elvis reprising with a higher ending. It was obviously a concert highlight but on close listening Elvis’ voice is struggling to hold the notes.
Elvis then asks for the house lights to be turned up and spots a sign ‘'Elvis for President'’ noting “You’ve got to be kidding me, I can’t handle this!”
An average ‘Funny How Time Slips’ follows (with another Baldy-Gel comment!) “never know when I’ll be back in town.. I will be back tonight you fool.”
He notes “You have been a fantastic audience and anytime you want us back in Charleston just let us know and we shall return.”
At the end of this performance there was a thunderstorm power cut part way through ‘I Can't Help Falling In Love’. It’s a poor version that stops and fades back, Elvis continues even saying ‘'sing it Estelle'’ as he couldn’t even be bothered to start from the beginning again! Then the Closing Vamp.
While Elvis sounded all right at the start of this show his lack of energy was soon revealed. It was a short show with lengthy introductions and with Elvis’ voice sounding weak on the key numbers but he seemed in OK humour and at least he wasn’t mumbling.
The Charleston Evenin Show was released on an incomplete Soundboard back in 1992 but was not much better than this Afternoon Show and not as good as the first show from this tour.
CD2 - Springfield, Massachusetts, Evening Show, July 29 1976 - 68 minutes
From just six days later kicking off in great audio quality ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’ has the excitement and pounding drums!
‘C.C. Rider’ starts with Elvis sounding foggy and struggling for energy, even though it is an evening show. The ending is messy and again it’s Ronnie Tutt’s drums pushing Elvis along.
Elvis tells the crowd that “I lost it, I lost my cross, lost my ring” and then repeats the statement. It’s not a great start.
‘I Got A Woman’ / ‘Amen’ starts slowly is a low-power version with Elvis sounding a little slurry. Elvis describes JD’s ending is described as ‘’fair’’ before he ends the song poorly. No matter what, the crowd screams in adoration.
In the middle break Elvis says that “I am trying to wake everything up folks, as I have only been awake for an hour and I’m still not awake”. No doubt true and a bad sign.
Elvis then asks when he was last there and complains about the flashbulbs blinding him.
He then rambles about the musicians playing a softball game today against his singers and that his drummer has a sore arm as "he wore his arm out". It sounds a little like his Desert Storm ramblings of ’74!
‘Love Me’ is slow and shows Elvis voice sleepy, weak and wavering. ‘If You Love Me (Let Me Know)’ is a bit better and Elvis seems to be slowly waking up even if he still struggles to make some notes.
There’s a nice touch when he tells his fans, “we have a long way to go yet, so hang on and don’t get hurt'’.
‘You Gave Me A Mountain’ sounds extremely weak on the verses even if Elvis can turn the power on for the choruses.
‘Help Me’ only sung twice on this tour is introduced as “A song we did a couple of years ago” and Elvis does indeed sound weary during it. He needed help, not a series of one-night stands never getting any proper sleep.
The oldies ‘All Shook Up / (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear / Don't Be Cruel are the standard scarf-giving throwaways. There’s a funny moment when Elvis then interacts with a girl wanting a kiss who says “mouth”!
‘And I Love You’ is sincere and always seems well performed this tour.
‘Jailhouse Rock’ features the band really ready to rock but it is there energy that is clearly dragging Elvis along.
‘America the Beautiful’ follows which despite Elvis’ wavering voice is ok and gets a huge applause and a reprised ending showing some extra effort from Elvis.
‘Polk Salad Annie’ finally gets things going and for 1976 is fine. Elvis finally sounds focussed and throws in some karate low squat moves “sock-a-little-polk-salad-to-me” creating an extended ending. For the crowd that night I’m sure it was a blast.
The usual extended Introductions follow again with Elvis teasing that the musicians from “some part of Springfield.” All the solo songs are again short. ‘Early Mornin’ Rain’ is ok, ‘What’d I Say’ and ‘Johnny B. Goode’ all running 50 seconds when the boring drum, bass and piano solos each run twice as long.
After the clavinet solo David Briggs then shows Elvis a harmonica which Elvis asks him to play! Which he does with a short rendition of the folk song ‘Oh Susanna’. While it’s quite amusing it’s still more time-wasting.
‘Love Letters’ again drags with Elvis’ vocal all too fragile.
After fifteen minutes of intros it’s back to the show and ‘Hurt’ which is sung twice after Elvis asks “Do you want to hear it again?” The 2nd version is an attempt at a higher power-ending but it all sounds rather strained. The audience lap it up – I’m sure it sounded great on the night.
The throwaway ‘Hound Dog gets a jokey “You ain’t” eight starts!
As usual Elvis then asks for the house lights to be turned up before a cool, if rather wavery-voiced, ‘Funny How Time Slips Away’ which has Elvis doing some ‘'falsetto'’ and a J.D ending note.
Elvis wraps it up saying “You are a fantastic audience, anytime you want us back just let us know. The audience is very responsive and they are crazy and so are we. And so that helps us.” Elvis then starts retelling the story about losing his diamond cross last night.
‘Can't Help Falling In Love’ is ok and then a surprisingly long Closing Vamp for 2.5 minutes as Elvis obviously spent that time on stage saying goodbye.
This would be the last time Elvis would play Springfield MA.
It’s worth noting that the audience recordings often disguise Elvis weak vocal, this show sounded fine as an audience recording, whereas the soundboard clearly shows Elvis taking a long time to ‘wake up’ and his wavering voice.
CD.3 - Hampton Roads, Afternoon Show, August 1 1976 - 60 minutes
Three days later and already recognised as one of Elvis’ weakest concerts, one wonders how this Hampton Roads show can possibly be worth releasing in this 3-cd set.
It’s also sad that as Elvis' shows got worse the soundboard quality got better!
An enthusiastic ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’ starts the CD and ‘C.C. Rider’ is not too bad as Elvis is at least putting some effort in, especially for an afternoon show.
The truth is soon revealed as he thanks the audience noting, “Well, now…. That’s how I feel really, I had a late show last night and only got 2 hours sleep.” It’s not what you want to hear.
‘I Got a Woman’ / ‘Amen’ is not too bad considering Elvis also explains “I only just got through eating!” This time Elvis makes JD do the dive-bomb ending a 2nd time.
Elvis says “Good afternoon. I just got up and we’ll do Dixie later on.” Which he didn’t actually sing on this tour expect on 3 August in Fayetteville.
‘Love Me’ is terrible with Elvis’ voice wavering all over the place even on this simple song.
‘If You Love Me (Let Me Know)’ introduced as “If you love me let me know or get the hell..out-a-here” which again shows his weak voice. The wonderful vibrato that usually made Elvis' voice so special and emotional, sadly drifts off-key.
‘You Gave Me A Mountain’ is very low energy, the first few lines sounding so upsetting. Elvis pushes through the choruses but he should be in bed and not on stage.
The crowd-pleasing oldies ‘All Shook Up’ / ‘(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear’ (“scarf around my neck”) / ‘Don't Be Cruel’ “wow, it’s hot in here” are routine although Elvis does seem a little more focused.
‘And I Love You so’ is another sincere and focused version although Elvis still has trouble holding the notes.
Halfway through the show ‘Jailhouse Rock’ at last has Elvis sounding awake and leads to a fun ‘Fever’ where Elvis is enjoying himself so much – and the screams from his fans - that he asks the band to repeat the last verse.
Next the challenging ‘America’ where Elvis’ voice wavers all over the place going off-key - check the first “from sea to shining sea”. Getting the ending right, the crowd lap it up with a huge applause of appreciation.
Afterwards Elvis sees the Virginia ''Return To Sender'' fan club sign and decides to do a spontaneous version “if we know it”. It is definitely the concert highlight and while Elvis gets a few lines wrong he still sings a full two minute version. As a unrehearsed request its actually ok.
The lengthy Introductions are the usual filler. Again the solos are annoyingly longer than the songs! Elvis mistakenly asks “John” to play guitar on the back of his head for ‘Johnny B. Goode’ neatly saving himself joking, “I mean James, John, Mathew, Mark, Luke”.
There is also fun hearing Elvis sing along to Jerry Scheff playing ‘Battle of New Orleans.’
Revealingly Elvis says “I hope I can do it” before ‘Love Letters’ with David Briggs. Again Elvis sings flat at times and has trouble holding the notes, even if it’s taken at better, faster, tempo tonight.
Elvis as usual says “We have a new record out we’d like to do for you” – and after a break “to get this girl’s underwear” – he performs a truly sad ‘Hurt’ with his voice not holding the notes and going off-key. I’m sure it was a treat if you were in the audience and so Elvis does add a reprise with a much better power-ending. The fans really cheer.
‘Hound Dog’ is a real throwaway before Elvis gets the house lights turned up. He notes, “Good golly, Miss molly” on seeing the size of the crowd. ‘Funny How Time Slips Away’ is ok with a JD Sumner deep-slide ending.
Elvis then notes that, “You have been a fantastic audience to work too and anytime you want us back just let us know and we will come back.”
Elvis quickly tells the band “Take it home” sounding rather keen to get out of there. ‘Can't Help Falling In Love’ is average but with no last note from Elvis.
The Closing Vamp follows as Elvis rushes back to his hotel.
Overall this is a sad concert – Elvis beautiful voice has failed him- with only a few glimpses of Elvis not going through the motions. Unfortunately it would turn out to be the last “ok” show of the tour with the next show dramatically worse.
Extra Notes: None of these concerts are good performances and it seems the second half of this tour was affected by Elvis becoming unwell with the ‘flu. He certainly was medicated and shouldn’t have been on stage.
The personnel had also changed with Red and Sonny gone and Sam Thompson now joining the tour as a bodyguard. Elvis was unhealthy and carrying extra weight fatter and when you compare the performances on this tour to Goodbye Memphis from 3 weeks previously they are dreadful.
However it has to be added that some shows were rated as good and the opening show was a solid performance (as the recent E.P Collector audience tape shows) and the press reviews were positive also.
As the tour went on the reviews became much worse and fans such as author Chris Brown rated the 3 shows from 25th-27th July as ‘'poor'’. After the Hartford 28th July show Colonel Parker even called Elvis stating that he was not giving the fans their money’s worth. Maybe that’s why Elvis tried a little harder at the Springfield show even though he was not awake at the start.
After the August 1 Hampton Roads performance Elvis gave a very poor show in Roanoke and then three low-key shows in Fayetteville (August 3,4, 5) with every show becoming shorter and with less songs. If you compare the Fayetteville Aug 5 Closing Night concert (only 52 minutes) to Memphis just one month previously (90 minutes) you can see how much trouble Elvis was in and that he should have never been on the road helping pay for Parker’s debts.
The CDs have a pretty short running time and so it is a pity that ‘How Great Thou Art’ from Hampton Roads could not be included as a bonus song or even the longer version of ‘Early Mornin' Rain’ from the same show.
From a historical point of view it would have been neat for FTD to include some of the contemporary newspaper reviews which varied from surprisingly good ‘'Still on Throne King Elvis at His Rockin', Croonin' Best'’ to painfully honest “Shake, Rattle and Roly-Poly.”
Overall Verdict:
Surely FTD’s New Haven 30 July 1976 show - which included ‘Return To Sender’ as the bonus song - was enough from this painful tour. This release adds three more summer-of-76 shows from a markedly poorer tour to the previous recent FTD July 1976 triple-set. Do we even need these?
Collectors of course will appreciate that FTD have included two previously unknown soundboards here and they do help us explore what state our hero was in for his 1976 summer. However Elvis was obviously not in a good way which makes them rather sad.
I’m sure FTD are ‘clearing their vaults’ but it’s hard to find anything positive about these 1976 performances so soon after the surprisingly enjoyable Louisiana / Memphis 1976 set. Last year we had the joy of Elvis at full-bore in Hampton Roads in 1972 and here we are only four years later and it’s a tragedy. “Elvis, What Happened”?
