New clip.
Elvis as recorded live in El Paso, Texas. June 2, 1976. 8:30 P.M.
Civic Center Coliseum (attendance 7050).
It's a soundboard recording unreleased officially but available on "EL GOES EL PASO" 2005' bootleg CD released by "Madison" label.
Here is the tracklist:
Also Sprach Zarathustra
See See Rider
I Got A Woman/Amen
Love Me
If You Love Me
You Gave Me A Mountain
All Shook Up
Teddy Bear/Don't Be Cruel
Help Me
Fever
Jailhouse Rock
And I Love You So
Polk Salad Annie
Band introductions
Early Morning Rain
What'd I Say
Drum solo
Bass solo
Piano solo
Keyboard solo
Love Letters
School Days
Hurt
Hurt (reprise)
Hound Dog
Funny How Time Slips Away
Can't Help Falling In Love
Closing Vamp/Announcements
The year was 1976, the bicentennial year of the United States of America. Elvis Presley had already gained status as a living legend and an international icon. In February and October, with the RCA mobile "studio" parked out back, he recorded 16 songs in the "Jungle Room" at Graceland. These tracks made two albums and several solid singles released throughout the year. Elvis gave no less than 127 sold out shows during nine concert tours across the country in addition to stands in Lake Tahoe Sahara and Las Vegas. By all means it was a very successful year for Elvis and The Colonel. But at the same time, the singer was plagued by many serious problems concerning his personal life, health, physical appearance and strange frame of mind. From time to time, these troubles affected his personal appearances too; most notably later in the summer when he performed some of his worst shows ever. Beginning around 1972-73, Elvis didn't pay too much attention to his "oldies but goldies" as these songs were often short, rushed, and treated almost as if they were an annoyance to perform. Now he was bumbling through them with real disrespect and complete lack of interest. He was outright forgetting the lyrics to certain songs and some of the concerts were rather uninspired as a whole. No wonder that some of the newspaper reviews were rather critical and harsh. But still there were many good concerts and sometimes Elvis did shine like a real star, especially during his last December tour, which was fabulous in its entirety.
This CD represents a typical and satisfactory Elvis performance from the first half of the year. From the very beginning, it's clear that the singer is in fine vocal shape and is in a good mood as well. No signs of trouble are evident. The set list is rather predictable and similar to the others from this period - there are no real surprises or live rarities. Nevertheless, almost all songs are performed very well and with gusto; even some of his usually rushed oldies are better that one would expect. An energetic performance of "Jailhouse Rock" is the best example from this performance. Right after the "I Got A Woman / Amen" medley, Elvis mentions that they are in El Paso for the first time since 1972. Among the finest songs of the evening is the version of "Help Me", sung here as a duet with high tenor Sherrill Nielsen. This performance is very sincere and done at slower tempo than the studio version. The hard rockin' "Polk Salad Annie" follows right after the pure emotional beauty of Don McLean's "And I Love You So". During the introduction segment, Elvis asks David Briggs to play "Love Letters", and again - it is performed slowly and softly. Two showstopper versions of his thundering latest single "Hurt" and an ordinarily rushed "Hound Dog" precede the moment when Elvis asks for the house lights so he is able to see and greet his loyal audience. Half way through a short version of "Funny Howe Time Slips Away" Elvis directs the lighting crew "And now turn them off!" Finally, the first bars of "Can't Help Falling In Love" alert all of the screaming fans that the ceremony is coming to a close. When Al Dvorin made the famous announcement "Elvis has left the building"; Elvis was already in his limousine on his way to the airport. Fort Worth, Texas was the next stop...
Techincal notes:
This is a previously unreleased recording. The original mono soundboard mastertape was used for this project. Normally, the mixing board was roughly adjusted just once by the sound engineer Bruce Jackson at the very beginning of each concert tour. The levels of instruments and vocals remained very similar for the final mono mixes of all recordings that were made during this particular tour. In presenting this El Paso, TX soundboard recording, Elvis, J. D. Sumner's vocal, and James Burton's lead guitar are up front. The concert is complete and uncut with the exception of a few seconds of Tony Brown's piano solo while the cassette tape was turned over in the recorder.
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Excellent 5 *****
AdemPresley 2 years ago
Absolutely perfect job as always Marco, 10 Stars. Thanks a whole lot for everything that you do for Elvis and his loyal fans.
ElvisSacramento 2 years ago