I'm playing a CD copy of Elvis Presley's VEGAS SET OF 19 from Aug 19, 1974

[ForrestGump]

Bootleg recorded from the soundboard at Elvis' opening show of August 19. I've got some audience-shot footage, too -- Elvis wore the 'Peacock' jumpsuit that was supposedly his favorite. Elvis radically changed the setlist for this show and there's speculation that he was trying to bust out of the rut that touring and Vegas had started to become -- he axed most of the oldies that he was thoroughly bored with and loaded up on his more recent songs, including some newly recorded in Memphis the previous December. Certainly, in rehearsals he's really into the new songs and enthusiastic to the max. The next night, though, he was back to starting the show with the same three-song lineup that he'd used for most of the previous couple of years. Some say that it was a result of what some claim was less-crazed-than-usual audience reception, but I don't know about that -- I do know that Elvis was probably pretty nervous about the change and if he even perceived a lessening of audience ardor it might have scared him off. Regardless, the rest of his August-Septemember engagement featured an interesting setlist and great performances, with Elvis throwing in more and more vocal gymnastics on songs that'd be noted for that and for pure vocal strength during the turbulent rest of his performing life. The season also had Elvis going on at length about martial arts, after he was awarded eighth-degree black belt halfway through the engagement, and also becoming more and more angry about rumors spread about him....but that's another story.

Big Boss Man
First and only time Elvis opened with this Jimmy Reed blues that he'd originally recorded (with Nashville guitar legend, and later actor, Jerry Reed -- no relation -- playing acoustic guitar) in September, 1967, a session that showed a change in Elvis' creative fortunes and also produced excellent stuff like Jerry Reed's "Guitar Man," "High Heel Sneakers," and "You'll Never Walk Alone." Elvis rocks out on this one and -- also unusual -- didn't pick up his guitar for it.

Proud Mary
Elvis started doing this song in January of 1970 -- his second Vegas season after the return to the stage -- and in 1971 jazzed it up a lot with drum rolls and the kind of drama that fit well with his karate-inspired moves. He hadn't done it on stage since the summer of 1972, but didn't lose his touch at all. After the final drum solo and ubiquitous orchestral cresendo, Elvis introduced himself as the NBC Peacock.

Down In The Alley
The first and only time that Elvis ever did this old Clovers' blues song live. He'd originally recorded it in May of 1966, during a break in the sessions that produced the Grammy-winning and pitch-perfect How Great Thou Art gospel album (that break also yielded a single side, "Love Letters," and an inspired "Tomorrow Is A Long Time" that Dylan cites as the cover of one of his songs that he is most proud of). The updated version was pretty cool, too, and it's a pity he never touched it again.

Good Time Charlie Got The Blues
One of the highlights of Elvis December, 1973 sessions at Memphis' Stax Studios, this song was also done for the first and last time, live, on this night. It's also another that would have been a high point of any concert and that I wish he'd revisited. It sounds a lot like the studio version, complete with James Burton's excellent lead guitar work, but Elvis throws in a couple of telling ad-libs:

Play around, you'll lose your wife
("Already done that")
Play too long, you'll lose your life
("Almost did that...")

I love it.

Never Been To Spain
Another song that hadn't been aired for a while, Elvis started doing this Three Dog Night song (written, incidentally, by Hoyt Axton, who was the son of Mae Axton, writer of "Heartbreak Hotel") on the opening night of his first Vegas season of 1972 and kept it up for the two tours that followed (including one filmed for Elvis On Tour and another that included three legendary days at Madison Square Garden). After he sings the lyrics "but I kinda like the Beatles" he quickly adds "Bob Dylan." Elvis always did this song with tremendous power (and perfect backing from his rhythm section) and he makes this version even bluesier than before. Very nice. Maybe the best I've heard. He never did it again...unless, I guess, you count his off-the-cuff "Never Been To Maine" when he finally played a night in Maine on his second-to-last tour.

It's Midnight
A patented Elvis power ballad, recorded at Stax the previous December and reproduced with even more power for the stage. This was the debut of "It's Midnight" and it was a staple for the rest of his Vegas season, a few of the shows on the tour that followed, and the two Vegas seasons and first tour of 1975. On his closing night he said, to Priscilla (in the audience), "listen, Cilla" at a particularly poignant part of the song. Heck, the whole song's poignant.

If You Talk In Your Sleep
Written by old (back to high school) friend and bodyguard, Red West -- Elvis mentioned this after the song was over -- this Stax recording gives us funky Elvis. Elvis loved the whole Superfly and Shaft thing -- everything from the clothes (that he wore at this time, complete at times with big floppy Superfly hat) to the music -- and he enjoyed this song. Kind of a weird one, as he says after he finishes, but it's infectious. Later in this season he lengthened the song considerably, with instrumental sections, and did lengthy kenpo forms/kata while wearing his kenpo gi top and belt (and, sometimes, sunglasses) over his jumpsuit or the two-piece leather suits he wore during this engagement. It was, indeed, majorly cool. After closing night, he never did the song again -- he did, however, get up on Tom Jones' stage a day or two later and, by request, gave a 20-minute karate demo.

I'm Leavin'
Beautiful 1971 falsetto ballad that Elvis had been doing on and off since recording it. Mostly off. Elvis did this in response to a request yelled from the audience, and kept it in his repertoire for all or most of the season's shows.

Let Me Be There
Debuted on opening night in January of 1974 (he did it twice during the show that night, obviously loving the song), this Olivia Newton John song always got Elvis fired up, especially for his psuedo-reprise when he doubles over and stamps the stage. During this engagement, Elvis began extreme vocal gymnastics on the song that'd be the rule from then on. A long way from Olivia's softer version. The song's writer petitioned RCA to have the released version, recorded in Memphis on March 20, issued as a single. He didn't succeed (though the double-sided demos he commissioned are worth lots of money), but the same performance was re-released alongside new studio and live material on the last album released during Elvis' life, Moody Blue.

Softly As I Leave You
This was a sort-of debut: he'd done an unaccompanied spoken-word version on his incredible -- and extremely wacky -- September 3, 1973 closing show in Vegas. Elvis prefaced the sing with a story explaining what he understood (falsely, I believe) to be the true story behind the song, turning it from a straight love song to a song about death. A real oddity that I think worked well: Elvis speaks the lyrics and they're sung by Sherrill Neilsen, his tenor singer, before they harmonize perfectly on the last verse. Elvis did this song only in Vegas (and in a May 1976 stint in Tahoe) with the exception of his 1976 Memphis show, the only time he did it in the less intimate atmosphere of a large stadium.

If You Love Me
Another Olivia Newton John song, sung for the first time on this night. In rehearsals he worked hard to perfect it -- mainly getting the backing vocals just right -- and professed his love for the tune: "it's such a happy song." By now he needed some happy stuff going on. He kept doing this one right up to the last tour, embellishing and amping up the vocal as the tours rolled by.

Love Me Tender
The first song stemming from before the mid-'60s. A very unusual setlist, indeed, Elvis stops the guitar introduction to say that he didn't want to do the song, but then he starts it up again and uses it as an excuse to kiss the ladies by the stage.

Polk Salad Annie,
Elvis first did this song in January of 1970 and it was a staple of his live act throughout the '70s (except for 1973). By now he'd sped it up and added additional orchestral flourishes. I love the laid-back swamp rock of his earlier versions, that built to a frenzy, but these tighter and rockier latter-day versions were also supercool. Great posing going on, too! This song, all the way to its last performance in 1977, was always a concert highlight.

Introductions
Bit of a pause to introduce the rhythm section, that backup vocalists, and the orchestra. Elvis also introduced audience member Gunther Gebel Williams (animal trainer).

Promised Land
Another new Stax song, Elvis rocked up this Chuck Berry song in a classic performance. I never felt that it quite seemed the same live, but it was still a great part of the repertoire and Elvis does an excellent all-out version here, prefacing it (to his piano player) with "I'm game, son." This was the first time he'd done the song live and he hardly ever did it after the season ended (last time was a very rare tour performance of it in Norfolk, VA, Jul 20, 1975), After the song, Elvis introduces Telly Savalas, and tells the story of how they first met.

My Baby Left Me
Like "That's All Right" (Elvis' first Sun record, that it sounds pretty similar to), this was a blues song written by Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup, who died while Elvis was on tour in March. Elvis did his original recording in his first New York sessions in 1956 and didn't do it live until the March, 1974 tour (very rarely, I believe)...not even sure that he did it during the Tahoe gig and June tour, for that matter. Regardless, Elvis only did this song a handful of times -- at best -- during 1974 and then it left his setlist forever. Pity, because he really gets into it and the results are great. Though this is an 'oldie,' it was new to Elvis repertoire, in keeping with the apparent theme of this show. He inserts the "dee, dee, dee-dee" section from "That's All Right," as he did in other performances of this song.

Bridge Over Troubled Water
Elvis recorded this in the studio during marathon sessions in June of 1970 and performed it live in Vegas two months later. Elvis' was, naturally, far more powerful than the Simon and Garfunkel version and was a highlight of his '70s concerts. This isn't the best I've heard him do, but it sure is strong.

Fever
A short version of the classic that he recorded in March, 1960, after getting out of the Army. Elvis started doing this song live two years earlier and soon evolved it into an increasingly comedic opportunity to poke fun at himself while also giving us some pretty nifty moves and gyrations. This version is much shorter than most, but still nice.

Hound Dog
"Gimme 'Hound Dog"

"You ain't!...."

"Okay. Y'all from Mississippi right here?"

(screams)

"Y'all ain't.....nothin' but a hound dog...."

Pretty standard 'throwaway' version of one of the songs that Elvis' fans just had to see and hear but that didn't do much for him any more (actually, he never much liked "Hound Dog" and, in 1956, had to be strongly persuaded to record it). One of the songs he was probably trying to avoid on this night. Still, it ends strongly as Elvis (and, in turn, the audience) goes nuts during an extended instrumental frenzy.

Can't Help Falling In Love.
The standard closer...the song that Elvis' audiences in the '70s hated to hear.

In some ways, it might be feasible that this show was a turning point for Elvis. Maybe if he'd stuck with the updated and more eclectic kinds of repertoires, the boredom that was always his enemy might not have taken such a toll. I mean, he loved being on stage, but as his life fell to pieces he found that -- especially with the constant touring of his last 18 months or so (a grind on a healthy man, that he was by then not) -- even the one place he felt good began to pale on him at times.

Whatever the case, something was definitely up during this engagement, with Elvis in the last few shows taking audiences on an emotional roller-coaster, his anger bursting through more than once and most famously on closing night. The tour that followed was perhaps his most uneven in terms of his performances and his health and appearance. He didn't work again for almost five months, a long time for Elvis, and when he emerged from Memphis' Baptist hospital for recording sessions in LA and an excellent season in Vegas, he was heavier than he'd ever been but in great spirits. Something happened, though, during the end of 1974's summer and in that time may be the key to the King's demise.

And that's the way it was in the Vegas Hilton International's showroom on August 19, 1974.




P.S.: check out this factoid from Mojo Nixon's PR files:

"8-2-74 While on a family vacation Nixon plays Elvis' Promised Land 14 consecutive times on a diner jukebox. All the while his parents try to use his 17th Birthday as an excuse to talk to him about his future. "

[johnnie]

1. Great review

I like this whole Vegas set. Compare to a lot of the stuff they have been putting out in the last few years (with the exception of The Jungle room sessions), this set was worth the cash. I can't remember if this is a FTD release or not.
I think I have some of this on video, but I would have to check.
Thanks for writing all of this, I enjoyed your thoughts on it.