A good-sounding soundboard of a great show! (And no medleys, thank you!)

Las Vegas, March 1975. The main show is 55 minutes and features 15 songs but only one track from the upcoming TODAY album that Elvis had just recorded. Ernst Jorgensen has added eight bonus songs which makes the total playing time a generous 77 minutes and thus, we get to hear five songs that were brand new additions to Elvis’ repertoire at the time and they all sound great:

And I Love You So
Little Darlin’
Green Green Grass Of Home
Fairytale
You’re The Reason I’m Living

‘Grass’ and ‘You’re The Reason’ saw their first official release on LIVE IN LAS VEGAS back in 2001, and so did these:

Big Boss Man
Burning Love
My Boy

Notice James Burton’s guitar playing during ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra.’ Sounds pretty funny, doesn’t it? When Elvis came on stage Hilton Hotel must’ve shook, ‘cause Ronnie Tutt is really on fire during ‘See See Rider.’ Man, he sure knew how to lay ‘em down! A "sonoffabitch" slips out just before ‘I Got A Woman,’ a song I dedicate to feminists all around the world! Before ‘Love Me’ Elvis talks to and kisses a woman that sounds like an ol’ bag! If I’m not mistaken, ‘If You Love Me (Let Me Know)’ was a hit for Olivia Newton-John? (Am I wrong? Please send me an e-mail if I’m out of line here) This song and ‘Let Me Be There’ are both written by John Rostill and I’m sure you’ll agree that there is a resemblance between the two. Just listen to the intros back to back. I’ve yet to hear a poor rendition of ‘Let Me Be There’ but then again, how can you fail with such a great song? ‘If You Love Me’ is the first song where we can clearly hear what a ROTTEN bass player Duke Bardwell was. This is also apparent on ‘Burning Love,’ a song that, to a great extent, is built on a bass riff and Duke is simply unable to get the groove going. During the first verse you can actually hear Elvis say, "Play the bass, Duke!"

‘And I Love You So’ is beautiful, one of the best versions I’ve ever heard, totally sincere and full of passion. As a matter of fact, all three TODAY tracks are vastly improved when performed live. I disagree with my fellow reviewer Tomas Drefvelin, I actually like the live version of ‘Big Boss Man’ better than the pointless studio recording Elvis made of it in 1966. If only David Briggs had gotten the solo instead of James, it would’ve been perfect.

Which incidentally leads us to Burton’s guitar solo during the introductions: It doesn’t sound all that much ‘What’d I Say’ to me. Ronnie plays a fantastic drum solo and after he finishes, Elvis turns to a certain bass player and says, "Okay Duke, how do you follow that?" Bardwell starts his solo and it is bloody AWFUL! It sounds like he doesn’t know what key he is in! How in the world such an amateurish musician could play with the greatest singer on the planet for almost two years, I’ll never comprehend. Barbra Streisand is in the audience and Elvis introduces her, "One of the finest voices in the world". ‘My Boy’ is excellent, although I think Elvis overdoes it during the final chorus. This was his current single at the time with ‘T-R-O-U-B-L-E’ on its way.

Bonus songs

As usual, Elvis interrupts the intro to ‘The Wonder Of You’ and then skips the first verse, singing "And when you smile…" instead of "When no one else can understand me…". Consequently, the song doesn’t even last 90 seconds! I wonder why Elvis always seemed intent on messing up this number? He stops ‘Little Darlin’’ twice, saying "Godammit, let’s do it right". He even lets out a "sonoffabitch" a few seconds into it. The last three tracks are in much poorer sound quality, but are all great performances. Elvis really liked ‘Green Green Grass Of Home.’ First time he heard Tom Jones’ recording of it, he was driving cross-country on his way to make a movie in 1965. It made such an impression on him that he would stop and call the radio station and ask the DJ to play it over and over again. He gets a tremendous ovation for his effort and rightly so!

Well, to sum things up: I’m crazy about this one. It’s great stuff, all the way. Don’t miss out! The only thing I’m not too happy with is the cover, but obviously the contents are more important - and I think you’ll agree with me when I say that this is a MUST for every Elvis fan. Just press "skip" when you get to ‘Hound Dog’ and you’re home free. I can’t for the life of me understand why Ernst sat on this show for six years after he got FTD rolling. Well, that’s it; the 64^th Elvis concert that I’ve reviewed. Must be a record…?

Excelsior!

Grading: 5