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Wednesday, March 4, 2009

One, two, three, four!

I've always loved the live version of "Patch It Up" and why Elvis only sang it twice in concert is beyond me. Maybe he thought "Suspicious Minds" was a better show-stopper, or maybe he thought the song was to demanding. Or maybe he plain didn't like it.

Watching the version from Opening Night in Las Vegas on August 10, 1970, I think it's pretty safe to rule out at least two of my three guesses. Elvis was in great shape in the summer of 1970, and it's pretty obvious he enjoyed performing the song.



So why did he sing it only one more time, two days later? You tell me. And before I sign off I have one more question: where can I order Elvis: That's The Way It Is - The Complete Works?

2 comments:

Troy Y. said...

Wow, great clip. Definitely one of those songs where watching Elvis perform it makes it better than simply listening.

The sheer stupidity of Turner/MGM/Warner Brothers ("whoever!") for continuing to hold back this footage astounds me. They are literally sitting on a goldmine, which is slowly being stolen from under them.

By the time they deign to release some of this stuff to us, they will wonder why the market for it has dried up.

Maybe by the time Blu-Ray (or perhaps the next generation after that) takes a firm hold of the market, they will finally decide to release standard DVDs of this stuff. Or maybe even VHS copies.

Of course, they should air it all on TCM the night before it's released to stores. That's a "great" way to increase sales. [Back in 2001 or whenever it was, they should have simply done a "sneak preview" of a song or two rather than giving away the entire Special Edition on TV before it even hit stores.]

Will we ever see an official, deluxe edition of That's The Way It Is? They could even release it in separate volumes, one or two a year. Really stretch it out. "Opening Night", "Summer Rehearsals," etc.

And we can't even get a bare-bones edition of the original Elvis On Tour, a Golden Globe winning film. Why? Because Elvis apparently doesn't look perfect in it according to some people's eyes. No wonder people go insane in Hollywood.

Of course, they are probably right. Short of the '68 Special, Elvis looks about as "perfect" as he ever would in That's The Way It Is, yet I remember stupid Entertainment Tonight couldn't mention the new footage in 2001 without referring to it as "a bleary-eyed Elvis" on one day and "a blurry-eyed Elvis" on another. [Was someone not able to read the copy correctly one of the two days? Whose eyes are blurry?]

Of course, Entertainment Tonight regularly talks about "newly discovered" Elvis footage and then it turns out to be Elvis singing "All Shook Up" from the original version of the '68 Special. Yeah, that's really lost footage.

Wow, I had one little comment to make and it turned into a big long rant. Sorry, Thomas! Thanks again for the best Elvis blog.

Thomas said...

Don't worry about the length of your comment, it was right on the mark and definitely sums it up. Me and my brother (who's visiting right now) totally agree with you!