At The Boston Garden

I for one applaud FTD's decision to release Elvis' November 10, 1971 concert at the Boston Garden (scheduled for September 14 this year). It's one of the 14 shows Elvis did during his only tour that year, and just listen to what Stein Erik Skar has to say about it in his book The Concert Years:

"The tours still represented something of a challenge – enough to make Elvis yet again take the audience's breath away with glittering shows. Some karate finishes on "Suspicious Minds" were so fantastic that the audience wouldn't stop clapping, like in Boston. Boston also experienced that the introduction of "Polk Salad Annie" was again filled with humour and improvisation, and "Bridge Over Troubled Water" got such ovations at all of the concerts that Elvis often sang the last verse twice."

The Boston gig has been bootlegged twice, first as The Power Of Zhazam! and then as One Night Only! But as this is the only available show FTD now chooses to release it as "We believe that this is of such historical importance, that it should be available to everyone."

I agree. The concert in Boston shows Elvis at his best in 1971, and it deserves a place in the official Elvis catalog, as do the recently released shows featured on Showtime! from December 1976.

Another move by FTD is to try to announce their schedule for new releases further up front. Like Tygrrius wrote in a post on his The Mystery Train Elvis Blog, that's certainly a huge step in the right direction.