"I was experiencing history"

Today at work I sat down with a colleague to talk with him about when he saw Elvis live on stage in Las Vegas. I like to hear about it now and then, but this time I wanted to get all the facts right so I could share them with you. Here goes:

In 1974 my colleague was part of an acrobatic group performing at the Dunes Hotel in Las Vegas. One day he, and all the other artists performing on "The strip" received an inquiry if they wanted to see an Elvis show. My colleague, who has always liked Elvis, accepted and one August night found himself sitting in the showroom of the Las Vegas Hilton.

The time was 2.30 a.m. and this was an extra concert, the third for the evening. (I have never found any information about this show. During the summer of 1973 Elvis did perform a special 3:00 a.m. show, but my colleague is sure this was 1974, and who wouldn't remember the year one saw Elvis!?)

His strongest memory is the feeling he had sitting in the audience right before the show. "I had seen famous artists before but never felt anything like this. The atmosphere was electrifying and it was like everyone knew something special was about to happen," he told me. "Then when they turned the houselights down and 2001 began to sound people started screaming."

As for the show, he can't remember any particular songs, but he does remember Elvis being in total command, working hard on stage, moving around and sweating profusely. "He wiped his sweat off his forehead with his scarves and threw them at the audience," my colleague recollected. "And he walked to the front of the stage when the girls came forward."

Even today, more than 30 years later, my colleague says he's never been to a concert like the one with Elvis. "I've seen Bruce Springsteen, Rolling Stones and so on and they were fine. But that night in Las Vegas I felt like I was experiencing history."

Rock me lord - more Elvis music in church

Is it just me or has it become more common with Elvis music being performed in church? That thought hit me when the music producer at my work showed me a a new record with artist and actor Håkan Brinck interpreting a collection of Elvis gospels together with a gospel choir.

I went home to listen and actually it was pretty good. There were even a few surprises thrown in like "I Got A Feelin' In My Body" and "Why Me Lord." And as you can see on the cover of the CD he doesn't try to look like Elvis, which is always a big plus, at least in my book.

The very same day I received a clipping my mother had sent me from the city missions paper in Gothenburg. The article described a concert where musician Peter Winsnes performed Elvis songs during Mass in a church packed to the last seat.

All of this made me think of singer Kent Lundberg. A year ago, after the broadcast of a radio program I produced about Elvis religious music, I received an e-mail from him telling me about him and his band performing Elvis gospel music mainly in churches around the country.

He even had the courtesy to send me a CD, and listening to it right know I must say it's even better sounding than Håkan Brincks effort I mentioned earlier (here is an example).

So how about it, is my theory right? Whatever the answer, I bet Elvis music is a safe bet if you want to fill a church!

Oh please release them!

I often find myself wondering why Elvis On Tour still isn't available officially on DVD. I mean, it's been released on VHS several times, the last time 1997.

Therefore, it was interesting reading the answer Todd Morgan of EPE gave Elvis Australia regarding rumors about Warner Brothers' having cancelled plans to release Elvis on Tour on DVD. "There's no truth to the rumor. We should see that come along from them in a couple of years or so," he commented.

Well, I'll believe it when I see it. Until then I'll hang on to my VHS-copy and watch the bootleg DVD version of Elvis On Tour titled Through My Eyes. This is one example of what you'll find on that one:



And then we have the TV Special Elvis In Concert from 1977 that has never been released officially at all. On Elvis.com EPE writes "There just simply is no way to get it only to the real fans (and we've exhausted all kinds of ideas) without also having Elvis served up to the general public and press for ridicule."

Hmm, that's what I thought FTD was all about...

You gotta stop, you're wrong again

Seems The Official Elvis Presley Fan Club of Great Britain have it all wrong. Again. In the latest issue of their magazine that I received with the mail today, you can order two January 2008 FTD releases, "one studio out-takes title and the other a movie soundtrack, rumoured as being Elvis For Everyone and GI Blues."

Well, thanks to Internet we know by now that there is only one FTD release in January, the Wild In The Country soundtrack. (Besides, how likely is it that Elvis For Everyone is released when two of its tracks, including outtakes, just saw the light of day on Pot Luck?)

A similar mistake was made a couple of months ago when the British fan club announced the next FTD records would be a classic album and a two CD set they believed would consist of "two superior audience recordings of Elvis last two shows recorded 30 years ago". That turned out to be false information. Instead we got I Sing All Kinds, Raised On Rock and Easy Come, Easy Go.

Those weren't bad releases, on the contrary, but that's not the point. The point is that the fan club looses credibility when they get our hopes up with information that isn't correct. What's the point ordering FTD records that don't exist?

This also raises the question why the fan club in England doesn't have a site on the Internet. That way, at least mistakes like these could easily be corrected there.

As regard to Wild In The Country, I think it's a bit strange that Jorgensen and company is releasing it as a classic album, as it never was a LP, in fact not even an EP. And why wasn't the cover from the single used instead of a fictitious one?

But then again, it's nice to have all the songs from this movie, with the outtakes, on one album. And anyway, wasn't the original idea with the FTD gatefold albums to do just that - release the movie soundtracks?

Pot Luck with Elvis

I've always liked the album Pot Luck more than its predecessor Something For Everybody. I think this is because Something For Everybody always felt to me like kind of an inferior version of Elvis Is Back, while Pot Luck is something different.

And after spending practically a whole afternoon listening to the new FTD release of this classic album (158 minutes of playing time compared to the 29 minutes of the original album), I think I now more clearly understand what that difference is all about.

For starters, I've never realised so many of the songs have a Latin feel, like "Fountain of Love" with a Spanish-sounding strumming guitar and Elvis in total control. The most obvious example of a Latin arrangement is the dramatic "You'll Be Gone" that for some strange reason wasn't used on the album. (Maybe Elvis, for once a co-writer of a song, was nervous about the quality of the performance.)

Also, Elvis takes his ballad singing one step further on Pot Luck. On songs like "I'm Yours" and "I Feel Like I've Known You Forever" he sings smoothly and effortlessly despite the vocal challenges, and the end result is beautiful and haunting at the same time.

And last but not the least, it's like Ernst Jorgensen writes in his Elvis Presley – A Life In Music: "Elvis’s voice never sounded better." That is indeed true, he sings superbly.

But nothing or no one is perfect. The inclusion of the song "Steppin Out Of Line" from Blue Hawaii is a mysterious one that, unlike "I Slipped, I Stumbled, I Fell" on Something For Everybody, isn't presented as a soundtrack recording. In addition, the bonus track "For The Millionth And The Last Time" lacks real spirit and its companion "I Met Her Today" isn't a strong song, in my opinion.

When it comes to the outtakes, nearly all of the material has been spread out over the years on other records from FTD and BMG. Only four of the 44 complete outtakes are unreleased (there are a few false starts as well), the most interesting which is the first take of "Suspicion" that differs some from the released version.

In other words, there are few surprises on the FTD release Pot Luck, but it's a joy hearing the songs in crystal clear sound together with the singles and bonus songs that weren't used on the album. (I guess that rules out a FTD release of Elvis For Everyone, no big loss there!) And it's nice to finally have all of the outtakes collected in one place.

The cover is true to the original and the booklet is what to be expected with In and Outtakes and Behind the Scenes information (I didn’t know there were early plans for including "Just For Old Times Sake" in Change Of Habit). We also get some more publicity shots of Elvis with the same incredible hairstyle as on the cover of Pot Luck (from Follow That Dream). How on earth did he manage to style it that way?

Speaking of the cover, the only real complaint I have is a more general one that has been bothering me on the last couple of FTD releases. The cover always seems to come buckled in places, especially on the spine. I think this have to do with the protective plastic being wrapped too tight, but I’ve grown tired of returning my records and getting a new one with the same problem.

Anyway, I’m now hoping for a FTD version of The Lost Album that was intended to be the follow up studio album to Pot Luck. It too, deserves the attention.

I know three chords, believe it or not

Elvis was around eleven years old when he got his first guitar. I'm a lot older than that but have never played a single chord in my life. Until now.

Maybe it's some kind of midlife crisis thing, but I do want to learn how to play the guitar. So last week a good friend of mine who really knows her way around the instrument, patiently showed me a couple of chords on a guitar I've borrowed from my brother.

And, knowing my musical preferences, she then applied them to the song "Love Me." Because, as she told me, a lot of Elvis songs have only a few chords in them and are suitable for beginners. "It would have been harder had you been a fan of Deep Purple," she kidded.

After that first session my fingertips hurt like crazy. But that hasn't stopped me from playing those chords over and over again these last days and belting out the lyrics: "Treat me like a fool, treat me mean and cruel, but love me."

My wife laughs at me when my fingers slip and it sounds really awful, but I persist. "Beggin' on my knees, all I ask is please, please love me, oh yeah!"

That one takes the cake

It never ceases to amaze me what products Elvis Presley Enterprises wants us to buy. The latest offering is a singing and talking life-size bust that nearly defies description. And taste.

EPE writes in their ad that "motion captured facial animations and a leather jacket styled from the Elvis Presley '68 Comeback Special complete the most authentic recreation ever of this legendary artist."

The leather jacket do look the part, but that's where all similarities end. The face doesn't resemble Elvis' at all and the hairstyle is all wrong. When the thing moves, it looks like a zombie (check it out for yourself), and when it sings and talks it isn't Elvis voice you hear, just some impersonator.

And here comes the worst part. The price for this really awful product that according to EPE captures the magic of Elvis, but to me fails miserably to do so, sells for $349,99.