Title: Burning in Birmingham

Label: 2001

Date: December 29, 1976, Birmingham

Sound Quality: * * * * - / * * * * * +

Concert Rating: * * * * * - / * * * * * +

Tracks: 1.See See Rider 2.I Got A Woman / Amen 3.Lover Me 4.Fairytale 5.You Gave Me A Mountain 6.Jailhouse Rock 7.O Sole Mio / It’s Now Or Never 8.Trying To Get To You 9.My Way 10.Polk Salad Annie 11.Band Introductions 12.Early Morning Rain 13.What’d I Say 14.Johnny B. Goode 15.Band Solos 16.Love Letters 17.School Days 18.Funny How Time Slips Away 19.Hurt (With Reprise) 20.Hound Dog 21.For The Good Times 22.The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face 23.Unchained Melody 24.Mystery Train / Tiger Man 25.Can’t Help Falling In Love 26.Closing Vamp (Duration: 72 min 06 sec)

Package: Not one of the greatest is the booklet, but the CD itself is the best thing in all release. “For collectors” says 2001 label, giving us notice that this is a must have.

Elvis: He is in a very good form and spirit, changing serious and silly notes in order to entertain the audience. He promises to be everywhere, just “hang loose”. Out of any doubt this is the greatest concert Elvis ever done in 1976, excluding New Years Eve in Pittsburgh and Dallas the day before. His energetic manner and nice mood gives us a great opportunity to enjoy this show, unfortunately the sound quality is not so good as on My, It’s been a long, long time.

Highlights: It’s too hard to name just a few. The whole concert is terrific, this is not just a workout. Even the older numbers – few of which are on the set list – are well performed (well, with the exception of Hound Dog). Wonderful and rare last performances of For The Good Times and The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face are simply marvelous. What comes to mind when listening to this release is the question – why Elvis lost the interest so fast? Why his inspiration wasn’t long enough to help him make it through the studio session in January and to clean himself up and keep the energy level? We can only guess...

Review: When you listen to the late December 1976 recordings you get a feeling of a yet another Presley comeback – here is an artist coming back from the routine performances with the same songs night after night, here is the energetic Elvis Presley going crazy onstage – watching amateur videos from this tour you get a feeling that Elvis didn’t move that much onstage for a couple of years already if not longer. We can only cry over the fact that there was no chance to film these performances professionally – it could have been a much better special than the one that was filmed in the June of year 1977. On this release we get the December 29 concert. It is not even to be compared with the poor performances Elvis gave during the summer of 1976, it is of higher class than any of his Vegas concerts of that year – well, most probably, concerts from this tour almost match the energy of a 1970 or 1971 concert. Besides all this CD is interesting because of the clear electric piano of David Briggs, which makes all songs sound different. When you listen to this records there is a feeling that Elvis knew that he would die pretty soon, and gave his best while he could.

When you begin listening this CD and you hear the way Elvis sings C.C. Rider, you feel that he is in a good condition. Lots of improvisations, whatever, I love it, though I don't like to hear the some old songs many times, it is still one of my favorite versions. A very strong I Got A Woman, when J.D. Sumner takes the low notes, you can clearly hear Elvis shouting "No, No, No!" and he makes J.D. take them one more time. And even during the second time you can hear Elvis shouting "No, No, No" but shortly after he shouts "Yes, Yes!" and they end the song. After that he greets the audience, and says that it is his first show in Birmingham. Then we have a standard version of Love Me, and after that our man introduces the song Fairytale, by saying it is a song that "we did about an year ago, it is called Fairytale", which he does pretty good, by changing some words, - "..there's no need to explain what the hell is this...". After that the King says "Mountain, baby!" and You Gave Me A Mountain is cool, Elvis makes his voice pretty vibrant, cool! There are a few words that he tries to do in a pretty low voice, but he quickly changes his mind. "My third movie that I did was Jailhouse Rock, so I'd like to do it for you", he says, and rushes a standard version of Jailhouse Rock.

After that Elvis begins a speech - "In 1932... In 1960 we did a song called It's now Or Never. It was taken from... Hang loose, hang loose! ...From the Italian song O sole Mio. I would like to ask Sherrill Neilson to do the Italian version of the Sole Mio and then we'll do It's nor or Never" Both of them are perfect, but there are some defects on It's now or Never, and it is cut off somewhere in half, and after that we have the end part only. But it is still good. "We did a song a few years ago called Trying to Get to Ya... To you" and what they do is a good version of it.

"If you don't mind I would like to do a song called My Way. I don't remember the words to it so I have to read it", but this song is as beautiful as always. It is one of my favorites. Again, with clear notes taken by David Briggs. After that comes "Polk Salad Annie", strong rocking, I won't use all others terms that I wanted to, it would be to long. Right before the solo of James Burton in the middle of the song, Elvis shouts, "James, James, James, James!". Finally, Elvis sings "Sing pa, pa-pa-pa-pa" with the Sweets, and shouts loudly, pretty cool version!

The intros are close to what they are usually. The only good thing is that the Stamps intro is cut off. After introducing Kathy Westmoreland, he does a full rare version of Early Morning Rain. Also present are the standard intros of James, Ronnie Tutt, and others.

An OK version of Funny How Time Slips Away, and "one of my latest records called Hurt", which is done very good, and after that he says "Do you want to hear the last part again, we will do it better!" and they do!!! A standard version of the Hound Dog, and then comes one of the 2 greatest highlights of this show: a non rehearsed For The Good Times, which seems to be a live Jam! After that he says "We'll do this song for you, sweetheart! The First Time Ever I saw your face!", during which he says "Listen!", dedicating the song to Ginger Alden. The last verse is sung only by Elvis and played by David Briggs, which is very beautiful (“Everybody lay out here except David Briggs,” Elvis suggests). After that we have a song that Elvis sings for the third time, he plays the piano himself here. It is Unchained Melody, like you have already guessed. Maybe the sound isn't as good as on Moody Blue version, but wins because here it is not overdubbed, and it is longer, also it is a more earlier version. After that we have a rocking version of the medley Mystery Train / Tiger Man, and just like always, Can't help Falling In Love.

Considering that this is the last great Presley tour and is a soundboard recording we can recommend it to any fan who has the possibility to get it.

B bootleg index