Title: Don't Think Twice

Label: Madison

Date: January 29, 1973 Las Vegas, Nevada, Dinner Show;

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

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

Tracks: 1.2001 Theme 2.See See Rider 3.I Got A Woman / Amen 4.Until It's Time For You To Go 5.Sweet Caroline 6.Steamroller Blues 7.You Gave Me A Mountain 8.Fever 9.Love Me 10.Blue Suede Shoes 11.Love Me Tender 12.Johnny B. Goode 13.Hound Dog 14.What Now My Love 15.Suspicious Minds 16.Introductions 17.I Can't Stop Loving You 18.American Trilogy 19.Can't Help Falling In Love 20.Closing Vamp 21.Don't Think Twice (14 minutes cut and paste version)

Package: Well, seems like Madison label is going to be number one in making packages. Most people like the way they make CD's but this time they have cheated us a while. The booklet contains 4 color photos of Elvis, mentioning they were taken January 29, 1973 Dinner Show, but this is not true. If you look carefully, you'll see that pictures were not taken in Las Vegas. You'll find many binoculars looking from the tribunes beyond Elvis. There were no tribunes in Las Vegas! Also there was not such a microphone in Las Vegas! Pictures are from Atlanta, June 1973. But if we miss this fact the whole package is good as usual.

Elvis: He is relaxed and a bit tired after famous Aloha concert. He was very nervous before making this TV- Special and let himself relax after such a nervous period. He is a bit fatty, but still looks good. he sings the standard program, and sound quality is not as good as it was expected.

Highlights: The great version of Hound Dog is worth whole the CD. It is a bluesy-starting version following with great rock ending. I was really amazed and excited by this song! Who could do that except Elvis. Bonus track is well known 14 min 27 sec Dylan's song "Don't Think Twice, It's all right" from May 1971. In overall, Madison provided us with one more average release in bright packaging, but weak content.

Review: Well, I must say that I was shocked when I first heard it. Of course, I was not expecting something special from this - I was never a fan of Aloha (at least, after getting "involved" into the bootleg business), but I never could think that just in a month Elvis would be so... tired.

First of all about the sound quality: it is a below average quality, it least, for a such a bad concert (I mean for a soundboard recording :-))

But back to review. The CD begin with Zarathustra, which leads us into See See Rider. The performance Elvis gives is pretty good, very calm version. It looks like Elvis enjoys singing it. (The first impression is that the tape is rolling to fast, I must say). James' playing on guitar sounds different on some parts, it reminds me the way he played the closing vamp during the Aloha credits. "Thank you very much. We-e-e-l-l... That's it folks..." Elvis says and launches into a weak I Got A Woman, which sounds different - I don't know, maybe it is slower than usually. Anyway Elvis sounds bad on here. Amen is very short and J.D. tricks are not as beautiful as they were during the later years. "Thank you. Good evening" Elvis says. Next in line is Until It's Time For You To Go. It is not a very good versions - comes nowhere near the version Elvis did at Madison Square Garden. Sweet Caroline is also a looser, of course there must have been something special that made Elvis sing this song in 1973, but it is not getting the beautiful treatment it once had during 1970. Steamroller Blues is a very inspired version, Elvis really digs singing the song. Note the great James Burton solo in the middle, close (on some parts) to the one he did during Reconsider Baby in 1969. No comments, just "Thank You" and Elvis launches into a calm You Gave Me A Mountain. It is very close to the version he did in the Aloha special. Fever is next. It is in fact a weak version. Funny, but I don't remember hearing at least one version of the song without Elvis laughing. Still it is not an excuse. Next are the usual oldies, which sound very fast and are sung without any emotions. We usually call them standard versions. Probably the only inspired song from them is Johnny B. Goode. Elvis is not in a such a great voice as he was a couple of years ago, but at least it seems that he likes the song. Also the solo of James Burton is beautiful. Hound Dog is not as loosing as it will get in the next years. Also it begins slowly and ends fast.

What Now My Love is a very inspired version, Elvis liked the song and did it in a special way. When in the beginning of the 90's Frank Sinatra sang a duet of it (I don't remember who his partner was), I was shocked. Elvis provides a very dramatic version, slowly done, with a big orchestra, while the Sinatra version was very fast, and jazzy. "You're a very good audience, thank you very much", Elvis says. What he means is that it is time for Suspicious Minds, which is weak in my opinion. After the line "So if an old friend I know" a bass singer (but maybe it is Elvis himself in a low voice) repeats a well known February 1970 line "Shut up your nose". In a total it is a very average, if not weak, performance.

After the intros, we get a fantastic version of I Can't Stop Loving You, which is very powerful for this concert, and no doubt about it - better than the Aloha version. Next in line is Trilogy. In a total a decent performance, but this song never sounded better than it did in 1972, in my opinion. The best version I have heard of it ever is probably the one from the This is Elvis, which was shortened in the movie, if I remember correctly. I also like the early Vegas versions with Elvis singing along the Stamps during "Oh, I wish I was in Dixie" and so on. But anyway, Elvis says "Thank, you're a good audience, thank you, glad you liked it, If we've done anything up here to make you happy, then we've done our job. This is the song we did in Blue Hawaii, I would like to sing it for you." And the King Elvis the First makes a standard version of Can't Help Falling In Love.

In addition we get a "complete" 14 minute version of Don't Think Twice. I think that the only reason of putting this song on the album is to hide the fact that the show itself lasts just a few seconds more than 47 minutes. The song is in NO WAY complete. Somewhere on the seventh or so minute it just repeats from the very beginning... So here we get the so-called cut and paste job. But in fact we get about 9 minutes of the song, as long as there is some more of the song after 12:45. According to Ernst Jorgensen's / Peter Guralnick's book Elvis Presley - A Life In Music - The Complete Recording Session, the song in fact lasts 11:25, so there is not much left now - about 3 minutes, and we'll have a complete song:-) ( Note: In 1995 with the release of Walk A Mile In My Shoes box set, the new edit which lasted 4:00 appeared. But in fact an even longer version was released by the time: in 1979 on the second volume of Our Memories Of Elvis LP a version of 8:35 was released. To compare: the original version, released on the LP - later, on CD with the same name - Elvis (Fool album) lasted only 2:45 )

So what I have to say as a conclusion, is that the bootleg is made from low quality material and is presented in a nice looking package. The concert is very short, uninspired, Elvis seems tired, and what is even more important - not interested in what he is doing. No monologues - straight show, it seems that Elvis tries to say something like "Man, I've gotta do it as fast as I can... I need some rest..."

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