Title: From Sunset Blvd. to Paradise Road (2 CD set)

Label: Diamond

Date: CD 1 and tracks 1-3 of CD 2 - Recorded at a rehearsal August 16, 1974; tracks 5-24 of CD 2 - Recorded live, Las Vegas, Nevada, August 19, 1974 (Opening Show)

Sound Quality: from * * * - to * * * *- / * * * * * +

Content Rating: * * * * * / * * * * * +

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

Tracks:

CD 1

1.If You Love Me 2.If You Love Me 3.Promised land 4.Promised Land 5.Down in the alley 6.Down In The Alley 7.It's Midnight 8.It's Midnight 9.Your Love's Been A Long Time Coming 10.Good Time Charlie's Got The Blues 11.Softly, As I Leave You 12.Softly As I Leave You 13..I'm Leaving 14.The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face 15.Proud Mary 16.If You Talk In Your Sleep 17.If You Love Me

CD 2

1.The Twelfth Of never 2.Faded love 3.Just pretend 4.The twelfth of never 5.Big boss man 6.Proud Mary 7.Down in the alley 8.Good time Charlie's got the blues 9.Never been to Spain 10.It's midnight 11.If you talk in your sleep 12.I'm leaving 13.Let me be there 14.Softly as I leave you 15.If you love me, let me know 16.Love me tender 17.Polk salad Annie 18.Band introductions 19.Promised land 20.My baby left me 21.Bridge over troubled water 22.Fever 23.Hound dog 24.Can't help falling in love

Elvis: He is in high spirits on the rehearsal (though not in top voice form) and very nervous during the show.

Highlights: I can't choose and highlight from the concert because all songs are highlights. From the rehearsals I would pick The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.

Review: A great bootleg. It is my favorite, I think, because you can feel the atmosphere of what has happened on the rehearsal, August 16, 1974 and on the opening night on August 19, 1974. Some people say that the audience wasn't very happy with the changes, which would stay till the next concert, in the repertory of Elvis. I can't say for sure that they weren't - just put Just Pretend or Here I go again and you will understand that they are not 100% right. I agree that when Elvis sings Hound Dog there are much more shouts, than when he sings Promised Land, but it has to be understood that people wanted to hear what he sang to the audience in his previous concert - they loved Love Me Tender and Hound Dog, Blue Suede Shoes and Love Me - they were #1, and what did Promised Land reach ? The audience even didn't know it by the time. But this words were written to defend the audience - personally I love the program. Not very often we can hear Elvis singing Down in the Alley or Good Times Charlie's got The Blues in concert.

CD 1

It all begins in Hollywood studios, where Elvis and his band are rehearsing. The CD opens with some guitar playing and a man, who probably is a sound engineer, says "That's it, man". Elvis says "Ok. Any time you're ready. Uh... If you love me..." and the group begins it. As soon as the words begin Elvis looses himself and asks to start the second part. Here we don't have an Elvis which we knew from The Brightest Star on Sunset Blvd. He doesn't have the same strong voice as he did 4 years before, but he's still in good mood, using bad language sometimes. The first "take" isn't very good, so Elvis says "Let's do it from the top, I like it" and they do a better second "take". After that Elvis says "Let's go on the Promised land", then you can hear somebody saying "We don't drink, we don't smoke" and after that Glen Hardin plays the intro into a rocking' version of the Promised Land. The second starts only with Hardin, without any other people, just a few seconds, after that there's a false start and only after that the second version starts. Elvis is still in good mood, changing the words ("...When the pilot told us in 30 minutes he would drop us at the terminal gate...", "And the mother - fucker is on the line") . Elvis says after that "What are we going to screw up next?", and Charlie sings "Down in the Alley, Just you and me" and Elvis quickly asks, if they have the words to it, so they do the song, after which Elvis says, that they needed an intro to it, Glen begins playing some bluesy intro and the King likes it. They do the song for the second time. It's Midnight starts with Elvis fooling around, saying something like "Where are the fucking words? Give me some. Excuse me". After that Elvis sings "I ought to go to bed", instead of "It's getting late", and complains about it, by saying that he knows it, but just can't sing it right. The second version doesn't have so many mistakes, but still is not good enough. After that comes a very cool Your Love's Been a Long Time Coming, with a great ending. Too sad that it hasn't found it's way into the live performances. After that we have a very emotional Good Times Charlie's Got the Blues. Elvis found the story very well known for him, I think, and it's sung very good. After that Elvis says "Let's go on the Softly as I leave you, and I will tell you the story about it, the true story" and tells the story, that we know very well, from different concerts. The second "take" begins with Elvis telling the story from the words "Somewhere on the 3-d day...". After the song somebody insists in adding some other instruments, but Elvis says that he wants just the piano and the strings. And when somebody insists in adding the instruments again, Elvis jokes "Shut up! Get out of my studio!" After that Elvis says "I'm leavin'. Not the song, I'm leaving the studio. Ok." And they do a very good version of I'm Leaving.

"The first time ever I saw your freacking face" is one of the best versions of this song. After the song Elvis says "Ok, let's do Proud Mary!" They do a decent version though this "new" arrangement which appeared in 1972, if I remember it correctly, is not as good as the one they had in 1970. After the song Elvis insists in doing If You Talk In Your Sleep, and asks if anybody remembered the intro, while James Burton plays the ending part. After that a short version of the song comes, which is as funky as always. Without the Joe Guercio orchestra it sounds better. Then Elvis says "Let's go back to If You Love Me (Let Me Know)". This is a wonderful, powerful version, especially in the very beginning. After the song, Elvis asks someone from of the backup singers to sing the last words ("...loving you...") in another way, and the singer just can't do it! For a couples of minutes they can't do it, and Elvis became so angry that he asked what was difficult in doing the words that way. Finally he says "oh, boy, that's something to me!" and they do another version of the song, after Elvis said that he liked the song - "It's a happy one!" In a total - we have 15 minutes of If You Love Me!

CD 2

The CD starts with Elvis saying "Twelfth of Never" and Glen D. Hardin plays the intro, but it is a false start. Then he plays it again. A good version. "Faded Love!" Elvis says, the intro, Elvis doesn't start it and asks "Start it again, I've thought it is Lawdy, Miss Clawdy". A pretty good version, but not as good as the original, recorded some 4 years before. As the King admits, "It's a throwaway". Elvis changes the words ("As I think of your ass... past..." "...As I watch to doves making love...") just like always making the song sound funny. "Just Pretend" Elvis says quickly, and does this song really great. What comes next is the overdubbed version of The Twelfth of Never. I like the original version more, but this one is really good, though the sound quality of the overdub is much better than the sound of Elvis' voice.

The drum sound comes out of a fade-in and from nowhere Big Boss Man appears! It is a new concert, the first one of the series. How great it is! Elvis sounds fresh, happy, doing something he wanted for a long time - singing new songs. How great! GREAT! GREAT! GREAT! I can't get enough of it! The reaction is more than good from the audience, and Elvis says "Take it out!" and they do another song, that they haven't done for a long-long time, a rocking version of Proud Mary, which is still "keep on burning". . "Good evening...uh...my name is the NBC peacock....my name is NBC peacock, I practiced that all evening and goofed it. We'll have a good time. We're gonna, sniff...uh...we're gonna' walk around and do some songs and sweat...... We've done this song about ten years ago, when Charlie was a child" Elvis says and does a great version of the Down in the Alley. The next is a rarely performed Good Times Charlie's Got The Blues (still to discover whether there are other live renditions of this song). During the song Elvis sings "You play around and loose your wife" and quickly adds "I've already done that" and after singing "You play so long - you loose your life" adds "Almost did that" and the audience laughs. After the song they give so many applauses that it is clear that they liked the song.

After that Elvis says "I've done a lotta things in my life, but... I never been To Spain" and the song continues, this version can compete with the Madison Sq. Garden version. After the song, Elvis introduces the new song "It's Midnight", which is very emotional version. It is clear that the audience likes it very much, probably understanding what was happening between Elvis and Scilla, that he was still in love with her after their divorce. After the song Elvis thanks the audience for their reaction, and the group plays the funky If You Talk in Your Sleep, after which Elvis says that it was not written by himself, because "I don't do that! Charlie wrote it! No, a friend of mine - Red West wrote, but why?". After that he discusses with the audience what to sing next. Pretty soon he comes to a conclusion that it's time to sing I'm Leaving. Again - very emotionally sung. Than comes another (yet) rocking version of Let Me Be There, without the shouts that are known by the records of the end of this Las-Vegas engagement and later - by the 1975 versions. After the song Elvis thanks the audience and asks for a chair (what for?), and begins telling the story of Softly As I Leave You. If You Love Me is a very powerful version, probably the best one - greatly played by the musicians, and greatly sung by the King.

"The twelfth of Never" Charlie, probably, says, but Elvis says the he doesn't want to do it, and asks for requests - that is where Love Me Tender comes from. After that Elvis says "Polk!" and Polk Salad Annie rushes into a rocking version. more than powerful, more than great - just cool!!! Better than the 1972 versions! After that the introductions, which begin with Elvis saying - "I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself... the members of my group". During the intro-s Elvis says that he "never understood this guy" about John Wilkinson, "He is one of my Karate students" about Ronnie Tutt, "He gives me scarves and drinks my water" about Charlie Hodge, and asks the Voice if they opened the show, because "I was watching a movie upstairs". After that Elvis introduces Mr.. Williams to the audience. Probably here we get an opportunity to here the first live version of Promised land, which is not as good as the master. It is followed by the intro of Telly Savalas, who is "One of the coolest actors in the world. He's been friend of mine for a long - long time". My Baby Left Me is that's All Right Mama, with other words - that's all. But still good. Bridge Over Troubled Water is very good version with a long intro by Glen, about 25 seconds, while Fever is short, and a standard Hound Dog is very funny. The ending is of course by Can't Help Falling In Love, which is strangely good.

For whatever reason, Elvis wanted to make this concert a special one, but because of the audience's "rejection", Elvis was doing the standard program next night. Elvis wanted the rehearsal to be recorded, that's why we can hear it now. I can only say the following - go and get this one - thanks to Diamond and of course to Elvis. Recommended for everyone.

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