Title: Guaranteed To Blow Your Mind

Label: Luxor

Date: March 18, 1974 + Warming up June 10, 1975

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

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

Tracks: 1.Opening Theme 'Love Me Tender' 2.Keep It Goin' 3.Going Back To Memphis Tomorrow 4.Announcements / Warm Up 5.Also Sprach Zarathustra 6.See See Rider 7.I Got A Woman / Amen 8.Love Me 9.Trying To Get To You 10.All Shook Up 11.Steamroller Blues 12.Teddy Bear / Don't Be Cruel 13.Love Me Tender 14.Long Tall Sally / Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On / Mama Don't Dance / Flip Flop And Fly / Jailhouse Rock / Hound Dog 15.Fever 16.Polk Salad Annie 17.Why Me Lord 18.Suspicious Minds 19.Introductions 20.I Can't Stop Loving You 21.Help Me 22.American Trilogy 23.Let Me Be There 24.Funny How Time Slips Away 25.Can't Help Falling In Love 26.Closing Vamp 27.Announcements

Package: Luxor started out it's own package style, which seems very agreeable to me: all necessary notes (DIGITALLY REMASTERED ADD; A SOUNDBOARD RECORDING etc.), high quality photos, perfect design and so on. Of course, this package is worse then My It's Been A Long Long Time, but still great.

Elvis: Although the pictures presented on this CD are in superior quality, they show Elvis with such a suffering face that it scares. His face is really martyring. This is something to be disproved when you listen the concert - no fatigue, no bad spirit, no suffer and complaints, just good quality show! Suspicious Minds is so energetic that you can't stop repeating the chorus after Elvis! How the man can look this way and give the audience what he did? I think that in deep he was exhausted, but people paid the money and it does not matter how he feels. That is the example of high professionalism!

Highlights: Very good program is supplied with the famous Rock'n'Roll medley. It is a good addition, not to say wonderful. Fever and above mentioned Suspicious Minds are the highlights.

Others: Nice tradition of warming ups would be continued on the later release My It's Been A Long Long Time. This one is taken from the well known Memphis concert (Let Me Take You Home) and is rather acceptable except track 4 which is dull and long, not to say useless. "Check, check" is all you hear during more than 7 minutes of time.

Review: 1974 was a year of ups and downs for Elvis Presley. During the first half of the year he gave many terrific concerts, while the second half of the Summer Vegas' engagement and the following tours showed a drugged Elvis trying not to fall asleep or either dead onstage (sad reality :-( ) However this CD shows us an inspired Elvis, full of energy and will to live. It is a concert of high standard in any terms. The song lineup is a bit predictable, but at least Elvis and his band are full of energy. But back to the contents.

The first 4 tracks are part of the warm-up, not quite in place on this bootleg, because they are part of the 1975 Memphis' show released on Let me Take you Home. However, we kick off with Also Sprach Zarathustra. The first chord (before the melody starts) is about 10 seconds long, and the crowd is going crazy. As the opening theme comes to a close, Ronnie Tutt begins See See Rider. You can hear that the sound is great while the audience is way back contrary to many bootlegs. Elvis sings a great calm version of See See Rider, which is pretty close to the version which he had done on the Aloha From Hawaii concert a year before, but his voice is much deeper and powerful here. "Thank you very much!" Elvis says and strictly goes into the "Well, Well..." intro of I Got A Woman, which sounds great, you can hear Elvis is really into the song, he's digging it! Amen is short yet, contrary to what we are used to by the late 70-s version. "Thank you very much. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, it is a pleasure to be back here in Hampton Roa... uh... for Richmond... Just kidding, just kidding" Next is Love Me. Those who have read other reviews of mine know that there is probably no single review where I have said a good word about this song. I think that this is the first time I am writing that a version of this song is great! Elvis is inspired as if he is singing a new song that means something for him. I mean, the way he used to sing in studio. A great version! "Yeah, thank you very much! You are a good audience, thank you, you are out of sight!" Next is Trying To Get To You. Elvis changes the words during the first couplet to "Trying to get to ya" which makes him laugh a bit. The version is very good, and I think that the line "There'd be nothing that could hold me" explains everything - nothing's gonna hold Elvis tonight, he's gonna give all the 110%. Even All Shook Up sounds as if Elvis is digging singing it! "Yeah, thank you, take it out!" Elvis says and a great version of Steamroller Blues starts, with Elvis fooling around "I'm a steamroller snake!" This 74' version is more orchestrated than the versions of 1973. Much more bluesy and better sounding than on the Aloha concert. Next is Teddy Bear / Don't Be Cruel. The first throw away of the evening? Probably it is. "My first movie was Love Me Tender and I'd like to sing a little bit of that for you" Elvis sings. This is the second throw away of this evening. Next is a long medley of Elvis' hits, a good solution in my opinion. "I saw J.B., a bold headed Sally" Elvis sings. Next is Fever. Nothing special in this version, except the fact that the audience is going crazy. Elvis himself can't stop laughing at the audience's response, but at a point he says off mike (probably to the other singers on stage): "What are you laughing at?" "That's a fun song to do" Elvis admits after finishing it. Next is the great Polk Salad Annie which sounds great as always! James' solo in the middle is great. Barely breathing, Elvis says: "Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. Wooh! Let me just rest for a second. Is that a second? I'd like to ask J.D. and the Stamps to sing one of my favorite gospel songs - Why Me Lord?" The song is fantastic, a serious version yet. "Thank you very much! Yeah, I liked that!" Elvis says and launches into Suspicious Minds, which is not very serious, but still pleasant. Next are introductions, which are shorter than those that we know but the later years. "Bardwell? What kind of name is that? That's as bad as "Elvis! Elvis!" Elvis says introducing Duke. "I'd like to thank the John Marshall Hotel where everybody is staying!" Elvis says after the introductions.

"Anyway, you know what I can't do?" Elvis asks and begins I Can't Stop Loving You. It is a nice version with a great ending. "Thank you very much, thank you, this next song is a song we just recorded, I hope you like it, it's called Help Me" Elvis says. This version is very close to the studio master, recorded some four months earlier and very beautiful. "Thank you very much! Glad you liked it!" Next is American Trilogy, which is great as always. Next is Let Me Be There, which is pretty close to the Memphis' version. "Now that you had the chance to see us, I'd like to turn the house lights up and take a look at you!" Elvis says and goes strictly to Funny How Time Slips Away. Nothing special on this number. After the line "Never know when I am back in town" Elvis adds "Whenever you want me!" much to the delight of the audience. After a farewell speech Elvis goes into I Can't Help Falling In Love.

One of the best Elvis' concerts? Yes, it is. Maybe this is not the Elvis that he had once been in 1970, nor the one that is yet to come in December of 1976, but he sounds great, he is completely into the show, he digs performing and his voice is very powerful.

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