Title: Night Fever In Vegas (released in 1996)

Label: Rock Legends

Date: August 30, 1974, Las Vegas, Nevada, Midnight show

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

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

Tracks:

CD 1

1.See See Rider 2.Dialogue 3. I Got A Woman / Amen 4.Dialogue 5.Love Me 6.If You Love Me 7.It's Midnight 8.Big Boss Man 9.Fever 10.All Shook Up 11.Dialogue 12.Softly As I Leave You 12.Hound Dog Intro 13.Hound Dog 14.An American Trilogy 15.Dialogue 16.Suspicious Minds

CD 2

1.Karate Intro 2.If You Talk In Your Sleep 3.Karate Speech 4.Help Me 5.Let Me Be There (With Reprise) 6.Dialogue 7.How Great Thou Art (With Reprise) 8.Dialogue 9.Hawaiian Wedding Song 10.Dialogue 11.You Gave Me A Mountain 12.Can't Help Falling In Love

Elvis: He is in a strange mood - either because of his illness or of being on drugs.

Highlights: Among the highlights I would like to mention Elvis' 10 minute speech about karate - it is interesting to listen a well educated person talking about his hobby. Talking about songs I would like to mention How Great Thou Art (as always :-)) and You Gave Me A Mountain.

Review: This CD is the first one in the series of showcasing Elvis in late 1974. It begins the story of such discs as Desert Storm. Some people say that Elvis was drugged on these concerts, or drank, but personally I think that he was tired of singing the songs he did year after year, and after a quite disappointing beginning of the season in Las Vegas, where he used the new song lineup (see the review of ...From Sunset Blvd...To Paradise Road... ) he felt really bad.

There is no Also Sprach Zarathustra on this bootleg, so we start directly from See See Rider, which is pretty powerful, and there are some funny moments, where Elvis asks questions to different people very quickly: "Where is Bill Porter?"; "Charlie..."; "What are you doing, son?" . After the song some words from Elvis come: "Is it loud enough? Do you want it louder? I don't want to!", "I have never been in this suit, God just made it...", "I can't move in this suit!", "I don't have the control of the guitar in this suit, so I am sorry!". And other pretty funny sentences. The well known "well, well, well" before a standard, in some places weak I Got A Woman. Sometimes Elvis almost shouts, where he has to be quite, begins to laugh in the end of the song... "No big deal", saying by Elvis' words. A very short Amen. But Elvis asks J.D. to do a reprise of the low notes. It looks like Elvis gives J.D. another microphone, and asks the sound engineers if they can untape, what he's going to say, and giving the microphone to J.D. El says "Take this for a while, son of a bitch!". After that Elvis introduces himself as Tom Jones and says that everyone came to the wrong place, after that he explains that he missed a night - two shows - during his whole career - 20 years - he missed in a total 5 or 6 shows. An OK version of Love Me, and another new song is in the line - If You Love Me, which was just rehearsed a few weeks ago (and recorded - see ...From Sunset Blvd...To Paradise Road... ). It has that full power inside, which will disappear in the next few months. "This new song is a new record, we'll have it out in the next couple of weeks", Elvis says, "It's called It's Midnight", and what a version we have... It is another new song.

"Thank you", Elvis says and rushes with Big Boss Man, which has opened the concert on the opening night August 19 (see ...From Sunset Blvd...To Paradise Road...). The version of Fever has the same feeling as the Aloha From Hawaii concerts, though it is much less serious over here. "It's Dark up here" Elvis says during the intro, "Do you want a scarf? I have to use it!". The next in line is a fast All Shook Up, which is a standard version. Thanks God, he didn't sing Teddy Bear/Don't be cruel that night. Elvis opens the Softly As I leave You, with the well known dialogue, and Elvis tells everything like he was the man, who was dying in that hospital. I think that it is one of the best versions ever, though I can't choose between this one and the one from the Desert Storm . The intro of Hound Dog is funny ("You ain't, you just think you are"), but the song itself is really bad (including a false start, and Elvis' insults to James Burton and Glen Hardin - of course as a joke). "We have a request - somebody asked me to do the American Trilogy, so we're going to do it". James plays the first notes of it, and a woman from the audience says that she loves Elvis and he says "I love you too, sweetheart", after that a man shouts " I hate you, Elvis", and our man answers "F**k you!" and the audience is really happy, they begin to applaud! Of course, we have a good American Trilogy, but there's a lotta fooling around.

Elvis already wants to introduce the band, but he quickly says "I'll tell you what, let's do Suspicious Minds", the group begins to play it, but Elvis stops them and begins a dialogue " There's a guy in the audience who's request it is. He's a friend of mine, from Memphis, his father is my doctor back in Memphis, Mr.. George Nickhopulos, what's your name? Din? He asked me to do this song and I committed him. If I would do the song, when we get back to Memphis he will go to our karate school and put on a white suit, will be working every day and let me see him doing that, ok? You got it!!" and the band rushes a good version of Suspicious Minds, but again with a lotta fooling around.

The introductions go with the Coming Home, Baby as the background music. After the intros comes an interesting dialogue: " I'm gonna do something a little different for you, if you don't mind, I'm gonna... There are lotta people who know that I have been involved in the art of karate for some time, but nobody knows to what degree... So what I would like to do and I'm gonna do, I hope you'll take it in the right way, is do, what's called a cata (?), which are series of movements are representing blocks, kicks, punches - things that you is in Kung-Fu and karate. Kung-Fu and karate are the same thing - the Chinese technology is Kung-Fu, and Japanese is karate. The word Karate... Kara means open, te means hand - open hand. So just give me a second and I'll do a bit of it for you. Don't mind, do you? " and a very funky version of If You Talk In Your Sleep is playing for you. Pretty sad that CD-s give you only the soundtrack - it would be great to see Elvis making those karate moves.

The next in line is a 10 minute (or maybe less) speech about karate, where Elvis, among other things, says that he practiced karate for 14 years everyday. He also say that karate is a very important thing, and how it has started. It is really great!

"Let's do Help Me!", Elvis says and we have a good version over here. Let Me Be There is has not changed yet - we don't have the well known shouts yet. After that somebody gives Elvis a gift and he asks if he could give it to his daughter. After that Elvis says that he loves what he does and introduces How Great Thou Art, which is just great! After the song Elvis says that if he had done 1 tenth of what was written about him in the movie magazines, he couldn't face his father and daughter and karate instructors. After that he does a standard version of Hawaiian Wedding Song. You Gave Me a Mountain is a request, and, of course, we receive a very good version, right from the heart. The last in line is a standard Can't Help Falling In Love.

This is not that type of concert that is suitable for every listener. The concert is for the collectors only or the real fans (which is almost the same, by the way :-)). It is not recommended for beginners or fans of the official releases, because it features some really strange material. But personally I like it and listen it more often than many others.

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