Title: Sold Out In Dixie

Label: Rock Legends

Date: June 2, 1975 8:30 PM show; Mobile, Alabama

Sound Quality (Concert): * * * * - / * * * * * +

Concerts Rating: * * * * + / * * * * * +

Tracks: 1.2001 2.See See Rider 3.I Got A Woman / Amen 4.Love Me 5.If You Love Me Let Me Know 6.Love Me Tender 7.All Shook Up 8.Teddy Bear / Don't Be Cruel 9.Hound Dog 10.The Wonder Of You 11.Burning Love 12.Band Introductions 13.Johnny B. Goode 14.Hail Hail Rock 'n Roll 15.Bridge Over Troubled Water 16.T-R-O-U-B-L-E 17.I'll Remember you 18.Let Me Be There 19.An American Trilogy 20.Funny How Time Slips Away 21.Little Darlin' 22.Mystery Train / Tiger Man 23.Can't Help Falling In Love 24.Closing Vamp

Package: Package is very good, with great pictures of Elvis inside the booklet. The style of package is like other Rock Legends releases.

Elvis: He gave out many strong performances, which are reviewed lower in particular. He was in great spirit through all the tour, made jokes and clowning.

Highlights: 2001, See See Rider and part of Amen were taken from March 20, 1974 concert, which was officially released on RCA label. This is a small cheat for fans, because the cover says this is "a complete show". Obviously the beginning of the tape was damaged or never existed. Other tracks have some distortion too.

Review by Christopher Brown (witness of the show). The review is taken from his book On Tour With Elvis:

Skipping the pre-show again, I find my seat during the intermission. Here we go again, as Elvis would say. The houselights dim as the band plays ALSO SPRACH ZARATHUSTRA. As the climax is reached, Elvis bounds on stage to a barrage of flashbulb explosions, turning the auditorium into a giant stroblight as Elvis seems to bounce across the stage. Tonight he's wearing the beautiful white Indian feather jumpsuit which he had worn for the first time on this tour on Saturday afternoon. I really love this suit - he looks so good in it. (The white jumpsuit makes it very easy for the fans to see him, and yet the simplicity of it's design is neither uninteresting nor overpowering, as some would be in the next few years.)

Elvis really looks happy as he starts the show with the familiar SEE SEE RIDER. Elvis' phrasing on this version is great, as he really emphasizes many of the lyrics. Elvis poses with the guitar, thrusting it into the air to bring the opening number to a conclusion.

"Thank you very much. Wooh! Good evening." Elvis turns as the crowd seated behind the stage screams. "There they are again, the turn-around gang. You know it ' s funny to look around and see all those binoculars, they look like frogs. Well, ha. Too hot. Too hot."

"Well, well well well well, well well well, well well well well well ..." with the last well sung as low as possible. "Well well, that's all folks ..." and here J.D. joins in with his very low voice. "That's it, thank you ..." Elvis says. But to the contrary, he begins a rocking version of I GOT A WOMAN.

Elvis really plays with the lyrics, showing great interest, particularly with the lines, "... never leaves me alone, she knows, knows, knows, knows, knows, knows, hey hey now, I got a WOMAN, WAY CROSS TOWN, SHE'S GOOD TO ME, YEEEAAAAAAHHHH ..." which Elvis holds for a long period of time " sliding down two octaves while doing so.

This great version is coupled with one verse of AMEN, with Elvis holding the last "... aaaaayy ...", at which point he begins gyrating to the pounding of Ronnie's drumming. Finally stopping, Elvis has J.D. perform the airplane dive on the last 'Amen' after he instructs him to "... go get it J.D. ..."

Not really satisfied with the effort, Elvis asks, "... think you can do it better than that J.D.? You can do better? You pray you can do it better! O.K. Take it on."

"He's the world's lowest bass singer, so, he should do a lot better than that. He just breathes down there ahhahh, you know ..." and with Elvis imitating J.D. in a low voice, says, "... he can do it better. Listen to him this time. I hope!"

Elvis repeats the verse of 'Amen'. Following another plane dive, Elvis returns to 'I Got A Woman' and concludes the song with the famous slow tag ending.

"Thank you very much. Good evening. Ladies and Gentlemen, my name is Wayne Newton!" to which Elvis receives a lot of laughs and applause. "Ah, we hope you have a good time this evening. This evening, this afternoon? Is it evening? We did a show this afternoon, right? I don't know, I just work here! I cannot believe that we did a show on a Monday afternoon. I'd like to know how you got off work, how you got out of school, or what happened, you were here, I tell you one thing, sure glad you're here, son ..." to which the crowd loudly responds.

"We're gonna do a lot of songs, and we're gonna do some, some of them right, I hope! Old ones, new ones, in-between ... treat me like a fool ..." Elvis sings, performing a version of LOVE ME that is wildly received. The crowd is really loud and excited this evening.

Moving to the far end of the stage, Elvis sings, "... just to feel your heart ..." and quickly tells the crowd as he turns away, "... I'll come back ..." At the end of 'Love Me ' , Elvis teases the back-up singers, singing, "... all I ask is please, please love me, wo oh ..." and Elvis withholds singing "... yeah . . . ", requiring the singers to hold the last note a long time. "Wooh, thank you."

Fooling around with the audience, he says, "...they had to hold that note a real long time that time. And it's funny, because all these white guys turned white, I mean they're black, and they turn white, you know. Kathy she turns something, purple, I don't know! What do we do next, son? O.K."

The band begins the introduction to one of my favorite songs in the first half of the show, IF YOU LOVE ME, LET ME KNOW. Laughing a little through the first verse at the audience's reaction to him, Elvis really accentuates the line, "... AND I PRAYED YOU'D LOVE ENOUGH OF ME TO STAY ...", which is one line I really look forward to hearing Elvis beautiful voice fills the auditorium.

The first half of the show on this tour has taken on a familiar sequence, and I know to really just look for surprises following the introductions. However, that doesn't mean there isn't lots to look forward to in the first half, notably, 'See See Rider,' 'If You Love Me, Let Me Know,' 'The Wonder of You' and 'Burning Love' or occasionally 'Polk Salad Annie'.

Following Elvis' good version of 'If You Love Me, Let Me Know,' he says, "... thank you very much. My first movie song was LOVE ME TENDER, so I'd like to sing a little of that ..." He goes straight into the song following a short introduction by the band. Elvis really appears to enjoy performing this this evening, as he tells the band "no, one more time ..." Elvis stresses the line "... OHHH, love me tender, LOVE ME true, all my dreams fulfill ..." Really nice.

Without even a 'thank you', Elvis begins ALL SHOOK UP. Elvis sings, "... I'm a little shook up, but I wooh wooh wooh wooh wooh ..." as he's almost pulled off the stage by a frantic female fan. Quickly, though, he's able to free himself. Walking over to Charlie, he collects a handful of scarves from the piano. Returning to the edge of the stage, Elvis sings/says, "... her lips are like a volcano that's hot, blessed are the peacemakers ...", and promptly throws all the scarves he has collected into the audience all at once. Great!

As the song ends, fans are still waving their hands wildly hoping for a scarf or attention from Elvis. Not being able to resist joking about the scene he sees, Elvis asks, "... honey, what are you doing waving your hands up in the air like that? Do you have to go to the bathroom? Do you?"

Giving Glenn that 'look', Elvis starts a medley of TEDDY BEAR/DON'T BE CRUEL. On the line, "... put a chain AROUND MY NECK ..." Elvis really emphasizes the last three words. Good enthusiasm this evening.

"O.K. darling, I'll be over to see you. O.K?" Leaning over sideways, Elvis rests his elbow on his leg, and sings, "... you ain't ..." pausing for a few seconds, he continues on with "... you ain't, you ain't, you ain't, well, it wasn't worth it, was it? You ain't nothin' but a HOUND DOG ..." Elvis finally sings, holding and exaggerating the words 'you ain't nothing.' Good introduction to a very short song, featuring a lengthy chanting ending. The horn section blows it a bit by hitting a bad note.

"O.K., thank you very much. This next song is one that we did about, two, three years ago called 'The Wonder Of You'." Immediately the piano intro begins, but Elvis says, "... wooh, wooh! Hold it a minute. Hold it a minutel Give me some water, cause I cannot sing and have water at the same time. I've tried it. I can eat and sing at the same time, but I can't drink water at the same time. O.K."

"When no one else can understand me ..." Elvis finally sings, performing an outstanding version of THE WONDER OF YOU. At the instrumental break, Elvis says, "... the lights are bright ..." and to James, "... take it ..." A tremendous round of applause is received for this.

"Thank you very much. Take it on!" The opening notes of BURNING LOVE begin, and the crowd immediately responds to Elvis' last big hit. The band plays hard and loud, and Elvis matches the hot lyrics.

As the song ends, Elvis starts playing with the audience at the foot of the stage saying, "... she already got one. Did she get one? Did you get one? What do you want? What do you want? You want a kiss? What? Double scarves? Ha ha."

Kneeling down in front of another female fan, Elvis asks, "... do you want just ah, a baby kiss or do you want to get serious?" Lots of applause and screaming from the audience at this comment. With Elvis also laughing, he says, "... she said it doesn't matter! Come here. If we kiss here, we have to be careful, now."

As Elvis bends down to kiss her, she begins laughing, and this is picked up by Elvis microphone. "Honey, don' t laugh in my face. That ' s bad, when you go to kiss a girl and she goes ..." in a really high-pitched voice, "... ha ha! Straighten up woman, come on, come on. Honey, you got a scarf -- one to a customer!"

"I'd like to introduce you to the members of my group before we go any further. Ladies and Gentlemen. First of all, the young ladies that you met earlier in the show. They 've been with me for about five years, I think they're really fantastic. The Sweet Inspirations. They used to go by the name of the Crewcuts. Remember them? What honey?" Elvis asks a fan who just screamed something at him.

"And the gentlemen back here, is J.D. Sumner and the Stamps Quartet." While standing beside the Stamps, Elvis notices a fan coming down the aisle floor, and says, "... honey, is that a, is that uh, is that a, uh, lei? Is that flowers?" As she puts them around Elvis' neck, and he tells her, "... that's O.K. You knew this makes the fifth one you've given me. Five leis from you woman, I, I recognize you! I tell you."

The audience howls in laughter as his comment is clearly understood by most in attendance. Elvis finally says to her, "... I'm sorry. It's beautiful." The poor embarrassed woman finally returns to her seat. "I'd like to introduce these guys (the Stamps) individually, but l'm not going to. Ah."

"The little girl that does our high-voiced singing, she's from Los Angeles, her name is Kathy Westmoreland." Standing beside Kathy, Elvis says, "Ah, I'd just like to tell you that they're staying at the Hilton Hotel, that's all. Ah, on the rhythm guitar is, ha ha. Where's the band staying, son? At the Holiday Inn. How come you guys don't get to stay where we stay? You make too much noise, right?"

"On the rhythm guitar from Springfield, Missouri is John Wilkinson. On the lead guitar from down in Shreveport, Louisiana is James Burton. J.B." Elvis says, pressing James into action to play JOHNNY B. GOODE. James' solo is quite eccentric, but after a verse, Elvis begins singing, and it resembles 'Johnny B. Goode'. "Thank you, James."

"On the drums from down in Dallas, Texas is hard-working Ronnie Tutt." Following Ronnie's excellent solo on the drums, Elvis responds by saying, "Wooh, yeah, you see Ronnie thinks they're his wife, man, ha ha."

"On the fender bass, ha ha ha, on the fender bass from up in Canada is Jerry Scheff. Play the blues Jerry." Jerry's solo is slow and plodding, but Elvis seems to really enjoy it. "Yeah, thank you. Jerry. What are you doing, son?"

"On the piano from out in Lubbock, Texas is Glenn D. Hardin." Glenn immediately begins a terrific solo, with Elvis swaying to the rhythm.

"Go!! ..." Elvis screams, encouraging Glenn to slide down the piano keys. "Yeah." Drinks the water, and sings harmony with Charlie Hodge. "

"The guy that gives me my scarves, and my water, and sings me, he's from Decatur, Alabama. His name is Charlie Hodge.

While introducing Charlie, Elvis literally picks him up and pretends to throw him into the audience, much like he would a scarf as a souvenir. After Elvis puts Charlie down, he quickly turns and gives Charlie a swift kick in the pants. And, instead of not retaliating, Charlie kicks Elvis in fun.

Turning to introduce the group Voice, Elvis says, "The fellas that opened our show tonight, they're from Nashville, Tennessee and I think they're really great. I call them Voice" After polite applause from the audience, Elvis says, "... well, I wouldn't say great, you know, mediocre.n

"Our conductor's from ah, a, Montgomery, Alabama? Joe Guercio, Joe's conducting the Alabama Woolly Boogers. Yeah," The orchestra breaks into a great solo of HAIL HAIL ROCK AND ROLL, with Elvis faintly joining in on one line.

"Yeah. Thank you very much ..." Elvis says, looking at the orchestra. "Let's do Bridge." The piano introduction begins, and Elvis starts singing to a somewhat hushed audience. Great. Good respect for this fine song. Elvis is not bothered during this performance by the odd scream that punctuates the huge auditorium, nor does he respond to any of it.

On the line, "oooh, when darkness falls, and PAAAIIIIN IS ALL AROUND, YEAH LIKE A BRIDGE..." Elvis really accentuates this, experimenting with holding the word, 'pain', like he does with 'God', in 'How Great Thou Art'. But with this performance, Elvis maintains the rhythm of the song, fitting it into the beat.

The song continues, with Elvis really hitting the notes, "... I will lay me DOOOOWWWWN, LORD, LORD LAY ME down ..." The shivers strike me again, as Elvis puts his all into this performance.

The drums kick in, and Elvis sings the last verse, slightly faster, ending in a terrific climax of "... I, I will EAASSSSEEEE YOUR MIND, like a BRIDGE over TROOUUUUBBLED WATER, I will ease your MINNNDDDDD, lord lord your mind, oh hoh hoh hoh, oh hoh hoh hoh, oh hoh hoh hoh, oh hoh hoh hoh, YEAH!" Wow! Double wow!! Elvis receives a tremendous response.

"Thank you. Thank you. Ladies and Gentlemen. Thank you ..." Elvis says as the applause continues on: "We have a new record that came out, ah, last week I think it was, it's called T-R-0-U-B-L-E. And it's got a whole lot of words in it, so if I happen to miss sumpin'...", stopping, Elvis is obviously thinking about what he just said.

"Sump in'? Something!" he says, distinctly. "Ah, you can take the boy out of the country, but ah, ah. Anyway, it goes like this." The piano tears into the opening line, with the drums joining in a few seconds later, Elvis sings a real, rocking version of T-R-0-U-B-L-E, slurring and almost mumbling the words as only he can. Great guitar ending by James.

"Yeah. Thank you very much. Ah, I'd like to do the song that we did, ah, from the Aloha special ..." Elvis says, interrupted, as a loud feedback drowns him out. "Watch the feedback, fellas. Ah, the song that we did on the Aloha special from Hawaii, called I'LL REMEMBER YOU."

The piano begins, and right away Elvis sings, "I' ll remember ..." but stops, realizing that there is a short intro first. Elvis listens as the intro continues, and then comes in at the right time.

The noise level in the building begins to rise, which makes listening to this beautiful song very difficult. "To your arms someday, I'll return to stay, till then ..." Elvis sings, pausing for a lengthy period of time without any music, "... I will reeeemmmember too . .. " Wow, beautiful. Beautiful! Continuing, he sings "... every bright star, we made wishes, make a wish! ..." Elvis shouts out, ". . . upon . . . "

As this beautiful song ends, Elvis walks to the edge of the stage once again. "Wooh, wait a second, I've got to use it. I've got to use it, O.K." After wiping his face, he throws the scarf into the crowd. "I've got to tell you something. The people that I've been kissing tonight, ha ha. I kissed somebody in, ah, Huntsville a few nights ago, and I caught the Creeping Crud. That's close to the Jungle Rot, honey, whatever. So if I got it, you're going to get it!" The audience laughs to Elvis' running joke he would use throughout the tour. "I'd like to do ah ..." as Elvis turns to the band " but we can't hear what he says.

But he must have said, LET ME BE THERE, as the song begins. The band is really kicking, as this song bounces along. "Let me CHANGE WHATEVER'S WRONG, and make it right ..." Elvis stresses, and again on the repeat of the chorus, "... YEAH, LET ME BE THERE IN YOUR MORNING ..." Elvis' voice really soars!

"Wooh, thank you very much ..." Elvis says, while turning to the band to tell them the next song.

As the Stamps sing 'oh I wish I was in Dixie' during AN AMERICAN TRILOGY, Elvis says, "... you are, you are ..." The response to Elvis' quip is almost deafening. Elvis finally receives the response he was looking for since he began saying this in Huntsville, and would continue to say through most of the tour.

Elvis asks for the houselights to be turned up, and when they are, someone hands him a box of No-Doze pills, to which he acts very insulted. "What do you think I'm doing up here? Sleeping?" After playing with the audience, Elvis finally begins FUNNY HOW TIME SLIPS AWAY. Elvis features J.D.'s voice on the ending again.

The show is nearing an end " it's been almost an hour since the opening overture was played, yet Elvis treats us to terrific version of LITTLE DARLIN'. During the recitation part, Elvis takes a hat from a police officer guarding the stage, and puts it on his head. He marches around the stage for a few seconds, and the crowd, always responsive to whatever Elvis does, screams and applauds his antics.

Not letting the spirit of the just finished classic song fade, Elvis instructs the group to play 'Mystery Train.'

Following a medley of MYSTERY TRAIN/TIGER MAN, Elvis thanks the audience for being so good, and closes with "... may God bless you, till we meet again ..." which fades into the opening strains of CAN'T HELP FALLING IN LOVE.

Elvis salutes all sides of the stage, and quickly exits behind the back-up singers, down a short flight of stairs to the auditorium floor, through a door, and into what I am sure is an idling car.

Al Dvorin comes onto the stage, and again, those words hit me, 'Ladies and Gentlemen, Elvis has left the building.' Another day, another two performances. Tomorrow, only one show!

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