ELECTRIFYING!   (Bilko 5100) (Released 1997)

 

Track listing

That's All Right (slow) (Reh. July 15)
Twenty Days And Twenty Nights (Reh. July 15)
Patch It Up (Reh. July 15)
Love Me (Reh. July 15)
Yesterday (Reh. July 15)
Hey Jude (Reh. July 15)
I Can't Stop Loving You (Reh. July 15)
It's Your Baby, You Rock It (Reh. July 15)
Ghost Riders In The Sky (Reh. July 15)
Peter Gunn Theme (Reh. July 15)
Hound Dog (Las Vegas, Feb 23)
Don't Cry Daddy (Las Vegas, Feb 23)
Let It Be Me (Las Vegas, Feb 23)
Polk Salad Annie (Las Vegas, Feb 23)
The Lord's Prayer (Reh. July 29)
My Country This Of Thee (Reh. July 29)
Havana Gila (Reh. July 29)
My Baby Left Me (Reh. July 29)
You Don't Have To Say You Love Me (Reh. July 29)
Stranger In The Crowd (Reh. July 29)
Blueberry Hill/Lawdy, Miss Clawdy (Elvis on piano) (Las Vegas, Feb 23)
Heartbreak Hotel (Las Vegas, Feb 23)
One Night (Elvis on guitar) (Las Vegas, Feb 23)
It's Now Or Never (Elvis on guitar) (Las Vegas, Feb 23)

 

The title and cover picture are promising. And after listening the CD, I have to tell you that Bilko keeps this promise all the way!

'Electrifying!' with this magnificent action photo on it's cover shows us the King in all his glory, and together with the other B & W pics inside the sleeve they're guaranteed for a lot of action on this one. With Elvis at the International Hotel in 1970, Las Vegas would never be the same again. Every other entertainer would be blown away by Elvis his performances during the first two Vegas years. The same shows that would later on break him, would now give him all the power and energy he needs to come to an exploding highlight.

 

The album kicks off with a superb blues version of That's Allright, and believe it's not the same as on Brightest Star as reviewed earlier. We can hear E in the bluesiest version of this song he ever performed. The CD couldn't have a better opening that this one.

Unfortunately Twenty Days And Twenty Nights cracks Elvis and the band up. Really funny, a lot of laughing, but the song is too good to be thrown away like this. Patch It Up and Love Me are brought to us with a lot of spirit and good will. Both are great honest versions. Followed by Yesterday, never done worse than the Fab Four themselves, is ended by one chorus of Hey Jude. It's a pity that Elvis ends it after one minute: 'I don't know the words to that song' he tells us.  'It's Your Baby, You Rock It' is one of those famous 'one liners' while 'Ghost Riders In The Sky' and 'Peter Gunn Theme'. make us quiver by reading just those titles. But....relax dear Elvis fans, these are just instrumental versions, no voice of our hero is heard. Besides, there were more tracks recorded during these sessions with Elvis' mic off, clearly RCA didn't find it needful to have him heard all the time! This would be the reason that most of them unreleased songs after all appeared to be instrumentals only. But, back to the CD.

The highlight of this session would be an almost 5 minutes version of 'My Baby Left Me'. Nevertheless, no big fire on this one, just a little spark here and there.

Then, the 20 second 'The Lord's Prayer', almost one minute of 'My Country Tis Of Thee' and the two minutes of 'Havana Gila' were definitely not meant to be heard or recorded.

Well, in the end it's great to have the second part of the session of July 29 on CD with this one. And it's a nice variation between the two live performances.

By the way, these tapes came from different sources. De first four songs sound less crispy and clear than the second part.

And then, for the people who want to know: Okay, 'Hound Dog' and 'Don't Cry Daddy' and 'Let It Be Me' were already released on the worse sounding True Love Travels On A Gravel Road, some while back.

Then the live parts:

With a little of energy and willpower, Elvis lets us hear some great songs. Performed on a way that was clearly meant to be remembered. His piano versions of Blueberry Hill and Lawdy Miss Clawdy and the versions of Heartbreak Hotel and One Night are really magnificent. The last one, It's Now Or Never, Elvis plays the electric guitar.

Still, if you can get your hands on it, please don't hesitate..... There are worst CD's you can get out there. No really, this is really one hell of a bootleg deserves a true spot in your collection.

 

Review By Taildragger.