Fascinating for the Elvis Collector But MUCH Less Expensive
T. Schmidt | Mansfield TX USA | 02/04/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"This book/CD combo concentrates on Elvis' travels throughout Texas in the 50's-70's. It's chock-full of previously unseen photographs and anectotes from people who were there.
The 50's section presents a fascinating document of a young up-and-coming Elvis playing to packed high school gymns and small music halls. Well over a hundred pages of wonderful pictures and informative anectotes. Worth the (non-Amazon) price of the book.
Elvis' basic training at Fort Hood, Texas is the basis of the 60's section of the book. Again, some entertaining stories of life on the base and "social" trips to Fort Worth.
Alas, the 70's section of the book lacks anything resembling a narrative due to Col. Parker's Elvis "lockdowns" during his '70s tours. Instead, we're treated to two complete soundboard concert recordings.
The first, Amarillo 6/19/74, is a very average performance with muddy sound quality. The undisputed highlight of this show is "Why Me Lord." Elvis rarely failed to pour his heart and soul into his favorite gospel songs. The disc is rounded out by a previously unreleased interview from 1960.
The second soundboard recording, from Fort Worth 7/3/76, presents Elvis in surprisingly good form. He appears to be in a much better mood than on the '74 show. The sound is crisp and almost sounds like a professional recording. Elvis was far from washed up at this late stage of the game and really rips into "Hurt" (it needs to be heard to be believed).
The book portion is topped off with a series of concert photos from every Texas Elvis performance between February 1970 and March 1977. This is the most heartbreaking aspect of this package as we see Elvis morph from a thin, beaming "cowboy" to a bloated, sick-looking singer.
All in all, it's a great package. One note, however. This can be purchased [...]."
Track Listings (46) - Disc #1