Imagine you're at Elvis' concert in 1977 and it feels great.
John S | Texas | 06/05/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The concept of this CD is to make you feel as if you're there, springnight in Midwest, watching Elvis on stage. This illusion is created by the tracks that are mixed (though not always perfectly, mind you) like it's a real one-night concert.
First of all, I'd like to point at the incredible sound of the recordings. And that's not surprising: all of them were professionally recorded (not taken from occasinal soundboard) at various venues by Elvis' producer, Felton Jarvis, who was desperately hoping to record something interesting for a new LP since it was impossible to bring Elvis to studio (indeed, some of these recordings did surface overdubbed on Moody Blue, Elvis' last album).
Now we all know that 1977 was the year the King of Rock'n'Roll died, that he had had health problems, that he exhibited no interest in making new music, etc. From that perspective the album is rather unique and impressing due to the opportunity for the compilators to represent the best recorded performances of the period.
There are strong numbers that Elvis delivered the way only that man could: My Way (perfect), Blue Christmas, Fairytale, That's All Right, Blue Suede Shoes (this one is very good, suprisingly for that period), Unchained Melody, Trying To Get To You. "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" would be perfect had Elvis not fooled around, as always he did with this song on stage, but it's still nice to hear. A lot of oldies here don't sound worn out. Elvis was obviously in the mood. One would wish there would be more "unusual" songs recorded.
In a way, SPRING TOURS '77 makes up for another 1977 live record, ELVIS IN CONCERT, which was taped a few months later for a CBS TV special. The CBS project turned out to be a disaster, for it unfortunately caught Elvis not in good time and mood. Now we only could wish Elvis had been filmed just a bit earlier on those small tours in the spring 1977.
For any Elvis fan this CD is a musthave (thus 5 stars). For a casual music fan, if he/she would like to hear what Elvis Presley was like near the end of his life, this would be the best, too (from that point of view I would give 3 stars - just for interest).
Last note: most of the recordings had never been released officially before."
The Last Tour
Johnny Heering | Bethel, CT United States | 10/30/2004
(3 out of 5 stars)
"Back in 1977, RCA Records wanted to release a new Elvis album, but they only had six unreleased songs in the can. Obviously, that's not enough songs for an album. They couldn't get Elvis into a recording studio to tape anything else, so they followed him around on tour, hoping he would perform some songs he hadn't previously recorded. It ended up that he played only three "new" songs during that tour. To save tape, no complete concerts were recorded. Only a few select songs were taped at each show. So what we have here is 23 songs taped at 12 different shows between March 26, 1977 and May 3, 1977. The sound quality is very good. It's among the best sounding Elvis live recordings, strictly from an audio point of view. Of course by the time, Elvis wasn't half the performer he used to be, so from a performance point of view, it's inferior to older recordings. But for the most part, the performances here are decent, although there is a "been there, done that" feel to a lot of them. Probably the most interesting recordings here are the undubbed versions of the three songs that ended up on Elvis's last album (Moody Blue). The songs are "If You Love Me (Let Me Know)", "Unchained Melody" and "Little Darlin'". The one that sounds the most different is "Unchained Melody", which apparently had quite a bit of overdubbing done on it. Here it is Elvis at the piano accompanied only by a guitarist. While this isn't Elvis at his best, it should be of interest to Elvis's most devoted fans."
Track Listings (23) - Disc #1