A Minnesota Moment

At least they try to keep improve themselves on the ugliest cover ever.

W've seen much uglier covers...Fantastic news, am I dreaming or what? An unreleased soundboard from a grat tour! Looking forward to this one! Well done Ernst!

Oh gawd, another 76 soundboard....Ronaldv I'm staggered how you can call the October 76 Tour 'great' - maybe a slighlty more focused less talkative Elvis than the Summer shows, but great? Don't think so. The Chicago shows were beset by sound problems, Elvis seems very very tired throughout the tour (which may be related to his recent dieting) which obviously affects the strength of some of his vocals, and whilst I have no idea what the song line-up was that night, I'm guessing it didn't differ too much from the Chicago and South Bend Shows, which offer few, if any surprises either in line-up or brilliand performances, actually none. Sadly, October 76 will not be remembered for great shows but only because it was the month of Elvis last studio recording session.

Apologies for the typos but trying to write at a snowbound Heathrow on my Blackberry!

All of this is BOTH positive and 'good news' FTD is NOW representing this tour and maybe using material Joan Deary set aside 30 years ago for this release+ we get decent bonus songs from other shows this tour. I expect the sound to be 'very good' based upon opening acts sound heard before. This is excellent news. Plus the fact we are getting MORE releases every 6 weeks THANKS Ernst this will make 2010 a more interesting Elvis year for me!

I can hardly wait! This particular concert had great reviews in the newspapers.

I don't even need to see the tracklist. If you don't know it by now, why even be on this site? My only question is, will the band intros be longer or shorter than the last 76 soundboard?

Great news! I was at this show and it was great. Lets hope Promised Land is next!!

Davrid, yes the october 76 tour is great to me. Compared to the weak summer shows it's a real delight to listen to them. The Ceveland, Carbondale, Chicago and especially the South Bend show are great concerts. I'm mainly a 70's fan and I like many tourshows from 76 a lot, the dec. and march 76 shows are splendid in my eyes. Of course I like for instance the 70 and 71 tours too, but soundboard releases of these beauties are very scarce. This new FTD is a better idea than all those re-releases which are flooding the market these days.

Steve, I think davrid was making that exact point, that it will be the same as all the others! Not very excited by this release at all as I have more than enough soundboards especially from 1976. However, looking forward to the classic series release, whichever it is. Hopefully, Promised Land, but given the timing with Easter, probably How Great Thou Art. Good news about a release every six weeks, assuming, it's not more 76 concerts.

I CAN 'enjoy' ANY concert not previously heard! thats why i'm so excited about this one! In fact i could even take the previous Tour soundboard of the final Pine Bluff show and damm it the Houston Summit show as well(just to shut everybody's speculition up!)-as long as its 'NEW' to my ears i'm 'excited'

Exactly Suzi! I think it's terribly sad how some people try to extol greatness upon what is evidently a totally uninspired Elvis sleepwalking through a whole tour. As I said before, in patches, he seems more focused than the Summer shows - which wouldn't be difficult, he wasn't sleepwalking then, he was comatose! - but really, in truth, such moments were few and far between. If you take South Bend, virtually everything is completely lacklustre and passionless, the latter not an accusation you can throw at Elvis very often. Hurt, as you would expect in 76, is the one moment Elvis comes to a life a little, but it is only a little bit, and this must rank as perhaps the worst version he ever did of the song. Whilst guilty of pre-judging Minnesota - my expectation is that it will be the same low, quite miserable, standard of the rest of October - what I find difficult to understand is why anyone needs this type of release. It just reinforces certain stereotypes of Elvis as a live performer in this intrinsically desperate period of his life - a man suffering physically and mentally, who shouldn't have been any where near a damn stage. It's hearbreaking that even now compassion, understanding , and above all, treating the man with the respect he deserves more than any other person I can think of, seem to trail in consideration to making even a few dollars from releases such as this.

davidr/suzieb - why does anyone need it? Because its Elvis! Unfort that's the level of intelligence for most fans on here. It's Elvis, its something I don't have(even though its really the same show we've all heard before), therefore I need it. Little do they realize this kind of thinking led to his demise as an artist. Basically, all he had to do was show up and breathe and they were over the moon to be in the same arena as he was, no matter how bad a performance. I'm not saying this one is bad, but its 1976., we know what to expect song list wise, schtick wise, jumpsuit wise, and the whole thing. Elvis grinding out another show on another tour to please the masses. Boy did this guy ever need a change by this time.

The tentative track list for this CD is as follows: See See Rider; I Got A Woman / Amen; Love Me; If You Love Me (Let Me Know); You Gave Me A Mountain; Jailhouse Rock; All Shook Up; (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear / Don; Be Cruel; And I Love You So; Fever; Steamroller Blues; Introductions/Early Mornin'Rain; What'd I Say / Johnny B. Goode; Love Letters; School Days; Hurt; Hound Dog; One Night; It's Now Or Never; Mystery Train/Tiger Man; Funny How Time Slips Away; Can' t Help Falling In Love; and bonus songs from Dayton and Sioux Falls from the same tour: Fairytale; America; Hawaiian Wedding Song; Blue Christmas; That's All Right I will probably buy this one as I have heard good and bad about this tour. We do know he was more active on stage during this tour than in the Summer of 76 tours and probably the most active since July of 75. The Minneapolis Tribune's reviewed this concert and they were very liberal in their praise of Elvis and the show. Other reviews of his shows from this tour (Chicago, Cleveland, Fort Wayne and Evansville) were very favorable as well. Maybe the South Bend show was not as good, I can not say because I have not heard it, but everytime I am told how bad a show is, I am surprised how it is never as bad as I had been told it was. I don't think those fans who like hearing his concert CD's should have our intelligence questioned. It is totally one's opinion what they chose to listen to and buy. Many will buy this because it is Elvis, and because it is from a tour not yet represented by a legitimate CD (non-bootleg CD). It is history and it is Elvis and that is good enough for me. The people who choose to make fun of Elvis because he wasn't up to par in a show, had a sub par tour, was overweight or a poorly assembled LP would not be Elvis fans regardless so we should quit worrying that another release is going to make a change in his image. I agree that with Steve V that I wish Elvis had something that challanged him at this point in his career and I have made my opinon known on that subject on this website, but we only have what he gave us and what he gave us was mostly great or good enjoyable performances. Sometimes he wasn't his best, some people even say he wasn't any good at times, but he was always compelling and on his worst day I will take him over any impersonater and 99% of the other so called artists who have come along since he left us.

According to the book "Elvis: The Concert Years," Tour 22 (14th - 27th October 1976) "showed that positive things had started happening to Elvis....While the audiences of later concerts on several occasions had reason to be dissatisfied about the shows, Elvis never held abysmal shows on this tour....In Minneapolis hundreds of members of the audience completely lost their heads when Elvis was on the point of leaving the stage." The Minneapolis Tribune reported that "this was a much more satisfying concert that Elvis' last performance here, in St. Paul two years ago. Sunday we got a chance to hear him really sing, especially on newer tunes, such as his current heart-on-sleeve single 'Hurt.' ...and, of course, as a performer on stage, singing, or just fooling around, he has more charisma than a dozen other top performers combined."

Even the title of this album is boring and the track listing does not sound very interesting to me.

Oh Joy! Another concert album, how many do I have now? I'm thinking at least 20! At lesst with the last concert album they gave me a song I'd never heard him sing in concert "Return to Sender". But unfortunately Elvis changed the lyrics to the song, perhaps my most favorite song of all (just love that sax!). Since I'm a completist I will probably buy it (once I win the lottery), then it will arrive, I'll play it once and it will go on the shlef to collect dust. FTD just will not learn that too much product does not replace quality. A new release every six weeks? Fabulous I'm not broke yet (they're hoping). You know at $30.00 each and 8 releases this year that would be $240.00 plus what it costs for the general releases (we do have a new box set) so I guess it's okay to milk the fans for more than $300.00 a year just for Elvis cd's. Who do they think will have money for the other stuff? Just my opinion!

Deano1 you've summed up my sentiments nicely. I'm hangin' for this one 'cause Elvis' health seemed to turn the corner momentarily and it reflects in his performances (eg. Cleveland). So far it's only drawback is the drab title, i would've named it 'Minnesota Fever' or 'One Night at the Sports Centre'. As for the future releases in 2010 i'd be very disappointed if an April '72 live multi-track wasn't in the mix.

you may call it: I'm gonna roll all over Minnesota ;-)

Deano1, I am with you. Each of us have our preferences and we should allow that without naming one another. One time others are idiots other times not intelligent, and than again fanatics etc. The point is (as you rightly stated) we have to do with what is there. There is no need anymore to discuss the 'if only ...' after more than 30 years. We know what to expect and that has been chewed many a time on this site. Anyway for me this is an FTD I will buy. Last releases I skipped as that was just a re-re-release of what I already have. That is for me a standard. Not whether or not the song list is different. If that would be so I would just buy the best there is and skip/ignore the rest, without any comment.

Davrid certainly has the gift of waking eveybody up. That´s good! But his ways of persuasion are so strange and very ineffective, I´m afaid. I personally wonder why Davrid bought all this awful music he´s always writing about, and why the rest of us are............, when we go out and buy the very same records??? Personally I was declared DEAF because I think Elvis sang well in "EoT"!

Yes indeed an april 72 show or shows should be on the short schedule,and no one is deaf just because they think he sounded good in 72,its a matter of opinion,no one can speak in fact like terms when giving opinions!

Cant understand anyone not looking forward to a unreleased soundboard!I dont really care if Minnesota moment is a good,bad or 76 show,its Elvis.Perhaps its that i am from the Elvis generation of the early/mid 70s when you were lucky enough to get a legendary performer album every three years,and the baron years of the eighties, a couple of box sets! Thank heavens for bootlegs over the past 30 years.FTD BRILLIANT,KEEP EM COMIN ERNST

Sven, I never ever said Elvis didn't sing well in 'Tour'. I actually said it was a sub-par Elvis, that he was clearly bored - fundamentally different. If you compare any of the versions of songs from 'On Tour' with those from 69-71, they are without exception much much poorer eg 'Bridge Over Troubled Water', 'Funny How Time Slips Away' etc etc. How anyone can not tell Elvis is bored and 'out of it' in Tour beggars belief.

Quote: " ..., but it has been decided that the April 1 release will be a Classic album 2 CD set." I hope this is either 'Promised Land' or 'Jailhouse Rock' Vol.2 ! Why no Classic album during the first 3 months of this year ?

Another FTD soundboard i can live without. A move away from 1976 shows may stimulate my interest.

I've already pre-ordered this one...can't wait!!!!

Why haven't they ADDED the "You can have her" song as a bonus to this Minn. Event ??? On April 2, (not 1st!!) may we expect the FTD digipack of the Classic NOW album ???? Could some share this (secret) info with us....so that we can start saving our money...?? Please. It's not a state secret, is it ?? And comptetion (boots) can't copy it anyway, right ?!! Ernst send out SOON a press release of what we can expect this 2010 year of FTDs....please man. Can't wait. Every time I go to a music store in the world, I'm bombarded with WackoJaco stuff...and that needs to be changed !

Apart from media articles we have no other info on this show since no audience tape or CDR exists from it which all the more heightens my anticipation in getting my copy. However I found an interesting little scoop here. Lee Cotten's "Day by Day" book reveals that Elvis "brought the house down with a wild version of "Mystery Train/Tiger Man" during the show. Without knowing the credibility of his source lets hope this soundboard release does it justice - if it's true!

Dr. Nick notes in his new book that Elvis "was really into his performance" in Minneapolis and that the crowd was in an absolute "frenzy." He noted that Elvis narrowly exscaped into the safety of his wating limo and that, "It was like old times."