Lean, Mean And Kickin' Butt

Live

Content

Also Sprach Zarathustra
That's All Right
I Got A Woman
Love Me Tender
You Don't Have To Say You Love Me
Sweet Caroline
You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'
Polk Salad Annie
Johnny B. Goode
Band introductions
Something
The Wonder Of You
Heartbreak Hotel
Blue Suede Shoes
Hound Dog
One Night
Teddy Bear
Suspicious Minds
Dialogue
The Impossible Dream

Reviews

1st review

Well, let's see what we can say about this masterpiece. Fort Baxter brings us once again something of great quality. This time, what better than one of those excellent 70's concerts. This show is from a mastertape, recorded on the 28th of January 1971, two days after Elvis opened his 4th season in the International Hotel, Las Vegas. If indeed we already had a show recorded the day before on the CD "All things are possible ", these are 2 presentations that are somewhat different.
The presentation of this CD is spectacular. By just taking a glimpse at the beautifully deluxe made cover ( of the kind in the series " There's always me " ) with a great fotograph of Elvis rocking it out, live in the 70's, it is obvious that we have something special here. Let's go into the contents of this CD. Although this time all songs are fairly well known, they are all execllent. Elvis is in very good shape and keen to sing. He doesn't give too many comments during the show, he just makes a couple of jokes. Elvis gives his best in every single song, one after the other without resting much between songs.

The show begins with a thrilling version of " 2001 ". Especially outstanding are a potent version of " You have lost that lovin' feeling ", I love it when Elvis strengthens his voice and emphasises parts of the song, almost screaming . " Johnny B. Goode " is not very long but just great, very powerful, with an electrifying guitar solo of James Burton. " One night " is also short but fantastic, I just love these live versions from the 70's . Without having practiced it before, we also have a funny version of "Teddy bear " which somebody out of the crowd had asked for. And at the end, after a great version of "Suspicious Minds", and before concluding with his last song, he lets the band play, while he takes a couple of minutes to grasp for air. To top it off the, Elvis says goodbye with "The impossible dream", a true rarity. This is, without doubt, my favorite version of this song. A great end to this marvelous concert !

To conclude, I might add that this concert has good sound. It's a little crude, without edditing and sometimes with saturated highs, which actually gives the music a special touch. It gives a feeling of beeing in the showroom when you turn the volume up a bit. Elvis's voice is great, in the first plane, and James's guitar sounds excellent, very rough. His solos are amazing.

CONCLUSION: If you don't have this disk, you'll better run off and buy it, 'cause its a real jewel.

Reviewed by Martin A. Sebestyen, ARGENTINA

2nd review

This CD features a sound board recording from Las Vegas January 28, 1971. An anticipated CD, this features a recording of my favorite period of Elvis’ career. The sound quality is very good, sound you would expect from Fort Baxter and the packaging is really nice, with a full color 5 1/2 X 10 trifold cover.
Unfortunately, something is missing. Although I like most of the songs on this CD, it doesn’t seem to find it’s way into CD player that often. Why? I’m not sure exactly. One possible reasons is Elvis seems uninspired and doesn’t seem to take this performance seriously.

How many of you listen to Teddy Bear or Love Me Tender from some of the later concerts? Probably not very many of us, these tunes were (unfortunately) throw away songs, Elvis was just going through the motions. I feel this disc is the same, Elvis is just going through the motions without any real powerful moments. It’s not as though the performances are bad, or Elvis’ voice is flat or the band is out of tune, the performances are, overall are mediocre, without any real highlights.

To sum up this CD, I feel it is still a worthwhile CD for your collection. After all it is a Fort Baxter release, so the quality and sound is pretty good.

Reviewed by John Sterlini USA