Live in L.A. features over 200 photos of Elvis at his various Los Angeles shows. The main focus is on the evening concert at Inglewood Forum May 11, 1974. The CD is an informal "soundboard" recording show with a few songs from other shows.
Live In L.A.
Book
Rating:
2.7 / 5
ElvisNews review
A bit late to give my opinion on this FTD release, but because of some mixing up this book/ CD arrived in my mailbox only last week.
Design
There is not much to say about the design itself. It’s a collage of pictures, and overall it has been done with taste. The printing quality and the quality of the pictures is something else, both are VERY poor. There are a lot of speckles in the dark parts of the pages, being it in the pictures themselves or the background color of the pages (often the brownish color that is also on the front cover). The book features more than 200 photos, according to the back cover. I am not exaggerating when I say that more than 150 of them were not worth being featured, either because they’re blurry, enlarged too much (and thus very grainy) or just screwed up with Photoshop (or a program alike).
Content
The book focuses on Elvis’ gigs in Los Angeles over the years; a couple of pictures from the 50s a few of the 1970 shows and some of 1976. The main part of the book (nearly 70 pages of the 130+) has pictures of the show that is on the CD too: the evening show of May 11, 1974 in the Inglewood Forum. At least this book teaches me that Elvis switched suits during this show: he apparently wore the Aloha suit too, according to page 34. I guess this shows how sloppy some things are done…
The show is, not surprisingly, a lot like those of the March tour (yes, among them the Memphis one). The set list hardly changed. There is one big difference: Elvis was much more energetic during those days in March. What’s left is a listenable show, but nothing special, it sounds like our man is on automatic pilot. The sound is okay too, although there are many better sounding soundboards. The highlight of the CD should be the audience recording of “You Can Have Her” and as a matter of fact it is. Unfortunately the quality has not really improved compared to what I knew already.
Conclusion
To me it can be only one: I should have skipped it. Sloppy pictures, sloppy printing and a so-so show are certainly not worth 60 Euros (or even more if you buy it at the wrong place).
Rating: 4 / 5
Anton wrote on
March 12, 2007
Far "too expensive" for such a product. Price should be US$60 not more. BMG is trying to rip off EPfans. We should all screem and voice our opinion dand disgust towards a marketing strategy like that. No way will we buy this release. We have "You can have her" already for more than 10 years on several bootlegs anyway and we have almost all the photos from those/that concert...so why are they trying to do this to us. Unfair and disloyal and unrespectaful to EP fans who still buy Elvis CDs.....
Rating: 3 / 5
Mystery Rider wrote on
April 04, 2007
now where have i heard all these songs before...you know its over its the same trash over and over and over again. its time to put this stuff to sleep.
Rating: 1 / 5
hound216 wrote on
April 09, 2007
I am leaving it at 3 stars b/c I haven't got it yet (it's in the mail according to EPE.) All I have is a pretty bad audience recording of the entire 5/11/74 ES. I can't wait to hear it in soundboard quality.
Viva wrote on
April 19, 2007
It's only when you discover just how boring these endless concert recordings are, that you can really feel for Elvis and the fact that HE was the poor sod who had to perform them. I would have gone mad after the first year, let alone 8 years of almost exactly the same repertoire. Zzzzz...
Rating: 1 / 5
hound216 wrote on
April 19, 2007
I'll save more for the "official" review, but I think the pictures are great and it's good to finally have this show in soundboard. So far as the book, the only down side is that there are no pictures from the Long Beach and San Barnardino shows in '72 and none from the Anahiem shows in '73.
peacock wrote on
April 22, 2007
I give Ernst one star for ripping us off with such a crappy picturebook like this one. Flashback!, there you have a picturebook worth the hideous price FTD are asking, but this latest we could have done without. It really feels like LA-74 is "one for the money" sorry to say. Being a real "jumpsuit junkie" i love pictures of Elvis on stage but not almost all of them from one concert and a lot of shitty, blurry ones that should have not been printed. This goes to show Ernst lack of interest for the 70s period releasing a sloppy book like this, and you can also see this in the Texas book when it comes to the 70s pics, no interest.
Rating: 1 / 5
mature_elvis_fan75 wrote on
May 03, 2007
I have this book cd,and i am a 70's fan,i liked the Rockin across texas book cd wayyyy better,im not a book collector ,but it was a better book and it contained one concert out of 2 that was actually in good sound and to me more entertaining,i get accused at times for ripping ftd and the main label(who doesnt rip them) but this release to me sounds and looks rushed and released as a way to make a quick buck or should i say quite a few bucks,i also do not like haveing my cd put in the back of a book,i feel that either you release a book or a cd not one in the same,expecially one such as this,that could have been a regular ftd release if it needed to be released at all,if ernst is no 70's fan then let someone who isnt bias do that part of the work,shop around and find this book at a decent price,please dont overpay for this disaster!
Rating: 2 / 5
Greg Nolan wrote on
May 17, 2007
I don't have this yet (in part because of the price) but in advance can say I'm put off by some of the negativity here. These projects are *specialty* items (his main work is long since catalogued) and by definition pricey, from just the book publishing costs alone. This is clearly just a way to document yet another aspect (or specific show) of Elvis' live '70s career.
FTD should not be faulted for providing yet another slice of that picture. It's called "documenting" the "historical record." It's not for everyone, anymore than every Madison or Straight Arrow import release isn't for everyone. FTD is clearly not designed even for self-styled "committed" fans. Even among such die-hard fans, less face it, some of us are more casual than others.
Many understandably have long since felt they were "full" when it comes to '70s Elvis live shows. But others hunger for such projects (as well as other phases of his career) so FTD is just trying to deliver. Overall, I'd say the label has been a smashing success. It's not above criticism, naturally, but the label could fold up tommorrow and I think a lot of us would indeed miss it. I just comment this way so as to keep some perspective.
Rating: 5 / 5
OtisBlue22 wrote on
June 16, 2008
Hey Viva, you say you sympathise with Elvis for having to play the same repertoire for 8 years, when in fact it's his own fault as he could have done what the hell he liked.
Rating: 2 / 5
AlwaysElvis3577 wrote on
September 19, 2014
Another Great Release frmo TOP FTD!!!
tired to read the NEGATIVES on this site , ALWAYS ELVIS
Rating: 5 / 5