Reading Of The Diary
CD
ElvisNews review
When news of this release came out, reactions were both positive and negative (“are they going to release Charlie Hodge breaking wind on the toilet next?"). But you know us, we’re open and (almost every time) unbiased.
Design
The CD is packed in a digi-pack. Although the basic design of the “Vegas Billboard” on a black back-ground is good, the font and 3D effect on the artist and title ruin it, and there is a very vague second layer with Jackie’s name over the billboard that probably shouldn’t be there. We’ve seen better designs coming from Denmark. The information in the booklet is complete, it tells the story on the content of the CD.
Audio is okay, but sometimes there are errors and disturbances on the tape, in the volume too, which is irritating when listening to it.
Content
This CD contains three tracks, "The Reading of The Diary", A radio interview with Jackie" and "Elvis On Tour". The most interesting part is of course the “Reading Of The Diary”.
The story behind this "Diary" is that Jackie did write a diary on every tour he was one with Elvis. When the tour was over did the band and all the crew people have a party (not attended by Elvis) were Jackie would read the diary and make fun of some the things that have happened on the tour. This Time (July 1976) did Jackie for example interview Felton Jarvis (Who's dressed up as Elvis and acting like him).
The group seems to have a lot of fun, and every one there has to run “Jackie’s gauntlet”. Every name known to fans is heard on this CD. Felton does a nice impression of Elvis, not the voice, but the way Elvis speaks.
The humor is quite “honest” (or should we say rude) everyone present knows he’s going to get it, either from Jackie (the interviewer) or Elvis (Felton Jarvis). We don’t know how rude Elvis was, but we do know he liked rude humor sometimes, so in a funny mood he probably could have said all these things. It sounds like it was best for all present the real Elvis wasn’t around.
We won’t spoil the jokes, listen to them yourself.
Jackie is honest in the interview with him he says, “People came for Elvis, they didn’t mind who was opening, but after six months they accepted me”. The rest of the interview is nice to hear once, getting the story from the first hand.
The “On Tour” section is more a filler for the CD, we heard that before.
Conclusion
What can you say about a release like this, it is fun to get a good impression of life on the road, but we guess you should have been present to enjoy it fully. It completes the talking only CD’s in our collection.
