Polk Salad Annie (FTD)
As
the “On Stage, February 1970” album has always been one of my personal
favourites, I was looking forward to this release a little more than the regular
FTD soundboard offerings.
Most of the performances featured here were recorded during the midnight show on February 15th, and it’s well documented in Ernst’s book that this show was not without problems.
AS RCA were not recording full shows during this engagement, the tape starts partway through a powerful version of “I Got A Woman”. A little cough towards the end of the song is the first indication of the problems that would affect the rest of Elvis’ performance, but over all Elvis sounds on good form during this number.
“Long Tall Sally” follows, and this is great version, which compares favourably to the renditions of this song from the same period that have been issued in the past. Elvis then jokingly welcomes the audience to the Flamingo, and goes on to perform his recent single “Don’t Cry Daddy” with Charlie Hodge on harmony vocals. This is a decent version, although not quite as polished as the live master that first appeared on the “Greatest Hits Volume 1” album back in 1981.
“Hound Dog” is next, and here Elvis teases the audience with customary jokes and false starts before launching into a fast paced version of the song. Another oldie “Love Me Tender” follows, and as was normally the case during Elvis’ Vegas shows, he uses the song to acquaint himself with the ladies that are occupying the front rows of the showroom.
Elvis’ latest single “Kentucky
Rain” follows, and here Elvis changes the “old grey bearded men” lyric to
“old grey bearded fools” and then gets the giggles for the rest of the song.
This is rather like the infamous laughing version of “Are You Lonesome
Tonight” from August 1969 with the band carrying on regardless as Elvis laughs
his way through the rest of the song. Fortunately for RCA Elvis performed a good
live version of the song later in the engagement on February 18th.
“Let It Be Me” is next, and this is a good version, which is comparable to the live master that appeared on the original “On Stage” album. To my ears this is the unedited version of the performance that was first issued on the album “Elvis – A Legendary Performer Volume 3” in 1978.
Elvis follows this with an excellent rendition of the Ray Charles hit “I Can’t Stop Loving You”, and continues with a cover of Joe South’s “Walk A Mile In My Shoes”. The live master of this song was one of the highlights of the original “On Stage” album, and the version included here is also good, although it doesn’t quite compare to the master take.
Elvis’ 1969 hit “In The Ghetto” is next, and although this version starts well, Elvis is hampered by the cough that affected him throughout this performance towards the end of the song. Elvis follows this with a cover of Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline”, but this version is at best a decent stage rehearsal for the live master that would be cut later in the engagement. Elvis jokingly changes the lyric to “when spring became the mattress”, which was an occasional feature of his Las Vegas shows from this period.
Tony Joe White’s “Polk Salad Annie” follows, but this is not a great version. Elvis messes up the spoken introduction here, and proceeds to laugh his way through most of the song. This version is very similar to the stage rehearsal from August 1970 that first appeared on the unofficial release “Hang Loose”.
“Suspicious Minds” follows the introductions, and whilst this song was highlight of numerous Las Vegas shows from this period, the version featured here is disappointing. The versions of this song recorded live during the previous August are outstanding, and I was surprised to hear Elvis use the “shove it up your nose” lyric change here, indicating boredom with the material at such an early stage of his Vegas comeback. Having said that Elvis was also affected by coughing during early part of the song, so he would have been well aware that this particular live version was of no use to RCA’s mobile recording unit. Hopefully we will get the outstanding live version of this song that was first issued unofficially on the Behind Closed Doors” album on a future release.
The February 15th performance closes with “Can’t Help Falling In Love”, and this is followed by further performances from later in the engagement. An up tempo version of “Release Me” from the dinner show on February 19th features Elvis in good voice, and personally I’ve always preferred the 1970 versions of this song to the later live performances where Elvis sang the song straight.
After
a few lines of “Funny How Time Slips Away” Elvis delivers a rockin’
version of “See See Rider” from the midnight show on February 17th.
There are false starts here, with
Elvis explaining to the audience that RCA are recording and some songs may have
to be restarted. This version is not quite as polished as the live master, but
it certainly isn’t short on power, and you can now hear the makings of decent
live album beginning to take shape. February 1970 marked the only time that this
song was performed in the middle of the set, rather than as the show opener, and
this arrangement of the song has always been my own personal favourite.
Another performance from the dinner show on February 19th follows, and this is Elvis’ version of the Credence Clearwater Revival hit “Proud Mary”. This version is certainly comparable to the master, which was taped on February 16th, and for me, is the strongest performance on the CD.
The version of “The Wonder Of You” included here was recorded during the dinner show on February 18th and was first issued on the “ELV1S – 30 Number One Hits” album. As we already know this version is not comparable to the single master, which was recorded, during the midnight show on the same day, and it certainly didn’t belong on the “ELV1S” album. However, it does sound better on this album in its correct context with the rest of the out takes from this period.
Elvis held a rehearsal between on the afternoon of February 18th, and three performances from this rehearsal, namely; “Release Me”, “See See Rider” and ”The Wonder Of You” are included here. Most fans will be familiar with these performances as they were first released on the “Platinum” set, but it made sense to include them on this collection along with the live performances from the same period.
In summing up the fact that this is basically a collection of out takes, and Elvis wasn’t feeling 100% on February 15th means that we don’t have an album to rival the classic “On Stage, February 1970”. It is however, and interesting release that will be welcomed by collectors of live Presley material, and it does offer some good performances, and a generous helping of the Presley humour which many concert collectors enjoy. If like me, you can remember a time when the only available document of Elvis’ shows outside of the official RCA releases were poorly recorded audience tapes, you will not be disappointed with this release.