Review by Piers Beagley & Geoffrey McDonnell
To be honest 1976 is not an easy Elvis live-in-concert year to review. There were no major set-list changes, as had happened in earlier years, no dramatic emotional roller-coaster of 1974 and no high-flying "Huntsville" 1975 excitements. Apart from the exceptional blast of the final December 1976 tour (inspired by the challenge of new-young-love Ginger) 1976 in retrospect seems a slow-grind continuing the inevitable downward spiral.
By early 1976, Elvis’ set-list had become routine. ‘I Got A Woman’ would always feature the J.D. Sumner double-dive bombing routine, the Introduction and solos would be drawn out with the inclusion of bass and drum solos, usually two piano solos, plus ‘Early Mornin’ Rain‘ and ‘Love Letters’. ‘Hurt’ and ‘America’ became the regular dramatic highlights with only the occasional surprise addition (‘Danny Boy’!) making a real difference.
A true sign-of-the times was that from the 1976 April Tour #17 through to his August Tour #21, Elvis basically wore his Bicentennial suit at every single concert, surely a sign of a bored performer. And that blowsy-shirtsleeves-and-waistcoat look did Elvis no good at all as a cool-looking jumpsuit.
In fact, amongst fans, Elvis' August 28 1976 Houston performance is often noted as his worst concert ever, but his shows throughout most of the summer often sounded as if Elvis was on auto-pilot, bored, overweight, unhappy, ill, over-medicated and desperate.
How did our hero, who stepped onto the Vegas stage on July 31 1969 to reclaim his throne as a slim and sexy hyper-powered Adonis, fall so low in just seven years?
Unfortunately for collectors, the number of Elvis soundboards available in good quality increase at a similar rate that Elvis’ performances declined. His tours also got shorter and shorter. This means that if FTD are to release a soundboard from every Elvis tour, we will always get more concerts from 1976 than any other year.
This is a real shame as there are proportionately far fewer good quality soundboards from Elvis’ sensational early years of touring.
FTD will soon have released sixteen concerts from 1976 - compared to only two from 1971.
FTD’s most recent soundboard release is Elvis in Alabama: The Last Double Date released by FTD in mid-December. This was also the last time Elvis wore the White Bicentennial suit!
Huntsville, Alabama, September 6 1976 is featured in this 2xCD set of both his last ever afternoon show combined with his evening show from Huntsville on the same day.
The evening show was previously released on bootleg as Still Rocking The Nation in 2000, and also as The Man in White Volume 2 in 2002, with the latest and third release being by FTD.
The packaging is a simple 5" double digipack without any booklet. The front cover and inside photos are by Keith Alverson and Elvis looks ok, although the Bicentennial suit was hardly flattering. The inside cover shows Elvis introducing Kathy Westmoreland at the show, while the nice inside photo shows Elvis accepting a rose given to him during ‘Love Me’ at the afternoon show. The remaining photos are from the evening show.
At his seventies’ concerts it was fairly common for Elvis to joke to his loving audience that, "I just got out of bed." While it hardly seemed to matter in his earlier concerts, by 1974 / 1975 there was often a feeling that Elvis really was waking up as he hit the stage, especially in the first concerts of a double-date.
While Elvis In Alabama is far better than the recent slow and uninspiring Elvis In West Texas (which was the 8.30pm evening show!) there is still the feeling that he has to get himself up-and-running during the afternoon show.
Colonel Parker must have noticed the same problems, as he would no longer book Elvis for two performances in one day.
The Afternoon Show
Missing the ‘2001 Theme’, this starts immediately with ‘C.C. Rider’ and in good balanced sound - as with all soundboards this tour. In fact, Elvis sounds “good” for this opening number but there’s lots of J.D. Sumner’s bass also in the mix.
Next up is ‘I Got A Woman’/‘Amen’ - but despite Elvis’ regular request for J.D. to repeat the dive-bomber ending, Elvis gets distracted by his belt-buckle and it isn’t done! Again the audio mix is very heavily sounding from J.D. Sumner!
Making the concert more interesting, this is where Elvis’ belt-buckle was coming off and we come to the story as told by Linda, who drove over from Atlanta to Huntsville by herself, but did not have a ticket. Finally, however, she managed to buy a ticket on the seventh row centre for $30. Linda walked up to the guard and told him she had driven from Atlanta and wanted to give Elvis the hat and sunshades. He asked Linda where she was sitting and told her to come to the stage and give Elvis the hat and shades. The shades had "Elvis" written on the lenses in sequences. It was quite unique.
Elvis called her up and told her that she was the only one to notice the buckle coming off, and he pulled it the rest of the way off and gave it to her. Elvis had been wearing the White Bicentennial suit for this show and never wore it again after this belt-buckle came off (he wore the Blue Bicentennial suit for the tours remaining last three shows)!
‘Love Me’ was next, after Elvis notes "Good afternoon - sounds strange! Monday, is it Monday? Labor Day" and then went on performs the usual throwaway version.
Next was ‘Fairytale’ which was different because, whilst a good strong version, Elvis struggles with the higher key, which he commented about afterwards.
‘You Gave Me A Mountain’ is a quite decent low-key version, followed by the crowd-pleasing quick oldies of ‘All Shook Up’ and ‘(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear’ / ‘Don’t Be Cruel‘ (medley).
A gentle ‘And I Love You So’ follows, which is quite nice, if once again low-key.
It is at this point that there is an obvious jump in energy as Elvis seems to wake-up and become more enthusiastic. His intros and chats to the audience also become more focused.
Elvis’ increase in energy is immediately noticeable as ‘Jailhouse Rock’ is half decent for 1976 as he puts some real effort into this routine oldie.
At this point Elvis delightfully jokes to a moaning female fan, "Honey, I got to remind you there are children in the audience. It’s got to be a half.. a quickie!" Followed by a deep "I love you too, honey".
Elvis then starts, and stops, ‘Fever’ before singing ‘America’ - complete with a stronger reprise - which is nice. The evening performance was vocally stronger – but Elvis would unbelievably forget the words! Strangely enough, the ‘Fever’ false-start and ‘America’ reprise are omitted from the FTD track listing.
‘One Night’, a rarity for 1976, is next and is a passable version, even though badly lacking the energy of the versions from a few years previously.
Elvis seems to realise that he needs to up the energy and suggests, "We need to do something .. yeah... ‘Polk Salad’" kicking off ‘Polk Salad Annie’ strongly but for some reason it ends up sounding a little lacklustre and doesn’t get the huge applause you’d expect.
Then Elvis mentions "Allegheny Airlines" and starts a “one liner” of Patti Page’s ‘Allegheny Moon’ (a #2 hit in 1956) before the ‘Introductions’.
‘Early Mornin’ Rain‘ is charming for being lightweight and which Elvis decides to start again mid-song. ‘What’d I Say’ and ‘Johnny B. Goode’ are pretty forgettable with Charlie Hodge intruding too much, then the obligatory drum solo and bass solo (“cut”) before David Briggs’ solo which also has its start “cut” before a fairly decent, slow-paced,but steady, ‘Love Letters’.
There is the obligatory Charlie Hodge intro (as Elvis loves it whenever the fans react to someone introduced as being from Alabama!) and the regular ‘School Day‘.
In 1976 ‘Hurt’ would be one of Elvis’ concert highlights but it isn’t that good this afternoon, as Elvis lacked his the usually good vocal control. Elvis also realises this as he didn't bother with the usual reprise.
A throwaway ‘Hound Dog’ follows and a passable ‘Funny How Time Slips Away’ (after asking for the lights to be turned up) before the concert highlight of ‘That’s All Right’ (after reminding Charlie not to hit him in the face with the microphone as he did on September 5 show). "I’ve been onstage for an hour and five, so let’s put on the guitar.."
‘That’s All Right‘ was a rare setlist inclusion for the first part of 1976. This was only his sixth performance of it this year – and it features the rare inclusion of the "I need your lovin" line, plus some heartfelt energy from Elvis. This is the real ‘highlight’.
"I’d like to tell you we have another show here tonight, so you take care of yourselves.." with closing good wishes to the fans and ‘Can’t Help Falling In Love’ and the ‘Closing Vamp’ - wishing people a “Good afternoon”!
Overall, the positive fact is that Elvis sounds “clear” with NO slurring, but still lacking a bit of energy and seeming a bit lacklustre throughout, but with enough highlights to make the concert enjoyable.
It was a good afternoon in Huntsville - which the after-show announcements "Get your Elvis Super-Souvenirs" - make one hundred percent certain we know!
The Evening Show
The FTD version sounds approximately ten percent better balanced sound than the bootlegs. Once again, there’s no ‘2001 Theme’, and it’s straight into ‘C.C. Rider’, which clearly shows up the soundboard level adjustment problems, as Elvis’s voice volume is turned up and down and finally the band volume turned up!
It is a much stronger opening than the afternoon show, Elvis was obviously up and running and his vocal again sounds good and clear. There’s no slurring, and right from the start Elvis is up for some fun with his audience. Tonight Elvis is driving the band rather than being dragged along by them as was often the case in 1976.
Someone has her grandmother with her and a sign, "Elvis, Granny is here!" "What am I supposed to do with her?" jokes Elvis – "Come here, granny!!" This on-going fun causes much laughter throughout the show!
‘I Got A Woman’/‘Amen’. Elvis shows some real energy on this song for 1976 - though it features some ringing feedback throughout. Finally an exasperated Elvis says that he is going to strangle his sound engineers. Tonight’s version does include J.D. Sumner’s annoying dive-bomber routine - repeated!
‘Love Me’ is the usual throwaway before Elvis explains how high up he had to sing performing ‘Fairytale’ during the afternoon show and ‘Fairytale’ (with false start for no apparent reason) is performed well again tonight. Afterwards, Elvis refers back to the afternoon show version.
‘You Gave Me A Mountain’ is also quite good for a later version before the usual lacklustre throwaway medley of ‘All Shook Up’ and ‘(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear’ / ‘Don’t Be Cruel’.
‘And I Love You So’ is again nicely performed before a standard 1976 version of ‘Jailhouse Rock’.
Tonight a regular ‘Fever’ is performed with Elvis laughing in the middle, "Not you again, Granny!"
Then, just before the next song, Elvis is given a doll which seems to worry him as he suggests it’s a Voodoo Doll!. "That’s Charlie, that ain’t me. You don’t stick any pins into it, do you?"
Elvis loudly announces that "I like to do our version ‘America The Beautiful’ for you" but unfortunately tonight it is dreadful because for the first time I know of, he forgets the words and has to ask for help, "What’s the next line?"!
The ‘Introductions’ feature as always the songs ‘Early Mornin’ Rain‘, ‘What’d I Say’, ‘Johnny B. Goode’, all very standard versions tonight, plus lengthy drum, bass, and clavinet solos.
Finally there’s a charming ‘Love Letters’ before ‘School Day’, which Elvis really gets in to tonight.
Even though it was released six months previously, Elvis still introduces ‘Hurt’ as "We have a new record out I’d like to do for you" which in this evening show is performed MUCH more strongly, and even has a reprise ending that goes up higher.
This is a concert highlight as Elvis finishes sounding almost as if he’s being strangled at the end! "Whoo" notes Elvis, as the crowd goes nuts.
The crowd pleasing ‘Hound Dog’ is a real throwaway (as he kisses the girls) before Elvis gets Sherrill Nielsen to perform ‘Danny Boy’ but it sounds quite different - maybe not as good as the 1977 solo versions - also from FTD.
Why do they cut out a song such as ‘My Heavenly Father’ at the December 13 1975 dinner show, but allow this solo to stay in? It is a mystery to me.
Then once again Elvis gets his guitar "Tell you what. Give me the guitar and the water-bucket!" and performs strongly on both ‘That’s All Right’ and ‘Blue Christmas’ "It’s a strange time of year to do it. I don’t need you yellin’ at me ‘cos I’m still gonna do ‘Blue Christmas’!" again these are concert highlights.
Elvis had only recently started adding ‘Blue Christmas’ to his 1976 set list (since the previous Christmas) but it would become a regular from now on.
After a powerful intro to ‘Mystery Train’, Elvis forgets the words and quickly re-starts the ‘Mystery Train’/’Tiger Man’ medley, even noting "It’s been a long day". It’s a good performance with Elvis still putting some real energy into the song.
Before going into a standard ‘Funny How Time Slips Away’, Elvis has the lights turned up and then bids a nice farewell to Huntsville and with the finale ‘Can’t Help Falling In Love’, ‘Closing Vamp’ and announcements, Elvis left the building.
Sadly, Elvis would never return to Huntsville.
As a side note, Joe Moscheo (from The Imperials Quartet) was in Huntsville in 1976 and Elvis asked to see him, so Joe met with Elvis in his bedroom suite alone. After a few pleasantries, Joe noticed Elvis looked tired and sick and presented Elvis with a Bible, telling Elvis all the answers he needed were in there. Elvis unusually hugged Joe as they said goodbye. Joe never saw Elvis alive again.
The afternoon show ran for 65 minutes; the evening show was ten minutes longer.
Overall Verdict
Considering the abysmal state Elvis was in just over a week previously at the Houston, August 28 show, these two concerts representing this tour come as a transformation although still NOT as good as the next tour proved to be in October.
However, these are still quite acceptable shows for this tricky year of 1976 with Elvis sounding quite ok - clear speaking and up-beat, despite the occasional memory loss. In the photos he looks alert and enjoying performing in Huntsville where he always knew where he was and puts out enjoyable decent shows. Elvis’ energy level and interactions with his loving audience at the evening show is pretty impressive considering the treadmill and grind Colonel Parker had put him under.
Thanks to FTD for now representing this tour and his last “on tour” double date in one day, Labor Day 1976.
If the Huntsville evening hadn’t been released on bootleg twice before this would have been a great attraction and if I personally wanted to complain about this release, I’d rather have had the Jackson September 5 show instead of the Huntsville evening show. However, the Huntsville evening show is certainly the more powerful and getting it in better quality audio makes this is a very fine release.
Thanks FTD - now a break from 1976 please!
