From Down Under
Part Two
by Geoffrey Mc Donnell (Australia)
Michael Orchs © Las Vegas,NV. December 2nd 1975 opening show
Las
Vegas December 7, 1975 (10:00 pm) r/t 70 minutes
(Jerome Monroe plays Drums tonight)
TRACKLIST
2001
Theme / See See Rider / I Got A Woman - Amen x 2 /dialogue/ Love Me / intro of
little boy onstage-Hound Dog / Fairytale / And I Love You So / Trying To Get To
You / All Shook Up / Teddy Bear - Don't Be Cruel / One Night / Polk Salad Annie
/ Introductions & Solosj.b.goode-Elvis ‘off’ mike / I'll Remember You /
How Great Thou Art-with reprise / Early Morning Rain / It's Now Or Never /
Softly, As I Leave You / America, The Beautiful / dialogue / Can't Help Falling
In Love.
JUMPSUITS
Elvis
Presley: V-Neck suit with puff sleeves / Original belt
This is
another good show and one where Elvis makes reference to his plane during Early
morning rain where he changes the lines to:-“Big 880 set go..”Also after
introducing Kathy tonight he makes some extra comments about last night.
Interestingly he gets a little boy on stage before performing hound dog and does
a slightly different version with a Polk Salad Annie styled ending. Jerome
Monroe replacing Ron tonight gets introduce as ‘‘ THE STUMP ” I’ll
remember You seems to be a highlight song tonight and a 2nd version
of early morning rain this season is a bit fast, but still a very good full
version. The most noticeable difference in drumming is during fairytale and Polk
Salad Annie.The best sung part of this show is from the intros onwards.
Las
Vegas December 8, 1975 (10:00 pm).(Ron Tutt back tonight) r/t 80 minutes
TRACKLIST
2001
Theme / See See Rider / Monday, Monday- 1 line /( Dialogue about Ron Tutt having
a new baby )I Got A Woman - Amen / Love
Me / Fairytale / And I Love You So / Dialogue/Trying To Get To You / All Shook
Up / Teddy Bear - Don't Be Cruel / Until It's Time For You To Go / You Gave A
Mountain / Polk Salad Annie / Introductions & Solos / Just Pretend / It's
Now Or Never / One Night / How Great Thou Art –with reprise/ Softly, As I
Leave You / America, The Beautiful / Mystery Train - Tiger Man/Dialogue /Fever/Dialogue
/Can't Help Falling In Love.
JUMPSUITS
Elvis
Presley: Blue Rainfall suit / Original belt
Michael Orchs
© Las Vegas,NV. December 2nd 1975
opening show
Another excellent show with Elvis taking requests ( Fever ) plenty of jokey chat and good performances as well. In the early part of the show he does a one liner of Monday, Monday ( and even later in the show mentions the Mamas n’ Papas! ) then jokes about Ron Tutt being back with a new baby. Fairytale gets the first stronger performance tonight before pretty casual run of songs up to a Jokey version of Until It’s Time For You To Go which he starts “ Take my Band ” The show REALLY gets good from ‘ You Gave Me A Mountain’ onwards where the in between song chatter stops and he simply sings song after song after song and WELL!. Pretty much all the performances after the intros ( where you can hear a bit of J.B.Goode off mike ) are excellent!. After a lot of chat following Tiger Man about people from Japan and a Japanese look-alike Wayne Newton he takes a request for ‘ FEVER ’ and performs it. A long show nearly 80 minutes and a great start to the week!. Just Pretend for instance sounds as if he’s singing it to fans who may have arrived in Vegas last August and missed him.
Las
Vegas December 9, 1975 (10:00 pm).r/t 70 minutes
TRACKLIST
2001
Theme / See See Rider / I Got A Woman-f.start - Amen / dialogue- Love Me /
dialogue / Fairytale / And I Love You So / Trying To Get To You / All Shook Up /
Teddy Bear - Don't Be Cruel / Love Me Tender / Polk Salad Annie / Introductions
& Solos; J.B.Goode-Elvis ‘off’ mike / Just Pretend / How Great Thou
Art-with reprise / Burning Love / Softly, As I Leave You / America, The
Beautiful / It's Now Or Never-with reprise / One Night / Mystery Train - Tiger
Man /dialogue/ Can't Help Falling In Love.
JUMPSUITS
Elvis
Presley: Aztec Suit.
There is plenty of chat from Elvis tonight during this show and it’s another good show-not quite as good as last nights VERY GOOD show, but still well sung and long. LOVE ME TENDER is included in tonight’s show and makes for yet another different show! During the intros he goes on at length about himself and J.D meeting way back in the early days. This show too Elvis appears to be loosing weight now and he does a real ‘hunka burning love ‘ending tonight to that song. America doesn’t receive such a fine ending as usual, yet JUST PRETEND is yet another outstanding version. Just before closing tonight he mentions bill porter and that he’d had 3 months off. During the final song Elvis changes the lyrics to “ wise men know when it’s time to go ” version. Quite a surprise is the reprise to the end of “ It’s Now Or Never “.
Las
Vegas December 10, 1975 (10:00 pm).r/t 85 minutes
TRACKLIST
2001
Theme / See See Rider - Can't Help Falling In Love / When My Blues Moon Turns To
Gold Again (short) / I Got A Woman - Amen x 2/ dialogue / Love Me / Fairytale /
And I Love You So / Trying To Get To You / All Shook Up / Teddy Bear -
Don't Be Cruel / dialogue / Until It’s Time For You To Go-false start only /
You gave me a Mountain /Polk Salad Annie / Introductions/ Just Pretend (with 2
false starts) / intro of Rex Humbard / How Great Thou Art / America, The
Beautiful / Mystery Train - Tiger Man / My Way-false start ( part duet with
S.Neilson) / Blue Christmas /dialogue/ Can't Help Falling In Love.
JUMPSUITS
Elvis
Presley: V-Neck suit with puff sleeves / Original belt
Compact Disc; Neon City Lights released in 1992, but wasn’t the complete show and ‘ bonus ’ tracks filled the disc up. Also his version here of ‘Just Pretend’ with 2 false starts appeared first on the Album ‘ Long lost songs ’.
Michael Orchs © Las Vegas,NV. December 2nd 1975 opening show
This
actually is a very good and interesting show and really gives us ‘ proof ’
of the Elvis ‘ Magic’ still being with him! How Great Thou Art is dedicated
to Rex Humbard (whom Elvis introduced before singing it ) Ron Tutt gets some
hilarious ‘ jokes ’ about the new Daughter of his from Elvis and the whole
spirit of the show is ‘ good; ’ Just Pretend is sung so convincingly and
with Kathy’s vocal reaching for the skies at the end of the song-you’d
almost believe they were making love up on stage! The 1970’s versions of the
same song just lack that CONVICTION – that 5 years later Elvis was able to
convey during this season!. Opening this show with C.C. Rider you wouldn’t
guess anything out of the ordinary was about to happen!. Then the band are very
slow at picking up when Elvis starts singing his usual closing number (as Elvis
starts ‘off’ mike anyhow–slowly! There is just a light band drum beat
accompaniment and Elvis asks J.D. to find the key before ending this shorter
version and going into the closing vamp. You can hear fans present completely
laughing their heads off as they are amazed by what is happening. Elvis comes
back on pretty quickly though and it’s obvious he planned this –just to keep
his band on their toes!. He even says ‘ what happened-I thought the show was
over ’ Welcome to the show-I guess your wondering what’s happening so far. “
We start slow and then taper off ”. After a few verses only of ‘ When My Blue
Moon Turns To Gold Again ’ Elvis actually says ‘ see these guy’s never
listen to my records ’. Certainly from “
Fairytale ”
onwards Elvis is really singing well in this great show. Before performing Polk
Salad Annie Elvis talks about meeting Telly Savalas and Yul Brynner whilst
making movies like Sesame street. MY WAY is interesting because he really
hasn’t sung it for well over 2
years and he says he ‘ plays it by ear ’ the last part features a Sherrill/Elvis
duet as Elvis asks Sherrill to sing it too. Just before finally closing this
show Elvis says how good it is to be back working again after a 3 month break
.This 2nd version of his closing number tonight he changes the lines
to ‘ wise men know when it’s time to go ’.
Las
Vegas December 11, 1975 (10:00 pm).r/t 65 minutes.
TRACKLIST
2001
Theme / See See Rider / I Got A Woman – Amen x 2
/dialogue/ Love Me /dialogue/ Fairytale /dialogue/ And I Love You So /
Trying' To Get To You / All Shook Up / Teddy Bear - Don't Be Cruel / Hound Dog /
Happy Birthday (dear Emma) / Until It's Time For You To Go / Polk Salad Annie /
Introductions / Just Pretend / How Great Thou Art / Burning Love / Softly, As I
Leave You / America, The Beautiful / It's Now Or Never / Can't Help Falling In
Love
Sue McCasland © Las Vegas,NV. December 13th 1975 dinner show
JUMPSUITS
Elvis
Presley: Blue Rainfall Suit?
Another ‘good’ show from Elvis with a hilarious intro of a little girl called ‘ Bridget ’ whom Elvis thought was ‘ Midget ’ before Love Me! Then after Fairytale a little boy is put on stage who DEMANDS that Elvis sign his book! Patience from the boy was exhausted ( whilst Elvis was getting a pen from the front row ) and he finally said ‘sign it!” The boy pointed to a page in his book.” sign it right here” Elvis asked , ‘ it’s got to be right here? ’ to which the boy replied’ it could be anywhere’ now confused Elvis asked ‘ anywhere? ’ The boy replied ‘ that’s what you said!’. By now the crowd where rolling on the floor and finally Elvis said ‘ I like this boy-he’s as crazy as I am!’. Finally Elvis signed the boy’s name Tony spelling out all the letters and his surname PREZLEY! It’s a real funny part of this show and shows Elvis’s charm with kids. Apart from singing HAPPY BIRTHDAY to a girl called Emma no new songs this show, but already enough happened on stage to make this show memorable and unique. Until It’s Time For You To Go Is Very Good version and Just Pretend also is ‘ outstanding ’ Just before closing this show Elvis mentions that he’d like to dedicate this show to Mr. & Mrs. Thompson who had flown into Vegas for this show. Before the intros tonight Elvis receives 4 requests for songs:- One Night; My Boy; Welcome To My World and Rip It Up.