The problem here is, that a lot of people who visited Elvis' concerts were what you might call avarage fans. People who grew up, only knowing the hits. And the come to see Elvis do the hits.TALLHAIR 2 wrote:... It was worse, he still sang Teddy Bear at age 42.
With a few exceptions, his concerts during the final years,
only had a handful of really good performances during
each show. And dont give me the excuse: "the fans
wanted Shook Up, Bear Or Hound Dog". I didn't.
None of my friends, at the concerts, wanted to hear
these 50 seconds throwaways either.
And there's nothing wrong with playing your hits, the majority of the audience demands it.
I've been to a number of concerts like Paul McCartney, The rolling Stones, U2, etc. And I wouldn't want a show that didn't feature any of the hits.
The big difference with these acts is that they respect their older work, they perform them with relatively speaking the same enthusiasm as the newer material.
With Elvis you always had the feeling that he didn't respect his old material and therefore most of the time never performed them seriously (with a couple exceptions.)
An artist like Elvis shouldn't have filled his concerts in the 70's with the amount of covers like he did. He had enough new material an amazing back catalogue he could choose from, instead of playing hits made famous by other persons.
How different would it be if he had performed his oldies seriously. In a sort of B stage setting with only him and a small rhythym section. Full versions, with a vintage arrangement.