Discussion - After Aloha

[ekenee]

The question is irrelevant.

One could say;
Was it downhill for Elvis after he went into the army?
John Lennon might think so.

Was it downhill for Elvis after his 1968 special?
Some regard this as his peak

Was it downhill for Elvis after his 1969 Vegas opening?

Was it downhill for Elvis after "Thats the way it is".

Elvis' career was ups and downs and middles.

Aloha from Hawaii was only one night, one show.

He had many better shows after that and many shows not as good.

So you cannot pinpoint the fall of Elvis.

I like his New Years 77 show better than Aloha, but what does that prove.

[Steve_M]

Does anyone think EPE will ever release Elvis in Concert on dvd?

Apparently so. I have it from good authorities (plural!) that this is now a fact!

[kelvin]

From a collectors point of view the later shows were great for dialogue as Elvis had a lot more to say on stage (and im not talking Desert Storm chat!). You cant beat the 1969-1972 shows for pure stage power but i also love hearing Elvis rapport with his band and fans which seemed to flourish in the later years. Imports like 'Request box shows' & 'Running for President' show how Elvis' personality and charisma kept him at the top even though his best performing years were behind him.

[Mike Eder]

I am a big Elvis fan of all eras and while I dislike a good deal of the movie songs, I freely admit to liking Elvis from 1954-77 a great deal. I would say before 1973 the only shows he did that I find less then captivating are the ones from the second Vegas gig of 1971 Let's take the post Aloha era year by year

1973
I am not a huge fan of the Vegas gigs with and actually I don't really love Aloha though it has at half a dozen great moments. Perhaps it's because his set was m.o.r. and his voice during those engagmets was a little thin.I do like the tours and the recordings. The Stax sessions are unfairly crtiqued overall, and in my eyes he did some very fine recordings there.The tours have him near his very best vocally and are far better then most of the shows the following year.

1974
Well I don't especally like the first Vegas but by the March tour he is pretty much back on forum. Not quite as energetic as before perhaps, but solid. The same holds basically true of all the shows through July. I am actually someone who likes the second Vegas very much. He looked far better then anytime after 2-73, and as he was in better shape he moved a lot more. The setlist was his best in years, and I like the stories he told. Now I am the first to admit that he wasn't on par vocally during some of the final tour of the year, but like the Stax sessions I feel it to be looked at too harshly. Most notably the setlist stayed fairly intesting, and when he was on vocally he could still impress.

1975
A good year artistically he didn't look nearly as good as he had before. No matter, the concerts as a whole were more consistent then they had been since 1972. The sets were good and continued the trend started in 8-74 to use more rock and blues. Despite some moments of temper, he seemed in overall good spirits really connecting with the audience. The studio cuts were nice overall with a few real highlights. If Today isn't my very favorite album none of it is bad. He also really promoted it on stage adding half of it to his set.

1976
Well here I do see a downturn much more serious then before. Not so much in the studio where I think he continued to show some growth, but on stage. Untill the last three tours of the year I think he was pretty uninspired. Again not as bad as some would have you believe but in my opinion the shows from March to September are collectively his worst. Which makes it all the more surprising how much he did rally. I think the 12-76 tour is one of his best and he certainly was good on the two tours preceeding it too. He really did have some really great moments vocally at the end of the year and in the studio which makes it hard to understand why he could be so off on stage earlier in the year. Vegas was up and down but there were some good moments notably when he played accoustic guitar. He didn't move much during that gig, but his voice was pretty good compared to the summer tours.

1977
Well I talked about it in the recent thread on that year but didn't give a summary as such. He was mostly quite good vocally, and the sets weren't too bad at all. There was little real fire, but I think he tried a lot harder then he did during 1976 as a whole. I like Elvis In Concert myself. I look at it as a guy who is fighting hard to overcome his health problems and deliver a good show. He was in way better shape during Aloha looks wise, but I like the EIC set better and find him to be more personable and in better voice. I am under no illusion that he was the perfomer he had been during the early part of the decade, but I find he still had a lot to offer and I don't think he was finished creatively..

[Big Boss Man]

Does anyone think EPE will ever release Elvis in Concert on dvd?

BBM??? You have said EIC and EPE in the same post?????????

SATAN i tell they.

muahahahahahahahaha

[Pete Dube]

Well, it sure felt like it was a downhill trend at the time.

Of course, he had some good moments; he had some good recordings, but these became rarer & rarer.

Each album was more of a disappointment than a delight.

Same with the singles [except perhaps Promised Land & My Boy].

Kept hoping he would snap out of it & regain his form, but it wasn't to be....................

On the whole I agree with you, but I personally find Elvis' run of singles from I've Got a Thing About You Baby through Way Down (with the exception of Bringin' It Back) preferable to his 70-72 (pre-Burning Love) output (with the exception of Kentucky Rain).

And in the case of Good Times; Promised Land and Today, while they're not classics, I feel there's much in their favor and little to be said against them.

[Steve_M]

Pete, in the UK we had a differnet run of singles, with 1976 showing a strange u-turn back to early 60's releases doing well. To those young enough at the time they didn't know there's was a difference or if there was how to differentiate..

Or do you mean viewing the singles output for then as of now with the knowledge of what was what?

[Pete Dube]

Pete, in the UK we had a differnet run of singles, with 1976 showing a strange u-turn back to early 60's releases doing well. To those young enough at the time they didn't know there's was a difference or if there was how to differentiate..

Or do you mean viewing the singles output for then as of now with the knowledge of what was what?

Steve, I meant in the sense of looking back.