A review of Elvis Presley's worst concert

I thought this was interesting in a train wreck sort of way- a review of what is supposed to be Elvis Presley's worst concert.

'Houston, We Have A Problem'- Audionics CD. EIN in-depth review »

 

Interesting, though of limited value as a read without having the music on hand to hear for ourselves.

The Desert Storm concert is widely condemned, but I think it's a great listen.

 

It can be heard here. Pretty dire stuff.

 

Thanks for posting the audio. I'm listening to it right now, and... yowzers!

 

They'd have to a "Fantastic audience" to have tolerated this. He should've stopped touring, gone into rehab, and rested.

 

It is unfortunate that so much soundboard audio from Elvis' period of deterioration was captured and subsequently survived. On some level, the recordings from this period are important from a historical perspective, but hearing something like this out of context only harms the legacy of one of the greatest artists in contemporary music history.

 

I don't know, College Park, September 1974 is pretty poor. Well,
maybe not as bad as that. Elvis on cocaine is more interesting than Elvis on sleeping medication.

 

6 words:

Having Fun with Elvis On Stage

 

I really like that for what it is, actually. I just wish they had used funnier clips.

Besides, I don't think it's fair to compare a compilation album of G-Rated banter to a single concert.

 

Breakneck touring schedule + excessive pharmaceuticals= recipe for disaster.

 

And bordem. Elvis was bored to tears with touring by this point. Elvis and boredom was a real dangerous combination.

 

College Park '74, Houston '76, and Omaha '77 are all contenders for Elvis' worse show. There are also other contenders; unfortunately throughout the fall of 1974, nearly all of 1976, and nearly all of 1977, Elvis was at his worst on the concert stage, so there are a lot of substandard concerts to choose from.

 

What bothers me, as it probably did the Colonel, is how many of that 17,000+ were seeing Elvis live for the very first time. Sheezus.

 

Personally I would not spend 2 seconds with stuff like this given the staggering amount of great recordings from- arguably- the greatest performer ever
It s no secret Elvis was ill and on heavy medications towards the end. It s also wellknown facts that Elvis dubious management saw money as more important than both the wellbeing of the man or his art.
But those areas are not where I want to dwell

 

As long as the checks cleared and the tickets and merchandise sold, Col. Parker couldn't give a damn about anything else.

 

Parker kept Elvis on the road to pay for Parker's gambling debts. Every time Presley wanted to fire him, Parker would take him into private and Elvis would emerge with the idea vanquished.

Dr Nick's position was that he was trying to control Elvis' intake of medications and keep him from going to multiple other prescribers to get whatever he wanted.

Elvis also didn't believe that taking prescriptions was being a drug addict.

Just a heartbreaking situation.

 

On one hand, Dr. Nick took advantage of Elvis.

On the other hand, Elvis would have gotten what he wanted from some other doctor(s) if not from Dr. Nick anyway, so it doesn't really matter.

 

Really just sad to listen to this. Not the best of Elvis!

 

Dr. Nick's management of Elvis' drug abuse probably kept him alive a year or two longer than he would have lasted otherwise. I would question whether that was necessarily a good thing, though.

 

In that show Elvis is seriously disinhibited by his drug intake, but still able to function. The really awful (and sad) shows are the ones where he's sedated beyond the point of functioning competently.

 

Yes, and you can see the effects of this. My town as a number of Elvis impersonators and while many of them are quite entertaining, it's all based on the later years.
My nephew didn't like Elvis till I played him some of the important works and then he changed his tune, exclaiming all the while that he had no idea how important the man was.

Much more to him than "Thank You Very much" and dying on the throne.

At a record show about a year ago one of the dealers told me that while he still sell plenty of Elvis, it has been decreasing steadily over the past few years after years of consistency. His original fanbase has long since depleted itself through attrition age and death, and for years he amassed new fans which still buy, but those new fans are coming slower now and I think it's largely due to the damaged legacy brought about by the later years prevelance.

 

I think that is a stretch. Dr. Nick was supplier of drugs, not necessarily an administrator of them. Elvis augmented his intake as he pleased. Yes, Elvis conceivably would have found other sources (as he often did), but the reality is that Elvis did not have many legitimate ailments that required the prescription of extremely powerful drugs in his daily regimen; many of Elvis' health issues were the result of the drug addiction itself. There are stories of Dr. Nick trying to reign the abuse under control by supplying Elvis with placebos as part of his stash, but it was largely futile, nor did he stop supplying Elvis with large amounts of dangerous pharmaceuticals. Elvis nearly died as early as 1973 from an overdose. The fact that he survived 4 more years probably has more to do with good fortune than Dr. Nick's care.

 

Peter Guralnick's two-part biography of Elvis "Last Train To Memphis" and "Careless Love" are essential reading if you're even a casual Elvis fan. They're both fascinating books.

 

What a shame.....

 

I really enjoyed the relatively informal nature of the show and surprises such as the well performed duet snippet of "Early Morning Rain" in the band intros. While his slurred speech is alarming I like this music.
Interesting how that when someone like Curt Cobain, Sid Vicious, Axel Rose, or even a slightly inebriated Bruce Springsteen (Milwaukee 1975) does something like this it is a "legendary" show, but with Elvis it is an "embarrassment".