www.elvis-presley.website

The ultimate site about the king of the analogue age

 

In early 2019 Follow That Dream Records released a double-disc called "St. Paul To Wichita - October '74", which featured -and that's a surprise- concerts Elvis gave in St. Paul/Minnesota and Wichita/Kansas in October 1974. The sound carriers are housed in a 5", fold-out digipak. As usual this FTD release is physical only, so there's no need to look for it on the various streaming platforms.

Both concerts were recorded through the mixing desk of the sound engineer. He omitted the usual introduction "Also Sprach Zarathustra", in St. Paul the tape ran out after "You Gave Me A Mountain", so the ending of the show is missing. But I guess we have to do just without the usual closer "Can't Help Falling In Love", so it's no big loss at all. To use the space of the discs FTD has included three bonus tracks, which were recorded on October 4th in Detroit/Michigan.

For reviews and details about the shows just tap on the links.

 

CD 1 (St. Paul - October 2nd)    CD 2 (Wichita - October 7th)

 

Verdict

On all occasions the king appears to be "medicated". His voice doesn't sound good and his singing is sloppy. If pressed, I'd say the show in Wichita is the better one, because Elvis acts less hyped-up.

 (C) Follow That Dream Records / Sony Music Entertainment