FTD CD - Dinner Shows May 25 & 26 1974

- Review by Geoffrey McDonnell / Piers Beagley

In early May 1974 Elvis completed a 5 concert California mini-tour - represented by the FTD 'LIVE in LA' book/cd package.

A few days later, on May 16th, Elvis kicked off his 22-concert series at the Sahara Tahoe hotel, his third season at Lake Tahoe.

'Elvis: Lake Tahoe '74' features two Dinner Shows from this season recorded May 25 and May 26 1974.

Elvis soundboard super-collector Geoffrey McDonnell & EIN's Piers Beagley check out this new FTD 1974 double-pack ....

Elvis' 1974 spring tour of the southern states cumulated in the famous 'Live On Stage in Memphis' March 20th 1974 concert & album. With only a few weeks rest in Memphis - during which time Elvis played his new passion racquetball and watched movies - he was once again back on the road.

In early May Elvis completed a 5 concert California mini-tour represented by the FTD 'LIVE in LA' book/cd package.

A few days later, on May 16th, Elvis kicked off his 22-concert series at the Sahara Tahoe hotel, his third season at Lake Tahoe. The vast majority of these concerts remain unreleased.

Back in 2010 FTD released 'High Sierra' featuring Elvis’ Midnight concert of May 21, 1974 - plus seven extra bonus tracks. A very fine release, it was rated highly 9/10 in our EIN review.

FTD now gives us a value-for-money double-pack of two Dinner Shows from the same season, May 25 and May 26 1974.

Elvis: Lake Tahoe '74, FTD CD review by Geoffrey McDonnell - with additional comments from Piers Beagley.

Released in November 2017, this FTD double-pack features two previously unreleased shows recorded on soundboard running 60 minutes each. The Dinner show on 25th May has been out previously as an audience recorded bootleg release ('Big Boss Man in Lake Tahoe’, incorrectly dated and missing Heartbreak Hotel) however the Dinner show on 26th May has never been heard before.

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This comes out as a double fold-out CD 5' digi-pack with no booklet.

Follow That Dream. Elvis' Golden Records Volume 3 FTD Classic Album 2 CD Set 'Elvis Golden Records Vol. 3' is a 2-CD release in the Follow That Dream (FTD labels classic album s. FTD CD - review by Piers Beagley - In December 1976 Elvis performed a short mini-tour of five cities ending with the fabulous New Year’s Eve concert in Pittsburgh. Unlike the majority of Elvis' very lackadaisical concerts from earlier in the year he was really ready to rock.

The fold open Digi-pack has simple design with photos of Elvis from his closing 3am 27th May show in the Peacock Suit + others from 12th October 1974 D/S showing the King of Spades suit (which he wore at the 26th D/S!).

Sadly five of the photographs used on this FTD were previously featured on the FTD ‘High Sierra’ release. The photo on the front cover this time is the same as the back cover photo on ‘High Sierra’!

While there are not that many good quality photos from this Lake Tahoe season there are certainly more choices – and more stories too - that could have been used from Sue McCasland’s ‘Live At Sahara Tahoe’ book. There is no doubt that FTD should have used alternate photos for this release.

The back of the CD pack just features the track listings.

While the Dinner Shows do not have the energy of the Midnight Show released on ‘High Sierra’, the audio mix is particularly good here with less 'heavy' Duke Bardwell bass.

Both these concerts are Dinner Shows which often meant that Elvis took a while to warm-up however, although not 'full-pelt', Elvis sounds ready-to-perform from the start of both concerts.
It is worth noting before we start that Elvis’ performance on the May 26, 1974 Dinner show is the best of the two featured here.

Audio Quality.
The audio quality on both is a little hissy at times but improves along the way. There are a few cassette clicks, pops and drop-outs at times but on the whole it is fine audio for a soundboard cassette.
It has to be noted that there are a few bad audio drop-out / mutes on the second disc. It is disappointing that these haven’t been fixed up during mastering seeing that it is the better show.
In general however the audio mix is fine with a good match of the whole band, backing vocals as well as the orchestra.

Just two weeks before this Lake Tahoe season Elvis had been playing to audiences of over 18 thousand at the Los Angeles Forum, so it is understandable if Elvis sounds a little more on ‘Cruise-control’ at these twice-a-night casino shows.

Disc 1 - May 25, 1974 Dinner show. 60 minutes.
Kicking into ‘See See Rider’ Elvis sounds on good form, especially for a dinner show and it is a fine start with Elvis’s voice right up front.

Elvis goes through the usual 'Well, well, well' start before ‘I Got A Woman’ but his voice is clear and not out-of-bed slurry as it could be at times. His voice echoes in the background while the following ‘Amen’ features the joy of J.D’s dive-bomb routine repeated three times! Elvis says that that J.D was 'breezing through it and had lost an engine somewhere'! Afterwards Elvis jokes he couldn’t get off the ground with one Engine. It certainly seems that Elvis was up for some fun – which continues when he introduces himself as Pat Boone!

‘Love Me’ features an up-close vocal from Elvis with ‘Trying To Get To You’'one of my first recordings about 15 years ago' performed with a cool rather than rockin’ feeling.

‘All Shook Up’ is at least properly sung and not rushed at lightning speed (as he’d do in August) while ‘Love Me Tender’ is OK and less kiss-the-girls than usual.

‘You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me’ was back in this season (having been out of the set-list for almost a year) and is also a fine addition even if a little throwaway compared to previous years.

‘Johnny B. Goode’ while relatively low-key in 1974, has a great James Burton guitar in the mix and is passable with Elvis digging Burton’s chickin-pickin’.

In comparison ‘Hound Dog’ is a complete throwaway while ‘Fever’ is in a ‘deep voice’ but very routine.

Upping the pace with ‘Polk Salad Annie’ Elvis doesn’t sound like he was working too hard although his karate-action kicks in at the end – with lots of screams of 'go-go' from the band - and I am sure being at the show was a fine performance.

‘Why Me Lord’ that follows is at least a sincere version and without the regular JD jokes.

1974 was the last year that Elvis would regularly perform ‘Suspicious Minds’ and on this night both Charlie Hodges’ duet-vocal and Elvis’ mucking around and changing the lyrics 'don’t let this half-way thing die' devalues this great song. Of course if you had been there …

The Introductions are good because they are still ‘short and sweet’ and feature just band members and no lengthy solos- the only ‘oddity’ being the lovely quip that 'on the piano is Col Parker'!

1974 was

Elvis Ftd Cd