'Elvis: Houston, Fort Worth, Baton Rouge 1974'

This FTD triple-pack features Elvis' important March Houston Astrodome performance plus two more concerts from Elvis’ third tour of 1974. The Houston show is an important concert recording since there was no orchestra involved, while the two other concerts come from the first two cities on Elvis' third tour of 1974. FTD have already released nine concerts from this particular tour, so can there really be anything new to discover from yet another two concerts? Elvis soundboard super-collector Geoffrey McDonnell & EIN's Piers Beagley provide all the details about this new FTD triple-pack ...

In 1974 Elvis focused on a hard touring schedule and never once went into a recording studio.

After re-vamping his set-list at the earlier January 1974 Las Vegas season, Elvis' first tour of 1974 kicked off in Tulsa. That concert was featured in the excellent FTD 'Sold Out'. After his two dates in Tulsa, Elvis and the band then performed at the massive Houston Astrodome on March 3, 1974. Playing on a stage in the middle of the huge Astrodome and without any orchestra back-up this was a challenging concert. It was also the last time Elvis would ever perform at the Astrodome.

June 1974 was Elvis' 13th tour of the USA and he was back on the road after finishing his third Lake Tahoe season. As always freed from the constraints of the casino crowds, Elvis was still in fine form and putting on great shows.

In 1974 Elvis added the new songs 'Help Me', 'Let Me Be There' and ‘Why Me Lord’ to his regular set-list and the old SUN classic ‘Trying To Get To You’ would also become a regular feature. ‘Big Boss Man’ was also added to the set-list in May 1974. Not only that but Elvis started working on that old 'Polk Salad' again having left it off the set-list for the whole of 1973!

'ELVIS: HOUSTON, FORT WORTH, BATON ROUGE 1974' - FTD review by Geoffrey McDonnell & Piers Beagley

The Design. This 3cd set of 1974 concerts comes in the usual four-panel 5” digipack with some great photos! The cover shows Elvis in Fort Worth 15 June Evening Show, while inside pictures are from the two Houston 3rd March ’74 concerts, Forth Worth 15th E/S again and inside flap is Houston, Fort Worth and Baton Rouge 17th June 1974. Images behind the 3cds show Elvis in his American Eagle suit from Baton Rouge June 17 and back cover inside has Elvis at Fort Worth A/S on 15th and at Auburn on 5th March wearing the ‘Sunlight’ suit he also wore for his Astrodome 3rd March 1974 E/S. Unlike recent FTDs sets this time the tape speed of all 3 shows sounds pretty ‘ok’ but unfortunately, due to the original cassettes, the sound quality varies.

... Interestingly enough although with no orchestra there could be no ‘2001 opening’ for the Astrodome show in fact all three recordings start with 'See See Rider' and end before any closing announcements.

AUDIO.
The audio was mastered by Jan Eliasson.
Elvis’ Houston Astrodome show has always been a bootleg favourite and the audio–quality of this version hardly differs at all from the ‘Event Number 8’ Madison release from 2000. The audio quality is excellent. Unfortunately fans who already own the bootleg are not going to get 20-years-of-audio-mastering improvement from buying this new version. It also seems highly likely that this FTD version has in fact come from the bootleg as there is not one second of difference at the start or the end of the recording.

The Fort Worth concert audio starts very muffled but luckily improves. There are also occasional minor bursts of audio static at times. It is basically ‘ok’. The previous FTD ‘Fort Worth 1974’ double-pack had better audio and interestingly a similar audio-mix with very little orchestra. The ‘Nebraska 1974’ FTD double-pack had a much better audio-mix.

The Baton Rouge audio quality when compared to ‘Fort Worth 1974’ is terrible to start with. There is underlying distortion that does clear up around half-way through. With all the other June ’74 soundboard recordings already available while it becomes quite listenable (especially the second half) it is hardly a concert that deserves repeat-playing.

Disc 1 – Astrodome, Houston, March 3rd, 1974, Evening Show - 50 minutes
Sadly we don’t get any drum-roll or intro as it is a straight fade into ‘See See Rider’. The sound is good and clear with Elvis and backing-vocals up front.

Playing to a crowd where the nearest fan is over 50 meters away from you means that Elvis could either take it easy or try and put in some extra energy to make an impact. Luckily Elvis is full of energy and both he and the band work hard to compensate for there being no orchestra.   

Ronnie Tutt’s drums are nice and sharp with James Burton’s cutting guitar and Duke Bardwell’s bass perfectly placed in the mix. Considering the vastness of the arena, it would have been a nightmare for anyone trying to get a usable sound; it is amazing that the soundboard is such good quality.      

”Good evening, Ladies & Gentlemen, I’m event number 8” Elvis jokes. You can hear some very distant audience response. This would not be his usual kiss-the-girls performance.   

‘I Got a Woman / Amen’ is clear and strong with only the one ending only – short and sweet it’s great to hear Elvis playing alone with his rhythm section.

By 1972 Elvis usually started played around with his loving fans during ‘Love Me’ and so with his fans out of the way tonight we get a fine and very straight version. Beforehand Elvis notes, “We hope you enjoy our part of the show this Afternoon”

‘Trying To Get To You’, without the usual explanatory intro, is again a very good version. You can hear The Sweets adding some supportive handclaps and Elvis sings it very enthusiastically putting power into every word.

‘All Shook Up’ is the ‘usual throwaway’ version but no doubt the crowd loved it. Then Elvis says his first movie was ‘Love Me Tender’ and “I would like to sing a little bit of it for you, a very little!” But instead of the usual joke false-start again he performs a delightful version, well sung and not rushed. Without the orchestra this has a very different feel

“Take it down to Louisiana, ohhh, Lay it on me” Elvis asks and again ‘Johnny B. Goode’ is an excellent version, “play it son, arrghh” full of drive and feeling more like 1970 than 1974.

‘Hound Dog’ with its short ‘tease’ intro is routine. ‘Fever’ is also routine 1974 but now you can hear the huge audience cheering in the distance. It’s obviously a real crowd pleaser.  

‘Polk Salad Annie’ is sincere with Elvis rocking out to impress the crowd. Without the usual horn-arrangement the band have to work extra hard. This includes great hand-claps and shouts of encouragement from The Sweets. Elvis sounds full of energy “sock a little, sock a little” and exhausted afterwards. It must be very weird throwing in karate action on a podium in the middle of a huge field.

Elvis then asks his "bass singer, JD Sumner and The Stamps Quartet” to sing ‘Why Me, Lord’. Sung very sincerely and without any joking it is a treat and afterwards Elvis rightly comments, “outta' sight!”

‘Suspicious Minds’ sounds just ‘fair’ with Charlie Hodge rather high in the mix. Ronnie Tutt throws his all into the power ending.  

The ‘Introductions’ are delightfully short and straightforward with Elvis nicely noting “back here in a cage is Ronnie Tutt”.

Straight into ‘I Can’t Stop Loving You’ (you can hear the crowd’s approval) is nicely done and sounds all the more interesting for being TCB Band only. Elvis adds a power-ending to good effect.

‘Help Me’ is fairly routine, but again with no orchestra it has more of a jam-session feel and makes The Stamps have to work extra hard.

“Another one of my favourite gospel songs this features The Stamps Quartet is ‘How Great Thou Art’” Again without the orchestra everyone has to work harder tonight to create the usual impact of this hymn. This was also the first time that Elvis had performed this song in 1974. There’s unavoidable peak-distortion here but it sounds more emotional than usual and it gets a well-earned reprise. Afterwards Elvis says, ‘Whoo- Lord. That’s Beautiful, outta sight, thanks very much’,

‘Let Me Be There’ takes the set-list to a more contemporary song and is a nice addition. Again it gets a fine reprise.

With the audience so far away Elvis doesn’t get a chance to relax and chat to his fans and so it’s a quick change of pace and straight into a regular ‘Funny How Time Slips Away’. Featuring some lovely JB chicken pickin’ guitar and with a cool ‘J.D’ ending it’s quite fine.

Elvis then thanks the people of the Astrodome for “inviting me back” and “Most of all. I’d like to thank you, because of the energy crisis and everything your drove all the way to see us and the cowboys and the rodeo. I’d like to thank you very much”.

“I’d like to tell you something else, this is the largest audience I have ever sung to .. it makes one a wee bit nervous, I’ll tell you”..

then he closes with ‘Can’t Help Falling In Love’ – again interesting with no swirling orchestra - and the lengthy Closing Vamp.

To be honest with the pressure of his “largest audience ever” it’s a very good show with no mistakes and fascinating being rhythm section only.

It is likely that Elvis had to use ‘HGTA’ instead of ‘An American Trilogy’ because of the lack of orchestra.
While it is nice to have this unique set it would have been a real treat to have got the unreleased in any form Afternoon Show.

Disc 2. Tarrant Convention Centre, Fort Worth. June 15 Evening show - 56 minutes.
As soon as ‘See See Rider’ kicks off the poor sound quality disappoints as it sounds as if it recorded through a sock, muffled and distant. Though it will improve.

Elvis teases with “Well, well, well, well, wells’ mucking around with J.D. Sumner adding his deep bass. Elvis is having fun and jokes, “smart ass!” before a short-&-sweet ‘I Got A Woman / Amen’ during which the sound quality luckily brightens up.

While the sound gets much better, tonight the orchestra and Glen Hardin’s piano are rather low in the mix.

Elvis introduces himself a “J.D. Stamps” and checking that “it is evening isn’t it?”

A routine ‘Love Me’ follows but you can hear the crowd’s roar of appreciation. Tonight the 14,000 audience is thankfully closer – laughing at his every joke- and Elvis is buzzing off the vibe of the crowd.  This was a Saturday night show and it feels like everyone was up for some fun.

“One of my first records from when I first started about 5 years ago!” Elvis kids about ‘Trying To Get to You’ - and it’s a real highlight with Elvis putting a lot of effort. Only added to the set-list at the beginning of ’74 and with “Live On Stage In Memphis” not released until July 74 this was very likely the first time his loving fans had heard this live.

‘All Shook Up’ is ‘routine’ but driven by the band with some neat JB picking. The audience laps it up with Elvis thanking then afterwards.

A regular ‘Love Me Tender’ (“make my bird turn blue” version) follows along with a routine ‘Hound Dog’.

‘Fever’ driven by Bardwell’s clear bass-line is a real crowd-pleaser “He’s just a monkey in the morning” Elvis sings and afterwards thanks the cheering crowd, “You’re a good audience ladies and gentlemen to put up with that kind of nonsense!”

‘Polk Salad Annie’ – which was always Jerry Scheff’s song - is just ‘ok’.

Elvis asks, “Is it hot out there? It’s 180 degrees up here? - I’d like to ask J.D & Stamps to sing one of my favourite songs” and once again ‘Why Me Lord’ is a highlight a very sincere version. This recording has Elvis singing the chorus almost solo since The Stamps are very low in the mix. It’s a very powerful version - “Yeah, whoo, I Like that” with Elvis kicking straight into the reprise. Very nice indeed. Elvis thanks the crowd and jokes.. “J.D. Sumner and The Stamps in their brand new outfits. You finally broke down and got one!”

A routine 74 crowd-pleaser ‘Suspicious Minds’ follows.

Elvis sings the first line of ‘Farther Along’ – shame this wasn’t pursued more - before ‘The Introductions’. Elvis laughs that “You can see that we don’t have any fun at all up here, folks!” and then starts to introduce everyone as if they are from Texas, “... Watergate Texas, Dallas Texas, Odessa Texas, Nashville Texas… with Joe Guercio conducting the all Texas band!”

‘I Can’t Stop Loving You’ another good version features some tight Ronnie Tutt percussion – Elvis would basically stop performing this classic after this tour.

‘Heartbreak Hotel’ – only Elvis third version in 1974, it was not a regular is only fair but a bonus treat for the crowd.

“The other side of our new record, ‘If You Talk In Your Sleep”, ‘Help Me’ is sung as a charming duet with Sherrill Nielsen and is very sincere. A very touching version. The single would have been charting at the time and the crowd give it an appreciate roar.

‘An American Trilogy’ is an OK version which has Elvis in his mock high voice intro the Stamps “sing it fellows” at the start which destroys some of the feeling. The Flute solo sounds extremely distant but the ending obviously has a great impact with the crowd.  

‘Let Me Be There’ with reprise is full of enthusiasm, a song that Elvis obviously loved singing.

Elvis gets the house lights turned up for a cool and crowd-pleasing ‘Funny How Time Slips Away’ adding the lyric “Never know when I’ll be back in town.. tomorrow..”

“Whoo, Lord Have Mercy” and it’s straight into a ‘loose’ start to ‘Big Boss Man’ (Glen Hardin is so low in the mix so it’s basically only Elvis and Ronnie Tutt at the start). It’s a fine version – very rhythm section driven – and just as the band thinks it’s finishing Elvis pushes them for another chorus - great fun.

Elvis thanks the crowd noting that “it’s been a thrill working for you, we really enjoy it” and you can tell that he means it,

... “Until the next time we see you, we love you. Be careful going home and ‘Adios’” with ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’ closing a very good show.

While this is a previously unreleased concert it is unfortunately so very similar to Elvis' other 'Fort Worth '74' concerts that collectors may be a little disappointed.

Disc 3. Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, June 17 - 55 minutes
Only two days later, Monday evening, Elvis was playing to a larger crowd of 15,000 but being a weekday he was booked for only the evening performance.

Kicking straight into ‘See See Rider’ the sound quality is dull, very flat and there is some underlying distortion which luckily does get better about half-way through.
However Elvis sounds fine for a “Monday night” and again you can hear the roar of his loving audience.   

After the routine ‘Well, well, wells” and a fine ‘I Got a Woman – Amen’ he introduces himself as “My name is Arvis Paisley, okay I’ll turn around” and then sings two lines of Glen Campbell’s ‘Turn Around Look at Me’.

‘Love Me’ is routine, bar the lyric change “If you ever go, Darling I’ll be oh.. oh so crazy”.

Afterwards Elvis teases the crowd, “This next song is from when I first started singing on the Louisana Hayride in Shreveport, Tennessee!” Elvis then sings the first two lines of ‘Good time Charlies Got The Blues’. A song from his latest album ‘Good Times’ released a few months previously this would have been an excellent inclusion. But Elvis flips back to ‘Trying To Get To You' which is a fine version including “streaking all the way”.

The oldies ‘All Shook Up’ / ‘Love Me Tender’ / ‘Hound Dog’ / ‘Fever’ are all very routine, if required, crowd-pleasers. Again Elvis repeats his line, “You’re a good audience to put up with that kind of nonsense!”

‘Polk Salad Annie’ is a regular work-out tonight but with Elvis obviously throwing in plenty of stage action at the end which gets the crowd roaring.

Elvis jokes that “I’d like to ask J.D. Sumner & Stamps to leave the stage!... Sing one of my favourite songs” before ‘Why Me, Lord’ which is another high-quality straight version with no teasing - plus a good reprise featuring a nice soprano from Kathy Westmoreland.

‘Suspicious Minds’ is again the ’74 routine crowd-pleaser. By now Elvis had sung this song over 400 times in concert, so perhaps it’s impressive that he sounds interested at all. At the end the crowd goes crazy with appreciation - and little did they know that this classic song would basically be dropped after this very tour.    

‘The Introductions’ are again short and sweet. Being from Baton Rouge, Duke Bardwell gets a huge roar of appreciation. Elvis also teases that the whole orchestra is from Louisiana.  

Before the next song there’s a cute interaction when Elvis greets a screaming fan saying, “I love you honey, oh God do I love you but I still gotta’ sing this song!’,

‘I Can’t Stop Loving You’ is again a fine version, Elvis working hard and including some fine piano work from Glen Hardin.

‘Help Me’ (again introduced as “The other side of ‘If You Talk in Your Sleep”) is fine, a gentle duet with Sherrill Nielsen At the start Elvis jokes to Sherrill “You’re on your own”!

‘An American Trilogy’ gets a huge applause at the start but the emotional feeling as a soundboard recording is ruined by Elvis’ interruptions and asides. The flute solo again is very distant. There is no doubt however that the crowd laps it up giving it a huge applause.    

‘Let Me Be There’ is OK and again includes the usual reprise.
What a shame that Elvis so loved singing this recent chart hit for Olivia Newton-John when he could have chosen so many others. What about Johnny Burnett’s ‘You’re Sixteen’ a 1974 recent big hit for Ringo Starr, perhaps Stevie Wonder’s classic ‘Living For The City’ (“A boy is born in hard time Mississippi, Surrounded by four walls that ain't so pretty”) or the perfect-for-Elvis ‘Taking Care Of Business’ by Bachman Turner Overdrive!

Elvis asks for the house lights to be turned up before ‘Funny How Time Slips Away’ which again includes the line “I’ll be back in town, tomorrow night I guess”. Tonight we get the “big old weird bass-singer here” J.D Sumner deep ending reprise.
Elvis also mentions that “he’s lower than a whale’s belly at the bottom of the ocean”. Fans may remember that Elvis used that line during his last ever concert in Indianapolis, showing that Elvis' favourite phrases were repeated from Elvis time to time over several years!

‘Big Boss Man’ is more ‘together’ tonight – it has a better audio mix- and is very fine.

Before he leaves Elvis says “We will be back tomorrow night, I hope you enjoyed something that we did, so until then we bid you an affectionate ‘Adios’”

‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’ is Ok with the J.D sliding-down-the-scale ending! plus Closing Vamp ends this just short of an hour show.

Overall not such a bad show and no doubt chosen for the "one-liners" from the unusual songs. Early in this tour Elvis clearly is ‘loose’ and having a lot of fun on stage. Thankfully as the show goes on the sound does improve and become more ‘dynamic’.

Extra Note: Interestingly a decade ago the 2013 FTD release ‘SOLD OUT’ included the 34 seconds of ‘Turn Around look at Me’ as a Bonus Track that is actually featured here in this show. Going even further back to the August 1974 boxcar vinyl release of ‘Having Fun Onstage With Elvis’ included quite a lot of dialogue from this Baton Rouge show - namely ‘Shreveport, Tennessee’, ‘lay it on me kid’ and ‘I love you honey, but I still gotta’ sing this song’. The 1974 vinyl ’Having Fun on Stage' LP mostly featured dialogue from Elvis’ August 1969 recordings as side ‘A’ and mostly June 1974 on side ‘B’ plus some ‘Hello Memphis’ from March 1974, plenty of Fort Worth Father’s Day show, Omaha 1974 and this release Baton Rouge 1974! Along with an absolutely ridiculous number of ‘I Can’t Stop Loving You' false starts.

Obviously Parker remembered that there was lots of dialogue he could use from the 1969 shows, including Elvis' lengthy monologue, and asked Felton Jarvis or possibly Tom Diskin to find more from the recently recorded soundboard cassettes. Another masterful (disgraceful!) piece of managing to help keep Elvis’ legacy burning bright from Col Parker.   

Overall Verdict: In the first half of 1974 Elvis was clearly enjoying performing before the emotional turmoil of ‘Desert Storm’. Unfortunately he hardly changed his set-list which makes each show very similar – especially when two of these concerts were only 48 hours apart. The real positive is that Elvis' 1974 Houston Astrodome concert is an essential performance for any collector and needed to get an official release. The other two previously unreleased concerts are fun to listen to, great for keen collectors, but perhaps a little too similar to other shows that have been previously released in better audio quality.  
However with this set including three different concerts with Elvis clearly having fun on stage and including the really ‘solid’ March Astrodome 1974 show there is still plenty to enjoy. Thanks again FTD.

Note - if you don't own the 'Classic Album' 7" 'SOLD OUT' double live set from 1974 please read the review below. A real classic 1974 collection from FTD.

Review by Geoffrey McDonnell / Piers Beagley.
-Copyright EIN August 2023
EIN Website content © Copyright the Elvis Information Network.

Click here to comment on this article

'Elvis: Fort Worth, Texas 1974' FTD in-depth Review: This FTD double-pack features two concerts from Elvis’ third tour of 1974, both performances from Father's Day in Fort Worth, Texas, June 16 1974. Elvis performed four shows at the 14,000 seater Tarrant Convention Center in Fort Worth Texas. These were the first four shows of Elvis' Tour #11 so he was ready to rock. Reviews included, "Elvis put on one sharp, uptown and professional show. Wrapped skintight or loosely white bellbottoms and waist-length jacket. Elvis had the show in the palm of his hand". In fine humour, at the evening show Elvis jokes that the whole band are from Texas... “John Wilkinson from Waco Texas, Ronnie Tutt from Dallas Texas, Duke Bardwell from Abilene Texas, Charlie Hodge from Decateur Texas, Voice from Nashville Texas and Joe Guercio with the all-Texas choir band! And I’m from Tupelo, Texas." Go here as Elvis soundboard super-collector Geoffrey McDonnell & EIN's Piers Beagley give you the complete low-downk .... (FTD Reviews, Source;ElvisInformationNetwork)

'SOLD OUT' FTD CD Review: This FTD release features two previously unknown reel-to-reel recordings of Elvis on tour in 1974. March 1974 was Elvis' ninth tour of the USA and was his first tour since July 1973. Freed from the constraints of the Las Vegas Hilton casino crowd, Elvis was in fine form and putting on great shows getting fabulous on-stage feedback from his enthusiastic audiences from the Southern states. Every concert sold out in a few hours and extra concerts had to be added to meet the demand. Elvis would play 154 concerts in 1974 and Tulsa March 1st would be his first outside the Las Vegas casino crowd, Cleveland June 21st would also be a great performance to an enthusiastic crowd. Go here as EIN's Piers Beagley along with David Tinson provide an in-depth review of this fabulous new FTD release.... (FTD Reviews, Source;ElvisInformationNetwork)

'Elvis: Ohama, Nebraska '74' FTD in-depth Review: This FTD double-pack features two concerts from Elvis’ third tour of 1974, both performances from Omaha on June 30 1974. It was the first time Elvis had played Ohama, Nebraska since 1956 and it was the penultimate city on this 25 performance tour. Elvis played three shows over two days, and a six week holiday was in sight. Elvis was in a fine mood, did he really... - Announce that he was  ‘Jimmy Dean’ “I’m here to sell some Pork Sausages”? - Joke that his first movie was 1972 porn flick ‘Behind the Green Door’? - Start singing “What a friend we have in Jesus”? . . . . . You bet he did! Go here as Elvis soundboard super-collector Geoffrey McDonnell & EIN's Piers Beagley give you the complete low-down on this new FTD double-pack .... (FTD Reviews, Source;ElvisInformationNetwork)

'48 Hours To Memphis' FTD CD Review: Elvis' Richmond show, March 18 1974 on this FTD features a previously unknown multi-track recording. March 1974 was Elvis' ninth tour of the USA and twenty-five performances in under 3 weeks. Freed from the constraints of the Las Vegas Hilton casino crowd, Elvis was in fine form and putting on great shows getting fabulous on-stage feedback from his enthusiastic audiences from the Southern states. Every concert sold out in a few hours and extra concerts had to be added to meet the demand. This recording was made 2 days before 'Recorded live on stage in Memphis'. It’s a fabulous discovery with the recording coming from a newly discovered, unmarked tape. The concert also gets a deluxe 7" packaging plus 16-page booklet. Click here to EIN's in-depth review of this new FTD release.. (FTD Reviews, Source;ElvisInformationNetwork)