Review of Elvis 25th anniversary concert CDR

Hello
My It's been a Long time since I have updated this site,........Well better late than Never as they always say.

This Time around I thought I would switch gears a little, I was planning on reviewing The Video California Gold along with it's counter part VCD Elvis in LA 74', However I will do that at a later time. This review is on a New CDR that I just got in which I haven't seen posted on the net anywhere as yet. So I thought I would share a little about what I saw at the Concert and what I thought of the show as well as providing this little review of this New CDR. It's a Double CDR of the 25th Anniversary Concert held in Memphis on August 16th 2002 at The Pyramid.

Here is the Song Listing from the Two CDR's:

CD 1
1) Priscilla Presley Opens The Show 2) Trouble / Guitar Man 3) Dorsey Brothers Show Elvis sings Shake Rattle & Roll / Flip, Flop & Fly 4) Heartbreak Hotel 5) Elvis Introduces D.J. Fontanna 6) Milton Berle Show Elvis sings Hound Dog 7) Ed Sulivan Introduces Elvis 8) Love Me 9) Don't Be Cruel 10) All Shook Up 11) Blue Suede Shoes 12) Memories 13) Elvis says "I Did 29 Pictures Like That" Trouble 14) Your So Square ( Baby I Don't Care ) 15) Teddy Bear 16) Jailhouse Rock 17) Love Me Tender 18) Rock A Hula Baby 19) Bossa Nova 20) Return To Sender 21) Mean Woman Blues 22) Girl Happy 23) Viva Las Vegas 24) Come On Everybody 25) Memories 25) Memories 26) Elvis Talks about Music / Swing Down Sweet Chariot 27) Jordanaires Introduce Peace In The Valley 28) Peace In The Valley 29) Jordanaires Sing Peace In The Valley 30) Stamps Intro / Elvis Asks The Audience To Listen To The Stamps Sing Sweet Sweet Spirit 31) Sweet Sweet Spirit 32) J.D. Sumner & The Stamps Sing with Elvis on The Song "Why Me Lord" 33) How Great tho Art 34) If I Can Dream (Ending of First Part of Concert) 35) Priscilla Thanks Family, Friends & Staff & Introduces President of RCA Bob Jamieson 36) Bob Jamieson Talks about Elvis 30 Number 1s CD + 1 37) Little Less Conversation 38) Lisa Marie Pays Tribute To Her Father with A Song She Wrote "Nobody Notices"

CD 2
1) CC Rider 2) Burning Love 3) I Can't Stop Lovin' You 4) Steamroller Blues 5) Introductions 6) Johnny B Good 7) You Gave Me A Mountain 8) That`s All Right (Mama) 9) You Lost That Loving Feeling 10) Mystery Train / Tiger Man 11) Just Pretend 12) Are You lonesome Tonight ? 13) Men With Broken Hearts 14) Walk A Mile In My Shoes 15) In The Ghetto 16) Polk Salad Annie 17) Bridge Over Trouble Water 18) The Wonder Of You 19) Suspicious Minds 20) I`ll Remember You 21) What Now My Love 22) Big Hunk O`Love 23) My Way 24) An American Trilogy 25) Can`t Help Falling In Love 26) Outro

This Concert certainly was the High Light in Memphis during Elvis Week this past August for most fans I am sure. The format of the Show has completely changed from the 97' Experience, chances are when they do go on tour now, they will be staying basically with this new format.

Over the years I have seen the 20th Anniversary Concert in 97', The Concert's in 98' at The Radio City Music Hall in New York, Las Vegas Hilton 98' Concerts, and another Memphis Concert in 2001 up until this 25th Anniversary Concert held In Memphis this year.

Overall I must say that The 97' Concert was the most exciting and Best of all that I saw, This Concert year certainly comes in a close 2nd, and The Radio City Music Hall Concerts from 98' come in 3rd for me.

The Main Change of the show this year was the first 90 mins. Starting out with Priscilla coming out and Opening the show, and after she finished her opening statement, the Show started right away with "Trouble/Guitar Man" segment,... making Elvis look very much like a Large 3D Elvis GOD beaming from the Heavens !

Quickly after the Trouble/Guitar Man we were taken back to the 50's and we got to feel and hear what Elvis may have really sounded like in a real Live performance.

Through out the First part of the Show we went from the 50's to the 60's back to the 50's and into the Gospel part of the Show that Elvis would have certainly approved of, where we were then taken through time hearing the Gospel groups Elvis sang with over the years, like the Jordanaires, Imperials, and the Stamps. The first part of the Concert ended with 'If I Can Dream"

2nd part of the Show started out with Priscilla thanking her Family, friends and staff and introducing The president of RCA Bob Jamieson, after Bob gets his opportunity to plug Elvis 30 Number's + 1 CD, we got to see the Video "Little Less Conversation", after this was done Lisa Marie came out for like 30 seconds and introduces her New Song that she wrote paying Tribute to her Father.

Very quickly after the song was done they take us to the 2001 Opening, Where we See our hero sing "CC Rider" and Then "Burning Love", which I will add,... I kinda Liked the new Guitar riff that James Burton has added to "Burning Love", This 2nd segment we got to see The band perform a few new songs with Elvis on Video this time around from the 70's Concerts, "Mystery train / Tiger Man" was New from TTWII, and "What Now My Love" from Aloha From Hawaii as well as the "Men With Broken Hearts" Dialogue with "Walk a Mile In My Shoes" from TTWII was New to see in this Concert setting, and the footage had a few different camera angles then what we have seen on the Video or DVD releases which is always nice to see for the first time.

The Show Overall was pretty Good, however their were a few Technical Audio problems that happened throughout the Concert and that takes us to this CDR, the proof is in the pudding as to where some of the audio problems occurred during the Concert. As with the 97' CDR release as well as some of the others that have become available over the years this new CDR of the 25th anniversary is nice to have, especially if you were at the shows for remembrance sake....I did notice there were some songs cut from the show when there were release on this CDR, however it really only looks like one Elvis song from the 2 nd part was deleted and I think that song was "Welcome To My World' which really didn't sound as tho it should have been used right after "Burning Love " anyway.

The sound quality of this CDR compared to the 97' release is maybe 1 or 2 points below in quality, for example if the 97' CDR Show was a 9 or 10 for an Audience recording this would be a 7 or an 8. Artwork is done in a cheaper way compared to the 97' release however it still looks pretty good in my opinion, the 2 Disc's and Artwork or Insert as some call it,.... is put into a slimpack Jewel case, A listing of all the songs on the Cd's are on the inside Insert. Once again this Historical Concert is great to have especially if your were at the Concert and even if you weren't at least for the Historic Value if nothing more. Best of Luck in Finding a copy, if not this Version, chances are there are others out there that I haven't seen.

I have to make mention that I CANNOT SUGGEST WHERE YOU CAN GET ANY OF THESE ITEMS THAT I REVIEW ON THIS WEB SITE AND I DO NOT SELL OR TRADE ANY OF THESE ITEMS FOR OBVIOUSLY REASONS, HOWEVER IF YOU LOOK HARD ENOUGH THERE ARE WAYS OF FINDING THE ITEMS.

IF there are any questions regarding this review or about anything relating to Elvis that you might think I could answer for you please E-mail PEPsREVIEW@aol.com

Until next time KEEP ELVIS NUMBER ONE !!
TCB