“ Rockin’ with Elvis April
Fool’s Day ” Live Stage Productions 72722 is a top-notch LP release. This LP was released in 1980 and according to the book “Jailhouse
Rock ” originated in the USA. To quote:
“ RCA could take a lesson in packaging Elvis albums from this bootleg.” ( p.
217 Cotton/DeWitt ) The LP has a
high quality full color cover photo taken from the Ashville, NC July 22nd 1975
show. There are three “action ” photos on the back of the cover taken from
the same show but printed in “blue tint” next to the concert track listing,
song times and musician listing. The
LP labels are gold with the LP title and track listing given on each side though
no artist is credited. The artwork
is high quality, except for perhaps the fact that the photos are sloppily
“cut-out” and Elvis’ hair looks funny.
This show is the April 1, 1975 9:00
pm Closing Night performance to wrap up a 2 week stint in Vegas. The sound quality is fantastic for an audience recording.
With no room ambiance what so ever, the recording clearly picks up an
extremely well balanced mix of instruments and vocals from the PA system…the
person recording this show was certainly well placed in the showroom that
evening!! The performance is top
notch as well. Elvis is in great
voice and in fine mood and seems to be giving some extra to close out this Vegas
stint.
This show was released on CD in 1992
under the same title and with the same artwork under the label designation
92-EF-14-04. The CD was copied from
the LP and some digital filtering was done to clean up the sound.
Too bad the original master tape hadn’t been used for the CD.
The only flaw, if you will, with the master tape is that it ran out
before the show was over, therefore the last 2 songs on the LP and CD were taken
from RCA’s LP “ Elvis Recorded Live in Memphis ” March 20, 1974.
Can’t really fault anyone for that though cause when the tape runs out,
it runs out. The producers of this
LP could have made mention of this fact though.
Ernie Boyes Jr.