1975 New Year's Eve Mysteries --> Resolved?

[midnightx]

I too think that he didn't reach the quality of his winter season in Vegas....it was one of the best Vegas seasons ever.

Huh?

[drjohncarpenter]

I don't understand the faux pity comment. I simply said the poor guy was abused by his management. I feel that way.

If the gross was anything around 800K, which is the commonly used number, you're not saying management and Elvis split $300,000.00, are you? Expenses couldn't have been $500,000. If you are saying Elvis got $300,000 and management claimed $200,000 in expenses and $300,000 as its share, I could think that was realistic.

Thanks for the topic.

This is exactly what is written in Elvis: Day By Day.

Wasn't the Pontiac show where it was so cold that the musicians had a hard time keeping their instruments tuned?

Yes, this was the show. Management gave no thought whatsoever to the elements affecting the musicianship, in a stadium ... on the last day in December ... in Pontiac, Michigan.

[stevelecher]

I can't imagine Colonel Parker accepting $300,000.00 out of an $800,000.00 gross.

[drjohncarpenter]

Another super find, Doc. That new information really gets ones mind going. Is it possible that Tom Parker is not fully to blame for the diaper-wearing hillbilly's being present on 12/31/75? All I can say is, Wow!

rlj

It's 100% on management. That Jim Stafford review from November 1975 that I posted on page 1 makes clear their debut single will be out on the Boxcar label from Madison, Tennessee. So Parker and his cronies already had some kind of deal going even before their very first show.

Great post, Doc. I've been in contact with Bree Krach, a son of one the members of the Bodie Express, Michael Krach. Bree shared some stories and pictures.

From Brees FB post:

" After many concerts, my dad was the one that Colonel Parker handcuffed the money to as they all shuffled to the airport. That had to be kind of scary physically being the insurance.
The Colonel tried ONCE to have my dad sell souvenirs. By the time my dad got back from the masses, he came up like $300 short. Colonel Parker said, "Don't worry about it Mike, you just weren't made out to be a salesman." That's the reason he was the briefcase carrier, it was punishment. LOL"





Here's a photo of two members of the band with Colonel and Barron Hilton at Las Vegas Hilton circa 1976




Charles Stone seems to indicate that the band performed in diapers at Pontiac. From Stones FB post:
"yeah and I bet your dad remebers pontiac and how cold it was ,,, performing in diapers ......heck I was cold in a coat...
but that was an event he can rememeber forever. no one else ever opened for Elvis in the 70's exept his showmembers. and do I remember Colonel and us did a jim stafford show in the orange show and the bodies performed there as well. "

Thanks for the additional information on "The Express." That photo of them with Parker and Barron Hilton was taken during the "Always Elvis" event in September 1978, supposedly management's way of fulfilling a promise to provide Elvis for the grand opening of the new Hilton Pavilion. Presley couldn't make it, as he had died, so "Always Elvis" was the magical solution.

AlwaysElvisflyerSep1978.jpg

Maybe because they were so young, and so inexperienced, they were willing to go out in front of 60,000 people on New Year's Eve wearing oversized diapers. I found another article on them from the same San Bernardino newspaper, a preview of the concert review posted seen on page 1.

The Bodie Mountain Express made their professional debut opening for Jim Stafford at the Swing Auditorium, National Orange Show Grounds, in San Bernardino on Saturday, November 1, 1975.

Swing Auditorium_exterior.jpg

Swing Auditorium_interior.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swing_Auditorium


The article below makes clear the players were still mostly teenagers, and very much inexperienced professional musicians. As noted, their first single was supposed to be on Parker's Boxcar label, this is mentioned in each article, although neither makes any connection to Parker, or to Elvis.

One suspects maybe management pulled a few strings to get them the booking on the Stafford show, and all this media attention. As for the show on 12-31-1975, Parker probably paid them very little for their work.

Today, a goat farm; tomorrow, the Swing
San Bernardino County Sun-Telegram
By Jimmy Johnson, Sun-Telegram Staff Writer
Friday, October 31, 1975

SAN BERNARDINO - They may be back working on the goat farm in Buzzard Hills come Monday morning, but Saturday night "The Bodie Mountain Express" is gonna get a taste of the big time.

"The Bodie Mountain Express" is a group of guys Duane Michaels, 18, Michael Kroch, 19, Chuck Stewart, 20, all of Perris, and Jack Clausen, 19, of Hemet who do a lot of pickin' and fiddlin.' They call their music "new grass," but it sounds amazingly similar to bluegrass.

"The Express" plays at "big" events -- such as the Cajalco Fire Station's annual pancake breakfast not necessarily for money, but for all they can eat. Why, they once played at the wedding of Ol' Tom (they don't know his last name, but, "what the hell it was a chance to play"), one of the five regular residents of the Central California ghost town of Bodie.

But things will get better for "The Bodie Mountain Express." This talented group will be featured on "The Jim Stafford Show" at Swing Auditorium Saturday night. "We started out as a bluegrass group," and Stewart, the guitar player for the group, "but lately we've been pickin' up on others things. We call it new grass, but it's just good basic bluegrass done up the way we do things."

Michaels, the fiddle player, was responsible for getting the group together when he became vitally interested in learning to play the fiddle.

"I was watching one of those old Frankenstein movies," he chuckled. "There was a blind fiddler in it and he kept sawing away throughout the whole movie. "I said then that I was gonna learn to fiddle. I hitched-hiked to a swap meet, paid $20 for an instrument and taught myself to play."

None of the guys in the group has ever taken a music lesson and the reason they play country music is simple. "We didn't know what rock was," Michael says, so we had no choice." They sang together in a chorus in high school, but have been playing as a group since "we learned how to ditch classes in high school, about four years ago."

"We all sort of started together," Michaels added. "I was playing the fiddle, Mike had got real good on the five-string banjo, but we had no idea Chuck would be interested in this country stuff. "When he said he was interested, I like to have dropped dead, but we still needed a bass player. Jack was a hot-rodder and didn't know the first thing about playing the bass. Didn't even know what one was, but he said he'd try anything. We've been playing together ever since."

"The Bodie Mountain Express" wins just about every festival it enters, in spite of its youth. The boys won the Bill Monroe Festival recently in Norco, the Calico Ghost Town spring festival and the Idyllwild Invitational. And after winning the Norco event, Michaels got to shake hands with Bill Monroe, the granddaddy of bluegrass music.

"The Express" is popular at the Penny University, and recently it cut its first record, "Growin' Up in a Country Way" and "Mad Mike's Breakdown." It will be on the Boxcar label out of Madison, Tenn. All four of the musicians work on a goat farm in Buzzard Hills in Riverside County and part of their big dream is "never have to milk another dang goat."

"My dream," Stewart said, "is to have a whole stock room full of strings." "Personally," Clausen interrupted with a chuckle, "I'd rather have a brand new string bass." His instrument looks a bit worn, but the licks he gets out of it are fresh and hot.

The group took its name from the ghost town of Bodie. "In Bodie, we get the red carpet treatment," Stewart laughed, adding "the entire town of five turns out when we play there."

But why Bodie? "Because it has an interesting history," Stewart explained. "Back in the 1800s, there was a killing a day in Bodie. There were stagecoach holdups almost in the middle of town. And at one time, when the population had reached about 12,000, there were 32 cathouses in town. "It was a swinging place, so when a close friend of ours suggested it for a name, we liked it"

The group is convinced its appearance on "The Jim Stafford Show" is a big break. "You'll never know how much we appreciate it" they said, breaking into their version of "The Orange Blossom Special," an old fiddle standard.

751031_San Bernardino Sun-Telegram.JPG

http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/57758866/

[Matthew]

I too think that he didn't reach the quality of his winter season in Vegas....it was one of the best Vegas seasons ever.

Compared to what other Vegas seasons?

[drjohncarpenter]

I can't imagine Colonel Parker accepting $300,000.00 out of an $800,000.00 gross.

He likely didn't. As I already wrote in a previous reply:

Management was also very good about taking funds for "expenses," so I wish I could see the paperwork regarding this show.

If you look at how Parker conducted business through the years, the gross split was likely the only part that included Elvis. No doubt he had his expenses well compensated for from the rest of the gross receipts, not to mention merchandising and so on. All of this is implied in the book cited.

[ccrider]

That was pretty embarrassing that Parker would put that type of act with Elvis. Especially at a major show like that. That Parker was showing his real amature out of touch ways.

[rlj4ep]

Gosh, this thread is revealing some very interesting stuff that was going on in the Elvis world. Perhaps behind the scenes, perhaps not. Either way, if Elvis was aware and I suspect he was, no wonder he was so depressed professionally. No wonder he seemed like he was walking through the motions in later years. I wonder if Elvis ever thought that he was just some "circus act" to be used and yes, abused, until the managers are finished with you. If that's the case, my dis-taste for Tom Parker continues to grow. Gosh, the pain and even distrust of others Elvis must have been living with.

[drjohncarpenter]

This was from the San Bernidino times Sept 1978. The Bodi Mountain Express were doing a show with Ray Price and Tammy Wynette. Here's a quote:

We hit that stage first in 1975, doing the warmup for Jim Stafford," said guitarist Chuck Stewart, Bodie spokesman. "Up to that time we'd been doing our bluegrass around the area for whatever money or food we could earn. "The Stafford show launched us. Col. Tom Parker heard us and asked us to go on tour with Elvis Presley. Which we did off and on for 2X2 years. "It was a great experience, appearing on the same show so many times with Elvis. We played to huge audiences, of course, yet there is nothing like working with a small crowd w here you can feel the closeness," Stewart said.

I guess that was all B.S. other than the one off New Years show.

Yes, pretty much most of what Chuck Stewart says there isn't supported by the historical record.

They only played the one show with Elvis on 12-31-1975, and Parker was behind the booking of the 11-01-1975 debut gig, according to Charles Stone. Certainly, since their debut single was being touted as coming out on Boxcar, they'd already entered into business with him, Parker didn't "find" them because of the Stafford show.

[rlj4ep]

This was from the San Bernidino times Sept 1978. The Bodi Mountain Express were doing a show with Ray Price and Tammy Wynette. Here's a quote:

We hit that stage first in 1975, doing the warmup for Jim Stafford," said guitarist Chuck Stewart, Bodie spokesman. "Up to that time we'd been doing our bluegrass around the area for whatever money or food we could earn. "The Stafford show launched us. Col. Tom Parker heard us and asked us to go on tour with Elvis Presley. Which we did off and on for 2X2 years. "It was a great experience, appearing on the same show so many times with Elvis. We played to huge audiences, of course, yet there is nothing like working with a small crowd w here you can feel the closeness," Stewart said.

I guess that was all B.S. other than the one off New Years show.

Yes, pretty much most of what Chuck Stewart says there isn't supported by the historical record.

They only played the one show with Elvis on 12-31-1975, and Parker was behind the booking of the 11-01-1975 debut gig, according to Charles Stone. Certainly, since their debut single was being touted as coming out on Boxcar, they'd already entered into business with him, Parker didn't "find" them because of the Stafford show.

Isn't it nice to know that Tom Parker's full attention was on Elvis... NOT! Elvis was just a so called, cash-cow to Parker. Some of what he did even at Elvis' funeral is so maddening!

[stevelecher]

I can't imagine Colonel Parker accepting $300,000.00 out of an $800,000.00 gross.

He likely didn't. As I already wrote in a previous reply:

Management was also very good about taking funds for "expenses," so I wish I could see the paperwork regarding this show.

If you look at how Parker conducted business through the years, the gross split was likely the only part that included Elvis. No doubt he had his expenses well compensated for from the rest of the gross receipts, not to mention merchandising and so on. All of this is implied in the book cited.

It just gets more and more reprehensible.

[jurasic1968]

The Colonel had no regrets. He was sleeping well at night, like he sad in one interview after Elvis died. In his mind he did all the things well-getting more and more money for him and after that for his client-and he was convinced that only him was able after 1967 (when the first 50/50 contract was signed) who could maintain Elvis Presley in the top of show business.

[drjohncarpenter]

The 1975 and 1976 holiday seasons were times of stark contrast for Elvis.

The December 75 Vegas gig found him engaged in his music. He'd been away from the stage for four months. And, while he looked dramatically more out of shape and less healthy than the last time we saw him, his performances were focused. Perhaps he was somewhat challenged at the prospect of filling that big room at Christmas time.

The Pontiac show was a new low. He was inarticulate. The stammering, mumbling and slurring that would characterize much of 1976 was in evidence on the last night of 75.

Fast forward a year, and things were reversed. He'd worked like a mule all year. He fell into a rapid and severe depression almost as soon as he hit Vegas. There are moments in these shows when sounds as if he is about to cry. And then, we have the short series of gigs that ended the year leaving many in the group with a new sense of hope that Elvis had gotten his act together.

Not sure if the metaphor of Elvis as a "mule" in 1976 creates the best image of that year.

The contrast is indeed stark. One factor possibly affecting the 12-31-1975 show was the Christmas incident just the week before.

Elvis took guests and family he had over at Graceland that evening for a quick flight on the Lisa Marie. When they landed, he gave out some jewelry as gifts, and his Aunt Delta, apparently drunk, cussed out everyone, deeply angering and embarrassing him.

Until Straight Arrow's Rock Back The Clock, I'd not really heard the 1975 New Year's performance, and was quite surprised at how decent it sounded, as captured by an audience member. Outside looking in, it seems the show was a success, despite what Elvis or his bandmates felt about the event.

More importantly, given this topic, are the "one-time only" warm-up acts (Bodie Mountain Express, Freedom) available on YouTube?

[G.I. Blues]

The 1975 and 1976 holiday seasons were times of stark contrast for Elvis.

The December 75 Vegas gig found him engaged in his music. He'd been away from the stage for four months. And, while he looked dramatically more out of shape and less healthy than the last time we saw him, his performances were focused. Perhaps he was somewhat challenged at the prospect of filling that big room at Christmas time.

The Pontiac show was a new low. He was inarticulate. The stammering, mumbling and slurring that would characterize much of 1976 was in evidence on the last night of 75.

Fast forward a year, and things were reversed. He'd worked like a mule all year. He fell into a rapid and severe depression almost as soon as he hit Vegas. There are moments in these shows when sounds as if he is about to cry. And then, we have the short series of gigs that ended the year leaving many in the group with a new sense of hope that Elvis had gotten his act together.

Not sure if the metaphor of Elvis as a "mule" in 1976 creates the best image of that year.

The contrast is indeed stark. One factor possibly affecting the 12-31-1975 show was the Christmas incident just the week before.

Elvis took guests and family he had over at Graceland that evening for a quick flight on the Lisa Marie. When they landed, he gave out some jewelry as gifts, and his Aunt Delta, apparently drunk, cussed out everyone, deeply angering and embarrassing him.

Until Straight Arrow's Rock Back The Clock, I'd not really heard the 1975 New Year's performance, and was quite surprised at how decent it sounded, as captured by an audience member. Outside looking in, it seems the show was a success, despite what Elvis or his bandmates felt about the event.

More importantly, given this topic, are the "one-time only" warm-up acts (Bodie Mountain Express, Freedom) available on YouTube?

At least Bodie Mountain Express has some recent clips on YouTube and they aren't too bad if you like that type of music.
..
..

According to the YouTuber probably from 1977 or 1978:
..

[Robert]

..

751231_concert ticket.jpg

Searched for this tune while listening to the Pontiac warm up years ago, couldn't find it, and here it is!
Thanks for posting.

[billyblues]

Thanks, this is a heck of a nice thread with some very interesting info!

[drjohncarpenter]

..

Searched for this tune while listening to the Pontiac warm up years ago, couldn't find it, and here it is!
Thanks for posting.

I had a feeling it was in Pat Upton's set that night, how could he not play his hit?

Are the "one-time only" warm-up acts (Bodie Mountain Express, Freedom) available on YouTube?

[Robert]

..

Searched for this tune while listening to the Pontiac warm up years ago, couldn't find it, and here it is!
Thanks for posting.

I had a feeling it was in Lee Upton's set that night, how could he not play his hit?

Are the "one-time only" warm-up acts (Bodie Mountain Express, Freedom) available on YouTube?

The Pontiac version is quite similar.
Another song done that night was 'Crying'.
Also good!
Couldn't find it on YT..

[drjohncarpenter]

I had a feeling it was in Pat Upton's set that night, how could he not play his hit?

Are the "one-time only" warm-up acts (Bodie Mountain Express, Freedom) available on YouTube?

The Pontiac version is quite similar.
Another song done that night was 'Crying'.
Also good!
Couldn't find it on YT..

Hmm. Can you post whatever song titles are on the tape you have of the performances?

Or maybe upload the audio somewhere? I'm curious.

[drjohncarpenter]

Thanks, this is a heck of a nice thread with some very interesting info!

Thanks.

Do you know if the "one-time only" warm-up acts (Bodie Mountain Express, Freedom) are available on YouTube?

[stevelecher]

Were there any unusual warm up acts at the Pittsburgh show the next year? Again, Elvis didn't come out until about 11:00 at that show either.

[Johnny2523]

Hmm. Can you post whatever song titles are on the tape you have of the performances?

Or maybe upload the audio somewhere? I'm curious.

I could.
It was released on this bootleg

http://www.elvisconcerts.com/cds/happyyear.htm

Track 01 - Opening Acts & Warm Up
http://www53.zippyshare.com/v/PSrCK7qu/file.html

[Robert]

Were there any unusual warm up acts at the Pittsburgh show the next year? Again, Elvis didn't come out until about 11:00 at that show either.

That show just started later, it was the usual thing.. No bodie mountain express;)

[drjohncarpenter]

Hmm. Can you post whatever song titles are on the tape you have of the performances?

Or maybe upload the audio somewhere? I'm curious.

I could.
It was released on this bootleg

http://www.elvisconcerts.com/cds/happyyear.htm

Track 01 - Opening Acts & Warm Up
http://www53.zippyshare.com/v/PSrCK7qu/file.html

Thanks, I will try to listen asap, and add my observations to the original thread.

[Sebastian E]

I came across another tidbit concerning "Pat Upton & Freedom".

Their bass player was Gregg Sutton, who later played with Bob Dylan on his 1984 live tour.

From a 2017 interview with Sutton:

Highlights? Again there have been so many...I think one was New Year's Eve 1975-76 ...I was the bassist in a band called "Pat Upton and Freedom"...we were the only band to ever open a show for the KING of ROCK 'n ROLL ELVIS AARON PRESLEY!!!! It was at a sold out Pontiac Silver Dome, approx. 80,000 people and Elvis….Watching Elvis in person and having access to almost everywhere so being able to see the inner workings and observe.
Col. Parker etc was a big eye opener…Pat Upton, btw was the guy who sang and wrote "I WIll Love You More Today Than Yesterday"-an amazing voice and Col. Parker was considering managing him.

http://blues.gr/profiles/blogs/q-amp-a-with-gregg-sutton-one-of-the-most-accomplished-singer