ELVIS ROCKIN' in LOS ANGLES, CALIFORNIA,
November 14th 1970
I have decided to review a RARE CDR and I do mean
RARE,.....Which I picked up a few years ago called " ELVIS ROCKIN' in LOS
ANGLES, CALIFORNIA, November 14th 1970 - Evening Show At the FORUM OF
INGELWOOD".

This is one of my
favourite Cdr's,.... because first of all,..... I haven't yet,.... seen this
show released on an Original, CD format,..... Yet the work that went into the
release was and is Top Notch for an Audience CDR release in my opinion. From the
Artwork and Pictures used on the Insert to the 16 page Booklet included, and
even to the Label that they used on the disc..... but most important it's One of
my favourites because of the Historic Significance where this was One of the
first time's Elvis Performed in LA since 1957, which Elvis himself points out to
the Audience during the performance. Along with it being, One of the first times
Elvis had ordered a Jump-suit to be especially made-up for the Performance and
City. Elvis also mentions this to the Audience as well during the performance.
Overall I think Elvis was really up and looking forward to these
shows in LA in the winter of 1970 and it shows in his
Performance that night and to think they didn't professionally Film this, Yikes ?????
This was the Evening where Elvis wore
the Specially Made Long Fringe Jump-suit.
Elvis makes reference to the Long
Fringe a few times during the performance and at One point he mentions ....."At
the time we thought it was a good idea, but now it seems to be always getting in
the way" ......
Elvis had made this comment because the
Long Fringe kept getting in the way by all the Fast Action Elvis was giving in
his movements that Night and so the Fringe kept getting caught in the microphone
cable, so he had Charlie Hodge cut some of the fringe off his suit that evening.
Oh and by the way....... talking about
that suit,..... I would like to point out I have heard over the years and have
seen it mentioned in a few Books as well where people have claimed Elvis only
wore this particular suit only once........This may not be case,..... Elvis did
wear a Similar suit during a 71' performance in Las Vegas the Night the
soundboard "Snowbird' was recorded,.... Now I say similar because I may have my
doubts Now, looking at this picture a little closer where One can see the suit
is..... slightly different then the one wore in LA,..........if you notice,
looking closer at the picture which isn't the best but I have noticed the suit
shown in this picture doesn't show a zig zag of eyelids down the front of the
suit they are they are straight up an down, now again this isn't the best
picture but you would think that this type of effect would still show up in the
picture, also the Fringe does look shorter than the LA suit, but I thought that
was because they made the Fringe shorter during the LA show, Anyway this just
may be a different suit altogether, plus if you notice Elvis is not wearing any
lace through the eyelids of the front of the suit.
What do some of you think, do you think
this is the same suit ???
Now another reason I decided to Review
the Audience Recorded, LA Show CDR was because recently I came across a VCD
which shows the 2:47 seconds of Footage Originally first seen on the DVD Release
"BEHIND THE IMAGE" but this time with MATCHING "Sound" !
The Footage as I just mentioned isn't
New because it was first seen and can still be seen on the DVD released earlier
this year called Elvis "Behind The Image" along with this LA Footage and the
other Footage that was available on the Elvis "Behind The Image" DVD the footage
didn't have sound and couldn't have sound even if the Producers had it because
of Copyright Issues and to my understanding they have No audio for any of the
Footage available on Elvis "Behind The Image" Anyway......So I know it wasn't
them that did this!
One can tell that the Sound was added
later because the Audio is just off by a hair in some parts of the footage.
It may only be 2:47 seconds,.....Well,
In reality only about a minute and a half of actual watchable Footage as the
rest of the Footage is a Little Too Dark to see anything other than a Silhouette
of Elvis. The footage is still pretty amazing tho, and is neat to see for the
first time and hear what Elvis is singing since seeing this footage first on the
DVD release of Elvis "Behind The Image".
The Audio does make a difference at the
same time it was kinda cool to get this after the DVD release of Elvis "Behind
the Image" to add to the Excitement of getting this Footage again and now with
sound !
If that makes sense?
The 2:27 minute VCD shows Elvis
appearing on stage just as the music for "That's all Right" starts, we get to
see Elvis putting the guitar on but just as he is about to start singing, we
briefly go to another scene and I do mean briefly....of Elvis starting off with
the song or playfully starting the song "Love Me Tender", then off to another
scene which is the Longest Complete scene of the VCD is of Elvis singing the
song 'You Don't Have To Say You Love Me", then we get to see Elvis start off
with the song "You Lost That Loving' Feeling", but very quickly as the song
starts the footage goes Almost Black, yet we still get to hear a little bit more
of the song, but it ends all so quickly.
If there was ever a time for the MGM
camera's or professional camera's of any kind to be filming, this certainly
should have been the time period to do so during these early 1970 concerts when
Elvis looked his BEST and Sang his best in my opinion.
It's such a shame that this never
happened, but at least we have something from the fans to show the fans.
NOW......Remember this is VERY
IMPORTANT the Producers of Elvis 'BEHIND THE IMAGE" were NOT HOLDING out on Us
because they weren't, as I was able to confirm that the 2:47 sec's of Footage I
have now on VCD with Audio, was added later on to the footage and that the
Producers of Elvis"Behind The Image "had NO ACCESS to the Sound!....... I just
wanted to repeat that So there is NO CONFUSION Here!
Back to the CDR, as I already mentioned
Artwork and Pictures of this release are pretty interesting pictures and there
are a lot of them on the back of the insert and in a 16 page Booklet included as
well as on the label. In my opinion the Artwork and the overall design is a 10
out of 10, I like the film stripe idea on the back of the insert and this effect
is used in the booklet as well to help give as many pictures from the show as
possible for this release. I even like the idea that they used the Elvis logo
that was used in the later 70's by RCA, looks very cool for this release.
Now regarding the Audio, hmmm well
that's really the only disappointment here,....... Elvis' performance is
Excellent, but the Audience recording is about a 5 or 6 out of 10 for an
Audience Recording,...... We can hear or understand what Elvis is saying to a
point between songs, which is a good thing, and which was not really the case
for the Houston show released a little while back on CD. For that Release it
would be a 2 or 3 out of 10 for a rating in my opinion and then if you compare
the "Lost That Loving Feeling" release, I would give that about a 8 or 9 out of
10 for an Audience Release. This I hope may help One understand what to expect
if you come across this release.
The song listing of the evening
performance is:
1) That's all Right
2) I Got a Woman
3) Love Me Tender
4) You Don't have To Say You Love Me
5) You Lost That Lovin' feeling
6) Polk Salad Annie
7) Band Intro's
8) Johnny B Good
9) More Band Intro's
10) How Great Tho Art
11) The Wonder of You
12) Heartbreak Hotel
13) Blue Suede Shoes
14) One Night With You
15) Love Me
16) Trying To Get To You
17) Hound Dog
18) Bridge Over Trouble Water
19) Suspicious Minds
20) Funny How Time Slips Away
21) Can't help Falling In Love
Would this show be one of Elvis' Best shows of this period???
Well,... there are so many good
shows from this period, it is one that does certainly stand out and is a
Historic show and I would certainly welcome a soundboard of this show if it does
exist along with more footage if possible !
Elvis is in a pretty good mood overall as I already mentioned and is
really up for these Performance's
for this show and it shows, he must have really been looking forward to these LA
shows to prove a point that he was still the "KING" to everyone that was there that night,
even tho he may have come off as tho he didn't really like being called that later on in life, at the same
time in one way I think he certainly knew what the people meant when they said
it and it in one way Elvis did appreciate it or want to Live up to that image
anyway, at least at that time. Elvis comments of selling more records than the
Beatles, Tom Jones, or whom ever mentioned that night as far as putting them all
together as he put it, kinda proves that in one way
Best of luck in trying to hunt this
release down, if your not able to come across the LA footage with sound I at
least recommend that you at least get the Elvis"Behind The Image" DVD to at
least see the footage, not just for the LA Evening footage but for the other
Footage like of the afternoon Footage at the same Venue and to see some of the
other surprises that are on that DVD as well, the Future Vol. 2 of Elvis "Behind
The Image' looks promising too!...... Can't wait for its Release !
I hope most enjoy these reviews that I
do, and welcome more, I will point out that I'm Here to Review and Not to Sell
or Trade, but to help Elvis fans become aware that there are other items like
this out there, however if you have any questions about this release or just
questions about Elvis I would be more than happy to reply........you can e-mail
at PEPsReview@aol.com
Keep Elvis number One!
PEP