Year: 1973
Age: 38
Movie: 35th
Morse code starts this concert. For about 15 or so seconds, morse code and when I heard that sound I would come running to see…Aloha From Hawaii. Elvis arrives in a helicopter greeted by fans and leis, leis that almost cover his head. While waiting for the concert to begin you see footage of the entrance to the concert with a little bit of entertainment, dancing girls and a robot, the look on the little girls face seeing that robot is classic.
The iconic outfit, the bejewelled white jumpsuit with the eagle on the back. Elvis is a little fuller in the face for this one…the last one… 😦
Some of the music is a little more mellow, and some not so much. We have the pleasure of An American Trilogy during this concert, and Steamroller Blues my favourites. Beautifully done, and the power in his voice is amazing to listen to.
This concert is very well organised. I have spent this month watching all the movies and this is the forth concert, but there is something missing here, something within Elvis is missing. He doesn’t look like he’s having fun at all, compared to Elvis: That’s The Way It Is, Elvis’s mood is just not right. However, having said that, it was a wonderful concert.
Co Stars Alive: James Burton YEP
Ronnie Tutt YEP
Joe Guercio YEP
My Favourite Song: American Trilogy
Most Popular Song: American Trilogy
Stay tuned for Day XX of ELVIS MONTH
THE END…SADLY.
Back to the art side of things next week, I’m looking forward to that. See you next week 🙂
RUBY CANOE - Home 
‘What now my love’, ‘It’s Over’, ‘Burning Love’ and, of course, ‘An American Trilogy’ are the highlights for me. Great stuff. Also, you need to add this to the list. Hard to watch but essential none the less: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8CmlgBg3Io
The telecast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFHiry6sKGQ
Alas, way too hard to watch, but maybe one day 🙂 Thanks Andy!
Finally somebody else said it. You’re correct, something was off about that show. In fact it was a substandard performance for Elvis during that Era, (get on YouTube and listen to the supernatural shows from the August 72 Vegas Season, you’ll never hold the Aloha concerts in such high regard again. ) January 73 and the AFH concerts sparked the final transition point in his career from the “Vegas” Era to the “Concert” Era. Where touring and longer sets were taking over his schedule from the Vegas engagements.
But like I said the Aloha shows themselves were not that good performancewise compared to what Elvis was capable of at that time. And the set list itself was peculiar. (conspicuously missing was the “classic” segment which was standard for Elvis concerts at that time “Heartbreak Hotel”, “All Shook Up”, “Teddy Bear/Don’t Be Cruel”. And Love Me Tender. All signature songs that Elvis performed regularly in Vegas and on tour during that time, were noticeably missing from the Hawaii shows.
But I always loved the gutsy move of replacing the second “comfort” song (usually “I Got A Woman”) with His latest hit at the time “Burning Love”. Which if you seen the rehearsal show where it was lyrically botched during Elvis’ bad nerves, you would know he wasn’t comfortable playing that song. (go to YouTube and look for one of the 75 performances of BL after he was used to singing it.. Some amazing latter day stuff.
Thanks Josh! It wasn’t very obvious to me previously, but having watched all the movies and concert docos in order was an amazing experience and I noticed so many things I hadn’t previously. Thanks again for your input Josh, I also agree with your observations. 👍