Sunday, December 16, 2012

December 16 - A Bicentennial Tour

The Gravel Road importlabel announced the re-release of two new titles, containing remastered, but  previously released, concerts from 1972 and 1976.

From the press-release: 
According to Gravel Road Music the “Star-sprangled Spectacular Bicentennial ’76” will raise a few questions for the critics as Elvis sounds way better now with a mastering job done properly… The second disc is a great re-mastering of the famous Hampton ’72 concert, which blows all previous releases of this show out of the water – Great sound, fantastic dynamics and Elvis in amazing voice.


Star-Spangled Spectacular Bicentennial’76 
  • This Special limited 2 CD set edition includes two spectacular Hampton concerts. 
  • The first disc contains the legendary 1976 Hampton Bicentennial concert!
  • The second disc contains the famous 1972 Hampton On Tour Concert!
  • It comes in a wonderful deluxe digi-pack with booklet, extensive liner notes & photos.
  • You may have heard this before, but never in this quality.
  • August 1- 1976 (2:30 pm). Hampton VA. Hampton Coliseum
It was a special year for America. The Bicentennial Year, the two-hundredth anniversary of this great nation. Any American with patriotism wanted to show it in some way. Elvis wanted to spread a positive message about
this country throughout this special year, and so he decided to add ‘America The Beautiful’ to his set list.

As Forest George writes in his assessment of this show: There is nothing more exciting to me than finding a (re-mastered) soundboard of an Elvis Presley concert. Audience recordings are fine, but sometimes you just want to hear the entire band and Elvis rock & roll’. This is so true, but… the concert has never been restored and re-mastered. Until Now!




Tracklisting August 1, 1976 (2:30 pm). Hampton VA. Hampton Coliseum
2001 Theme / C. C. Rider / I Got A Woman - Amen / Love Me / If You Love Me / You Gave Me A Mountain / All Shook Up / Teddy Bear - Don’t Be Cruel / And I Love You So / Jailhouse Rock / Fever / America The Beautiful / Return To Sender / Band Introductions / Early Morning Rain ( featuring John Wilkinson ) / What’d I Say ( featuring James Burton ) / Johnny B Goode ( featuring James Burton ) / Drum Solo ( featuring Ronnie Tutt ) / Battle Of New Orleans ( featuring Jerry Scheff ) / Piano Solo ( featuring Tony Brown ) / Electric Piano Solo ( featuring David Briggs ) / Love Letters / School Day / Hurt (+ reprise) / Hound Dog - Good Golly Miss Molly (excerpt) / Funny How Time Slips Away / Cant Help Falling In Love / Closing Vamp.


Tracklisting April 9, 1972 (8:30 pm). Hampton VA. Hampton Coliseum:
Also Sprach Zarathustra /. C. C. Rider /. Until It's Time For You To Go /. Polk Salad Annie /. Love Me /. All Shook Up / Teddy Bear (with 2 false starts)/Don't Be Cruel / Are You Lonesome Tonight? /. I Can't Stop Loving You / Hound Dog / Bridge Over Troubled Water / Suspicious Minds / For The Good Times / Band Introductions / An American Trilogy / Love Me Tender / A Big Hunk Of Love / How Great Thou Art / Sweet Sweet Spirit (The Stamps) / Lawdy Miss Clawdy / Cant Help Falling In Love / Closing Vamp/Announcements.

(Source: Elvis Telegraph / Elvis Club Berlin)