Elvis Presley “Live in Las Vegas” (2001) 4CD box-setThis is a box-set that many Elvis fans have been compiling and burning anyway but RCA have done it with the aid of unrealesed versions and remastered tapes. For many the Vegas years were the end of Elvis but I feel that he matured wonderfully and the gauche young man found on some of these tracks from the 50s becomes the supreme vocalist of the late 60s and early 70s, before it all ended in tears.
The best, the different and the wonderful are all here. Elvis and Vegas are inseparable, it became as much his town as it was Sinatra’s and this is the best representation of why they went together so well. The OTTness of the Strip and Elvis’ huge orchestrations of his later pieces went together so well. If he hadn’t died he would be enjoying a renaissance now, hip again with the Vegas years being hailed as the height of post-Sinatra irony. Live, love it, buy it. The Vegas years is Elvis at his best.
Originally posted August 12, 2001
