Theres a live version of Are You Lonesome Tonight? from 1969 that captures Elvis Presley in a comical meltdown of uncontrollable laughter. Its a favorite track for oldies-radio DJs to play during Sunday morning Breakfast with the King hours, but its rarely been heard in the context of the full concert from which it derives. That August 26th midnight show is one of 11 complete shows that make up the new Elvis Live 1969 box set, an 11-disc chronicle that documents Presleys return to the concert stage after an eight-year hiatus of making largely forgettable Hollywood movies.
Live 1969 compiles the dinner and midnight engagements Presley performed from August 21st through 26th at the International Hotel in Las Vegas, but this isnt the Vegas Elvis in a white jumpsuit thats become a pop-culture caricature and cautionary tale of overindulgence. Here, hes mainly performing in black two-piece suits that evoke the leather-clad badass from his TV comeback special a year earlier, and arriving onstage not to the fanfare of Also Sprach Zarathustra, but to a rock & roll vamp by his band. At only 34, Presley is lean and at the top of his vocal game, if overly corny when he banters with the audience. He tells more than a few jokes about being mistaken for a squirrel, riffs on the Gatorade he has to drink to combat the dry Vegas air, and opens each show with a self-deprecating disclaimer: Before the evening is over Ill be making a total and complete fool of myself.
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With bad jokes about his time in the Army perhaps, but not in the thrilling and mostly rare performances. Suspicious Minds, then just a week or so into its life as a single, is majestic, with Elvis possessed by the pounding rhythm of drummer Ronnie Tutt. The Mystery Train/Tiger Man mash-up is equally combustible, summoning the same dangerous energy that Presley first let loose in the Fifties as a hip-shaking parental nightmare. And In the Ghetto, the entertainers earnest 1968 attempt at social commentary, is more urgent than schmaltzy.
But its Presleys covers of then contemporary songs that are most fascinating. He imbues the Beatles Yesterday and Hey Jude with Southern soul, and transforms Ray Charles Whatd I Say into an unrelenting rock rave-up. For Del Shannons Runaway, he all but owns the lyrics heartbreak. Shannon is in the audience for one performance, and Presley gives him props from the stage. (Listen closely to hear him directing imposing Memphis Mafia member Lamar Fike to find Shannon.)
The gig is the same one during which Elvis comes to pieces in Are You Lonesome Tonight? supposedly tickled by Sweet Inspirations singer Cissy Houstons ability to keep on singing, unfazed, while Presley goes further and further off the rails. Still frazzled, he screws up Rubberneckin' immediately afterward and asks the band to restart the tune a full 45 seconds in.
With Presley reciting the same stage patter nearly word-for-word in each of the 11 concerts, its these gaffes and unexpected moments that keep Elvis Live 1969 from becoming just an overly repetitive entry for Presley completists. Instead, the box set serves as a snapshot of a world-class entertainer successfully but gingerly rediscovering the magic that made him so in the first place.