Elvis Lives ? The 25th Anniversary Concert

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Elvis Lives; The 25th Anniversary Concert

Elvis Presley was larger than life, and the Elvis experience is an amazing phenomenon that has continued to astonish a quarter century after his death in 1977. in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of his death, Elvis: The 25th Anniversary Concert Event was staged at the Pyramid Coliseum in his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee. Through the magic of modern technology, Elvis is reunited with his original TCB band, back-up singers and musical director for a unique concert special. The program features footage of Elvis from previous concerts, along with his supporting musicians and singers live on stage together in Memphis. This one-of-a-kind concert event has stirred audiences around the world and ignited a passion for the King in a whole new generation of music lovers.
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Track Listing:

1. Also Sprach Zarathustra (Theme From 2001)
2. See See Rider
3. Burning Love
4. Welcome To My World
5. I Can't Stop Loving You
6. Steamroller Blues
7. (Cast Intros)
8. Johnny B. Goode
9. You Gave Me A Mountain
10. That's All Right
11. You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling
12. Mystery Train / Tiger Man
13. Just Pretend
14. Are You Lonesome Tonight
15. Walk A Mile In My Shoes
16. In The Ghetto
17. Polk Salad Annie
18. Bridge Over Troubled Water
19. The Wonder Of You
20. Suspicious Minds
21. I'll Remember You
22. What Now My Love
23. A Big Hunk O' Love
24. My Way
25. How Great Thou Art
26. If I Can Dream
27. American Trilogy
28. Can't Help Falling In Love
    (Total runnning time, 90 min.)

Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo & 5.1 surround
Region: 0
Colour: Colour
Sreen: Pal

Review:

Artwork:
A bit simple, but it totally fitts the content. The booklet contains all the info about all the band members but it was nice if they put some linernotes into it. To explain this concert and why they did this concert, maybe with some words from Lisa Marie Presley.

The Content:
I won't go track by track cause we all know these performances (by Elvis himself) from all the dvd releases we had from TTWII & On Tour & Aloha From Hawaii, but there are some outstanding performances like Johnny Be Goode with very cool band solos in it, the only thing that spoiles this song a bit are the inserted comments by Ronnie Tutt...these comments can also be found in the interview section from this DVD...
Next highlight is If I Can Dream with a complete choir and a new backing music to it, wich make this song even better than the original song.
A very nice thing they did is with the opening, while the 2001 theme is playing you see a big black limousine entering the building, with police escort, to give you the feeling that Elvis really is entering the building, you see a widescreen shot when "someone" is stepping out of the car on wlaks onto the stage...and then the curtain dropps and there is Elvis! walking on stage and start off with See See Rider, a very cool way to start this concert.
The picture quality is very, very good on the Aloha part, the sound even better. The picture quality on the TTWII footage is sometimes not that good,a bit blurry or low colours, a bit strange cause the source was the restored TTWII SE, but not disturbing.
On some songs they put in some comments by band members, wich is a bit too much for me, cause it takes out the the flow of this concert and also the volume is a bit to high on this comments, specially when you use the 5.1 surround option.
It's very nice to see that The Sweet Inspirations are just as excited as they were back in the good ol' days, man these girls are good! Same goes for all the original TCB Band guys, Ronnie is playing maybe even better than in the past, James Burton gives some very nice solos and backing, but a bit different then we used to, it sounds much cleaner, maybe a bit to clean for my ears. Glenn D is playing like never before and Jerry on bass is so cool, man this man can play the bass so very well and enjoy's himself so much.
It's a shame the producers of this dvd only are focussing on the part 2 of this concert and not included part 1 with the 50's and 60's and the gospel section, wich makes this release not complete for the die-hard fans, the general buyer will not miss it, cause there is nothing mentioned about this concert in the booklet.
All in all a very nice release in good sound and picture, and it will be, with good promotion on tv, a good selling product!

Patrick,

Your review is spot-on!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Patrick

On some songs they put in some comments by band members, wich is a bit too much for me, cause it takes out the the flow of this concert and also the volume is a bit to high on this comments, specially when you use the 5.1 surround option.

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Yeah. I just found this DVD in Sydney this afternoon. Bargain price of only $15, as opposed to the usual $40 or so.

Am halfway through it ... WHY did they put in band comments during some of the songs???!!! I couldn't believe that during the extended musical solos the band's comments came right in the middle. Doesn't make any sense to me ... :hmm:

i have had this for some time [knew i wasn't going to ike it], and only last night decided to give it a watch- this is absolute dross, what a silly idea to put elvis on screen with band members and tour all over the world, and now the rediculous idea of making a dvd- it never ceases to amaze me the things e.p.e will do , and how gullable some fans are, you just can't recreate an ELVIS PRESLEY concert, e.p.e should be ashamed of themselves, if anyone needs a new copy, you can have mine free of charge, just pm me, who ever is first gets it, i sure can't appreciate this.

Yeah, I have to agree here. The concert itself is great live, but it didn't work on video at all.

And again, the band comments: Just stupid, especially coming in during the 2001 opening and (most annoyingly) during the extended version of Johnny B. Goode! Ugh! :mad:

And I thought the use of the limousine bringing "Elvis" into the arena was tacky as well. (n)

I won't be watching this DVD ever again. Glad I only paid $15 for it!

I saw this dvd when in was in Memphis last october.
I slept in the Heartbreak Hotel and in the jungle room from the hotel they showed this DVD on a big screen.
And back in the Netherlands it was broadcast on TV.
I liked it,but it wasn't anything new for me.

(y) Great to see in the years a head...liked the extras very much. (y)

I have this DVD and I love it very much!!! It was a very touching concert, simply BEAUTIFUL!!

Elvis is live and will live forever!

Mihail from Russia!

I bought the DVD last year, and it was great too watch, since I can't get to Memphis for any of the events, and Elvis passed away while I was still in short pants, this is close as I will ever get to watching an Elvis concert, ( as well as the 68 special and Aloha from Hawaii) but I agree with everyone else, the band commentaries should have been just a short documentary, when they came on, they screwed up the whole flow of the concert.