ELVIS PRESLEY
Recorded live at Cole Field House, University of Maryland,
College Park, Maryland
Friday September 27, 1974 (8:30pm Show)

Released by Straight Arrow as "Chaos In College Park"

From the collection of Roy Martin: http://db.etree.org/roymartin

Lineage: Good audience recording > ? > Silver CD > WAV > FLAC
Extracted using EAC in Secure Mode w/ proper read offset
Encoded to FLAC Level 6 using Trader's Little Helper

Total time: 76:07

01 Also Sprach Zarathustra
02 Opening Vamp - CC Rider
03 I Got A Woman / Amen
04 Love Me
05 If You Love Me (Let Me Know)
06 It's Midnight
07 Big Boss Man
08 Fever
09 Love Me Tender
10 Hound Dog
11 Bridge Over Troubled Water
12 Polk Salad Annie
13 band introduction
14 James Burton guitar solo
15 Ronnie Tutt drum solo
16 Duke Bardwell bass solo
17 Glen D. Harden piano solo
18 Voice - Killing Me Softly
19 Why Me Lord
20 All Shook Up
21 Teddy Bear - Don't Be Cruel
22 Hawaiian Wedding Song
23 How Great Thou Art
24 Can't Help Falling In Love
25 Closing Vamp - announcement

Released by Straight Arrow (SA 2006-4-0), who says:

"An original audience mastertape was used for this project. The
sound was transferred using 24-bit processing and professional
equipment. The original source tape was a mono recording. Every
second of the show was digitally restored to achieve the best
possible result for optimal listening pleasure. We hope you enjoy
the results. Digitally remastered in July/August 2006. ADD."

From the collection of Roy Martin, who says:

This is "IT"... perhaps the most frequently-discussed live
performance by Elvis Presley. The legendary opening night of
his 4th & final tour of 1974 and most obvious public display
of a legendary man captured in downward spiral of both spirit
and health. Biographer Peter Guralnick wrote of a band member
witnessing Elvis backstage at this show, exiting his limousine
before stumbling then falling to his knees onto the sidewalk
requiring Red West and others to help him back onto his feet
and into the venue.

An earlier sign of trouble occurred three weeks earlier, which
was then his most recent performance; his final 1974 show in
Las Vegas, when he tested his audience's patience with long,
rambling demonstrations & discussions of karate, angry denials
of ruined personal relationships (Priscilla was in the audience),
his taste in beautiful women, jewelry & expensive cars, his
liver biopsy and, even more embarrassing, recent quotes in the
press from anonymous Hilton Hotel staff that he was strung out
on heroin. A listen to either the older Ft. Baxter title "Desert
Storm" or the more recent (and more complete) MXF title "Time To
Dare" and you'll hear sharp details of this odd behavior that
only a soundboard recording can provide.

Although being an audience tape, "Chaos In College Park" also
provides proof positive that Elvis was screwed-up. Something
was wrong, very wrong, evident by his slurred speech, incoherent
rambling, not-so-funny humorous comments & below-par singing.
This is not a recording for Elvis fans who wears rose-colored
glasses. No doubt those fans are probably glad that a high-
quality soundboard of this show is NOT in circulation!

Elvis always was an artist that required a big challenge to bring
out the best in himself. Here's a guy who conquered poverty, sparked
a cultural renaissance from a small Memphis recording studio in 1954,
conquered the recording industry, conquered B&W television in 1956,
sold millions of movie theater tickets throughout the 1960s,
conquered color television in 1968 before embarking on his second
creative renaissance from another small Memphis recording studio in
1969. And, just when one would think he'd done it all, in less than
four years he conquered Las Vegas, Madison Square Garden & even the
entire planet via satellite... What else could've remained?

Perhaps death was the only challenge left. And, although Elvis would
lose that battle three years after this performance, his spiritual and
emotional death occurred during the summer of 1974, in the most obvious
fashion on the stage of the University of Maryland's Cole Field House
on September 27, 1974.

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