ELVIS PRESLEY
"Charlie, Bring Me The Request Box"
Recorded live at the Hilton Hotel, Las Vegas
August 18-20, 1975

Liberated 5CD bootleg on the Straight Arrow label featuring audience
recordings of every performance of Elvis' aborted Summer Festival at
the Las Vegas Hilton.

Silver CD > WAV (using EAC in Secure Mode w/ correct read offset) >
FLAC Level 8 (using TLH)

DISC ONE - August 18, 1975 (Opening Show) - 56:15

01 Opening Vamp > C.C. Rider
02 I Got A Woman > Amen
03 Love Me
04 If You Love Me (Let Me Know)
05 Blue Suede Shoes (by request)
06 Suspicious Minds (by request)
07 My Boy (by request)
08 Heartbreak Hotel
09 Polk Salad Annie
10 band introductions
11 Johnny B. Goode
12 Ronnie Tutt drum solo
13 Jerry Scheff bass solo
14 Glen D. Harden piano solo
15 School Day
16 T.R.O.U.B.L.E.
17 The Wonder Of You
18 Why Me Lord
19 How Great Thou Art
20 Can't Help Falling In Love
21 Closing Vamp

DISC TWO - August 19, 1975 (Dinner Show) - 62:21

01 Opening Vamp
02 C.C. Rider
03 I Got A Woman > Amen
04 Blue Suede Shoes (by request)
05 If You Love Me (Let Me Know)
06 It's Now Or Never
07 My Boy (by request)
08 Love Me
09 Loving You (by request)
10 Suspicious Minds (by request) (*)
11 introduction of Vernon Presley & the band
12 Johnny B. Goode
13 Ronnie Tutt drum solo
14 Jerry Scheff bass solo
15 Glen D. Harden piano solo
16 School Day #1
17 School Day #2
18 introduction of Neil Sedaka
19 T.R.O.U.B.L.E.
20 Why Me Lord
21 How Great Thou Art
22 Let Me Be There
23 Crying In The Chapel (by request) (@)
24 Can't Help Falling In Love
25 Closing Vamp

(*) - last time song was performed live
(@) - first time the song was performed live

DISC THREE - August 19, 1975 (Midnight Show) - 62:07

01 Opening Vamp
02 C.C. Rider
03 Elvis talks - bathroom story
04 Blue Suede Shoes
05 Young & Beautiful
06 Are You Lonesome Tonight (by request)
07 If You Love Me (Let Me Know)
08 Softly As I Leave You (by request)
09 It's Now Or Never (by request)
10 Polk Salad Annie
11 introduction of the band
12 Johnny B. Goode
13 Ronnie Tutt drum solo
14 Jerry Scheff bass solo
15 Glen D. Harden piano solo
16 School Day
17 introduction of Vernon Presley & the band
18 introduction of The Righteous Brothers > You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' (tease)
19 T.R.O.U.B.L.E.
20 Why Me Lord
21 Love Me Tender (by request)
22 All Shook Up
23 Love Me
24 Hound Dog > Are You Sincere (tease) > Hound Dog (by request)
25 My Boy (by request)
26 Can't Help Falling In Love (inc. false start)
27 Closing Vamp

DISC FOUR - August 20, 1975 (Dinner Show) - 53:25

01 Opening Vamp
02 C.C. Rider
03 I Got A Woman > Amen
04 Hound Dog (by request)
05 It's Now Or Never (by request)
06 And I Love You So (inc. false start)
07 Blue Suede Shoes
08 Green Green Grass Of Home (by request) (*)
09 Fairytale
10 Softly As I Leave You
11 introduction of the band
12 Johnny B. Goode
13 Ronnie Tutt drum solo
14 Jerry Scheff bass solo
15 Glen D. Harden piano solo
16 School Day
17 T.R.O.U.B.L.E.
18 Why Me Lord
19 Until It's Time For You To Go (by request)
20 Burning Love
21 Can't Help Falling In Love
22 Closing Vamp

(*) - last time song was performed live

DISC FIVE - August 20, 1975 (Midnight/Closing Show) - 46:35

01 Opening Vamp > That's Alright Mama > C.C. Rider
02 I Got A Woman > Amen
03 Fever (by request)
04 If You Love Me (Let Me Know)
05 Until It's Time For You To Go (by request)
06 Softly As I Leave You
07 Burning Love
08 introduction of the band
09 Happy Birthday To James Burton
10 James Burton guitar solo (Johnny B. Goode instrumental)
11 Ronnie Tutt drum solo
12 Jerry Scheff bass solo
13 Glen D. Hardin piano solo
14 School Day
15 introduction of The Carpenters
16 T.R.O.U.B.L.E. (*)
17 It's Now Or Never (by request) (^)
18 Why Me Lord
19 Let Me Be There
20 Can't Help Falling In Love
21 Closing Vamp

(*) - last time song was performed live
(^) - repaired using a patch from the 08/20/1975 Dinner Show tape



These five recordings capture Elvis Presley in concert at a time of heartbreakingly-
weak performances, poor health & episodes of increasingly strange behavior which were
a result of Elvis' favorite leisure activity: over-indulgence of prescription medication.
Hindsight tells us Elvis should've been in drug rehabilitation. But his 2nd favorite
self-destructive habit (his lavish spending on vehicles, jewelry, & aircraft) required a
large, steady income. Bottom line: Elvis was spending himself broke & needed to work.

It didn't help matters to have The Colonel taking 50% in addition to the merchandising
and the most imaginative side-deals to fill his own pockets. Many of these deals
Elvis wasn't even aware of. Plus, the Colonel received a $50,000 annual salary from the
Hilton Hotel as a "Special Advisor."

The Colonel was making more money, annually, than Elvis was by now.

So, work he did. His Las Vegas schedule was indeed gruelling: a four-week committment
of performing two shows nightly (a dinner show and a midnight show) five days a week plus
one performance on the sixth day. Generally, Elvis had the stamina for these Vegas sched-
ules. But, by 1975, the lack of professional challenges & health problems had become more
than even Elvis could handle.

To alleviate his own boredom with live performing, Elvis began accepting song requests
from the audience collected in a champaigne bucket before the show. During the show,
Elvis would rummage through the bucket (hence, the title of this bootleg) resulting in
spontaneous renditions of "Young & Beautiful" and "Crying In The Chapel" and even opening
the final show with a rocking hybrid of "That's Alright Mama" & "C.C. Rider."

But, behind the scenes, things were bad. En route to Las Vegas, Elvis suffered a breathing
problem (panic attack?) that was documented in several biographies, the most credible of
which are excerpted below. Elvis made it through five shows over three days before cancelling
the remainder and returning to Memphis.

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Lamar Fike & Billy Smith, charter members of the Memphis Mafia, detailed this week of
Elvis' life in their book "ELVIS and the Memphis Mafia" :

LAMAR FIKE: At the end of the summer [of 1975], Elvis went back out to Vegas to begin
his gig. He took the Jet Commander [one of Elvis' personal aircraft]. And all of a
sudden, he couldn't breathe. He got down on the damn floor to the air vent and he said,
"Land this plane right away! I'm suffocating!" They clamped an oxygen mask on him, and
[his pilot] dived down and got on the ground as fast as possible.

I think they landed in Dallas. And he checked into a motel to rest for about five hours.
Then he was all right, and they got back in the air again. That was August 16, 1975.
And Elvis died on another August 16. Boy, that wasn't a good day for him, was it?

Two days after that experience on the airplane, Elvis opened in Vegas. Halfway through
[the performance], he got tired, and he had to sit down a lot and let the Stamps and the
Sweet Inspirations take over. He was heavy again, and Variety pointed it out:

Presley may be suffering from a continuing disability. His
overweight condition, lack of stamina, and poor vocal pro-
jection may spring from such a malady. It is difficult for
him to maintain any crediblew vocal lines ... In addition,
he lumbers around in travesties of his earlier karate moves.

That's pretty devastating. It also talks about him spending more time diddling with the
women in the front rows than anything else.

But, on the second night, boy, he shocked everybody. He stayed out on-stage after the
show and told everybody that he didn't do drugs. He said, "Last night, I had a real bad
case of the flu, and somebody started the rumor that I was strung out on drugs. If I ever
find out who did that, I'll knock his goddamn head off. Because I've never been strung out
in my life."

Well, the Colonel flipped out. He told Elvis to get the hell out of Vegas if he was sick
and just cancel the rest of the gig. So, he did. He cancelled after about five shows.

A couple of days after Elvis ranted and raved onstage in Vegas, he started having breathing
problems again, and Joe called an ambulance for him.

BILLY SMITH [Elvis' first cousin/closest confidant]: They brought him back to Memphis and
put him in Baptist [Hospital] for two weeks. Dr. Nick told everybody he was suffering from
severe fatigue. You'd think he was doing so good, and then you'd walk in and see him out of
it [intoxicated] on the bed. You'd realize, "Uh oh. He's done had more than a required
amount of sleeping medication." Anytime he went into the hospital like that, the guys would
come visit. But this time, Dr. Nick let him go home to Graceland for four or five hours
each day. Which was just an opportunity for him to get into his secret stash.

**********************************************************************************************

Sonny West, another Memphis Mafia employee, described the incident in his book "ELVIS - Still
Taking Care Of Business":

SONNY WEST: As Elvis was en route to Vegas on a Jet Commander for the start of another summer
engagement, the plane had to make an emergency landing in Dallas after he suffered severe
shortness of breath. Joe [Esposito] and I were already in Las Vegas waiting on them to arrive
there, but Red [West] was on the flight and told us Elvis had taken a bunch of pills before
takeoff and was in trouble once up in the air.

"I can't breathe!" Elvis gasped, "I can't breathe!"

Red said he spotted an open vent on the floor of the plane, with air streaming out. He
grabbed Elvis and placed his face in front of the vent. Elvis thought he was done.

"I'm not going to make it," Elvis screamed hysterically. "Land!"

The group landed safely in Dallas and check into a motel for five hours, until Elvis had
recuperated enough to continue the trip.

The date of that incident was August 16, 1975. Exactly two years later, Elvis wouldn't be so
lucky.

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