Elvis’ Vegas Years - Part 2

An even bigger problem is the general perception of Las Vegas entertainment. The town is famous for glitz and throwaway tricks. Playing Vegas in some people's minds puts Elvis in a class with Waylon and Madame or Sigfried and Roy. However, that's an unfair designation especially since all sorts of entertainment sell out venues across the whole country. Madison Square Garden hosts all sorts of events from the Barnum & Bailey to Muppets on Ice to The Who. Yet it has avoided a stigma. However, and I will get to this later, there is nothing wrong with putting a little show in your ‘show business’ and Vegas audiences are known to want that and audiences everywhere appreciate it.

Vegas audiences are notoriously conservative due largely to the expense of staying there and the high prices of the shows there. Paying that much money you want a sure thing. With the explosion in concert prices over the years though the mainstream audience has become much, much closer in taste to the Vegas audience of the 1970s.

However, that conservative taste really didn't have much of an effect on Elvis. In fact, he wound up doing most of his on-stage experimentation in Vegas using it almost as a lab for what he would put on the road. His road show was far more formulaic and staid. For instance in 1974, Vegas audiences got the R&B revamp while the road audience got the main show. In fact, although playing in the same town two months a year did bore Elvis, it also liberated him to a certain extent.

Thanks for this series of articles by Harley Payette from www.elvisinfonet.com

Andy Stankovich

Elvis The Voice

www.ElvisTheVoice.com

One of the world's great Elvis Presley tribute artists