Don’t Think Twice (Live Soundboard Collection LSC-017)
Las Vegas International Hotel, Las Vegas, NV – January 29th, 1973
(47:23): 2001 Theme, See See Rider, I Got A Woman / Amen, Until It’s Time To Go, Sweet Caroline, Steamroller Blues, You Gave Me A Mountain, Fever, Love Me, Blue Suede Shoes, Love Me Tender, Johnny B. Goode, Hound Dog, What Now My Love, Suspicious Minds, introductions, I Can’t Stop Loving You, American Trilogy, Can’t Help Falling In Love, closing vamp
Don’t Think Twice contains Elvis’ dinner show from the Las Vegas International Hotel on January 29th, 1973. This is pretty much a copy, including title, of Don’t Think Twice (Madison CWP 02) released in 2000. The Madison release contained as a bonus track a long jam on “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” from which the title is derived. LSC don’t include the bonus track really rendering the title absurd. The soundboard recording is in very good but compressed mono with several very small edits scattered throughout the tape.
After Aloha From Hawaii via Satellite, one of Elvis’ greatest achievements, he was back in Las Vegas from January 26th, to February 23rd for fifty-seven shows. The midnight show on January 30th and both on January 31st, and the midnight hows on February 13th, 14th and 15th were canceled do to a head cold.
The tape begins with the orchestral introduction 2001 which was taken from February 5th dinner show and leads in to “See Se Rider.” Afterwards Elvis greets the audience, saying “Thank you very much. Well. That’s it folks, you know.” His singing in “I Got A Woman” is very clear and powerful and after the line “she knows a woman’s place right there in the home” the song increases in tempo.
“Thank you. Good evening” Elvis says before indicating to Hardin to begin “Until It’s Time For You To Go.” His flirting with the girls is evident on the tape and when one of the takes his scarf he laughs “thief!” A rare version of “Sweet Caroline” follows in which Elvis struggles with some of the lyrics. “Thank you very much. I’d like to dedicate that to arrrhh, Colonel Beaulieu. Hahahah. ‘Its a special request and I almost forgot the words to it” he says after.
“Fever” is one of the many highlights with Elvis doing his hip and knee rolls to the screaming girls. His self-consciousness as a sex symbol is evident as he giggles along. He introduced “Love Me Tender” from his first movie, “and I’d like to sing a little bit of that for you.” He misses some words and when one girl runs back to her seat he stops to ask “where are you going?” A more lively version of “Johnny B. Goode” compared to the Aloha special follows and Burton plays some riffs from the “Promised Land” in the middle.
He teases the audience, singing “Youuuuuu, ain’t nuthin’ but a…. You don’t know what I’m gonna do yet. I did this song on the Ed Sullivan show and my voice was much higher and I have to stand like this otherwise I’ll strip my gears” Elvis says whilst teasing his fans and leaning on his left knee. “Hound Dog” starts off a slow tempo as was the norm for this period. Burton plays a funky guitar in harmony with Elvis before it switches to normal and by the end his belt becomes loose prompting him to sing, “you ain’t never caught a rabbit…my belt…and you ain’t no friend of mine.”
Before the closing song he says, “Thank you. You’re a good audience ladies & gentlemen. Glad you liked it. Thank you. If we’ve done anything to make you happy then we’ve done our job”. Strangely, the mono mix switches from both channels to the right when he says “This song from Blue Hawaii I’d like to sing for you.” Overall this is a fun show to hear, expressing the relationship Elvis had with the Las Vegas audience. Don’t Think Twice is packaged in a tri-fold digipack with a photo from the era on the front cover. This might have been improved if they included the fourteen minute “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” from the Madison release since the forty-seven minute playing time is extremely short.
