Elvis Presley - Lawdy Miss Clawdy - The Live Comparison Series - Volume Twenty Six

Considering that Elvis recorded his studio master of the song at RCA’s Studio One in New York on 3 February 1956 that he would have performed the song extensively during his live shows in the remainder of that decade. However, as things stand, there is no documented evidence of that being the case but as such evidence is generally sparse, either written or audio, it is reasonable to assume that he will have performed a 50’s rendition at some point.
The first time that Elvis did perform the song on stage was just a couple of weeks over fourteen years since the studio recording during the final show of his second Las Vegas engagement. Between then and 1977 he would continue to use the song on stage occasionally, and by the time of the final live rendition, he had sang it more than seventy times.

Version One - 23 February Closing Show - Las Vegas
Immediately after the band introductions he sat down at the piano and it appeared that he was about to go into 'Blueberry Hill' but after messing about with the intro pauses and then decides to do a rauchous, bluesy,, unrehearsed, short but magical version of Lawdy Miss Clawdy.

Version Two – 20 February 1971, Midnight Show, Las Vegas
Into 1971 and still the song has that raw unrehearsed feel to it which is further enhance with Elvis struggling to remember the words mid-song.

Version Three – 9 November 1971, Baltimore
By the time of Elvis fifth Las Vegas engagement in August 1971 and the following tour, Elvis and the band have obviously rehearsed the song. It now comes across as more polished and loses the raw edge heard somewhat heard in versions one and two. The rehearsed nature is now obvious with the backing singers now involved in the song.

Version Four – 9 April 1972, Evening Show – Hampton Roads
This is the rendition from Elvis' legendary evening show in Hampton Roads on 9 April 1972 which was featured in the Golden Globe Award winning documentary "Elvis - On Tour". It highlights the wonderful call and response with The Sweet Inspirations.
Throughout 1972, Elvis is only known to have sung the song six times, twice in Las Vegas with the remainder all coming during the same April tour. Both Las Vegas renditions were heard in at the beginning of the engagement, during the opening show on 26 January and the midnight show of the 29th.

Version Five – 26 February 1973, Midnight Show – Las Vegas
Having performed the song just six times in 1972, Elvis would sing it on stage just once in 1973. This was during the opening show of his January/February Las Vegas engagement, which was also incidentally, his very first post Aloha live appearance.

Version Six – 20 March 1974, Tour Closing Show – Memphis
Together with the filmed version from Hampton Roads on 9 April 1972, this is probably the best well known live version by Elvis. It was sung during his wonderful show at the Mid-south Coliseum in his hometown which closed his first tour of the year,

Version Seven – 6 October 1974, Dayton, Ohio
Elvis’ Autumn/Fall tour of 1974 falls in the category which defines some of the poorest tours of his career. Elvis was not in a good place mentally and at the conclusion of this tour and a short Lake Tahoe engagement, took some extended time off and did not appear on stage again until March the following year.
This rendition was actually performed during Glen D. Hardin’s piano solo during the band introductions and as such is an abbreviated version.

Version Eight – 4 December 1976
As the only time that Elvis performed the song on stage during 1975 was a few lines during Glen Hardin’s piano solo, this was essentially the first full rendition for over two years. This solo 1976 rendition, was sung during the fifth show of Elvis’ final Las Vegas engagement. It is a pretty standard but bluesy version with some wonderful brass accompaniment by the orchestra.

Version Nine – 27 March 1977 – Abilene
The final live version and only rendition in 1977 was performed as the penultimate song during Elvis’ second and final visit to Abilene, Texas. It is a very good version indeed with Elvis singing it in a very bluesy style. It is also notable for a super piano instrumental break by Tony Brown.

As with all of these videos, to get the most out of the re-edited audio, I highly recommend you use ear /headphones and turn the volume up as much as you dare!

Видео Elvis Presley - Lawdy Miss Clawdy - The Live Comparison Series - Volume Twenty Six канала The Ultimate Elvis Channel by Leon