Jackson/Mississippi was the penultimate stop of the tour. On June 8th Elvis performed at the State Fair Coliseum at 2:30 pm and 8:30 pm, on June 9th there was another concert at 8:30 pm. All shows were sold out with 12,000 fans each. One can assume that the Jackson concerts generated an amount of more than 300,000 USD. For the afternoon show on June 8th, which can be heared on this disc, Elvis wore the "Black Phoenix Suit", that can be seen on the album cover. In the evening the king opted for the "White Phoenix Suit", the following day he was back to the "Black Phoenix Suit".

The instrumental introduction "Also Sprach Zarathustra" as well as the opening song "See See Rider" and major parts of the "I Got A Woman" / "Amen" medley were not recorded.

The engineer starts the equipment when Elvis makes fun of his legendary moves. He's also referring to the swarms of insects in the building and quips "You can tell Joe Guercio is back, there are flies all over the place". He also has fun when JD Sumner's usual presentation of his bass voice fails. With a quick return to "I Got A Woman" Elvis throws his guitar to Charlie Hodge and introduces himself as Johnny Cash.

James Burton plays the opening chord of "Love Me", but before he starts to sing the song Elvis turns around as a favor to the people seated behind the stage. He reads a sign saying "Thanks For Coming Back!" and quips "I didn't know I've been here". Then he welcomes the crowd and sings the ballad. In-between he can be heared saying "Damn flies". When the harmony group sings the final "Oh yeah" Elvis jokingly asks "How long can you hold that note?". After the performance he tells the people, that he kissed someone last night in Shreveport and caught the "creepin' crud". After a woman yells out, that she needs it Elvis kisses her. Another lady kisses him so seriously, that the king announces "I'm going straight to church after this".

Before the situation gets out of hand he quickly starts the next song. Compared to the performances during the "Elvis Summer Festival 1974" the country pop is played faster now and the king toys a bit with the melody. To me "If You Love Me (Let Me Know)" sounds much better this way and I'd love to get a live recording on one of Presley's next albums. Since the insects are heading straight to the spotlight, Elvis announces to bring a fly swatter next time!

As expected "Love Me Tender" is nothing but a tool to kiss the eager females at the edge of the stage and to accept some gifts.

Without a break the band lauches into "All Shook Up". It's a nice, but short performance. Once again the singer is bothered by a swarm of flies, so he tells the crowd "You people paid all this money and drove all this way to watch us swat flies up here on stage".

Just like "Love Me" and "Love Me Tender" this medley is used for making contact with the fans and throwing some scarfs into the audience. Elvis also refers to the insects and sings "...put a fly around my neck" instead of "...put a chain around my neck". Before singing the next song a woman has to be bestowed with a scarf. After she asked for another one for her mother, the amused singer hands her another one.

The classic "Hound Dog" isn't treated very well. Elvis simply repeates the same four lines over and over again and shakes his body to the brass sounds of the orchestra. Of course the fans love it, but the former rock'n'roll king obviously doesn't like to invest too much energy in stuff like this. After the performance a lady hands him a school photo of himself. Looking at it Elvis tells her, that he dreamed of becoming a truck driver at the time. Jokingly he adds, that he still does.

After the announcement of "The Wonder Of You" there is an edit, the recording starts again during the second line of the power ballad. Elvis sings his top10 hit from 1970 in the usual way. That means, it's a tad sloppier than five years earlier, but still impressive.

While today's incarnation of "Hound Dog" was nothing but a shadow of the studio recording Elvis really digs "Burning Love" and proves, that he still can rock the house - if he wants to!

As he's preparing to introduce the band, a woman grabs Elvis and has to be kissed before he can continue. The procedure is peppered with jokes and several solos, but in total it eats up a tad too much time.

Since he had appeared in Jackson just two months ago, Elvis is courious if his latest single already was on the setlist. He's a bit surprised to learn, that the record is out that long. So the crowd doesn't get to hear something new today. However, his performance is great and rocks along nicely.

To catch his breath the king hands the lead vocals over to Mr. Sumner. Just like on his latest live album he joins The Stamps during the chorus, but today he also tries to make JD Sumner laugh. To the delight of the audience he is successful.

Elvis continues with another gospel, but this time in a serious way. The classic hymn, which also is the title song of Presley's second sacred album, gets an impressive treatment. Even though he's just reprised the ending, he does it again after a fan asked him to do so. It's a really nice gesture and also a clear sign that Elvis loves the song.

The same applies here since the Olivia Newton-John song is performed with obvious joy.

After some more contacts with the audience, Elvis asks for the houselights to be turned up. It takes a while, but finally the building is lit up and the star can see his fans. Then he sings the country ballad "Funny, How Time Slips Away". After the line "...never know when I'll be back in town" he quickly adds "tonight and tomorrow night". The king also repeats the last line of the song to give JD Sumner another opportunity to show off his bass voice.

The somewhat silly tune is used for exactly the opposite. Here Elvis and his harmony singers can use their falsetto voices. 

As he already did with "Burning Love" and "T-R-O-U-B-L-E" Elvis once again proves, that he still can rock. Especially during "Tiger Man" he shakes his body to the strobe lights and creates an amazing effect. He's not as slim and trained as back in 1970 when he made the movie "That's The Way It Is", but moves surprisingly fast.

Now Elvis wants to meet a request. He's unsure if he should do "Polk Salad Annie" or "Fever" and jokingly tries to combine the songs. Finally he opts for "Fever", but according to him the key isn't right and so he simply promises to sing it during the evening concert and bows out.

The show is closed with "Can't Help Falling In Love", which segues into the "Closing Riff". The latter one is faded out after a few seconds since it wasn't recorded in its entirety.