Good condition discs
Two disc deluxe edition containing the complete Aloha From Hawaii Special, dress rehearsal, original 1973 broadcast version and additional bonus songs and bonus material.
Content
The first disc starts with the arrival of Elvis, nice to see for a change, but to be honest not the kind of beginning a none Elvis fan would be willing to look at every time the DVD starts. It is just a rolling camera filming waiting people, it is less crowded that we thought looking at the "old" special. Running through the picture is The Colonel directing it all. But fortunately for those viewers, the DVD skips to the concert automatically due to an error on the disc.
The shows on this disc are the January 12th rehearsal show and the January 14th concert that was broadcasted around the globe.
The rehearsal show is now complete, the omission of "Im So Lonesome I Could Cry has finally been corrected. You can see Elvis being nervous at the start, but he quickly finds himself and delivers a good show. For the real Aloha concert (January 14th) Johnny B. Goode, Im So Lonely I Could Cry and I Cant Stop Loving You are back in the set list again.
The concerts have been reedited from scratch using the material that was recorded on three video tape machines during the show. There were no video tape machines dedicated to a certain camera, selections were made live during the rehearsal and Aloha broadcast. We can only complement the editors for their work; the show looks dynamic, presenting Elvis at one of the heights of his career, and still holds a bit of that seventies style television that belongs to the show.
There are a lot of different camera angles. The January 14th show has a new beginning of "Suspicious Minds" and a new endshot for "Burning Love" and more. But you should really watch the old and new versions on two screens together to catch them all (or know the shows by heart as some of you readers out there) since you simply enjoy the show too much to notice them all.
The opener for the second disc are the four songs Elvis taped after the show for inclusion with images from Hawaii in the television special. And presented as they were recorded, split screen, for the mixing with the Hawaiian video fragments. The producers didnt cut anything out, leaving in Elvis swearing "no couching goddammit" during The Hawaiian Wedding Song and you see people holding up cardboard with the lyrics for Elvis. A great look behind the scene for the fans, but for the casual buyer?
Finally the concert as it was aired, is a good addition to complete this set, all the different pieces come together in this one. One thing that might have completed this set even more would be the addition of the press-conferences for the Aloha special.
