ENCORE PERFORMANCES III - BACK TO CHICAGO

REVIEW ENCORE PERFORMANCES III - BACK TO CHICAGO.
By : Stefan Kock.

In front of me lies one of Joe Tunzi´s latest photo books: Encore
Performance III - Back To Chicago. Joe Tunzi has been publishing photo
books since the early 90´s and although he uses mostly b/w pictures and
his books are rather high priced they belong to the best available.

This 3rd part in his Encore Performance series covers the May 1st 1977
Chicago concert. Firstly I would like to say that before buying this book
I was a little reserved. Although being a real 70´s fan I couldn't think
that such a photo book could do any justice to the Elvis Presley legacy,
knowing in what kind of shape and bad health he was during the last year
of his life.

But upon receiving this book I was most certainly proved wrong.very
wrong. This book is good, no wait, it's even better, it's great. Let's
take a look at the book with some eye for the details.

Design: The cover is absolutely fabulous. A great full colour picture,
taken during See See Rider, graces the front cover whilst a shot taken
later during the show is on the back. This is one of the most beautiful
and explosive covers I've ever seen on a photo book. The design has class
and invites you to open the book for more!

Content: As with most of the other books from Tunzi it's all pictures and
very little text. This sometimes is a little disappointing as some text
acompying the pictures always would be useful.

Accuracy: As this books covers (mainly) just one concert and there is very
little text inside the book, there is no cause for errors, so there aren't
any.

Text: although there is very little text with the pictures there is a
introduction from the photographer and a forward covering two pages. The
forward is very insightful and is mostly about the connection between
Elvis and the great city of Chicago and the times he played there.
Speaking of errors, there can indeed be found one during the forward. It
says that the version of My Way as released on BMG´s 1997 Platinum: A Life
In Music is from the second (May 2nd 1977) Chicago performance, but as we
all know now, this performance is from the Saginaw, Michigan April 25th
1977 concert.

Pictures: What can one tell about a book of pictures from the last year of
Elvis's life? One almost expects to see an ill, fat man, someone who lost
all of his charisma over the course of only a few years. Nothing is
further from the truth, in fact, Elvis looks happy, not fat at all and
above all very charismatic and impressive during these pictures in this
book. Most of the pictures are almost full body shots. The great thing
about these pictures is that almost every picture is featuring Elvis with
a different facial expression. Some of the more exceptional pictures would
be the ones from pages 9, 16, 24, 37, 51, and 68. This last one would have
been a great picture for the cover of the FTD cd Spring Tours ´77,
although its not from those tours.

After the series of Chicago pictures this book provides us with an Thru
The Years section, containing some movie (candid) pictures, some early
1970 Las Vegas backstage pictures (these are really great) some other 70´s
shots and a colour section containing 7 full colour pictures from the May
1st Chicago concert. After that we are treated to 2 pictures from the
October 14th 1976 concert and, again only 2, pictures from the June 16th
1972 concert.. Both given in Chicago.

The only negative point about this book is that some of the May 1st 1977
pictures are out of focus and some are even very blurry. But overall I
think everyone can live with that.

Conclusion: Without a doubt this is one of the best photo books containing
pictures from 1977. It's a worthwhile addition to ones collection and may
even change ones view on Elvis's last year. Indeed, this is not the Elvis
from 1969, but you will see a man with great charisma till the end, and
most of the pictures portrays the best of him during the last year. Go get
it when you can, you won't regret it, I can assure you that.

2003/06/19 Stefan Kock / Ep.Gold.Com