Elvis' last tour: How Great Thou Art

[ForrestGump]

I can't sleep and turned to youtube for inspiration, idly searching for various things in hopes of falling asleep in the process. One of the things I found, though, woke me right up again -- a clip of Elvis Presley singing a gospel song from his last concert tour, less than two months before his death at 42.

Elvis died just over two weeks short of 30 years ago, and his last tour ended on June 26, 1977, in Indianapolis. The clip below comes from his June 19, 1977 concert in Omaha (the TV special it was shot for included footage from Omaha and from Rapid City, two days later).

I've heard hundreds of recordings, soundboard and audience-recorded, from Elvis' '70s shows. The last Omaha show is among a very few that is hard to listen to...Elvis is very obviously sick and should not have taken the stage. He probably should not have toured at all for at least a year, though he managed to pull out some stellar performances during that year, but Omaha was a low point.

The CBS editors didn't use much of the show in the final televised product, relying mainly on footage from his much peppier concert two days later (it's a pity the last two concerts of that tour weren't filmed, because by the end of the tour Elvis not only was in far better form and more energized but looked better and slimmer). Listening to the 1997 Omaha concert is, to tell the truth, heartbreaking. But then Elvis did something amazing: he sang "How Great Thou Art," in the massively powerhouse approach to the gospel song that he'd adopted a couple of years before (his 1966 studio recording was far more moderate), and it was like he put a whole show's worth of energy into that one song, like he knew he was flagging but he pulled out all the stops for this song. It was like he, for a moment, suddenly came alive in the midst of what was a painful concert for him.

I love Elvis' gospel music and I find it pretty inspiring, despite lacking any particular modicum of Christian faith, and maybe that's part of what provoked Elvis to gather together energy that plainly was not present to its usual degree and knock one out of the stadium. It's not only the shining moment of this concert but, I think, a pretty darned hot performance of a powerful song from a man who was the greatest performer to ever tread a concert stage and who by this point was dying far, far too young from abuses genetic and self-inflicted.

Here it is...clearly Elvis was hardly in top physical form (and so many seem to get pretty cruel about that, undoubtedly more than usual because Elvis was a rock 'n' roll Adonis for almost all his short adult life), but I'd urge you to try to see beyond the physical decline to the voice and the showmanship that remained intact to the end:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZMpogh1SsY

Adios.

[johnnie]

1. I had both of those concerts on dvd

But the damn thing cracked. x(

I honestly don't think he looks as bad as people say. I'm his age right now as he was when he died and he looks better than I do right now..lol. And his voice was still in pretty good shape. I didn't even thing the second show was all that bad.

Here is some footage of the last show and he lost a few pounds after the CBS shows:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWSVt1sxdTg

I still don't understand the whole "fat" thing with him. He was over 40 and sometimes people gain a bit of weight. It's not like he was John Candy in a jumpsuit.

And yeah, that version of How Great Thou Art is pretty friggin' good.

[ForrestGump]

4. You're right

He was a sick man and you and I know that most of the apparent weight he carried was edema, explaining how his appearance changed so dramatically across a tour, or even from night to night. He was in trouble but, really, he still had the features that made him for so long not just a handsome man but an almost ethereally beautiful man. His power as a performer, and as a vocalist, was still incredible.

I really do think he needed to take a break, but as far as looks go (quite apart from the inherent ugliness in people criticizing or making fun of a person on the basis of their appearance, something many of the 'liberals' hereabouts seem to relish in) he was not as overweight or as overweight-looking as many have magnified him to be since his death. Like you say, hardly John Candy in a jumpsuit. And, yes, he not only was in the vanguard of rock icons who pushed the barriers of life in the limelight after 30, then 40, but was in far better shape than many or most of his age in the '70s US, when 40 was considered firmly middle-aged (what most people seem to miss is that Elvis was in extraordinary physical condition for all but the last couple of years of his life and, even then, he had periods when he regained a good degree of that vitality and also lost weight). The sad fact is that now, with Americans over 30 more likely than not to be obese, poking fun at or criticizing Elvis for being overweight nowadays is not only supremely mean-spirited (and irrelevant to his true legacy) but is hypocritical.

The "See See Rider" clip is cool. That was a great concert, as was the one the night before in Cincinnatti. There'll never be another like him; I'm not sure there could be. I wish he'd survived the '70s...

[jus_the_facts]

2. And I stood in front of the gates at Graceland less than two days before his death....

....I was 9 years old...momma promised to buy us tickets to his next concert on our way home from that trip to Memphis....it was a traumatic time to experience after havin' felt so close visitin' his home...then to lose him mere hours later...I remember it all to vividly....he was...and always will be beautiful...even at his worst inside or out. :cry:

:loveya:

[ForrestGump]

5. For you...

:hug: :hug:



EDIT: and this! http://youtube.com/watch?v=UVgPLNgYP3s :D

[jus_the_facts]

11. Thank You....that vid is just priceless....love to know what was so hilarious.....

....mercy me...his laugh is beautiful too...sigh...thanks again my friend...this made my day. :hug: :*


on edit.."...do you stare at your bald head...and wish you had hair!" :rofl:

:loveya:

[ForrestGump]

15. There're a bunch of versions of what happened

Given the propensity of some close to Elvis to make stuff up, and the fact that most were poor witnesses even without all the drugs and alcohol they were ingesting, I'm inclined to believe that Elvis just changed the words for no special reason and cracked himself up. He tended to mess with the lyrics of songs on stage (not a new thing...he'd done it since the Sun days, before national and international fame) and "Are You Lonesome Tonight" was a frequent victim.

The usual story is a variation on someone in the front rows of seating losing or taking off his toupée at a critical moment. The name most often dropped is Marty Allen. I'm not especially inclined to buy it 'cos the timing is just too fortuitous and Elvis did stuff like that quite often, though he didn't too often lose it quite as much as that night.

As fate would have it, my father-in-law was at that show (August 26, 1969 midnight show), sitting next to his client, a singer that Elvis introduced from the stage before singing one of his songs. I had the show on tape (recorded from the audience) for many years before he was my FIL and always thought it was a classic one, with a very different setlist than most of that season (he sang "Rubberneckin'," among others) and a lot of funny improvisations.

[lizziegrace]

3. The day he died is one of those life moments

I was living in Memphis and was set to start my senior year of HS. I was turning into our neighborhood when the news broke on the radio. It was even sadder because one of the DJs in Memphis who went on to be a household name was relentless in his bashing of Elvis. Made the man a charicature of Elvis and not a flattering one.

I remember the funeral procession on TV and grave robbers trying to dig up his casket. Shortly after that, he was moved to Graceland.

[ForrestGump]

6. Sure was

Was that Rick Dees? What a giant talent that man was and is. :eyes: The smarmy little bastard wasn't fit to shine even the bottoms of Elvis' Italian boots, though he did leave the world one significant contribution with the magnificence that is "Disco Duck."

Elvis is still alive, in many ways. I don't think anyone else has had that same kind of posthumous iconic immortality, not to such a degree...maybe Jesus (sorry, John, but it turned out that it was actually your hero, Elvis, who was bigger than Jesus :D ).

[lizziegrace]

9. Yeah, Rick Dees

:eyes:

[Guava Jelly]

7. Growing up there were two celebrity deaths that stuck in my mind

Elvis And John Lennon I remember seeing the tears on the faces of fans as if someone truly loved had passed.
And i didn't understand it then as a kid..But I do now completly.
I also don't care much for the christian faith but the Music can be very inspiring and beautiful
And Elvis was a great performer..To bad he left us so early.

[ForrestGump]

12. It's also hard to believe

that John was shot almost 27 years ago, too. It seemed like more time passed between Elvis' death and John's, maybe because years went by more slowly when we were that age. Elvis may have inspired John, such that John was of another musical 'generation,' but they were basically chronological peers...John was just five years younger than Elvis.

[Guava Jelly]

16. A fitting song you chose btw

After all the seeds of rock music were planted in african american churchs.
Another thing we crackers stole from a minority .

[meegbear]

8. TVLand is showing Elvis movies everyday at noon this August

Check 'em out

[ForrestGump]

13. Cool!

Thanks for the word! :hi:

Those movies have acquired a greater legitimacy through time, I think, gaining a degree of cult status through showings on TV seen by those of us too young to see them in first release. Some were good films, but many represented to a great extent a waste of Elvis' talent, and his career...now, though, they're part of the iconography.

[HuskerDU]

10. Neil Young- He Was the King!

(Okay, we're gonna start with a... Uh...
Start with an F. Just ride in on the F.
Maybe that's a good way to start.
Or maybe the D. Whaddya think, Ben?
- Uh, the F sounds good...
- Just like a...)

The last time I saw Elvis
He was shooting at a colour TV
The phones were ringing in the pink motel
And the rest is history
He was the King

The last time I saw Elvis
He was singing a gospel song
You could tell he had the feeling
And the whole world sang along
He was the King

The last time I saw Elvis
He was up on the silver screen
Pushing a plough in a black and white movie
And everybody started to scream
Yes, he was the King

The last time I saw Elvis
It was some kind of Vegas dream
Spotlights flashed on a silver cape
And a blue-haired lady screamed
He was the King

The last time I saw Elvis
He was fronting a three-piece band
Rocking on the back of a flatbed truck
With an old guitar in his hand
He was the King

The last time I saw Elvis

The last time I saw Elvis
He was riding in a pink Cadillac
Wind was blowing through his hair
And he never did look back
He was the King

Thank you very much

The last time I saw Elvis
He was singing that gospel song
You could tell that he had the feeling
And the whole world sang along
He was the King

He was the King
He was the King

(- Elvis has left the arena
- But he was rocking while he was getting out.
- Oh, man, you blew me right outta my seat when you said,
"Thank you very much." I almost stopped playing!
- "Thank you very much." etc.)




Forrest I hope that you've heard this Neil Young song by now. It is a joyous celebration of the King of Rock-n-roll! Long live the King!

[ForrestGump]

14. Excellent!

Nope, I have never seen or heard this song. It's very cool, though.

Thanks! :headbang: