Wednesday, December 05, 2007

The King on Wednesday

Six weeks before his death, Elvis held a concert and closed it out with this version of "Unchained Melody." It's beautiful, and foreboding, and -- as the camera focuses on the King's sweaty brow -- kind of gross. Tough to look away, though.

He's escorted to a car immediately afterwards, and the p.a. announcer says "Elvis has left the building." Is that where the phrase comes from? Was this said at the end of each of his concerts, or just this one? I'm curious, if anyone knows.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Interesting clip on several levels. It is great that even in his bloated excess period near then end of his life, when he actually sat down and got into the music, he still had it. Compare his moments at the piano with his eyes closed and he's tearing into the song vs. all of the vapid moments surrounding it (the entourage, poses, etc.)

Too bad he didn't live long enough to have Rick Rubin or Daniel Lenois produce a "back to his roots" comeback album for a late career renaissance, a la Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, etc. That would have been something.

9:12 AM  

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