The final performance

This morning, when I read my newspaper, I was pleased to see a short paragraph saying that Elvis gave his last concert on this date, June 26, 1977, in the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis. Yes, I thought, today it's 31 years ago.

Then, at work, I told one of my colleagues about this, because he likes Elvis, too, and often plays Elvis songs on his radio show. We looked at each other and I said, "I remember when it was 10 years ago. Time really flies." My colleague nodded in agreement.

I do remember this day 10 years ago. Then, this time of night, I laid in my bed with headphones on and listened to The Last Farewell, the name of the bootleg record containing an audience recording of that last concert.

As I closed my eyes, I was there, in the Market Square Arena, sitting a couple of rows away from the stage watching Elvis grabbing the mike and starting to sing "See See Rider." To me, he seemed in pretty good spirits, even performing such rare songs at the time like "Release Me," "I Can't Stop Loving You" and "Bridge Over Troubled Water."

All to soon it was over. After thanking a whole bunch of people; his dad, his girlfriend Ginger Alden and the sound engineers Bill Porter and Bruce Jackson amongst others, he closed the show with "Can't Help Falling In Love" for the very last time.

Unbelievable that it was 21 years ago that I took of the headphones and went to sleep, thinking about Elvis last show and wishing I'd been there for real. But you know what? I'm gonna do the same thing tonight. Go to bed, put on a pair of headphones, play the import CD Adios and listen to Elvis final performance.

Good night, be careful driving home and God bless you.