Elvis Presley in Concert, Radio City Music Hall
The road to Elvis took longer than I imagined, but, like “Cats” before it closed, I was happy to be there. The show was well-produced, and a key selling-point turned out to be the band, which comprised musicians from the original Elvis television broadcasts and Las Vegas concerts.
I think it is true what I saw on a billboard once: Before anyone did anything, Elvis did everything. My knowledge of Rock and Roll history may not be thorough enough to authoritatively vouch for the accuracy of that headline, but it’s a good token.
People in my life are often surprised to learn that I like Elvis. I think his reputation as a lightweight, or as a ludicrous curiosity of manufactured hype, is unfair. I enjoy a lot of the Elvis canon but I am not a groupie or cult-of-personality weirdo about it.
My fascination with this “Elvis Presley In Concert” event started in my early years of living in New York. Making little money and surrendering what was left to student loan payments, I saw a poster for “Elvis Presley in Concert”, with tickets costing what might as well have been $50,000, for there was no way I could afford it or anything like that. All I remember from that poster was that it said the show featured a giant-size video of Elvis with a live band on stage. Tickets were beyond my reach, but I made a note to myself that one day I would triumph over these financial avalanches into which my adult life was hurtled, and that if the Elvis show came to New York again I would be there.
Alas, that year the show was cancelled due to lack of interest. I suspect the event simply was not promoted very well, because the Elvis legend is strong in this town. Indeed, when I made it to the show on February 15, 2011, the theater looked sold out. The event felt like a revival. The weirdness of Elvis being there in video form only did fall through the cracks for me a few times. Mostly, though, I was able to suspend disbelief and even cynicism about the nature of this show, because I think the intentions of the organizers are genuine. I have no doubt that the enthusiasm of the audience was genuine.
The show is titled “Elvis Presley In Concert”. It is not called “Elvis Presley Live in Concert” because, as we know, Elvis is no longer “Live”. The stage was filled by many of the instrumentalists and singers who backed up Elvis at his Hawaii and Las Vegas Concerts decades ago, and they played under three large screens which showed alternating images and video of Elvis, and the band. I took pictures of the event, which was a welcome opportunity after a somewhat humiliating incident at another concert a couple of years ago at the old Woodstock site. I am not very fond of attending huge concert events, but I have been to a few.
I was just happy to be there. I was happy to have made good on my promise to myself to attend the next occurrence of this Elvis event when it came to New York again. I am without debt, which is the truest feeling of wealth I have ever known. It took roughly 20 years for me to make it to Elvis, but I am glad I did.
