Chapter One: My first Concert

I've started working on a book using my concert stubs as reference point, I've begun a few of my stories in some other forums and "journal" entries on other sites, but I hoping this more "personal blog" here will be the definitive source for my book. My first concert was his last and I think it makes an interesting jumping off point for my “stories”. Maybe I’ll use my journal entries here as a way to keep my progress going. I may switch over to a chronological order eventually but for Facebook reasons I’m going to just throw up a few interesting ones that I have been ‘blogging’ about recently on Facebook… So first up… is …. Elvis.

I was only 16 and in drivers ed training in my hometown of Marion,IN at the time so I couldn't drive. But somehow I got my Mom talked into taking me. My older brother, over tens years older, expressed interest in going too, which if you do the math you’ll see that Mom was actually part of the that's just “hip-shakin’ devil music generation”, but with my interest in movies which had me watching every single escapist movie of Elvis’ through the weekend afternoons, carrying over to me buying his music and that I think actually made Mom appreciate what an incredible singer he was, so she agreed to take me. Our seats couldn't have been further back: only the wall behind us at Market Square Arena. And the seats went up much further on the sides than they did at the far end. So being at the very top on the sides furthest away from the stage, I’m pretty sure made it physically impossible to be further away from the stage… but it didn't matter…. his voice carried through that place like a cathedral; and with songs like “Bridge Over Trouble Water” it felt as much too. Thanks to YouTube, I recently found some bootleg footage that I never knew existed from that very show. I knew there was no 'professional' footage. They had recorded a full show a few weeks earlier but nothing from that last show. So it was very interesting to see that footage from the actual Indianapolis show. In the footage he actually looked pretty good. I know there are plenty of sweaty shots and angles that were extremely unflattering, and certainly the white blob I saw could have been overweight.. but we couldn't tell! And again, he sounded awesome. He introduced his Dad, his girlfriend, and said it was the end of his tour and he was heading to Graceland to rest after a long tour… a few short months later he was gone.

Here's the set list http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/elvis-presley/1977/market-square-arena-indianapolis-in-33d698cd.html

I just found this picture of a bootleg video, and it really reminds me how much I got hosed on the ticket stub. Mine got torn right down the middle and handed back the worst half...Just look at the other half of the ticket and the information shown... I mean you can tell my ticket was obviously the other half but still.... 50 -50 odds just aren't good enough for me and my luck :-( 

Just found this diary entry... I thought about blurring out my other entries  but at least the many years of film discussions make this gay Elvis entry not so bad lol....