September 2nd 1974 Closing Show

He wasn't out of control. He changed from apparent anger to the tenderness of the Hawaiian Wedding Song as if he was turning a switch on and off. He had prepared his show of anger, he was going to shake people up on purpose, thus he did it more than once in successive shows. This is not uncharacteristic Elvis strategy, as we know - many examples throughout his general biography. You had to be there to see how he was, to see his face and intentions, which you can't get from the CDs.

Preparing to do what he did makes it somehow worse. It wasn';t an outburst of anger that suddenly took control of him that day - he had planned it all, thinking it was the right thing to do!

I don't know if that makes it worse or better, it was thought out which is made clear by the 2-3 shows before it. Maybe he didn't intend to get so carried away, but yes he did plan it.

Elvis was a prideful person, and the rumours that caught his attention hurt. And certainly part of his grossly inappropriate stage behavior at the show in question was due to the fact that he knew that -- to a certain extent -- it was true.

Elvis was a prideful person, and the rumours that caught his attention hurt. And certainly part of his grossly inappropriate stage behavior at the show in question was due to the fact that he knew that -- to a certain extent -- it was true.

He knew he was strung out on heroin??

Somewhere I have heared that an employee of the hotel found a syringe in Elvis' room and started the rumor. The King did not use Heroin, but Pethidine and he knew that it was not much healthier.

If you listen to the first shows of this season, the performances were quite decent. But after the break Elvis started to defend himself and his monologues grew longer and stranger every night.

Right there were good music and shows, but things got weird as it went on. Last time he really looked good to me, especally moving on stage.

Elvis was a prideful person, and the rumours that caught his attention hurt. And certainly part of his grossly inappropriate stage behavior at the show in question was due to the fact that he knew that -- to a certain extent -- it was true.

He knew he was strung out on heroin??

Did you miss the to a certain extent part?

Elvis was a prideful person, and the rumours that caught his attention hurt. And certainly part of his grossly inappropriate stage behavior at the show in question was due to the fact that he knew that -- to a certain extent -- it was true.

He knew he was strung out on heroin??

Did you miss the to a certain extent part?

What part? Look at the comments within context.
He was mad because of his privacy being violated.
He didn't like rumors.
But how could he stop them? So he lashed out.

Its highly embarressing how he carried on that night and to a lesser extent the previous nights midnight show...if he'd just left it at the statement' that all the stuff you read in movie magazines is all Junk'... and stopped their- that would have been 'ok' but he went way over the top for pretty much ALL of his 'behavour'-cars,karate etc shows,.....all through September 1974. very sad time for being an Elvis Fan

To me, the worst part of that evening wasn't his "drug speech" but his carrying on with Priscilla... that stuff had to be embarrassing for everyone present...

Yeah. Like when he's singing "It's Midnight" and in the middle of the song he says, "Listen Cilla" and goes into:

"Where is all my self-control? I'm burning way down in my soul and needing you. Wishing I could be the man I try to. Hating me for wanting to be with you. Knowing you don't love me like you used to. But it's midnight and I miss you".

Obviously singing directly to her, you know. All with Sheila Ryan sitting in the same booth with Priscilla. I'm sure that wasn't awkward at all.

I wasn't there to see who he was singing to but it's possible he said, "listen Cilla" just because he noticed she was talking and not paying attention, not because he wanted her to hear that particular verse of the song. Of course it's just as possible he did want her to hear that verse. It's just hard to tell without seeing his body language and actions.

Its highly embarressing how he carried on that night and to a lesser extent the previous nights midnight show...if he'd just left it at the statement' that all the stuff you read in movie magazines is all Junk'... and stopped their- that would have been 'ok' but he went way over the top for pretty much ALL of his 'behavour'-cars,karate etc shows,.....all through September 1974. very sad time for being an Elvis Fan

To me, the worst part of that evening wasn't his "drug speech" but his carrying on with Priscilla... that stuff had to be embarrassing for everyone present...

Yeah. Like when he's singing "It's Midnight" and in the middle of the song he says, "Listen Cilla" and goes into:

"Where is all my self-control? I'm burning way down in my soul and needing you. Wishing I could be the man I try to. Hating me for wanting to be with you. Knowing you don't love me like you used to. But it's midnight and I miss you".

Obviously singing directly to her, you know. All with Sheila Ryan sitting in the same booth with Priscilla. I'm sure that wasn't awkward at all.

I wasn't there to see who he was singing to but it's possible he said, "listen Cilla" just because he noticed she was talking and not paying attention, not because he wanted her to hear that particular verse of the song. Of course it's just as possible he did want her to hear that verse. It's just hard to tell without seeing his body language and actions.

This is a wind-up, yes?

Its highly embarressing how he carried on that night and to a lesser extent the previous nights midnight show...if he'd just left it at the statement' that all the stuff you read in movie magazines is all Junk'... and stopped their- that would have been 'ok' but he went way over the top for pretty much ALL of his 'behavour'-cars,karate etc shows,.....all through September 1974. very sad time for being an Elvis Fan

To me, the worst part of that evening wasn't his "drug speech" but his carrying on with Priscilla... that stuff had to be embarrassing for everyone present...

Yeah. Like when he's singing "It's Midnight" and in the middle of the song he says, "Listen Cilla" and goes into:

"Where is all my self-control? I'm burning way down in my soul and needing you. Wishing I could be the man I try to. Hating me for wanting to be with you. Knowing you don't love me like you used to. But it's midnight and I miss you".

Obviously singing directly to her, you know. All with Sheila Ryan sitting in the same booth with Priscilla. I'm sure that wasn't awkward at all.

I wasn't there to see who he was singing to but it's possible he said, "listen Cilla" just because he noticed she was talking and not paying attention, not because he wanted her to hear that particular verse of the song. Of course it's just as possible he did want her to hear that verse. It's just hard to tell without seeing his body language and actions.

This is a wind-up, yes?

Wind-up for what?

Yeah. Like when he's singing "It's Midnight" and in the middle of the song he says, "Listen Cilla" and goes into:

"Where is all my self-control? I'm burning way down in my soul and needing you. Wishing I could be the man I try to. Hating me for wanting to be with you. Knowing you don't love me like you used to. But it's midnight and I miss you".

Obviously singing directly to her, you know. All with Sheila Ryan sitting in the same booth with Priscilla. I'm sure that wasn't awkward at all.

I wasn't there to see who he was singing to but it's possible he said, "listen Cilla" just because he noticed she was talking and not paying attention, not because he wanted her to hear that particular verse of the song. Of course it's just as possible he did want her to hear that verse. It's just hard to tell without seeing his body language and actions.

No it's not... it's quite obvious he was singing to Priscilla. During that song wasn't the only time he referred to her that evening...

I wasn't there to see who he was singing to but it's possible he said, "listen Cilla" just because he noticed she was talking and not paying attention, not because he wanted her to hear that particular verse of the song. Of course it's just as possible he did want her to hear that verse. It's just hard to tell without seeing his body language and actions.

No it's not... it's quite obvious he was singing to Priscilla. During that song wasn't the only time he referred to her that evening...

Correct.

One listen to the entire show makes this clear, not to mention Priscilla's memory of the evening.

Priscilla was beside herself. "I was in shock. Because [in the past] he would never, ever let on to the audience what his emotions were. You know, singing was always his way of venting his emotions, how he felt about something -- and he'd get onstage and sing his heart out. Any song, any given song, you know, he wold beat it to death, with more emotion and more energy -- but he never let it out in public. This was [so] out of character, for someone who had so much pride, you know -- everything that he was against, he was displaying. It was like watching a different person."

Peter Guralnick, Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley (New York: Little, Brown, January 8, 1999), p. 544

If Parker had allowed his client to do an occasional interview, maybe Elvis could have taken his story to one of the entertainment magazines (maybe one of the g***d*** movie mags he loved so much ) instead of ranting onstage.

I wasn't there to see who he was singing to but it's possible he said, "listen Cilla" just because he noticed she was talking and not paying attention, not because he wanted her to hear that particular verse of the song. Of course it's just as possible he did want her to hear that verse. It's just hard to tell without seeing his body language and actions.

No it's not... it's quite obvious he was singing to Priscilla. During that song wasn't the only time he referred to her that evening...

Correct.

One listen to the entire show makes this clear, not to mention Priscilla's memory of the evening.

Priscilla was beside herself. "I was in shock. Because [in the past] he would never, ever let on to the audience what his emotions were. You know, singing was always his way of venting his emotions, how he felt about something -- and he'd get onstage and sing his heart out. Any song, any given song, you know, he wold beat it to death, with more emotion and more energy -- but he never let it out in public. This was [so] out of character, for someone who had so much pride, you know -- everything that he was against, he was displaying. It was like watching a different person."

Peter Guralnick, Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley (New York: Little, Brown, January 8, 1999), p. 544

Well if Priscilla said that then he was singing the song to her but we can't always go just by what we hear. Marty Lacker has always maintained that Elvis was just chastising her for talking or not paying attention to his performance but I don't believe he was there either. By Elvis doing that, he was just playing into the hands of the movie magazines.

If Parker had allowed his client to do an occasional interview, maybe Elvis could have taken his story to one of the entertainment magazines (maybe one of the g***d*** movie mags he loved so much ) instead of ranting onstage.

The movie magazines really didn't do interviews. There really wasn't the celebrity friendly outlets like "ET" and "Extra" back then. Photoplay Magazine and Rona Barret's Hollywood were the closest to them. May Mann was a Hollywood reporter who was totally in Elvis's corner. She was (I believe) in attendance of the Desert Storm show and he had to know she would put a positive spin on it, which she did.

Almost all the Celebrities were under siege by the movie magazines so doing an interview to complain about them would have been a mute point and would have given them legitimacy.

But Elvis did do movie magazine interviews.
Especially in the 1960's.

Hedda Hopper comes to mind.
And a gal from Photoplay taked to him from time to time.

Of course these were not really in depth interviews but rather come off as casual conversations.