– Elvis Presley – Live At the Las Vegas Hilton – August 3, 1969 –
The further we get away from the 1950s, when Elvis Presley was new and we had never heard anybody like him before the harder it is to picture the era and the people and the times. And as we’re getting further away from hearing the news of his death in 1977 and the overwhelming shock and sadness many people felt because it meant that a good chunk of their youth was gone the more it seems like a dim-distant memory or a footnote in Pop Culture rapidly fading.
So, Elvis Presley today, right now in 2025, may not mean anything to a lot of you. Or maybe a vague recollection of hearing an Elvis Presley song in passing or something your grandparents would nod and smile when his name came up. But there was a time the whole world knew who he was and he helped usher in an era where Music as we knew it would be changed forever.
This concert from August of 1969 comes during his highly publicized comeback; a time much of Elvis Mania had subsided – concerts became an homage to the faithful or the curious. By 1969 we were just starting to get in that place where early Rock was making a revival but was primarily a thing of parody.
By this time many felt Elvis Presley was “phoning in” these concerts – the whole event seemed pre-arranged and rote – even down to the end and the customary “Elvis has left the building” announcement which, as the story goes, was never announced but became the stuff of legend as so much of Rock n’ Roll had by this time (and still does).
But it’s all history and it all his its place in the collective memory of our culture. Most of us weren’t there at the time, and we can’t know the changes lives went though the first time they heard him – just like most everything of the past. We’ve gone on to have our own set of memories and discoveries – the racing pulse and the electricity running up and down our spines is the same – just the objects of that euphoria have changed.
So if you weren’t there at the time, not born yet, avoided it, or remember Elvis Presley with a degree of fondness, here is one of the many Las Vegas concerts he performed during his comeback period. Recorded and circulated by the legion of Presley fans from August 3, 1969, here is that concert from the Hilton Las Vegas.
