Screaming Fans Tell Elvis They're Still His
By A.L. McClain
Detroit News
September 12, 1970
Elvis Presley, head thrown back, feet wide apart, reaching out for adoration - hearing an old sound from more than 16,000 turned-on fans last night at Olympia.
The frantic screams reached rafter of the old building and hung there - an umbrella of screams.
It was a sound Elvis hasn't heard for a long time in the more sophisticated circles of movie-making and Las Vegas, and if you were close enough to the stage, you could see him breathing in the emotional impact he had on his audience.
ELVIS NEEDED to know up close that in the last 13 years, those screaming youngsters who have closed in on age 30 or passed it haven't forgotten him.
They haven't. He knows now. Along the way, he has picked up some new fans who are too young to remember the Elvis of old.
At 35, Elvis is still youthful and trim, the jaw firm, hair jet black and long.
He may shake his head more now than the hip bones connected to the thigh bones, but he still can throw a mean bump.
The main difference in Elvis today from the young man who appeared at Olympia in March, 1957, is a mellowness. There is less arrogance in the man and more humor.
During his fine performance last night, he smiled often and laughed at his own antics.
But, even in all-white jump suit with white shoes and Indian belt, there is still a touch of the "grease" in Elvis.
It's the way he moves about the stage with a touch of rebellion spirit that makes still ride off in a motorcycle any minute.
THE PURISTS have never given Elvis singing voice due credit. He may be highly stylized and rough hews, but underneath there is a sound baritone, particularly in the ballads.
Singing his early numbers, "Heartbreak Hotel," "Blue Suede Shoes" and "Johnny B. Good," reveals the impact that Elvis had on rock. His place in musical history is assured.
And when he sang "You Ain't Nothing But A Hound Dog," the lyrics may have laughable, but the beat is deadly serious.
His version of the lamentable "How Time Slips Away" was tender and caressing. If there is a raw power in the man, there also is great sensitivity.
An Evening with Elvis Presley will make a television viewer realize how much Tom Jones has copied Elvis' style and that the real product is so much better.
Outside Olympia after the show, fans still talked with lingering excitement and some young girls cried while clutching their autographed pictures of the star.
One young girl triumphant walked away with Elvis' red scarf.
Some things just never change.
Courtesy of Brian Petersen
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