Recently the news media took note of what would have been Elvis Presley's 75th birthday. Also more than 30 years after the event, a previously unknown recording of Elvis' 5th and final concert in Charleston has surfaced. The concert was the 8:30 show on July 24, 1976. Toward the end of concert (you can hear the final portion here) Elvis remarks to his West Virginia fans... "you are really a fantastic audience here... anytime you want us back here, just let us know and we will be glad to come back, until we meet you, adios."
But we now know the rest of the story, Elvis did not return to Charleston and 13 months later at the age of 42 the mega-star from Memphis was dead. Presley's last Charleston stop is interesting for other reasons, three days later Elvis's long-time girlfriend, Linda Thompson, who more than anyone kept Elvis's drug habit is check, would leave him. And in a bit of hind-sight irony the last song before the quote above was, "Ain't it Funny How Time Slips Away."
I only tell this to make this simple point - we have no promise of tomorrow. Or as James puts it...
"Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit"; 14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that." (James 4:13-15)
Our times are in the hands of God, and it is for Him we are to live. And since our journey through this life is amazingly brief make every moment count. A final note from recording above - it ends with the now famous announcement that "Elvis has left the building." What will be left when you take your bow and make your exit?
1 comment:
Elvis was booked for a show in Huntington in 1977, but died days or weeks before that tour began. A lot of people kept the tickets rather than cash them back in. He was definitely "king" in this area, as the Gazette discovered after running a not-so-flattering Taylor Jones caricature of the flabby Presley (they received months' of negative mail).
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