More than 17,000 people jammed into Riverfront Coliseum – now called U.S Bank Arena – for what would turn out to be Elvis’ second-to-last concert. Presley arrived late, telling the crowd it was due to dental problems.
The show came at the end of almost two months of constant touring, and the King of Rock and Roll’s performance was described as “loose and light-hearted” by the Cincinnati Enquirer -- a far cry from some of Presley’s other 1977 shows.
After Cincinnati, Elvis flew to Indianapolis and played what would be his final show on June 26, 1977 before about 17,000 people at Market Square Arena.
Before the show, cameras at the airport captured the last known footage of Presley, accepting a gold record. The film would be used in the posthumous TV special, “Elvis In Concert,” that fall. The program – like many of Presley’s final shows -- was noted for the singer’s unhealthy appearance and inconsistent performance, and has never been shown again. (The concert footage in the special was actually shot in Omaha on June 19 and Rapid City, South Dakota, on June 21.)
A few weeks before his death, Elvis’ “Moody Blue” LP was released on translucent blue vinyl. Although much of Elvis’ 1970s product consisted of cheaply slapped-together compilations of old cuts built around hit singles, “Moody Blue” was somewhat consistent: six cuts from sessions at Graceland in October, 1976, and three from live shows in April, 1977. A studio session meant to fill out this LP was scheduled for January, 1977, but canceled, which is why RCA recorded the live tracks; they also rounded out the LP with a live cover of Olivia Newton-John’s “Let Me Be There” that had already been released in 1974.
The content is pretty good: “Moody Blue” is a light touch of disco that somehow topped the country charts and also hit #31 on the pop charts. “Way Down” is a chugging rocker with eerily prescient lyrics. It also hit #1 country and #31 pop, but then shot back up to #18 pop after Elvis died. In England, it became Elvis’ first #1 since 1970’s “The Wonder of You.” It also contains what is recognized by the “Guinness Book” as the lowest note ever recorded by a human voice (J.D. Sumner’s double-low-C). Another stand-out cut is a live cover of Olivia Newton-John’s “If You Love Me (Let Me Know).” Even Elvis’ take on “Little Darlin’” outshines Rogers & Clark.
The album itself hit #1 country and #3 pop.
Copies of “Moody Blue” (like many later Elvis works) seem to be budget bin staples; I routinely find sealed copies of this album for under a dollar, likely because it sold so much better than his other albums of that era.
The first half-million blue vinyl copies sold out in early August, 1977, and RCA switched to standard black vinyl. When Elvis died on August 16, the company immediately went back to blue vinyl, thus making the black vinyl copies very rare. Note that Canadian black vinyl copies, and later black vinyl reissues from the 1980s and beyond, are not rare.
What of the arenas? Riverfront Coliseum would be the site where, in 1979, 11 fans were trampled to death before a concert by The Who. Its name was changed to “The Crown” in 1997, “Firstar Center” in 1999 and “U.S. Bank Arena” in 2002.
Market Square Arena’s main tenant for most of its life was the Indiana Pacers. The arena closed in 1999, the day after the team closed its season and moved to Bankers Life Fieldhouse. The next season (1999-2000), they made their only (to date) NBA Finals appearance, eventually losing to the Lakers in six. David Letterman spent much of the spring and summer of 2000 cheering on the team during his program, while also wistfully recalling their ABA days with Darnell Hillman and Bob Netolicky.
Five weeks after playing Indianapolis, Elvis’ former bodyguards released a tell-all book (“Elvis: What Happened?”) detailing his drug use. Two weeks after that, on August 16, he died of a heart attack. He had been scheduled to leave that evening for another tour.
And now, for no reason, is a discussion of Andy Kaufman's take on Elvis, just months before the final shows.
Here's video from Elvis' final shows.
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