The Power of Love

July 4, 1976

July 4, 1976

"Welcome, everybody," Andy said through his microphone in his radio tone of voice, "This is Andy Brown."

"And I'm Rain Mathews," I said, "And we're on the air live from Elvis Presley's performance here in Tulsa for America's Bicentennial!"

"That's right! So go outside, have that cliché barbecue and turn your radio up loud if you wanna hear the King of Rock and Roll!"

Yes, we were broadcasting live form an Elvis Presley concert. I had been looking forward to the event ever since it had been announced at the radio station. Once I'd been able to tell everyone about it, they all freaked out when I did. It made it even better that my boss had somehow managed to get passes to actually meet Elvis after the show was over for all of us, even for Eric.

Somehow, Eric had found me a few months previous to the present time. He was my older brother by about three years, and we only had the same father, but different mothers. His mother had been married to my father first, but they got divorced after only a few years, and she moved to Virginia with Eric. Then, my dad married my mom, and the rest is history. Not long after he came to Tulsa, we took some sort of test to prove that we really did have the same dad, proving that he was my half-brother. He decided to move to Bixby not long after, which isn't too far away from Tulsa. He had originally came to Oklahoma for a job he got, then when he found out about me, he found me. While he'd been here he started his new job, had gotten a nice place to live, and even a girlfriend.

It was kinda weird sometimes to have an actual brother. It wasn't the fact that he's my brother that was weird, cause that wasn't it at all. It was more so that I had grown up all with guys around me who I considered "brothers" to me, and now having an actual brother, it was so surreal. It also seemed a bit odd since I'd grown up not knowing him, and he grew up not knowing me, while the case is usually siblings grow up together and that we hadn't met until we were adults.

Not the most normal scenario, really; or should I say not that most normal "Family reunion", in this case? And besides, what is normal, anyway?

Everyone was at the concert. Could you blame people for being excited to see Elvis? I mean, sure, Elvis' popularity wasn't as big as it was in the late fifties or in the sixties, but that didn't seem to make a difference to those in the audience. It sure didn't make a difference to me, at least. And to be honest, I hadn't been so excited for a concert since we'd all driven from Tulsa to New Orleans in Louisiana in 1970 for a Doors concert- one of their last, actually- and we snuck backstage to meet the members of the Doors, or when the radio station sent me and Andy to Tucson in Arizona in 1974 for a David Bowie concert where we then got to meet and interview him... and I was really excited for those.

"The concert'll be starting soon since all the other acts just finished," I said, "So if you're just tuning in, you didn't miss anything yet and you couldn't have chosen a better time to join us here!"

"You're all in for a real treat, folks," Andy said, "Whether you're here at the concert, at home, some sort of celebration or whatever you're doing- if you're listening in, this might be the time for you to hear Elvis Presley live."

"With the exception of Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite from 1973 a few years ago, of course."

The concert had begun not long after that. To say that concert was incredible would be an understatement. He sang the songs that had been released all throughout his singing career, both rock songs and his gospel hymns. Along with those, his patriotic songs were sung as well, which went right in with the holiday and made sense for the current holiday. Then at the song, he said that he loved the people of Tulsa- which made everyone go nuts- and that if we ever wanted him to come back for another concert, "just let us know".