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He was a great performer and gave literally everything he had every single show. The reason he "squandered" his talent was because he couldn't handle the enormous pressure of giving people the most memorable moment of their lives every single time he took the stage. If he weren't such a conscientious, dedicated person, he'd probably still be alive today. Look at Sinatra, he didn't give a shit and he lived till he was 80.
As Greil Marcus points out, Elvis made an art of squandering his talent for most of the last years of his career. He was throwing poo at the audience and daring them to say they'd had enough. They never did.
It's kind of the same relationship the Bush administration has with its die-hard supporters.
It's easy to laugh at the spaced-out banter, but he was known to screw around on stage a lot (he apparently told the audience it was the guitarist's birthday every show in those days). But I think his singing sounds marvelous in this clip after he gets warmed up, much better than the general impression I've always had of his later years.
That's more than you can say for most.
