Happy birthday, Elvis

[ForrestGump]

Elvis Aron Presley was born on January 8, 1935 in East Tupelo (quite literally the wrong side of the tracks), Mississippi. Early, Lord, one frosty morn...

He'd have been 72 now, if he'd made it past 42 and beyond. He was not as young at his death as were Jimi, Janis, or Jim (all of whom were inspired by his music) but -- in my 42-year-old's opinion -- was still far too young. During his 21 years in the international limelight he made a lot of people feel a lot better and he changed the world even if he never really meant to.









I played around with some recording again recently. These two '70s songs are a kind of makeshift "happy birthday" from me to someone I never met but who nevertheless changed my life and who was and is someone we all know, or think we know, all the same...I do know that he loved both songs.


Bridge Over Troubled Water

Early Morning Rain



I posted "Bridge" here a while back, but it's a song that fits Elvis really well. Back in the bad old days of the Ayatollah and the Iron Curtain I had Elvis penpals in Iran and in Hungary who risked a lot to secure blackmarket videos and tapes of Elvis (the ones I sent to Iran ended up in her hands erased, and she paid $500 -- way back in the '80s -- for a blackmarket copy of Harum Scarum, probably the least of Elvis' '60s films). Elvis had and has fans among people who can't even understand the words he's singing (this formerly, of course, included most of the RCA Records executives who heard his songs) and even among profoundly deaf people. In Eastern Europe people used to impress the groove patterns from Elvis records on vinyl postcards that could enter the country illegally (Pravda opined that the US Army stationed Elvis near the East German border during his Army years because they were trying to subvert communist youth by his sheer proximity) and provide to the proletariat teen masses that rock 'n' roll that was for a while almost as demonized back home in the USA. He's been a something of a bridge over some very troubled waters for a lot of people for a long time, now, starting in segregated Mississippi and Tennessee in the '50s.

There's been a lot said and written about Elvis -- more, perhaps, than about any other figure in popular culture -- but the late, great James Brown said it pretty well, and told it as it was and is: "there'll never be another like that soul brother."

[ScreamingMeemie]

1. Way...way too young.

As always, those are beautiful Forrest. :hug:

[ForrestGump]

2. Thanks, Mrs G

Speaking of beautiful..... :hug:

[ScreamingMeemie]

3. Oh stop...

No really, go on... ;) :loveya:

I'm glad you had a good time in Barstow. I know somebody else who did too!

[ForrestGump]

4. Oh, I'll go on,

huhnay...

Ballad time!

Let It Be Me

:loveya:

Yes, the great desert metropolis of Barstow sure holds some great memories for me, with more yet to come! :D

[buddhamama]

5. Elvis and my Mom were the born the same year

and would the same age today if they both hadn't passed.

He is with us now, today. You're proof of that, Forrest.
And he lives in my childhood memories, standing atop my toy box with a pencil as a microphone, accompanying Elvis on Saturday mornings when i should been helping my Mom clean the house. :)

Happy Birthday, Elvis! Thank You!
Peace.

[ForrestGump]

6. I can just see buddhagirl now, with that pencil....

May life's toybox continue to amaze and bring you joy...

:hug:

[lizziegrace]

7. Same with me

My mother was born in 1935 and will be 72 later this year.

He died much too young. I always got the feeling with Elvis and other that they were not meant to be on this earth long. Shooting stars perhaps.

Happy Birthday to the king.

[ForrestGump]

13. Yes, in some ways

it's hard to picture him not having been that shooting star, regardless. It's hard to tell whetehr that's just because it's the way it turned out, or what, but maybe in some parallel universe....


With Jim Morrison it was pretty predictable...he set out to die young, basically. He wanted to be a dead French poet. Elvis was different, but, in the end, maybe it's the only way it could have turned out.

[johnnie]

8. Happy Birthday E

It seems strange to be the same age as he was when he died.

They have the DVD of "Elvis - In Concert" from the 25th ann. show. I was at that show :)

Have you seen that concert yet Forrest? It is pretty cool, I found myself looking down on the stage looking for him a few times.

[ForrestGump]

14. Nope, I haven't seen that concert

I think I'd catch it if i's still going when it's in proximity to me. At the very least, just seeing dudes like James, Ronnie, and company play again would be cool.

And, yeah, we're both 42 now...it's hard to believe this was the end for Elvis. Forty years old now is not what it was in the '70s, and Elvis was of course pushing new barriers in terms of rock musicians aging, but 42 was still just too young...I still feel like a kid, mostly, and listen to Elvis' rehearsing in the '70s and it's pretty obvious that he wasn't exactly an old man (except, at the very end, maybe physiologically).


By the way, I recorded this one, too, a few days ago...I know you also kinda have a soft spot for this freaky little song so here's my take on it even though I'd just as soon not post it here 'cos it could probably use a cleaner and more energetic vocal (I did about 25 songs and was way, way, way tired by this point!)... :D

My Little Friend

[RetroLounge]

9. I've Lived longer than Elvis?

But how can you outlive someone who is immortal?

Long Live the King!

p.s. I have a life size Elvis Cutout in the basement, and the puppy goes total apeshit over it, attacked it yesterday, thinking it's a person. :rofl:

RL

[ForrestGump]

15. Good point

Immortality, for sure, but I guess there's something to be said for being mortal.

May you look back one day and say "I've lived three times longer than Elvis?" and have lived it well, too... :hi:

(and may your puppy never mistake you for an Elvis cutout)

[jus_the_facts]

10. "Elvis ain't dead...He just went home...."

...long live The King!! :loveya:

I left my home in Norfolk Virginia
California on my mind
I straddled that Greyhound
And rode into Raleigh
And on across Caroline

We had motor trouble that turn into a struggle
Halfway across Alabam
And that hound broke down and left us all stranded
In downtown Birmingham

Right away I brought me a through train ticket
Ridin across Mississippi clean
And I was on that midnight flyer out of Birmingham
Smoking into New Orleans

Somebody help me get out of Louisiana
Just to help me get to Houston town
There are people there who care a little about me
And they wont let the poor boy down

Sure as youre born brought me a silk suit
Put luggage in my hand
And I woke up high over Alburquerque
On a jet to the promised land

Working on a t-bone steak a la carte
Flying over to the golden state
Ah when the pilot told us in thirteen minutes
He would set us at the terminal gate

Swing low chariot come down easy
Taxi to the terminal zone
Cut your engines and cool your wings
And let me make it to the telephone

Los Angeles give me Norfolk Virginia
Tidewater four ten o nine
Tell the folks back home this is the promised land calling
And the poor boy is on the line

Working on a t-bone steak a la carte
Flying over to the golden state
Ah when the pilot told us in thirteen minutes
He would set us at the terminal gate

Swing low chariot come down easy
Taxi to the terminal zone
Cut your engines and cool your wings
And let me make it to the telephone

Los Angeles give me Norfolk Virginia
Tidewater four ten o nine
Tell the folks back home this is the promised land calling
And the poor boy is on the line
:headbang:

[ForrestGump]

16. Always loved that song!!! I love singing it, too.

It's a great song, Elvis' version, but it's even extra-special to me 'cos it's a worthy soundtrack to some of the seat-of-the-pants traveling I've done. Cool stuff!

Though it's sometimes hard for me not to be lyrically thrown, when I sing it myself, by a 1974 rehearsal of the song in which he sings "tell the folks back home this is the Promised Land talking and the motherf***er's on the line..." :D

:hug:

[Shine]

11. Ohhhh, so THAT'S why they've been playing so many Elvis songs on our local station

I was wondering if today was some sort of anniversary of his. Thanks for the reminder, Forrest.

Wow, 72. RIP, Elvis. O8)

[ForrestGump]

17. Every day is Elvis day

:D

He's everywhere. Mojo Nixon says so! :hi:

[u4ic]

12. Those two songs are a surprise

Very nice covers. :hug:



He died far too young. RIP Elvis.

[ForrestGump]

18. Thank you, honeytruffle

:hug:

Covers of covers.

And I'm not going to take the impersonation all the way, I promise...but I'd better be careful in latter half of the first week of February, when I'll be the exact same age as he was on August 16, 1977. Not a good time for me to take up skydiving, bungee jumping, or eating at Olive Garden. :scared: