Like Edna O’Brien already told us, August is a wicked month. It killed Elvis Presley, 31 years ago. And today he is a one dollar coin, and a Barbie doll, and maybe an ancient, 20th century fertility symbol. Maybe. We have long since mourned. Now all we have to do is remember. And I still think we owe the man. I do. His was my very first revolution. The linear precursor of the one in which I still struggle today. Not I hope with the last of my strength.
The night Elvis died I was in a converted church hall in South London with Larry Wallis. We had been writing the song “Half Price Drinks” but a massive thunderstorm had broken out, complete with thunder, lightning, and the beating of torrential rain on a tin roof. A Sony TV was playing something unwatched, and then a still picture of Elvis flashed up. Oh shit! I though, he’s dead. (This is recounted at greater length in the book Give The Anarchist A Cigarette.)
The night Elvis died I was in a converted church hall in South London with Larry Wallis. We had been writing the song “Half Price Drinks” but a massive thunderstorm had broken out, complete with thunder, lightning, and the beating of torrential rain on a tin roof. A Sony TV was playing something unwatched, and then a still picture of Elvis flashed up. Oh shit! I though, he’s dead. (This is recounted at greater length in the book Give The Anarchist A Cigarette.)
CRYPTIQUE – I shoulda been given the chair of Elvis Presley studies at Princeton, Charlie.
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8 comments:
very interesting and rare presleyana:
http://scottymoore.net/lexington.html
And I got a letter from Jake Riviera that was being written while it happened. He finished the letter, then scrawled in huge letters at the bottom:
ONLY ONE ELVIS LEFT NOW!
And you Mick wrote the best obit in NME
" What ever happened to the greasy haired hoodlum who entered the Army and never returned"
There IS no return from the army, ask any kid in Iraq. And just to make sure, they're now going one step further:
"A newly released report for the US military suggests that in the future soldiers could have their minds controlled and be administered brain altering drugs in order to make them want to fight."
http://infowars.net/articles/august2008/140808Soldiers.htm
MK Ultra, Act II.
and regarding the Elvis return from the army theory, it all loses its logic while listening to "Dirty, Dirty Feeling" and "Fever" at the beginning of Elvis Returns.
Sadly the "Elvis Is Back" album represents a glorious swansong of the possible that was never repeated.
Sad but true.
complexity comes in all forms.
http://www.complexdays.net/
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