Elvis and Reagan

Busy lately with fun summer stuff to do. I'll post more this week.



Was gonna post about Reagan and Elvis and how in my youth everybody made fun of both of them. I laughed at the jokes about both as much as anybody. Elvis, fat, loser, died on a toilet. Cheesy songs. Ronnie, dumb cowboy, ugly American, to quote a joke a local comic used to tell "the kind of guy who expects the volume on the radio to go down when he drives thru a tunnel." A good line. Elvis and Reagan, prime comedy and punk rock song goldmines. I bought into the whole thing.



Then in 1992 one of my favorite bands, The Stray Cats, released an album Choo Choo Hot Fish. It had this song "Elvis On Velvet." I saw Brian Setzer explain the song. He said the image and goofs on Elvis had surpassed the memories of his talent. So he wrote the song to say basically hey listen to the guys music please!



I heard the song and thought about Elvis. I went back and listened to alot of his music, from the early days to the end. I bought a lot of CD's and read the liner noted on re-issues.



Why did so many like him for so long? Was there more to Elvis than the jokes I had heard all my life? Indeed. Much more.



I am now a huge Elvis fan. Thanks in part to this song by The Stray Cats:



"Elvis On Velvet"



All night long way black top highway midnight hittin' a groove

Mustang radio rag top jukebox hound dog don't be cruel

Roadside rest stop all night truck stop side show out of a van

Rhinestone lunchbox ashtray junk shop key chain hittin' the fan



Elvis on velvet - don't know why it makes me blue

Elvis on velvet - it's got a strange effect on you

Elvis on velvet - somehow it makes me mad

Elvis on velvet - and I can see him tonight up on the road ahead



Well drift back daydream Memphis street scene 1955

Street flair flat bed three piece string band shakin' man alive

Then heartbreak hotel, jailhouse rock, love me tender please

I'm all shooked up, too much, so treat me nice and wear my ring



Elvis on velvet - don't know why it makes me blue

Elvis on velvet - it's got a strange effect on you

Elvis on velvet - somehow it makes me mad

Elvis on velvet - and I can see him tonight up on the road ahead



Well graceland wasteland right this way ma'am one low price to pay

His life, his love, his home, his stuff, his final resting place

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, thy records re-released

All kneel to second guess and bless him, let him rest in peace



Elvis on velvet - don't know why it makes me blue

Elvis on velvet - it's got a strange effect on you

Elvis on velvet - somehow it makes me mad

Elvis on velvet - and I can see him tonight up on the road ahead



And Reagan? Well there isn't a Stray Cats song to point to, but he was a far far far better president than the hardcore anti Reagan punk rock and comedy world I was hanging out with in the 80's would have thought.



Ignore faults just because people die? No, but to try to look at a complete life, good and bad only seems fair.



Elvis had some pretty crappy records in his time, and Ronnie did scare the sh*t out of me and maybe the world with the weapon build up.



But with both the jokes were funny, but for me that time has passed. They aren't funny to me much anymore.



I am quick to point out the quality of the music of Elvis when someone makes an Elvis crack around me, you know in a nice way. I'm probably not going to hop into an anti Reagan discussion, it's not the kind of thing I do. And still some of the crowd around my world are only 100 percent anti Reagan and anything ("oh by the way he helped to end the Cold War, Free Poland, etc") else would be seen as extreme right wing pro Republican. The discussion would quickly go no where. Besides I don't give sh*t what people think about such things, they can think whatever they want and I hope they don't give a sh*t about what I think.



So anyway that one song changed my way of looking at not just Elvis, but lots of things. Funny how that works huh?