My Elvis Presley Blog

Welcome to my next instalment in the series “Songs Written About Elvis”.  In this one he shares the spotlight with two other super super stars, Marilyn Monroe and James Dean.  There was a time when I was fascinated by Marilyn Monroe and read everything about her that I could get my hands on.  Another victim of too many prescription drugs, too much fame and not enough authentic support from friends and family.  I was never a fan of James Dean because he was way before my time but Elvis adored him and aspired to be as great an actor so that’s all I need to know about that.  That was, obviously, before that old illegal Dutch crook with the phoney name was permitted to crush all of Elvis’ dreams.

This a song sung by The Bellamy Brothers who you might know better for their song “Let Your Love Flow” from around 1975.  (And “If I Told You That You Had a Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me”)…a corny Groucho Marx line that made this group a ton of money. 

Elvis, Marilyn and James Dean was recorded and released on not one but two albums in the summer of 1995. One in June called Native American and one in August called Sons of Beaches.  Same track listing, different album name and different cover.  Huh?

Needless to say this or any other tune from those two “twins from a different father” albums ever achieved any notoriety at all but the sentiment at least of this tribute song is appreciated by this Elvis (and Marilyn) fan.

Read More about The Bellamy Brothers

I would have liked to have given you the lyrics for this song but “We’re sorry, the artist has decided not to publish the lyrics to this song.” Huh? 

Anyway watch this video below and you’ll hear the lyrics whether the artist wants you to or not.  I just don’t get that!

The great picture at the top of Elvis, Marilyn and James Dean (okay, I guess I have to acknowledge that Bogart is in the picture but why?  Why? How does it relate to the subject, I ask you?) is available in poster format from AllPosters.com either as is or in a framed version.  And Yes if you click the link below I will make about 15 cents if you decide to buy so the FTC is happy I’ve just told you that.  Click the link below if you’re interested in this collector’s item.

Royal Flush Art Print
Consani, Chris
Buy at AllPosters.com

Until next time….

Mark Knopfler is best known as the lead guitarist, vocalist and songwriter for the British rock band Dire Straits, which he co-founded in 1977 with his brother David. After Dire Straits disbanded in 1995, Knopfler continued to record and produce albums as a solo artist under his own name. Occasionally, Knopfler has played in other groups, such as the The Notting Hillbillies; as well, he has guested on works by other artists, including The Dandy Warhols, Bob Dylan, Bryan Ferry, Eric Clapton, Jeff Healey, John Fogerty, Jools Holland, Steely Dan, Emmylou Harris, Sonny Landreth, Phil Lynott, Joan Armatrading and Chet Atkins. He has produced albums for artists such as Tina Turner, Willy DeVille, Randy Newman, Bob Dylan and even "Weird Al" Yankovic. In addition, he has scored the music to several films, including Metroland, Local Hero, Cal, Last Exit to Brooklyn, Wag the Dog, and Rob Reiner’s classic, The Princess Bride.

He is one of the most respected fingerstyle guitarists of the modern rock era. Knopfler was ranked #27 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time."

Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits have sold in excess of 120 million albums to date

Like many other schoolboys of the 1960s, he served an early apprenticeship by forming and joining anonymous schoolboy bands and listening to singers like Elvis Presley and guitarists Chet Atkins, Scotty Moore, Jimi Hendrix, Django Reinhardt and James Burton.  The rest, as they say, is history and if you wish to know more about Mark, check out his full bio here: Mark Knopfler

I have never heard “Back to Tupelo” before today although I’ve been a fan of Mark’s for a long time all the way back to when Dire Straits was the hottest thing on the radio. He is one of the great all time guitar players in my opinion and I know my guitar players. This song was released on Mark’s solo album titled The Trawlerman’s Song in 2005.  As I listened to the YouTube video below I also read the lyrics as Mark is not all that easy to understand sometimes and I got chills down my spine.  I also became very sad.  For Elvis. Again. Note the reference to the “lying dutchman”. 

Enjoy this, it’s very good especially if you enjoy world class guitar playing as I do. Thank you Mark for writing such a poignant and moving tribute to the King.

around the time of ‘clambake’
movie number twenty-five
you and the lying dutchman
are still in overdrive
you’re as strong as when you started
mississippi in your soul
you can still be marlon brando
and the king of rock and roll
it isn’t just the records
no, you must have hollywood
the songs alone are not enough
that much is understood
you’ll soon be back in memphis
maybe then you’ll know what to do
the storylines they’re giving you
are just not ringing true
oh, it’s a ways to go
back to tupelo
when you’re young and beautiful
your dreams are all ideals
later on it’s not the same
lord, everything is real
sixteen hundred miles of highway
roll back to the truth
and a song to give your mother
in your first recording booth
around the time of ‘clambake’
that old dream’s still rolling on
sometimes there’ll be the feeling
things are going wrong
the morning star is fading
lord, the mississippi’s cold
you can still be marlon brando
and the king of rock and roll
but it’s a ways to go
back to tupelo

"(619) 239-KING" and “Elvis is Everywhere” by Mojo Nixon

Hello again, dear Readers.  I am back with your 2nd instalment of the songs written about Elvis.  If you remember from my first post in this series, was it just yesterday? Yes indeed it was. Anyway, I discovered while reading yet another biography about Elvis that there are over 232 songs written and recorded about Elvis.  I was enchanted to know this because who else can you name that has had that many songs written about them besides God, Jesus, Mother Mary and several other religious figures? 

I promised you that I would research these songs and present them to you. My first post included probably the most famous tune ever written and recorded about Elvis, “Black Velvet”. Today I thought I’d cover two more songs that really should put a smile on your face and I’m pretty sure even Elvis would have gotten a kick out of them. 

Mojo Nixon was born exactly 20 days before me on August 2, 1957 in Chapel Hill, N.C. He was originally named Neill Kirby McMillan, Jr. and I can’t seem to find an explanation for the name change but no matter, Mojo suits him much better as you’ll soon see.

Mojo is an irreverent artist taking shots at just about anybody he wants to. Some of his song titles include “Don Henley Must Die”, “Jesus at McDonalds” and “Debbie Gibson Is Pregnant with My Two-Headed Love Child”.  You get the idea?  However with the two songs he recorded about Elvis, it seems that Mojo actually really loves Elvis and for that, I will forgive him for using so many really ugly and bad Elvis impersonators in his videos.  Of note: in the “619-239-KING” video there is actually one impersonator that shows up early in the video who actually does resemble Elvis as he looked in the mid-70’s. Mojo is quoted as saying that his personal religious trinity was Presley, Foghorn Leghorn and Otis Campbell.

If you’re interested in reading more about Mojo Nixon, click here.  Meanwhile, enjoy these two videos:

(619) 239-KING Embedding is disabled for this one but you should be able to watch it at YouTube by clicking on the link

So I’m reading the Jerry Hopkins Elvis biography, the latest edition that has his two Elvis bio’s combined.  The first book he wrote before Elvis died and it’s the only biography that I’m aware of that was written while Elvis was alive besides the one book that shall remain unnamed on this blog that may or may not have killed him and was written by his two “good friends” Red & Sonny West as told to a hack gossip columnist. The 2nd book was written after Elvis left us.

But I digress. So I’m reading this biography and really enjoying it although much of what is in it I already know.  But it seems when you are in love with the King, you can read the same things from different sources and get a whole different perspective.  And Hopkins writes well which helps a lot.

Anyway I encountered a section in the book where the author starts to list all the songs that had been written “about” Elvis.  My eyebrows started to raise up and I immediately got a lot more interested because I only ever knew one song that was written about Elvis and that’s the one included here sung by Alannah Myles. 

Now folks, I have to be honest here. Up until a few months ago, I didn’t even know this song WAS about Elvis but of course, as soon as I heard that and remembered the words, (which I have memorized because it used to be one of my all time favorite songs) I thumped my forehead as if I was in a V8 commercial because OF COURSE it’s about Elvis! Who else could it be about you stupid twit?! 

Yes sometimes I am unusually harsh on myself. 

Tonight I thought I’d research this topic a wee bit more and just see, out of curiosity, how many songs were actually credited with being “about” Elvis.  Can you guess?  Would you think maybe 20 or 30?  Does that seem like a lot?  How about over 200?  That’s right, there are over 200 songs that are credited with being about Elvis!  And many more that refer to him in more minor ways. 

So I have just created another “series” of Elvis pieces I’m going to be doing on the Songs that were Written about Elvis.  Black Velvet of course will start out the series because it’s the one I’m most familiar with as are most of my readers, I’m sure. 

Black Velvet was made into a huge hit by 3 time Juno award winning Canadian artist Alannah Myles back in 1989. She was also awarded a Grammy for Best Female Rock Performance for Black Velvet. Written by Canadian musicians David Tyson and Christopher Ward, it became a number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 charts in 1990 and reached number one on the Album Rock Tracks chart, as well as number one in Canada and number two in the UK Singles Chart. In 1990, country music artist Robin Lee reached number 12 on the U.S. country singles charts with a cover version.

In 1989, you couldn’t go anywhere without hearing it playing and in fact, the song was named the most played song on radio for 1989.  Alannah had such a sexy, bluesy voice that was perfect for this song.  I never heard the Robin Lee version of it and don’t really need to.  Like Elvis himself, the original song by Alannah was such a classic that anything after would seem like cheap karaoke. (I hate karaoke and I hate Elvis impersonators too.) 

There are some interesting theories about the Black Velvet title.  I prefer to think of it as a very apt description of Elvis’s style, his look and his voice.  Something awfully sexy and dangerous about black velvet.  However it’s possible that it refers to the Elvis on Black Velvet paintings  you can still find in some people’s homes or, and I think this is a pretty cool idea too, it refers to the hair dye Elvis always used which was called “Sullivan’s Black Velvet”.

Either way, black was one of Elvis’s favorite colors so the song title is a perfect fit, no matter the reason.   Here then are the lyrics:

Mississippi in the middle of a dry spell
Jimmy Rogers on the Victrola up high
Mama’s dancin’ with baby on her shoulder
The sun is settin’ like molasses in the sky
The boy could sing, knew how to move, everything
Always wanting more, he’d leave you longing for

Chorus:
Black velvet and that little boy’s smile
Black velvet with that slow southern style
A new religion that’ll bring ya to your knees
Black velvet if you please

Up in Memphis the music’s like a heatwave
White lightening, bound to drive you wild
Mama’s baby’s in the heart of every school girl
"Love me tender" leaves ‘em cryin’ in the aisle
The way he moved, it was a sin, so sweet and true
Always wanting more, he’d leave you longing for

Repeat chorus:

Every word of every song that he sang was for you 

In a flash he was gone, it happened so soon, what could
you do?

I hope you all enjoy this new series I’m beginning here and that you’ll stay tuned for more as I bring you all the songs that were written about Elvis, The King of Rock and Roll.