Oh, and once you've absorbed that -- here's the song's author, Gillian Welch, with more or less the original version of the song in 2001.
I was thinking that night about Elvis
Day that he died, day that he died
I was thinking that night about Elvis
Day that he died, day that he died
Just a country boy that combed his hair
And put on a shirt his mother made and went on the air
And he shook it like a chorus girl
And he shook it like a Harlem Queen
He shook it like a midnight rambler, baby
Like you never seen, you never seen
I was thinking that night about Elvis
Day that he died, day that he died
I was thinking that night about Elvis
Day that he died, day that he died
How he took it all out of black and white
Grabbed his wand in the other hand and he held on tight
And he shook it like a hurricane
He shook it like to make it break
And he shook it like a holy roller, baby
With his soul at stake, his soul at stake
I was thinking that night about Elvis
Day that he died, day that he died
I was thinking that night about Elvis
Day that he died, day that he died
He was all alone in a long decline
Thinking how happy John Henry was that he fell down and died
When he shook it and he rang like silver
He shook it and he shine like gold
He shook it and he beat that steam drill, baby
Well bless my soul, bless my soul
He shook it and he beat that steam drill, baby
Well bless my soul, what's wrong with me?
They're both great, obviously, but the Jones version? Good lord.
That couldn't be any further from "It's Not Unusual" if you put a gun to its head.
4 comments:
I like Ms. Welch's version.
WHY WHY WHY DELILAH!!!!!
And I like Tom's. It's a great song, and Welch and Rawling's version is good too. But perhaps because I'm a tad less sentimental than most, the Church of Elvis always struck me as straight-out-of Colonel Tom Parker's Las Vegas playbook. And songs that elevate Elvis largely do nothing for me. But Jones' version is an exception.
My favorite "the night Elvis died" song is The Odd's Wendy Under The Stars, on the band's first album, Neapolitan. I recall that Greil Marcus went on and on about the song in Dead Elvis, because the song had been passed along in Canada for some time before Neapolitan was released, its meaning is absolutely clear, and it clearly fit within the Marcus book.
The song is here (https://youtu.be/3Ih_wHji0Wk).
And the lyrics, which deal less with what Elvis did or didn't do than the "where I was" part of a celebrity's death, follow.
I had a similar experience. In the summer of 1971, I was 20 and working at a Y summer camp in Port Jervis, NY as the camp driver. On the night Morrison died, I was was at a party with some co-workers when it was announced on the radio that Morrison died. I turned to a woman standing next to me and remarked something like, who would've thought something like this would happen?" And she said, "Who's Jim Morrison?"
Such is life. Or death, in this instance.
WENDY UNDER THE STARS
I was sitting there, watching TV
Wendy came and sat on my knee
She put her finger in my ear
But I pulled it out so I could hear
What the newsman on the television said
He said the king of rock' n roll was dead
And in the spooky television light
She said, "Don't ever forget this night."
I was fucking Wendy under the stars, the night that Elvis died
As we walked across the dew wet field
I never ever thought she would yield
To my young body's aching desire
For an older woman's well banked fire
By the left hand I was led
To the place that we would make our bed
And embracing in the blue moonlight
She said, "Don't ever forget this night."
I was fucking Wendy under the stars, the night that Elvis died
She was thirty-one, I was seventeen
I found out then what passion could mean
I thought I loved her, but I didn't know how
I don't love her when I see her now
With the tape deck turned up loud
She made a young man feel strong and proud
And in the coolness of the morning light
She said, "Don't ever forget this night."
I was fucking Wendy under the stars, the night that Elvis died.
To paraphrase Elvis concerning the Tom Jones version: "That don't move me".
Tom Jones' singing has always sounded "insincere" to me and slightly buffoonish. Tom Jones fans, I'm not baiting you, I just have never dug his singing.
Now the Gillian Welch version is gorgeous!
Captain Al
Tom will probably never outlive the Vegas kitsch, but the man sure can sing! Great cover.
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