30 years tomorrow
My cousin Brad is a HUGE Elvis fan. He'll be remembering Elvis tomorrow for sure. I'm not sure why Brad likes Elvis so much; he was only 10 when Elvis died, so Elvis and his music couldn't have made that much of an impression on him. That doesn't seem to matter though. If you want to get along with my cousin, you don't dis' "the king".
When I was in high school there was this song by the Dead Kennedys called "Elvis is Dead". We used to sing it to Brad and it made him crazy. They were pretty rude lyrics, I have to admit. But it was so funny. They sang the song in an Elvis voice, to a rock-a-billy beat:
Elvis is dead.
Yeah, Elvis is dead.
The big, fat GUY
is dead, dead, DEAD.
Elvis is dead, Elvis is dead.
The big, fat goof is dead, dead, dead.
Well, Elvis may be dead, but his memory is alive and well in Collingwood, Ontario, where they have an annual Elvis Festival. It's an entire weekend of Elvis events; a lot of the events are centered around Elvis impersonators. The impersonations run the gamut from early hip-swinging bluegrass Elvis, to later sequined-jumpsuit, bloated, drug-addled Elvis. The whole thing just cracks me up.
I do remember when Elvis died though. I was pretty young and Elvis already seemed old to me. It's hard to believe that 30 years have passed, and I no longer think of Elvis as being "old" when he died. Pretty tragic, really. No matter what you think of his music, he was an incredibly talented guy.
I guess tomorrow I will be listening to Elvis music and wondering what might have been.
5 comments:
YOU know about the Dead Kennedys?
Oh Sara you're funny. Didn't you know I was a total rebel-wannabe in my youth? I didn't actually have it in me to be bad...but I did my best to act like I could be. Deep down I was a goodie two-shoes and totally embarrassed by it.
Dead Kennedys were not the worst thing I listened to. I listened to some real garbage. I take it you're not unfamiliar with them?
was not a fan personally, but had crushes on the boys who wore the shirts.
I walked (hobbled) with one foot in the world and one foot with the Lord. I listened to some really great ccm and some truly depraved worldly music. Mixed in there too was a great deal of unoriginal Christian music that was trying to copy the style of the world and falling flat in artistic execution AND in its watered-down theology. (Amy of Humble Musings had an interesting post about this recently but I think the comments got hijacked and made me sad.)
I read that post of Amy's, but not many of the comments. My thoughts on reading it were how things have changed 180 degrees - it used to be the church that influenced the culture; art, music, literature were largely influenced by the sacred. Since the "enlightenment" it's been the opposite - secular culture now not only influences art, music, literature etc. but even influences the church. The ELCA thing is just an example of it.
I didn't listen to CCM growing up and honestly I'm not a huge fan today. There's a few that I really enjoy (Twila Paris is one) I seem to be attracted to artists that write "hymn" content to a contemporary music style. The whole "Jesus is my boyfriend" style drives me crazy. It must have substance to get my attention. Otherwise I might as well listen to the "light-rock" station on the radio. Not much difference.
I'll take the Old Rugged Cross any day.
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