Today is the Birthday of Elvis

THE KING IS DEAD --
LONG LIVE THE KING   


I am not ashamed of it --I love Elvis Presley. 

 Hearing him sing and then watching him perform changed my life.
 He helped me to move from childhood to adolescence.  He was intense and his song lyrics reflected and probably gave some romantic content to my own intensity.

I love all of his songs and I often  listen to him on YOU TUBE and I own several collections of his Gospel songs  on CD.

I cannot say what my favorite songs are because they keep shifting.
Tonight  I love the song that was the first one he ever recorded as a gift for his mother  " That's When Your Heartaches Begin."

 Also I always liked another maybe lesser known song " I Was the One"  The line "And the way she touches your cheek, I taught her how" still breaks my heart.

Don't get me wrong. I know that Elvis did not write his own songs, but he sang them as if he had not only written them but lived them.  

Some late covers that he did of other  big songs like Frankie Laine's "THIS TIME YOU GAVE ME A MOUNTAIN"  or the  Righteous Brothers  "UNCHAINED MELODY"  have the power to astonish me when I see what Elvis added to the song. His phrasing, his voice, effortless and versatile, and his  emotional tone and control made every song he sang better.

Like all mothers, my mother was opposed to Elvis, and she spoke against him when she had never seen or heard him. That was not  like her. I knew that she could think otherwise because she loved to sing and knew many songs..

One day we were shopping downtown and  went  to the  fountain at Woolworth's.  I put a quarter in the jukebox on the counter  and one of the songs I played was  "LOVE ME TENDER"

My mother  listened--she did not know that this was the notorious Elvis--and she said.  "what a lovely song, someone has set  new words to Aura Leigh."  She  recognized the tune.  I turned and said, " yes, it is lovely and that is Elvis singing". 

I was in London doing research at the British Library the day that Elvis died. I was alone there in a rented room, and I heard the news over the radio. I did not know where to go or what to do.
So I went to Hyde Park, and there at the Speaker's Corner someone was talking about Elvis. Suddenly a group of Punk looking boys turned up their portable tape players and played Elvis singing.
 Someone from some news paper was trying to interview them. They refused to talk I recall one saying something:

"Shut up and just listen. This voice has been silenced and this is all we have left  SHUT UP AND LISTEN".   And they were weeping, and I sat down under a tree nearby and like so many there that day I wept too.  
Elvis was an international sensation.
 I learned that  when we first went to Ireland and met our cousins in 1973.  One of my cousins who was my age was named Dympna.  We were talking about movies and  books we liked, and suddenly she said "Ah but surely you love the King"

I knew  immediately that she meant Elvis, and I said ""I'm caught in a trap, I can't get out"--and she finished the line  "because I love you too much Baby."  We were so alike and yet we  had just met.  It was a revelation to me. Elvis spoke to and for people all over the world.

Even though I taught in Cincinnati for 27 years I did not  do much  traveling  in the area.  When I knew that I was leaving,  I decided to drive to two places : Nashville and Memphis.  I told my best friend from college Mary Ellen and she flew out from New York.
  Together we went to GRACELAND  and we spent the whole day there.  What did we do for an entire day? We wandered from room to room and had minor emotional breakdowns in  many of them and major breakdowns in others. 

We were not alone.

When I opened the closet door and saw the clothes that had belonged to Elvis' mother hanging there fresh and ready to be worn, I absolutely lost it.  Elvis loved his mother, and I have  always admired him for the way he made her the center of his life.  Yes, we also saw the cars and the plane and the costumes.

  That was in 2009, and I am so glad that I made that  trip.  It brought Elvis back to me.

I hope that  as people may read this and if you love Elvis too,  I hope that this memorial to him  helps you to recall your favorites.

Go to YOUTUBE and  watch him perform your favorites. Recall your own personal growth that Elvis fostered.  

And if it does that, it will be a source of          SOLACE.