“Listening to Elvis”
Elvis was a mama’s boy
With a sultry, sensuous voice
The simple shimmering chords off lead guitar
and the rumble of bass guitar
Provided spine-tingling intros and harmony for his songs
His rock-a-billy hits streamed across
AM stations
In the days when I played sandlot ball daily,
fighting off the sweat and grime of
San Berdoo summers
Elvis would erupt like a volcano through the transistor radio
Sending a jolt of epinephrine up the spine
Tempting juvenile instincts in the wrong direction
because his music was so provocative/ for the time/
white man sounding black/how cool is that?
His slow erotic songs set youthful minds ablaze
With longing for the unattainable/
”One night with you is all I’m praying for”
He sang of love at all costs (“Treat me like a fool, treat me mean and cruel, but love me”)
Sang of hotels for the lovelorn
and about the pangs of Suspicious Minds
Some things didn’t seem right:
Elvis from the waist up on Ed Sullivan?
His backup group-the Jordanaires/
the name too tepid to go with “Elvis the Pelvis”
And Vernon didn’t seem like an apt name/
for the father of The Pelvis
He was best was in the early years
When he was raw, thin and uncensored in spirit
Not so cool later on/ bloated, beaded and tasseled in Las Vegas
He was a true icon
And true icons don’t live out normal lives
But his legacy will stand-not Graceland -but his music
An Elvis song always sends me back to when I stood sweaty
and grimey, but happy/ with glove at the ready/
out in left field/ in the oven of a San Berdoo July.
I wonder whether Bono and Kanye West will endure like that?
I would be nice if everyone could have their Elvis.
Augie Medina
June 2012
