HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ELVIS
He's 90 years young and ever alive in the hearts of us, his loving and grateful fans
Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday dear Elvis, Happy birthday to you . . .
Last weekend we watched the (relatively) new documentary Return of the King: The Fall and Rise of Elvis Presley and in a couple of weeks we’re headed back to Memphis—and yet here at Concrete Books and Records we almost shamefully overlooked a day we consider, truly, most blessed: January 8, the day Elvis Presley was born.
If we could give Elvis Presley a birthday gift, we would give him a longer life and, throughout it, peace of heart and mind. He regrettably didn’t have these things.
We believe that Elvis brought a special form of beauty and goodness to the world. If only he could have stood up for himself, could have matured as an artist and a man, could have found contentment and health of both body and soul. But these coulda, woulda, shoulda’s are not what we want to dwell on today. We want to dwell on a lightning bolt that heaven struck and its sweet resonations of sound.
Requiescat in pace, Elvis Presley. Grace to be born. Thank you.
“When I first heard Elvis Presley’s voice I just knew that I wasn’t going to work for anybody and nobody was going to be my boss.1 Hearing him for the first time was like busting out of jail.” – Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan: “The highlight of my career? That’s easy, Elvis recording one of my songs.”
—Andrew DuBois
“Went to See the Gypsy” is Dylan’s song recounting in mythical form his sole meeting with Elvis. I link to three different versions here. There are also links to Elvis’s versions of Dylan’s “Tomorrow Is A Long Time,” “Don’t Think Twice (It’s Alright),” and an off-the-cuff truncated “I Shall Be Released.”