Thursday, September 30, 2010

What is the song "Black Velvet" about?


Search
: black velvet

Why: I don't remember why we were singing it (something about fat kids and red velvet cake), but we weren't sure if it had racial (or mixed-race) undertones.
Black velvet and that little boy's smile
Answer: It's about Elvis! I had no idea!
Black Velvet refers to the soulful black sound of Elvis' voice and the many African American recording artists and singers he emulated to create his special brand of rock n' roll.
Stuff in the lyrics:

The first verse is about Elvis as a child and youngstar:
Mississippi in the middle of a dry spell
Jimmy Rogers on the Victrola up high
The boy could sing, knew how to move, everything

Verse 2 is about the height of his career:
Up in Memphis, the music's like a heatwave
"Love Me Tender" leaves 'em cryin' in the aisle
The way he moved, it was a sin, so sweet and true
The bridge is about him dyin:
Every word of every song that he sang was for you
In a flash he was gone, it happened so soon, what could you do?
Source: Wikipedia, Digital Dream Door

The More You Know: He would still be alive today, right? He would be younger than my grandmother, who is 86 today (Happy birthday, Nana!!). Look at this neat home movie of Elvis getting his tractor stuck in the mud. It's from 1957, when he was 22:

4 comments:

  1. this song will always remind me of morgan scott

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  2. Ha I thought about her the other day. James sent me a picture of a rando hangout with Isaiah Flowers.

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  3. randomly she was the restaurant coworker of a good friend of mine in nyc.

    there is a story there, but not appropriate for the public internetz.

    call me!

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  4. Oh, i just realized I was thinking of the total wrong person.

    ReplyDelete