Elvis's Jesus was his mama, I always thought. Seems to me that EP's willingness to explore "alternative philosophies" in the mode of Kahil G. while he was making "Clambake" (and getting his hair done by Larry Geller) speaks volumes about the real lack of spiritual/cultural sustenance fundamentalist religion offers to its adherents. With that other singer who came to Memphis from its outlying area, Al Green, the synthesis of sex/Jesus seems far more fruitful and healthy. Anyway, Memphis is the capital of Pentecostalism, and the musical contribution of that sect is vast, although obviously the rest of it is garbage, seems to me. Elvis, apart from those Chips Moman recordings, never seemed to have been able to even remotely intellectualize his music; he just grabbed at whatever worked that day, and that seems analagous to his approach to "religion" and the Great Beyond. And it's a real shame.
― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Monday, 11 April 2005 12:15 (twenty years ago)