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Lay for the Day 20th
December
When
Elvis Presley received his draft notice on this day in 1957, he must have
realised that things were never going to be the same again. I dont
feel like John Lennon did, that Elvis died when he went in the Army.
Much of his best music was made in the Sixties the Elvis Is
Back! sessions of 1960, How Great Thou Art in 1966, the Memphis
recordings of 1969. But as a hero, he put his imprint on the world in
those two and a half years between January 1956, when he recorded Heartbreak
Hotel, and June 1958 when he sang as a valediction, half buffoon
and half Byron, (Now and Then Theres) A Fool Such As I.
The King Comes Out Tonight
I fell asleep in Brighton
On a rainy Sunday evening.
Id run into the station
To see the last train leaving.
I curled up in my parka
And
watched the slow waves gleaming
And there I finally fell asleep,
And there I fell to dreaming.
I dreamed that I
was walking
Beneath a honey-coloured moon.
The southern night was scented,
I heard the alligators croon.
I heard the night owl whistle
Beneath the twisted trees.
Everything was still and warm
And filled me with unease.
I heard the purring
whine
As a long black limousine
That passed me on the highway
Pulled up silent and serene.
A dozen men climbed slowly out,
Stood waiting in a ring.
They raised their heads, they gave a shout,
And then I saw the King.
There was a supernatural
light,
Afigure dressed in gold and white.
He made the Mississippi darkness bright,
Then a tall man on my right
Said, What a rare and precious sight.
The King comes out tonight.
He only comes out at night
But mama, thatŐs
all right,
Mama,
thatŐs all right.
The King comes out tonight,
He only comes out at night.
Well,mama, thatŐs all right,
Mama, thatŐs all right.
Words
and music by The Children
The
Lay Reader: an archive of the poetic calendar
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