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Lay for the Day 20th
December
Elvis
Presley received his draft notice on this day in 1957.
John Lennon said that Elvis died when he went in the Army,
but he came back to make much of his best music in the Sixties
the Elvis Is Back! sessions in 1960, How Great Thou Art
in 1966, the Memphis recordings in 1969. But he couldnt possibly
change the world again as he did in those two and a half years from January
1956, when he recorded Heartbreak Hotel, to June 1958 when
he sang, as a valediction, (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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