Gillian Welch -- "Elvis Presley Blues"
Time (The Revelator) is a sometimes baffling album, but for all that it's nearly perfect, Gillian Welch's best, I think. The songs are so different, yet they all fit together. There's a deliberate hollowness to almost every track, the sound of space not being filled with sound. The album is, in a strange sort of way, a rock and roll album, even though it is on the surface an old-time revival, folk, or maybe even bluegrass album (without all of the instrumental clatter of bluegrass). If rocking describes a kind of movement, that movement is here in these songs, this one most of all, a bewondered tribute to the king of such movement.
Lyrically, this song is, like the later stanzas of Gram Parsons' "Return of the Grievous Angel," a perfect evocation of Elvis. Most homages to the man take the form of covers of his recordings, but this song takes a more contemplative approach, a slower speed, but it relies on the same kind of seventh note that helped propel Elvis along. The patented harmony sound of "Gillian Welch" is on display here, as well, a pair of voices that sometimes merge so well that they become indistinct.
What brought this song to my mind is a performance I heard on Garrison Keillor -- someone or another covering this song, imbuing it with such a sickly sweetness that I had to turn the radio off. Some songs can be covered, apparently, and some songs cannot. Let's leave this one uncovered and let the original speak for itself.
No comments:
Post a Comment