Presley and the War

June 30^th – I’d like to state, at the outset, that I do NOT bear grudges. Never have. I’m a very firm believer, as far as any mistakes I’ve made goes (and there are plenty, some I’ll never be able to forgive myself for, so how big a sheet of paper y’ got?) and how ever many wrongs have been done to me, once sorted and apologised for you ‘put the baby down on the doorstep and walk away’. Something that some politicians and some countries seem incapable of doing…unless it suits.

Pre 41, Japan and the United States of America had a bit of previous. With negotiations still apparently on-going about the Japanese designs on furthering their empire post the Nanking Massacre, the attack on the USS Panay and the moves by the U.S. to shore up their military presence in the Philippines (it was nothing to do with us, we were just innocent by-standers) in December 1941 the attack on Pearl Harbour commenced. With heavy losses on the U.S. side and the part ruination of the pacific Fleet, President Roosevelt said it was;

“A date which will live in infamy”

or at least until 2006…when we’ll completely change our mind because we got the scent of money.

What does the name Elvis Presley mean to you?

To the youth of the time it meant a glimpse of a freedom that had been curtailed since the opening salvos of 39-45. In his gyrations and body-bopping people sensed the strait-jacket of parental demands on how they should behave and what was important (job for life, do as the man says, car, wife, house, kids, retire, grandkids, die) was loosened and they could express themselves in whatever way they thought fit. In his songs they heard a voice and an expression akin to their own, that knew how they felt about love, lust, life…and how to howl at the moon. In his lyrics they discovered it was OK to disagree with your parents, with your peers, with your government, after all, how much worse could they do to you than send you off to be killed?

For the government of the day he spelt out A.N.A.R.C.e.H.Y. He spelt out disagreement. He spelt out dissention. He spelt out non-obedience. He spelt out the words of ruling classes’ personal demon…F.R.E.E.D.O.M. That’s why they banned him and his ilk, denigrated him and his kind, laid him and his rock ‘n’ roll contemporaries alongside The Devil, Satan, Beelzebub, and threatened those who listened to his blasphemy with an outcome as advertised by Vlad the Impaler, where you’ll burn in the fires of hell for an eternity…or at least until 2006…when we’ll completely change our mind because we got the scent of money.

On this day in 2006, Dubya (President G. W. Bush of that name) took the Japanese P.M. Junichiro Koizumi on a visit to Graceland where, I guess, they kissed and made up at the site of what was considered by one leader to be the home of its country’s arch nemeses in the company of the leader of the land that was once seen by each other as either country’s arch nemeses…if that makes any sense at all…

Funny how history turns out, huh? Do you ever get the feeling that all that fighting was because, back in the lead up to WW2, a couple of guys hadn’t got the strength of character to put their greed to one side, be honest with one another and have the nous to sit and talk, even if it was to someone they didn’t really like and from whom they’d hear truthful things they didn’t find particularly palatable? I mean, if they could get together over the ashes of a dead rock ‘n’ roll singer, just think what a couple of sides of Jailhouse Rock could’ve achieved.

Answers to yesterdays quiz: – The clue was in yesterday's slug-line so, if you got right, you get no points for  just being observant.

The Intro and the Outro by The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band from the album Gorilla released in 1967 and dedicated to; ‘King Kong, who must have been a great bloke’

Jazz (Delicious Hot, Disgusting Cold) is the standout track on the album for me – first time I heard it I was laughing out loud at it; excellent.