Reply #15: Yep, it's the Memphis Flash

[ForrestGump]

Thanks for that youtube link -- I've never seen it before and it's very nicely done.

Elvis admired MLK and his shock over the assassination was further exacerbated by shame that it happened in Memphis. Elvis and MLK were both sons of the South who ran afoul of the color barrier and both helped change the status quo in the segregated South -- MLK most overtly and vigorously with purpose, of course, but Elvis' music and cultural impact (and looking at contemporary newspaper accounts, as well as archival film, shows just how much he was HATED by many of his own ethnicity in this country back in the '50s) contributed to the climate of change and a blurring of racial lines that was no less significant for his not actually intending to be a 'rebel' or an agent and catalyst for change, musical or otherwise.

Elvis admired MLK for his convictions but also for the sheer oratory power at his command, the performance skill and charisma that King had in no short supply (and that probably in some part echoed the fiery preachers of Elvis' youth that, in turn, undoubtedly helped shape Elvis' stage style) and that Elvis admired in anyone who had 'It.' Apparently Elvis set up a meeting with Dr King at some point but it fell through and the two never met...I think Elvis was in California (fittingly enough, with a gospel song -- "You'll Never Walk Alone" -- on the charts or about to hit them right about then) when MLK died and two months later he recorded "If I Can Dream."

That was a song the Colonel did not want Elvis to do, let alone close his TV special with, but Elvis committed himself to it like few other songs, recording it in a darkened studio, falling to his knees while singing it, and singing it to the point of exhaustion. After it was over, he listened to the playback over and over again, more than with any other song, and said he never again wanted to record a song that he didn't believe in.

Although Elvis downplayed the significance of the few overt social-commentary songs he sang (most of them around this 1968-1970 period), saying that he was "just an entertainer" and that he didn't "want for every song to have to have a message," there's no doubt that Elvis put everything he had into making sure that "If I Can Dream" got the message across. I think Dr King would have approved.

Here's another one that's similar in its emphasis of common humanity:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEMbs9Zej1s