You wanna know what happened to Elvis

    I''ll tell you what happened

    I oughta know man I was one of his army

    I mean man I was on his side

    He made us feel alright

    We were the first wave in the

    Postwar baby boom

    The generation before had just come

    Out of the Great Depression and World War II

    You know heavy vibes for people to wear

    So much heaviness like some kind of

    Voiding of the emotions

    Their music you know the songs

    Life always carries

    You know every culture has songs

    Well anyway their music was

    Restrained emotion

    You know like you didn''t wanna dance

    If you didn''t know how

    Which says something strange

    Well anyway Elvis came along

    About ten years after the nuke

    When the only generals America had in

    The only army she had were Ike and Mac

    And stupor hung over the land

    A plague where everyone tried to

    Materially free themselves

    Still too shell-shocked to understand

    To feel what was happening

    Everything was getting hopeless

    Then when Elvis started to rock

    The roll just picked up

    I mean drabness the beaver showed us

    Could only be a foretold future

    Who wanted to be Ward and June and

    I mean father never did know best

    He was still crazy from surviving the war

    Like there was this psychotic pall

    So widespread as to be assumed normal

    Heavy man you know really

    Anyway Elvis showed us an out

    You know he showed every man and

    Everygirl Woman there''s something good

    In feeling good

    Like a prophet for every boy every girl

    When someone''s mom and dad lied

    Something about him told us

    To be sensual is really okay

    Someones mom and dad waltzed us around

    Everygirl wasn''t supposed to enjoy it

    If she did she was bad and everybody

    Well boys will be boys don''t feel anything

    Take what you can

    Marry a decent girl when the fun''s done

    Like no matter what we did we all were guilty

    Maybe someone''s mom and dad resented

    What they missed and while

    They were trying to pass it on us

    We heard Elvis''s song and

    For the first time we made up our own mind

    The first wave rebelled

    I mean we danced even if we didn''t know how

    I mean Elvis made us move

    Instead of standing mute he raised our voice

    And when we hear ourselves something

    Was changing you know like for the first time

    We made a collective decision about choices

    America hurriedly made Pat Boone

    A general in the army they wanted us to join

    But most of us held fast to Elvis

    And the commandants around him

    Chuck Berry Buddy Holly Little Richard

    Bo Diddley Gene Vincent you know

    Like a different civil war all over again

    I mean you take don''t be cruel

    I want you I need you I love you

    And jailhouse rock

    Or you take Pat and his white bucks

    Singing love letters in the sand

    Hell man what''s real here

    I mean Pat at the beach in his white bucks

    His ears getting sunburned told us

    Something about old wave delusion

    I mean wanting and needing and imprisonment

    We all been to those places but what did

    White bucks at the beach understand

    Other than more straight line dancing

    You know what I mean

    Anyway man for a while we had a breather

    Fresh energy to keep us from falling into the big sleep

    Then before long Elvis got assassinated in all the fame

    Taking a long time to die others seized

    Control while Elvis rode the needle out

    Never understanding what he''d done

    It''s like we were the baby boom because

    Life needed a fresher start

    I mean two world wars in a row is

    Really crazy man

    And Elvis even though he didn''t know he said it

    He showed it to us anyway and even though

    We didn''t know we heard it we heard it anyway

    Man like he woke us up

    And now they''re trying to put us

    Back to sleep so we''ll see how it goes

    Anyway look at the record man

    Rock ''n'' roll is based on revolution

    Going way past 33 1/3

    You gotta understand man he was

    America''s baby boom Che

    I oughta know man I was in his army

    By John Trudell