Jeff Pike’s short piece on Elvis Presley’s very weird and very haunting “Blue Moon” is definitely worth reading. He nails it.
Dave Marsh wrote about Presley’s “Blue Moon”:
“Blue Moon” is the most frightening performance of Elvis’ early, high tenor style, an absolutely eerie masterpiece: it is more exciting and artistically worthwhile than the worst of the releases at Sun – “I Don’t Care if the Sun Don’t Shine” – and it’s at least as polished as the relatively anonymous country tune “I Forgot to Remember to Forget”.
Hi Sheila –
since I came I came charging onto yr blog with mentions of other musicians and their references/tributes to Elvis, I guess now would be the time to mention The Cowboy Junkies and their track “Blue Moon Revisited/Song for Elvis” from their record THE TRINITY SESSION. Here’s a live version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJ6EGsZdxpE
TRINITY SESSION and BLACK-EYED MAN are two sublime records IMHO.
Sheila,
What does it want from us? Who in hell can say. There’s something disturbing about it – that simple tune and the lyrics if you’ve heard any classic version beckon and yet those anomalous values say stay away, there’s some unfathomable heretofore never imagined menace lurking.
Alone at 3: AM in a darkened room, can’t sleep – turn on the radio and instead of hearing Tony Bennett’s version – you hear this? Might just scare the bejezzus out of me. Yet I kinda-sorta-like-it-but-in-an-I-don’t-know-why-but-only-during-the-day way.
Jaime,
Loved the Cowboy Junkies version thanks for the link.
Those early songs mentioned here that Elvis sang so seductively affect me in a way I can’t even describe. It’s like I feel his soul. Gone 30 years and he still can almost put me in a trance.
Sorry, I realize it’s been 34 years since he left us… Blame the TV, talking about the death of Natalie Wood 30 years ago.
I first heard this version on the soundtrack for Joe vs the Volcano as a kid. I didn’t know it was even Elvis at first, but no other version of Blue Moon could ever compare. He sounds so lonely and seductive. He made most other versions sound soul-less and commercially sappy. If for no other reason, I would love Elvis for this song.