fat elvis

Dr. John - Trader John's Crawfish Soiree
Tab Benoit - Wetlands (listen)
Kenny Neal & Billy Branch - Double Take (listen)
NRBQ - Ludlow Garage 1970 (listen)
Elvis - The Complete '68 Comeback Special (listen)

I'm with Dennis Leary in that my Elvis is Fat Elvis. Monstrous, outsize, America incarnate as well as carnivorous. The '68 Comeback Elvis, like the rest of the nation, stood at the precipice of the hyperinflation that would follow in the next decade. No jumpsuits yet, he hadn't shook hands with Nixon, Graceland was not yet a Sultan's bunker, and young Priscilla was still hanging on for dear life.

Truth be told, I'm not much of an Elvis guy, but I perused the Elvis books in the music section at the library over lunch, and then saw his untested grandson just got a $5M record deal. Really, though, I think the confluence of Dr. John's hoodoo funk and Tab Benoit's lacerating boogie, Kenny Neal's rootsy side and NRBQ turning Sun Ra's "Rocket #9" into a danceable hippie jam summoned my inner Elvis to the surface. Good thing there are no donuts or TV's just sitting around.