Elvis Presley‘s death shocked the world, only to inspire numerous writers, filmmakers, and songwriters. For example, Jimmy Buffett recorded a song about the tragedy called “Elvis Presley Blues.” The track seems to comment on Elvis’ ties to the Black community. Notably, “Elvis Presley Blues” is a standard from one of the most acclaimed albums of the 2000s.
1 Jimmy Buffett song is about Elvis Presley’s death and the folk hero John Henry
“Elvis Presley Blues” is an atypical song for Buffett to cover. The tune is a lot more morbid and disquieting than “Cheeseburger in Paradise” or “Margaritaville.” In “Elvis Presley Blues,” Buffett recounts the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll’s death. He sings about Elvis’ trademark dancing, his looks, and how the singer was lonely at the top.
He also mentions folk hero John Henry. Henry was a legendary Black steel worker who was more powerful than a drilling machine. He was the subject of one of the most famous American folk tunes. In the song, Henry is happy to see Elvis die.
Considering the controversial relationship between Elvis and Black music, Henry’s appearance in the song is provocative. In a way, putting the two icons side by side shows that Elvis is almost part of America’s folklore at this point.
The original version of the song was from an album about peril and loneliness
Buffett was not the artist who originally recorded “Elvis Presley Blues.” The tune initially appeared on the album Time (The Relevator) by Gillian Welch. Other artists who covered “Elvis Presley Blues” include Grace Potter, Joan Baez, and Elvis’ longtime friend, Tom Jones.
During a 2021 interview with Rolling Stone, Welch was asked why so much of the album is about feeling threatened. “It’s a major theme of the record,” she replied. “I don’t think of it as ‘threat’ so much as peril. We felt like our ability to be artists, like, for our career, was really in jeopardy. I felt really raw and alone. There was a strong feeling that it was just [producer] Dave [Rawlings] and I against the world. [We] just felt impossibly alienated and disconnected.
“People talk so much about post-apocalyptic art,” she added. “In a weird way, I think Revelator is pre-apocalyptic art. We had already felt the tremor and saw the foundation washing away. We saw it coming. It’s like when there’s a tsunami coming, and you just see the water going out, out, out. That’s what this time period was. We just saw the water going out, out, out. The whole infrastructure of the music world was teetering and toppling, and we see what that’s begotten today.”
How Jimmy Buffett’s ‘Elvis Presley Blues’ performed on the charts in the United States
“Elvis Presley Blues” was never a single and it did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100. The tune appeared on the album Take the Weather with You. That record climbed to No. 4 on the Billboard 200, staying on the chart for 13 weeks.
“Elvis Presley Blues” wasn’t a hit but it remains an interesting connection between the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll and the King of the Parrotheads.
