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Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Mean Woman Blues

Today is my youngest brother's birthday. As he's as nuts about Elvis as I am, it's not hard to guess what kind of presents he gets from me. Or whose face is on the greeting card.

I'd like to tell you about one particular memory I have from this date many years ago. My guess is it took place in the early 80's when my brother was something like ten years old.

As a gift I had bought a cassette with the soundtrack from Loving You on it. This was in the days when a lot of Elvis albums were still "new" to us, in the sense that we had never heard them before, except for the hit songs they included. So I guess I was as excited as I thought my brother was going to be.

Unfortunately my brother had to be at school early, so me and the rest of the family had to sing to him and hand him his presents at an ungodly hour. Trying to recollect the moment, I think I just handed over the gift-wrapped cassette, and after seing the happy smile on his face when he realized what it was, returned to bed for some more sleep.

The following I remember clearly, though: Turning over in my bed and wrapping my bedclothes around me, I heard the first song from the Loving You album sounding through the walls. Not at all loud, my brother had the volume turned down, but enough for me to hear the first lines, "I got a woman, mean as she can be..."

I don't remember what I did after school that day, but I'm pretty sure me and my brother listend to that cassette tape over and over. That's why I'm doing the same thing right now, enjoying the songs from Loving You and particulary "Mean Woman Blues." Happy birthday, little brother!

3 comments:

MĂ„rtenbrother said...

Thanks a lot! I clearly remember that cassette too. Wasn't it from the same store where you bought two records from the EAP box set? Expert in Gallerian, Stockholm?
When I'm home again on Sunday night I will definately listen to that Loving you again. And maybe some other stuff too, eh?
Big hug!

Thomas said...

Yeah, it was the same store. I also remember bying "How Great Thou Art" and "Paradise, Hawaiian Style" (on cassette) there, as well. Ahh, those were the days!

Oscar.... said...

Good memories, i first listened alternate versions of the album in Essential vol 1. in 1989. It was a present from my mother from a trip she did to the USA (I'm from Chile but now i'm in Asutralia for a while). I couldn't find the cassete in that time, (i'm 29 and started folowing Elvis in 1986 i think). I remember i had a magazine with all elvis discography listed but i just had the cassetes edited in chile which where just a few. It was in the 90's when the local store started to bring elvis imported cassetes the black ones. I have just ordered the last version of the cd after reading this post..... Great Blog!