Baby Boom Che

You wanna know what happened to Elvis?
I’ll tell ya what happened
I oughta know man, I was one of his army
I mean man I was on his side
He made us feel all right

We were the first wave
In the post war 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 and
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 Everybody Man and
Every Girl 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

Someone's Mom and Dad waltzed us around
Every girl wasn't suppose to enjoy it
If she did she was bad and every boy
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 heard 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 awhile we had a breather
Of 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 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 33⅓
You gotta understand man he was
America’s Baby Boom Ché
I oughta know man, I was in his army