The silliest thing occurred to me while listening to the local Oldies station the other day. Elvis was wailin’ out “Jailhouse Rock.” One of verses goes,
Number 47 says to Number 3
You’re the cutest jailbird I ever did see
I sure would be delighted with your company
C’mon and do the Jailhouse Rock with me
(I think those are the lyrics, anyway.)
So, I’m thinking… were there co-ed jails in Memphis? Or was Elvis intentionally singing about non-co-ed dalliances in prison? Or was this just a fun song that totally overlooked the fact that prisons are usually same-sex?
Or was I just on way too much caffiene when all of this was running through my head?
Don’t try to read too much into a song that starts with “Warden threw a party in the county jail…” As a rule county jailers don’t enocourage parties, music and dancing with wooden chairs (if you can’t find a partner.) It could be different in other parts of the country but Phoenix is home to notorious hardass Sheriff Joe Arpio who is famous for sale of pink prison skivvies as a fundraising item and keeping his prisoners in non air conditioned tents.
Pink Prison Skivvies?
That would be another thing on the list of “Things I don’t want to know any more about.”
I’m more or less wondering whether anyone else ever noticed this.
The lyrics encourage DANCING w/ a wooden chair?
I always thought that Jailhouse Rock had the most bizarre lyrics imaginable but it’s still one of the best rock songs ever. Elvis also practically invented the music video with his choreography for the number in the movie. Maybe it makes no more sense than Louie, Louie or maybe Elvis was way ahead of his time, anticipating gangsta’ rap and alternative sexuality.
Have you seen the Lipton ice tea commercial with a revised version of the song? As a rule, I’m against resurrecting dead celebrities for advertisement but it’s pretty cool to see a claymation Elvis kick out the jams with his fellow jailbirds James Brown, Willie Nelson and Coolio.
The pink skivvie story isn’t so bad. Inmates were stealing issued underwear from the jail so Arpio decided to dye them pink to discourage that. It somewhat backfired as the distinctive pink boxers became a sort of status symbol in some diverse groups. Now they set up a booth to sell pink skivvies, complete with Maricopa country sheriff’s department logo, as a fundraising item at public events.
Agreed on the Lipton commercial. But at least they didn’t demolish the song completely by writing in absolutely silly jingle lyrics to the great music, as has happened with too many other rock classics.
And yes, Dinsdale, one of the lines is
If you can’t find a partner use a wooden chair
(Can’t recall the whole verse.)
IIRC, something like:
Sad sack was sittin’ on a block of stone
over in the corner weepin’ all alone.
The warden said, “Hey, buddy, don’t you be no square.
If you can’t find a partner use a wooden chair.”
Don’t see anything in there bout dancing.
And figgerin as it’s set in prison, I just thought chair rhymed better than “mop handle.”
Little known fact, the original lyric was, “If you can’t find a partner, bend over and pick up that bar of soap.”
And elsewhere someone saw fit to inform me what Gutenberg printed. Gotta love it!