Specifically the third verse:
I know what that sounds like to me, but I can’t believe it would get by the censors in the 50s. Then again, the “Boston Charlie” song from Pogo is supposedly about the same thing.
Were Tool ripping off Elvis when they recorded the song Prison Sex?
Huh. I always thought he was saying, “I sure would be delighted with you pumping me.” :eek:
Equally shocking (if not more) than the actual lyrics, and I always wondered about this myself.
Happy
oooh, Happy, you oughtta send that off to these guys.
I’ve always thought it was pretty odd.
I mean, I think it’s pretty clear the idea - Elvis’s, and the people who failed to censor him- is that number three is a girl.
But you’d think the fact that there were no co-ed prisons would get in the way of that interpretation.
Boy, I really don’t get it sometimes. I thought the song made it abundantly clear that the Jailhouse Rock was a dance. Isn’t it? Huh?
Okay, what kind of dance could be inspired by a jailhouse? Hmm? I don’t know about you, but if I were in, say a bar, and a guy shouted, “Hey! Lemme show ya’ll a dance I learned in prison!” I think I’d be inclined to leave.
The song is clearly describing a rather absurd situtation; I think it’s silly to try to bring your street savvy to play in it. I suppose “If you can’t find a partner use a wooden chair” is about masturbating with a chair? :rolleyes: I admit that many songs have not-so-hidden double meanings, bu this one makes no sense if you assume it’s about sex.
As Elvis didn’t write the song it wouldn’t do much good to ask him what it means - you’ll have to ask Leiber and Stoller (who also wrote Riot in Cell Block #9, which is a much better song, IMHO).
Riot is a winner but I think Elvis really captured some good times on Jailhouse Rock.
And, yes, I’ve always thought that verse stood out. While I don’t think it was specifically referring to so-called ‘prison sex’ I do think it’s amazing that it got past the censors of the time.
I think it got past the censors of the time because they weren’t looking for metaphors about prison sex, I think they took it at face value – a bunch of guys in jail dancing around for something to do, and then using the resulting hoopla to make a break for it, except then deciding that dancing to the Jailhouse Rock was more fun than freedom. Not that that isn’t weird in and of itself …
In a time where teens in single-sex schools learned to dance by dancing with each other in gym class, maybe this didn’t stand out so much.
From an interview I heard (I think with one of Lieber and Stoller, but maybe just someone "reporting’ second hand) was that Lieber hadn’t liked Elvis’s version (it had been written for a large, female and lesbian blues singer) and had written Jailhouse Rock as some form of revenge.
This could well be an UL, I guess, but it doesn’t seem to be on Snopes.
My pet peeve about that movie: Elvis’ terrific costar, Judy Tyler, was a terrific singer; that’s why she was cast in the film. She had a Broadway-belt kind of voice. So they didn’t let her sing one note in the film, so as not to overshadow Elvis! Bastards.
Judy only made two movies before dying in a car crash just before Jailhouse Rock was released. She was also in two B’way shows, and played that Indian Princess on Howdy Doody.
I assume you’re talking about “Hound Dog” which was sung by Big Mama Thorton. I haven’t heard the story about Lieber and Stoller being upset with Elvis’ recording, but it could be so.
Several others have already said about the same thing, but here goes:
Censors had no reason to raise eyebrows at this song. It’s about a bunch of bored guys in prison dancing. Watch the movie! Nothing sexual is being referenced in the song.
FWIW, during my term in the Air Force, I danced with brooms, chairs, and sometimes us guys would work out the steps for the latest fast-dance craze with each other. As far as I know, none involved were gay. WTF?
Speaking of the great song writers Lieber and Stoller, according to an interview I saw of them on TV, they were delighted when Elvis picked up “Hound Dog”. They were broke at the time, and the writer’s royalties started rolling in from that one.
People, people. Pay attention.
This song is not about a prison. It’s about a county jail. (“Warden threw a party in the county jail…”)
In a county jail, you could certainly find both male and female inmates.
Elvis was cool no matter how the lyrics are interpreted, it just sounds to me like the songwriters tried to slip a little subversive content in. The Deck Us All With Boston Charlie song from Pogo was supposedly based on prison slang according to a Pogo book I can’t find right now (it reprinted the McCarthy parody strips if anyone can help)- the line “Nora’s sleepin on the trolley” in that song supposedly refers to the same thing. That was done in the 50s, I don’t see why Leiber and Stoler couldn’t have done the same thing.
But if he asked to dance saying “You’re the cutest soldier I ever did see,” might you think otherwise?
grendel72 : Of course that would have been something different. But to me at least, your above analogy doesn’t work.
All I can say is I am an Old Dude! I was around 14 when “Jailhouse Rock” came out. At the time, Elvis, and every word of every Elvis song was analyzed, cussed and discussed on a daily basis to the extreme. If Lieber/Stoller were trying to do a “woosh” with that one, they created the greatest woosh of all time, because today, in this thread, is the first time I’ve ever heard prison sex linked to Jailhouse Rock. A 45 year woosh? Or are you looking back, adding two and two and getting 22? Maybe you’re right, but I don’t think so.
Who wants to call Jerry Lieber or Mike Stoller at “Smoky Joe’s Cafe” to find out? 
So if it’s about a co-ed county jail, why aren’t there any women in the number as performed in the movie Jailhouse Rock?
http://www.elvis.com.au/images2/epe_img_17015_elvis.jpg
http://fsweb.wm.edu/amst370/2001/sp1/musicvideo.jpg
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1556044599
[slight hijack] Funny how you don’t seem to see women in jail on television (I mean women in a county jail, NOT prison 
).