Jesus and Elvis
2019 · Dualtone 803020186910 · USA
- Artist
- Hayes Carll
- Title
- Jesus and Elvis
- Release
- What It Is
- Year
- 2019
- Label
- Dualtone # 803020186910
- Format
- LP · Album
- Language
- English
- Country
- USA
- Songwriter
- Hayes Carll, Allison Moorer & Matraca Berg
- Genre
- Country · Contemporary Country
- Primary theme
- Post-War
Annotation — Christmas Songs
Jesus and Elvis (Carll, Hayes) Post-war, Christmas, K.I.A., home front perspective. Artist said it was a reference to the Vietnam War. "Jesus and Elvis Painted on velvet Hanging at the bar here every night It's good to be back again Oh, me and my old friends Beneath the neon cross and the string of Christmas lights Lola built this joint in ’67 And her boy went off to fight on Christmas Eve In a war nobody won She lost her only son Now everything he loved is what you see" "I wrote that with Allison and Matraca Berg, and Matraca had the title. She goes “I’ve been thinking about this title ‘Jesus and Elvis,’” and it immediately reminded me of a bar I hung out in in Austin. I’ve since found out this story is not actually the real story, but at the time I had convinced myself it was. [Laughs] This bar has Christmas lights up year-round and a jukebox in the corner with nothing on it past 1968, and I had heard it was because the bar owner’s son went off to fight in Vietnam at Christmas time. She promised she wouldn’t take the lights down until he came home, but he never did, so that’s why they’re still up all these years later."1Sources1thebluegrasssituation.com: Hayes carll finds his…
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Notes
Dualtone 803020186910 (track A5); producers Allison Moorer and Brad Jones. Carll said the song came from an Austin bar that kept its Christmas lights up for an owner's son who went to Vietnam at Christmas and never came home.