Blue Suede Shoes

You can do anything you want
But lay off of my blue suede shoes-
Elvis Presley

Yeah Mon
I can dig it
You finally get yourself
A brand new pair of
Blue suede shoes
(And I bet that cost you
A pretty penny too!)
Maybe a whole month’s paycheck
Maybe more
And you don’t want
Anyone stepping
All over them
With some muddy boots
Fresh with the mud
From the coal mines of
Butcher Holler
(Hillbilly for
Butcher Hollow)
Kentucky

I doubt that
The coalminer’s daughter
Loretta Lynn
Ever had a chance to meet
The King
In person
But what a fun
Meeting that would have been

I would have liked
To have been able to hear
Elvis and Loretta
Sing a duo together
Perhaps at a gig
At the Grand Ol Opry in
Nashville, Tennessee
(The capitol of country music)
They’d have been
A big hit for sure

Membership in the Opry
Is one of country music’s
Crowning achievements
Such country music legends as
Hank Williams
Patsy Cline
Ernest Tubb
And more recently
Dolly Parton
Garth Brooks
Reba McEntire and
The Dixie Chicks
All have performed there

It took a whole
Lot of doing and
Not a little bit of
Good old fashioned
Hard work and
Pure elbow grease
To be able to
Land a gig
In a hallowed hall
Like the
Grand Ole Opry House

Talk about
Pulling yourself up
By your own boot straps
Long before
You could ever
Even begin to dream
About those
Blue blue
Blue suede shoes

jhmarkowitz
Philadelphia, Pa. 2012