Grits, Green and Graceland

Jeremy — Mon, 11 May 2009 19:55:55 +0000

I awoke Sunday morning and in a very when-in-Rome mood, went to church (this is the South, after all). Acting on an earlier tip from Fipp Avlon, I headed to the Full Gospel Tabernacle. Pastor: Al Green, ’70s soul legend. The service — backed by a small choir and a rockin’ band with drums and electric bass — is high-spirited to say the least. I liked best the part where Rev. Al sang strains of “Take Me to the River” (originally his song, later covered by the Talking Heads) whilst over his shoulder, at the rear of the dais, baptisms were carried out on three children.

How did Al happen to get religion? As Backroads of American Music has it:

After cementing countless encounters with a voice that speaks directly to the genitals, in 1976, Al Green found Jesus. While Green reports his conversion happened after a visit to Disneyland, local rumors link his conversion to an incident reminiscent of the death of Henry IV, involving an adolescent boy, and bathtub, an angry woman, and a pot of hot grits (a.k.a. “Memphis Napalm”).

The story has the woman coming into the house and pouring a pot of grits, which she found boiling on the stove, all over a bathing Al.

An hour or so later at Graceland, I learned that Elvis Presley not only owned a pink Cadillac, he’d also had his own corporate identity, which he used for various business purposes and which was emblazoned on the tailfin of his personal jet, the “Lisa Marie”. It consists of three letters — TCB — arranged around a thunderbolt, and it stands for “takin’ care of business…in a flash”. Nice one, Elvis. Interbrand couldn’t have said it better.

Jeremy Hildreth » Elvis

Grits, Green and Graceland