Leonard Cohen & Was (Not Was) - Elvis's Rolls Royce

In 1990, Was (Not Was) published the album, Are You Okay?, which included the song, "Elvis's Rolls Royce," with Leonard Cohen as lead vocalist (and Iggy Pop contributing backing vocals). One suspects that it was fun to produce, and it's clearly fun to hear. My hope is that a video for the song will be fun to watch.

Considerable poetic license was involved in the composition of Elvis's Rolls Royce. Elvis owned many cars, including a Rolls Royce Phantom V he bought in 1961, but it wasn't gold (that was Elvis's Cadillac). Images in the accompanying video are likewise "inspired by" rather than "based on" Elvis's cars. Viewers are advised to rev up their "willing suspension of disbelief for the moment which constitutes poetic faith" (Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Biographia Literaria, 1817); a literal-minded perspective may result in significant cognitive whiplash.

1. Don Was has produced every Rolling Stones album since 1993, co-led the 1980s group Was (Not Was), was appointed president of the jazz record label, Blue Note Records, in 2012, served as music director for a batch of movies (e.g., Thelma and Louise, The Rainmaker, Hope Floats), and has recorded with – well, just about everyone, including Bonnie Raitt, Bob Dylan, John Mayer, Ziggy Marley, Bob Seger, Al Green, Lucinda Williams, Garth Brooks, Ringo Starr, Iggy Pop, Lyle Lovett, Kris Kristofferson, Joe Cocker, Hootie and The Blowfish, Amos Lee, Willie Nelson Elton John, Stevie Nicks, George Clinton, Randy Newman, The Black Crowes, Carly Simon, Travis Tritt, Brian Wilson, Jackson Browne, The Barenaked Ladies, Old Crow Medicine Show, Roy Orbison, Waylon Jennings, Jessi Colter, Richie Sambora, The Presidents of the United States of America, B.B. King, Paul Westerberg, Kurt Elling, Poison, Cheb Khaled, The B-52’s, Zucchero, Todd Snider, Elizabeth Cook, Jill Sobule and Solomon Burke. []

This material is from Cohencentric.com.

Thanks Allan Showalter, for the permission to use this material.