{"id":16360,"date":"2020-03-05T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-05T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/?p=16360"},"modified":"2021-12-19T19:41:43","modified_gmt":"2021-12-20T03:41:43","slug":"roll-of-the-dice-im-turning-into-elvis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/2020\/03\/05\/roll-of-the-dice-im-turning-into-elvis\/","title":{"rendered":"Roll of the Dice: I’m Turning into Elvis"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the spring of 1995, Sting and Trudie Styler invited Bruce Springsteen to perform at their annual Rainforest Foundation benefit show. This year’s theme: Elvis.<\/p>\n

“Oh no,” Bruce said, “Because when you sing Elvis, you lose. You’re not going to sing those songs better than he sang them.”<\/p>\n

But Bruce couldn’t and wouldn’t decline the invitation, of course, and he did end up singing a few Elvis covers at the show. But the idea of trying to imitate Elvis got stuck in his mind, and one afternoon at home he wrote the words:<\/p>\n

I’m turning into Elvis, and there’s nothing I can do.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0“I thought it would be a funny way to contextualize the entire event,” he told interviewer Neil Strauss in 1995. “It was very easy to write.”<\/p>\n

Also fun.<\/p>\n

“I’m Turning Into Elvis” unreels like a shaggy dog story, each verse its own I-can-top-that vignette. It needs no analysis, because there’s zero subtext. So just enjoy:<\/p>\n