Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Bono's Elvis Poem, "American David"

This is weird.

From the Times Online:

This morning, [Bono] offered his [poem writing] skills up for public scrutiny by unveiling an ode to Elvis Presley on Radio 4.

In his familiar gravelly voice, the 49-year-old rock icon delivered a fast-paced, 14-minute tribute to The King.

Recorded two years ago, but written in 1994, the poem, entitled American David, contained an array of strange and risqué rhymes set to a musical backing track made up of Elvis tunes and other pop culture recordings from the last 50 years.

A warning about the poem’s language preceded the airing, as a series of offensive words including “nigger” and “spastic” were employed.

While Bono considers himself a “super fan” of Elvis, he didn’t shy away from his famous flaws. One rhyming triplet played on the singer’s long weight battle: “Elvis the bumper stickers/ Elvis the white knickers/ Elvis the white nigger ate at Burger King and just kept getting bigger.”

Listen to the audio.

Transcript

Elvis the white nigger ate Burger King and just kept getting bigger
Elvis sang to win
Elvis the battle hymn
Elvis the battle to be slim
Elvis ate America before America ate him
Elvis snaps
Elvis necromance [sic]
Elvis fans
Elvis sycophants
Elvis the public enemy
Elvis didn't mean shit to Chuck D
Elvis changed the center of gravity
Elvis made it slippery
Elvis Hitler
Elvis Nixon
Elvis Christ
Elvis Mishima

OK.

Is this art?

This poem is nearly 15 years old. I wonder why Bono chose to recite it now.

Maybe he was inspired by Poetry Night at the White House.


Full text of Bono's poem here.

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