Wasn't Much Into Elvis, but El Vez? En el Barrio, by El Vez

Elvis was a little before my time.  Born in 1963, I came in on the tail end of the music that defined a generation.  Elvis in the 50s and all the psychedelic rock and protest rock of the 60s only came into my awareness when they were already somewhat antiquated.  My musical tastes ran into the progressive rock of the 70s, a smattering of disco and funk, and finally into some of the new wave of the 80s along with punk and post punk.

Elvis was already old news when I was listening to music.  Sure, I knew Jailhouse Rock and Blue Suede Shoes, but I didn't appreciate them for what they were...they were already oldies but goodies.  But I can say the Elvis song that did make an impression on me was In the Ghetto.  In the Ghetto coincided with the comeback of Elvis in 1969, and I probably heard it later in the 70s on a radio station.  Having only known Elvis through his rockabilly, I didn't know that he could sing songs like that - a song with a story of poverty and hardship.  It might seem trite, but I grew up in a small town and had never considered such things before.  Poverty and ghettos were things that appeared on the nightly news, but were not present in my day to day reality.  The circle of life, poverty, crime and death outlined in the song was something outside my world, but the way Elvis sang it was very compelling and drew your attention.

I also knew about the Elvis impersonators, and even have a friend who played guitar for one in Wisconsin.  But even though I shouldn't have been, I was surprised and taken a little aback to find that there was a Latino version, a man named Robert Lopez who was part of the punk group The Zeros and who became El Vez, the Chicano Elvis.  More than just an impersonator, El Vez also performs other major rock icons including David Bowie, Iggy Pop, John Lennon, and Bob Dylan.  I had no idea about him until a DJ friend gave my wife and I a collection of covers of various song by artists around the world.  This collection had things like The Beatles singing their hits in German, and also foreign artists covering various rock standards.  While listening, when the first chords of En el Barrio came up I recognized it for what it was, and then realized it was not Elvis but someone singing it quite well in Spanish.

Unfortunately, I was not able to find the Spanish version online, but at least I have El Vez singing in English with his backup singers, the Elvettes.

Of course, we don't speak of ghettos anymore, where "colored" people live and work.  Our consciousness has raised so that the ghettos became inner-cities and colored people became black and brown, and the African-Americans and Latinos/Hispanics.  All of that is good, but as one who has lived in the inner-city for more of his adult life than not, the cycle that In the Ghetto and En el Barrio chronicles is still active.  Children are still born, and mommas still cry because they don't have enough to feed them, and sometimes we see, and sometimes we turn our heads and look the other way just like Elvis and El Vez sing.