"Elvis is Everywhere" Mojo Nixon cover by Ted

[Ted]

Elvis is Everywhere

By Mojo Nixon 1957 – 2024

Ted: Guitars, Bass, Voices, Drum Sequencing
Washboard (Kokiriko) from Pixabay
Bosun whistle by zimbot on Freesound

Recorded on Boss Micro BR
Washboard sound manipulated a little in Audacity
Trimming, High-Pass Filter, and Normalizing in Audacity

When I look out into your eyes out there,
When I look out into your faces,
You know what I see?
I see a little bit of Elvis
In each and every one of you out there.

Lemme tell ya...
Weeeeeeeeeellllllll...

Elvis is everywhere
Elvis is everything
Elvis is everybody
Elvis is still the king

Man o man
What I want you to see
Is that the big E's
Inside of you and me

Elvis is everywhere, man!
He's in everything.
He's in everybody...

Elvis is in your jeans.
He's in your cheeseburgers
Elvis is in Nutty Buddies!
Elvis is in your mom!

He's in everybody.
He's in the young, the old,
the fat, the skinny,
the white, the black
the brown and the blue people got Elvis in 'em too

Elvis is in everybody out there.
Everybody's got Elvis in them!
Everybody except one person that is...
Yeah, one person!
The evil opposite of Elvis.
The Anti-Elvis

Anti-Elvis got no Elvis in 'em,
lemme tell ya.

Kevin Sorbo has no Elvis in him.

And Elvis is in Tomi Lahren
but he's trying to get out, man!
He's trying to get out!
Listen up Tomi baby!

Elvis is everywhere
Elvis is everything
Elvis is everybody
Elvis is still the king

Man o man
What I want you to see
Is that the big E's
Inside of you and me

Man, there's a lot of unexplained phenomenon
out there in the world.
Lot of things people say
What the heck's going on?

Let me tell ya!

Who built the pyramids?
ELVIS!
Who built Stonehenge?
ELVIS!
Who built Easter Island?
ELVIS!
Why they call it "vitamin E?"
Elvis!

Yeah, man you see guys
walking down the street
pushing shopping carts
and you think they're talking to allah,
they're talking to themself.
Man, no they're talking to ELVIS!
ELVIS! ELVIS!

You know whats going on in that Bermuda Triangle?
Down in the Bermuda Traingle
Elvis needs boats.
Elvis needs boats.
Elvis Elvis Elvis
Elvis Elvis Elvis
Elvis needs boats.

Aahh! The Sailing Elvis!
Captain Elvis!
Commodore Elvis it is.

Yeah man, you know people from outer space,
people from outer space they come up to me.
They don't look like like Doctor Spock.
They don't look like Klingons,
all that Star Trek jive.

They look like Elvis.
ELVIS!
Everybody in outer space looks like Elvis.
Cause Elvis is a perfect being.
We are all moving in perfect peace and harmony towards Elvisness

Soon all will become Elvis.
Everything everywhere will be Elvis.
Why do you think they call it evolution anyway?
It's really Elvislution!
Elvislution!

Elvis is everywhere
Elvis is everything
Elvis is everybody
Elvis is still the king

Man o man
What I want you to see
Is that the big E's
Inside of you and me

That's right ladies and gentlemen,
The time has come!
Time has come to talk
To that little bit of Elvis inside of you.

Talk to it!
Call it up!
Say "Elvis, heal me!"
"Save me, Elvis!"
"Make me be born again in the perfect Elvis light"

That's right!
You've got that Elvis inside of ya
and he's talkin to ya
He says he wants you to sing!
Everybody's got to sing like the king!

Like the king
Get that leg going now
Get your lip too.
Not no fool Billy Idol lip either
Everybody!
Yeah, we're rockin now!

Elvis is with us.
He's with us and he's speaking to us.
He says "Peoples!"
"Peoples!"
"Everybody!"
"Everybody got to sing!"

Elvis is everywhere
Elvis is everything
Elvis is everybody
Elvis is still the king

Man o man
What I want you to see
Is that the big E's Inside of you and me

Elvis is everywhere
Elvis is everything
Elvis is everybody
Elvis is still the king

Man o man
What I want you to see
Is that the big E's Inside of you and me

Elvis!

A late submission to the Lost in 2024 Festival.

Yeah, the vocals are kind of clipped at times. Lemme tell ya. I started mapping out the original arrangement so I could record it one part at a time. And then I realized how anti-Mojo that was. Mojo was about spontaneity. So instead I recorded the lead vocals and main guitar part spontaneously and simultaneously, not trying to remember the structure. I used the MBR's GTR+MIC input mode which doesn't give you a lot of control, and it records to one track. And since so much of the song is spoken, the structure came out organically, they way you hear it. It's a weird process for me, but I'm glad I did it this way, in honor of Mojo.

Enjoy.

[Jean Pierre]

it's so good! a discovery I knew neither this song nor Mojo

...so I listened to the live version of Mojo on YT ...and your version is way up there, bravo, great job!

[thetworegs]

Love it! we need an Elvisolution today
let's sing like the king uh uh
Did I say I love it

[the physics teacher]

I can't even boter to look for the original wich I don't know. This must be the best version. Welldone.

[Pete C]

Great cover Ted, has a very live performance sound to it. Would go down well in a bar ! Enjoyed it (and once again, I don't know the original  )

Pete

[StephenM]

ain't nothing wrong with this recording imho! 
congratulations on using a different method than normal.
it feels live... because it was live.
and that is the way those oldies were... they were recorded primarily live with the entire band at the same time... often cutting direct to vinyl... crazy...
this feels like a 60's track... I dig it.
very well played.. I would dance my tail off to this.

[BerryPatch]

Awesome song! I've never heard of Mojo Nixon but this sounds like great fun. I dig the bass groove, it really propells this track. I dig the old-school sounding guitars as well. All hail the King, Elvis 2028!

[TPB]

Well this was a new one for me now I have to check out his catalog great recording loved it
Tim

[Ted]

and once again, I don't know the original 

This one I can believe never made it across the Atlantic, but it got a lot of play on MTV in its day. I think I remember where I was the first time I heard this: Alone, operating high-speed copy machine late at night, at a college job.

I think Mojo had a lasting effect on me as a songwriter – even though I never owned another album except for the one that featured this song (Bo-Day-Shus). The digital version of the album that I have is one I transferred myself in 2006 from the cassette I purchased in 1987. His genre (psychobilly cowpunk, I believe it's called) wasn't particularly influential on my style, but his casual and seemingly off-the-cuff lyrics were inspiring. I loved his political humor and fearlessness, and it opened up a brave new way of thinking about songwriting.

For the Lost in 2025 fest, I considered covering a different song, but settled on this one – his only big hit.

congratulations on using a different method than normal.
it feels live... because it was live.

I can't remember recording like this before. Over the years I've posted one or two LITLR songs, but recording vocals and an instrument on one track, then adding other instruments? I can only think of one other time I did that, and it was a lot more stripped down than this.

Lemme tell ya... Thanks for the comments and feedback, y'all.

[Pru]

rock on! i have a girlfriend who is right into psychobilly --- i must get her to listen to this one!