Black Velvet, a new religion.

Black Velvet, a new religion...

Mississippi in the middle of a dry spell,
Jimmy Rogers on the Victrola up high...

Now to some Alannah Myles's "Black Velvet" is just a cool bluesy tune sung by a leather cladded woman with a raspy voice. And no doubt Alannah did it really good, so good in fact that even I liked it from the very beginning...and I am not normally into blues!

But what I really like about the song is that it is a history lesson not read aloud from a book, but sunged. And it is a history lesson that does not care about timelines and significant dates but about settings, emotions, creativity, music, and one of the greatest artists known to mankind!

The origins can probably most like be traced to the beginning of humankind - a beat of a drum, a voice finding its own tune...later on, the same energies, the same vibrations could be found amongst Celtic warriors, Buccaneers at sea and with artists like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart when he created music which shocked the sheeple and touched the hearts and souls of their counterparts. Black Velvet might be a new religion, but it's roots are ancient...

In 1954 in Memphis, Tennessee, a young man with handsome facial features and dazzling eyes goes into a recording studio, pays a fee and the plan is to record a single for private usage...just one copy... and nothing more. Then during a break in the recordings, the young man suddenly begins to sing..."That's alright, mama" and history suddenly there and then took yet a turn down some at that time unknown and obscure path which in time lead to bands like Led Zeppelin, Sex Pistols, Stray Cats, Judas Preist, Bauhaus, The Damned, Satyricon, Lacuna Coil...and the list just goes on and on and on and on...

Now when we today watch old television clips of Elvis Presley we either see him as a hip-thrusting rockabilly, some leather-clad wanna-be tough guy who failed at doing so or some fat, tired and sweaty rapidly aging man in a jumpsuit. In his younger days Elvis Presley himself might have seen the old classical artists such a Mozart as some obscure beings wearing wigs and yet, today many metal heads see these same "stuffy" artists as being the musical rebels of their day and age and as an inspiration.

Elvis Presley was at the end of his life a tired and overweight guy who looked like he just wanted to lock himself up in a hotel room and drug himself to sleep instead of being on stage...but he was a hell of a lot more than just that! Let's try and imagine a world where Elvis never went into Sun Studios on that summer's day in 1954, let' s imagine a world where Elvis lived and ended his days as a truck driver or perhaps had never even been born...

There would never have been a Jimi Hendrix who in the 1960s took the full advantage of the electrical guitar, neither had there been a punk revolution in 1976 because there would not have been a rockabilly movement to be inspired by at exactly the right moment in time to spark that fire. Had there been any rock bands at all then they would have carried on their drug trip and they would have died out in all senses of the term hence hard rock would never have gotten the kick in the ass by punk that it so desperately needed to turn into heavy metal...and goth would only have been limited to buildings, paintings, and literature.

The flutter of the wings of a butterfly in one place can set of hurricanes in others.

Now it is no secret that I love music and it is no secret that may it be Elvis singing about rock n roll parties in jail or Motley Crüe singing about Doctor Feelgood then the vibrations are the same...risen to a high level which in extension affects the mind, soul, and spirit in a positive way and Black Velvet is the religion that worships this - it's temples are the teenage rooms, big festival stages, obscure miniature club scenes and within the followers themselves. There is no hell, no right or wrong and despite the sometimes tensions none of us would be who we are had it not been for warriors of the past creating the first flame, Mozart bringing it to the bonfire, and Elvis Presley setting it ablaze!

Elvis's personal flame went out for more then 40 years ago, but the fire is like the one of Olympia...it just keeps on burning!!!! Thank you, Elvis...thank you!!!!

Asatru is my spiritual path...Black Velvet is my religion!!!!!!