NationStates Jolt Archive

Just curious. Some gay guy told me it was. I didn't believe him at first then I looked up the lyrics...

The warden threw a party in the county jail.
The prison band was there and they began to wail.
The band was jumpin’ and the joint began to swing.
You should’ve heard those knocked out jailbirds sing.
Let’s rock, everybody, let’s rock.
Everybody in the whole cell block
Was dancin’ to the jailhouse rock.

Spider murphy played the tenor saxophone,
Little joe was blowin’ on the slide trombone.
The drummer boy from illinois went crash, boom, bang,
The whole rhythm section was the purple gang.
Let’s rock, everybody, let’s rock.
Everybody in the whole cell block
Was dancin’ to the jailhouse rock.

Number forty-seven said to number three:
You’re the cutest jailbird I ever did see.
I sure would be delighted with your company,
Come on and do the jailhouse rock with me.
Let’s rock, everybody, let’s rock.
Everybody in the whole cell block
Was dancin’ to the jailhouse rock.

The sad sack was a sittin’ on a block of stone
Way over in the corner weepin’ all alone.
The warden said, hey, buddy, don’t you be no square.
If you can’t find a partner use a wooden chair.
Let’s rock, everybody, let’s rock.
Everybody in the whole cell block
Was dancin’ to the jailhouse rock.

Shifty henry said to bugs, for heaven’s sake,
No one’s lookin’, now’s our chance to make a break.
Bugsy turned to shifty and he said, nix nix,
I wanna stick around a while and get my kicks.
Let’s rock, everybody, let’s rock.
Everybody in the whole cell block
Was dancin’ to the jailhouse rock.

Number forty-seven said to number three:
You’re the cutest jailbird I ever did see.
I sure would be delighted with your company,

If you can’t find a partner use a wooden chair.

In the first line, perhaps he's referring to a female inmate?

Second line is referring to a DANCE partner. Not a sex partner!

females i beleive are put into seperate jails from men, or if they arent they are not in the same ward

Also consider these lines....

Shifty henry said to bugs, for heaven’s sake,
No one’s lookin’, now’s our chance to make a break.
Bugsy turned to shifty and he said, nix nix,
I wanna stick around a while and get my kicks.

IS Henery a prison bitch, and what does Bugsy have in mind for him?

It is implied in the film of the same name that Elvis' character is a jailhouse punk, i thought everyone knew this

Yes.

Does it quite honestly matter, music is music, its practically a sin to take it apart, just like books, you ruin it.

Does it quite honestly matter, music is music, its practically a sin to take it apart, just like books, you ruin it.
It doesn't ruin it, it makes it better!

I was just suprised Elvis would deal with such contraversial material, considering that he was a devout southern christian singing this song in freaking 1956!

Didn't Elvis sing in one of his other songs "I'm shaking like a man on a fuzzy tree"...what exactly is a fuzzy tree?

P.S. In reference to the term "prison punk" - it would add a whole new dimension to Ashton Kutcher's show "Punk'd" if he used the original meaning of the term... "Dude, you've been punked!" :p Ouch!

nope

It doesn't ruin it, it makes it better!

I was just suprised Elvis would deal with such contraversial material, considering that he was a devout southern christian singing this song in freaking 1956!


Perhaps thats because he wasn't dealing with any sort of contraversial material? ...... yeah ....

So it is inconclusive. I never saw the movie, but I find it hard to believe Elvis would become a prison "punk". Sure he is pretty, but didn't he kill someone with a single punch in that movie? Also not to beat a dead horse but the more I look at it the gay guy was right, the "jailhouse rock" was a term for man love. Of course it all is double meanings... like this part: Little joe was blowin’ on the slide trombone.

females i beleive are put into seperate jails from men, or if they arent they are not in the same ward

This one's a fairly obvious example of artistic license. Besides, what kind of moron would the warden be if he threw a dance party with no women? The second bolded line, as Alomogordo says, refers to a dance partner (I have difficulty imagining anyone having sex with a wooden chair) and the third... well, I don't even see the point of bolding the third. Henry wants to escape, Bugs wants to stay and dance. Even the line about the slide trombone is more sexually suggestive than this one.

Like most "gay readings" of prose, poetry, and lyrics, there's really nothing to this one.

Does it quite honestly matter, music is music, its practically a sin to take it apart, just like books, you ruin it.
Not true at all! Pink Floyd's The Wall only really makes sense after it's been taken apart. As long as you don't reduce it too much, it can dramatically add to the art in question.

Does it quite honestly matter, music is music, its practically a sin to take it apart, just like books, you ruin it.
Seconded.

Not true at all! Pink Floyd's The Wall only really makes sense after it's been taken apart. As long as you don't reduce it too much, it can dramatically add to the art in question.I disagree. Analyzing "The Wall" reduces it's impact.

Of course I'm talking about the impact of Pink Floyd performing the wall.

Listening to the album isn't the same.

I'd always ... made note ... of the content of the lyrics to this old Elvis ditty. It certainly SOUNDS like hot, steamy, man-on-man prison sex, doesn't it? Or at least a prelude to it?

Heh-heh. Thanks for sharing.

Heh-heh.

Heh.

Not true at all! Pink Floyd's The Wall only really makes sense after it's been taken apart. As long as you don't reduce it too much, it can dramatically add to the art in question.

What part of The Wall needs to be disected? The lyrics are obviously about anticonformitism and pseudo-anarchism as a rejection of the propaganda shoved down our throats by the establishment in the guise of "education".

What part of The Wall needs to be disected? The lyrics are obviously about anticonformitism and pseudo-anarchism as a rejection of the propaganda shoved down our throats by the establishment in the guise of "education".

"all and all, your just another brick in the wall."

see, im all for reading into meanings of songs, but that one isnt really needed.

I disagree. Analyzing "The Wall" reduces it's impact.

Of course I'm talking about the impact of Pink Floyd performing the wall.

Listening to the album isn't the same.

Ehh. 'The Wall' is so...so... ehh. Words fail me. I've heard that album, songs from the album, so very many times...and seen the film. Seen it 7 stories high, seen it in repertory theatres, on video, on DVD, saw the world simulcast from Berlin, saw Pink Floyd perform parts of it live, and I am honestly sick to death of it.

I find, in retrospect, that as spectacle it is the very limit of self-indulgence, loathing and self-pity. When I want to wallow in the post-adolescent despair of a jaded millionaire rockstar-cum-dictator, I certainly choose Roger Waters. No one has quite the same complexes to struggle with...

Anyway, Elvis woulda looked HOT in a jailhouse orgy...!

Ehh. 'The Wall' is so...so... ehh. Words fail me. I've heard that album, songs from the album, so very many times...and seen the film. Seen it 7 stories high, seen it in repertory theatres, on video, on DVD, saw the world simulcast from Berlin, saw Pink Floyd perform parts of it live, and I am honestly sick to death of it.

I find, in retrospect, that as spectacle it is the very limit of self-indulgence, loathing and self-pity. When I want to wallow in the post-adolescent despair of a jaded millionaire rockstar-cum-dictator, I certainly choose Roger Waters. No one has quite the same complexes to struggle with...Well there's your problem.

You've started to analyze it........ ;)

"all and all, your just another brick in the wall."

see, im all for reading into meanings of songs, but that one isnt really needed.

Right "you" refering to the "teacher" that is being addressed ("Teacher, we don't need no education"). "The Wall" being the buearucratic socio-econimic establishment that cnstrains us. "Education" (specifically public elementry school education) really being indoctriniation that constrains the mind and destroys individuality.

Better to think of Elvis' hot bod...

Heh.

What are we talking about again? I saw 'hot, steamy, man-on-man prison orgy' and came running!

What are we talking about again? I saw 'hot, steamy, man-on-man prison orgy' and came running!

We're talking about Elvis being the big guy's girlfriend.

We're talking about Elvis being the big guy's girlfriend.
Ooh, that's hot!

HELLO!!! Wakey wakey ppl!!!! Jailhouse rock IS about gay sex. so is "I Am The One And Only". anyone who says it isn't REALLY really needs to wake up and stop being naive!! (btw, the wooden chair thing, think about it, the legs can b shoved somewhere right???) :headbang: really people!!! anyway who cares!! its a gr8 tune and thats it!!!

P.S. In reference to the term "prison punk" - it would add a whole new dimension to Ashton Kutcher's show "Punk'd" if he used the original meaning of the term... "Dude, you've been punked!" :p Ouch!

LOL :D

The drummer boy from illinois went crash, boom, bang,
The whole rhythm section was the purple gang.
Do you think drummer boy might be a prison term for something else?
Also perhaps the purple gang is short for the blue-veined purple-head mutton-musket gang.

Anyway, Elvis woulda looked HOT in a jailhouse orgy...!

WORD.

"Now dont you step on my blue suede shoes"

"You ain't nothing but a hound dog, crying all the time"

Now I think about it...all of his songs could be considered gay.

OK let me give the most succinct, complete explanation of why this song is totally about what I think it is about. First of all Elvis didn't write any of his own songs, and considering the song was from the movie jailhouse rock, which was basically a musical, there is about a 99.99 percent chance it was written by a gay man or men--after all how many musicals are written by a straight men? It is likely that the (probably) gay writers put in a lot of innuendos and inside jokes too amuse themselves, but of course they couldn't be too obvious, it was the 1950s after all.

Second the gay theory revolves centrally around the lines in the song:

Number forty-seven said to number three:
You’re the cutest jailbird I ever did see.
I sure would be delighted with your company,
Come on and do the jailhouse rock with me.

I don't see how anyone can claim this is mere artistic license. First of all the people in this conversation are identified by prisoner serial numbers implying they are both prisoners in the same prison. I don't see how anyone can claim one of the prisoners is female. In all the other verses the prisoners are given names like Bugs, Henry, Joe etc. There is no prisoner named Judy, or marry or Sally and all the other male prisoners are doing the jailhouse rock as well. And although I never saw the movie I did a yahoo image search and looked at a bunch of scenes from the movie and never saw a female prisoner so that theory I think can be put to rest.

If these lines are referring to two men, I don't see how these lines can possibly be not gay. Calling another man "cute" and asking him for his company is probably the most blatant come on ever seen in a movie or song.

Next perhaps in importance is the way in which some of the prisoners are described. There is the drummer boy. Older gay men frequently refer to younger gay men as "boys". I don't know the entomology of the term boy as used in this context, but I assume it has been used that way for a while. In a similar vein you also have "little Joe" who is blowing on a trombone which seems pretty obvious. Another thing which has already been touched on by someone else is the rhythm section. Hmmm what else is purple and moves rhythmically?

Anyway after this you have a whole slew of other innuendos... The wooden chair, bugsy wanting to "get his kicks", that sort of thing.

Ok that’s it, I went way too far into it, yes I know, but now I can let the matter rest. Of course more likely than not I just am completely insane and have too much free time on my hands, whatever.

Thanks, dickheads.

You just ruined the Blues Brothers forever.

<If you can’t find a partner use a wooden chair.>

I always took that as meaning as a dance partner.. now some of the other ones you bold text out.. made me think lol.

Sheesh. If you're going to do a "gay reading" of Jailhouse rock, at least find out who wrote the song, find out if they were gay, and go from there. Idle speculation is just that.

Personally, I doubt it seriously. But that is, if nothing else, part of the beautiful strength of gay culture. They can turn anything, and I mean ANYTHING, into a message of support. Hell, Queer used to be derogatory, now they use it in their own chants. Now, Jailhouse rock is a prison orgy in their eyes; it certainly shows a lot of creativity.

Watch "Out of the closets" a documentary about gay culture in hollywood. It seems the actor playing across from Heston in "Ben Hur" was gay. Discussing character acting with the director, they decided it would be best to insinuate that Heston's character and his had a gay affair in their youth. None of this was told to Heston, but if you look at some scenes in the movie, their "fond remembrances" of old times are a little....queer.