Elvis Presley "If I Can Dream”& his Annotated copy of "The Prophet."
A Beckoning Candle at 2:21
Elvis Presley was so much more than most people know. He was thoughtful and reflective. Devastated at the death of Rev. Dr.Martin Luther King, Jr. he recorded “If I Can Dream” to show his deep sadness at the racial and political strife dividing the country. 1
‘If I Can Dream:’ Lyrics
There must be lights burning brighter somewhere
Got to be birds flying higher in a sky more blue
If I can dream of a better land
Where all my brothers walk hand in hand
Tell me why, oh why, oh why can’t my dream come true
oh why
There must be peace and understanding sometime
Strong winds of promise that will blow away the doubt and fear
If I can dream of a warmer sun
Where hope keeps shining on everyone
Tell me why, oh why, oh why won’t that sun appear
We’re lost in a cloud
With too much rain
We’re trapped in a world
That’s troubled with pain
But as long as a man
Has the strength to dream
He can redeem his soul and fly
Deep in my heart there’s a trembling question
Still I am sure that the answer gonna come somehow
Out there in the dark, there’s a beckoning candle
And while I can think, while I can talk
While I can stand, while I can walk
While I can dream, please let my dream
Come true, right now
Let it come true right now
Oh yeah
The Prophet made a deep and lasting impact on Elvis, and he read it so often that he memorized it.
The summer catalogue from London’s Peter Harrington includes Elvis Presley’s annotated copy of The Prophet by Lebanese-American poet Kahlil Gibran. The volume of twenty-six prose poems is being offered for £19,500 ($26,670) and is the first time this particular copy is for sale in the UK.2
Morrison, Robert (2018). “If I can dream: The Elvis tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr.” The Conversation (March 29).
Richter, Barbara Basbanes (2021) “For Sale: Elvis Presley’s Annotated Copy of The Prophet.” Fine Books and Collections. (July).
"If I Can Dream" is one of my favorite Elvis songs. There is a new book out by Sally Hoedel, "Elvis: Destined to Die Young," that suggests Elvis had a congenital condition that made him constantly sick and prone to self-medicate and overeat due to pain. See https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/aug/01/bad-genes-not-rocknroll-excess-killed-elvis-presley-claims-biographer .
This is an aspect of Elvis I never knew. My view of him evolved over the years, from pop star to main act in a clown fiesta to performer and musician. I'm a classically-trained singer, and once I got over my genre snobbishness I realized that his contribution to music was less than Bach but more than Tchaikovsky. He was the driving force behind the public acceptance of the merger of the blues (exclusively black) and country (exclusively white) to create rock and roll. Music historians point to others who first fused the two; Elvis elevated the form, drove public acceptance and, perhaps most importantly, turned it into the sound track for protest and rebellion of two generations.
Rock and roll moved the meter significantly on integration and civil rights. Skin color became meaningless to musicians, whose primary concern was with performance and creativity.