This song is about a spiritual awakening (according to Marc Cohn)
The reference to "Blue Suede Shoes" is not about Elvis Presley, but about Carl Perkins who recorded the song in Memphis for Sam Phillips at Sun Records. Perkins' ill-luck in a car wreck stopped him touring to promote the record, allowing Elvis' cover version to become a massive hit. Presley's copy was done at RCA studios in Nashville.
The narrator tells of seeing "The ghost of Elvis up on Union Avenue and followed him up to gates of Graceland". Sam Phillips' studios were called "Memphis Recording Service" and were at 706 Union Avenue.
"Security didn't see him" is probably a comment on the story that Bruce Springsteen once successfully scaled the wall at Graceland, trying to deliver a song he wrote. Apparently Elvis wasn't there.
"There's catfish on table and gospel in the air" marks the dichotomy between secular and sacred. Catfish is the standard blues metaphor for sexual intercourse. (The word is also interchangeable with the slang expression for the female sex zones). "Catfish" thus would appeal to the bodily instincts, whereas "gospel" would be to the intellect. The metaphor gains more credence since Al Green supposedly renounced secular music after being scalded with grits by a jealous girlfriend.
This song is about a spiritual awakening (according to Marc Cohn) The reference to "Blue Suede Shoes" is not about Elvis Presley, but about Carl Perkins who recorded the song in Memphis for Sam Phillips at Sun Records. Perkins' ill-luck in a car wreck stopped him touring to promote the record, allowing Elvis' cover version to become a massive hit. Presley's copy was done at RCA studios in Nashville. The narrator tells of seeing "The ghost of Elvis up on Union Avenue and followed him up to gates of Graceland". Sam Phillips' studios were called "Memphis Recording Service" and were at 706 Union Avenue. "Security didn't see him" is probably a comment on the story that Bruce Springsteen once successfully scaled the wall at Graceland, trying to deliver a song he wrote. Apparently Elvis wasn't there. "There's catfish on table and gospel in the air" marks the dichotomy between secular and sacred. Catfish is the standard blues metaphor for sexual intercourse. (The word is also interchangeable with the slang expression for the female sex zones). "Catfish" thus would appeal to the bodily instincts, whereas "gospel" would be to the intellect. The metaphor gains more credence since Al Green supposedly renounced secular music after being scalded with grits by a jealous girlfriend.