Gator Blood

[Rail King]

The song is about Coronel Tom Parker, manager of Elvis Prestley. Coronel was a semi-legal immigrant, almost a con-man, working in side shows. Then he met Elvis-"a country boy, a bird who sings", and reportedly made him (actually his parents) sign a horrendous contract. It practically put Elvis in complete dependence, while Tom got most of the money. Comparrison to a gator means that when the coronel got a hold of you, he won't let you go. Pretty much what he did to his most famous client.

Hey Al

[stormbreaker]

What a shame for a Dutch citizen to go illegal to the U.S and behave like this. He should have been arrested and deported.

[joanzimm]

Don't you wonder what goes on in MK's brain?  You just never know what he's going to come up with next.  He is truly unique. 

[ingridswing]

He is reading a lot and the stories change into songs 
I like it

[Knopflerfan]

MK - A truly talented chap!!

From Wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonel_Tom_Parker

[ds1984]

(Music) Business and ethic are words that doesn't get well together.

Artists are not accountant and often turn(ed) to be ripped by the ones in charge of their interest. What happened to Elvis was not isolated and countless ripping histories exists. Among them, the Rolling Stones have lived on both side. After a costly bad experience in choosing Alein Klein to represent them that ended by loosing the control on their Decca (London is the US) catalog, they did learn well about it and from RS Records put a financial organization controlled by them and devoted to them. You can't be an isolated dolphin when swimming in the sea of  sharks.

Dire Straits on that point seemed to got a lucky star on them.

[JF]

(Music) Business and ethic are words that doesn't get well together.

Artists are not accountant and often turn(ed) to be ripped by the ones in charge of their interest. What happened to Elvis was not isolated and countless ripping histories exists. Among them, the Rolling Stones have lived on both side. After a costly bad experience in choosing Alein Klein to represent them that ended by loosing the control on their Decca (London is the US) catalog, they did learn well about it and from RS Records put a financial organization controlled by them and devoted to them. You can't be an isolated dolphin when swimming in the sea of  sharks.

Dire Straits on that point seemed to got a lucky star on them.

it's explained in the Oldfield book that from the beginning, John Illsley has always been the band member who was checking accounts.

In early days, it was him (and also Mark) who was "searching" for contracts, and after signing with Polygram, he always had an eye on the financial side.

That's why the band was in confidence with the record company, beacuse they knew that one of them looked at accounts, and sort of "accountant" of the band.

And of course, the relationship between Ed and the band, especially Mark, was based on friendship....until 1999-2000

[rosco]

The link below is the book that MK read on the Colonel(Andreas Cornelis ("Dries") van Kuijk).

Amazingly nobody knew in the Elvis camp that the wily old Dutchman was Dutch never mind an illegal alien until well after Elvis died in 1977.

In the Nash book, she suggests the reason the Colonel left the Netherlands late 20's early 30's was because he had killed a woman in Breda.

The guy screwed Elvis big time financially as well as artistically - even wangling it to take 50% of Elvis's total earnings

A great book by the way.  In my opinion the Colonel is one of the reasons resulting in Elvis dying so young.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Colonel-Extraordinary-Parker-Presley/dp/1845130251/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1377630750&sr=8-3&keywords=alanna+nash

[Ale]

The song is about Coronel Tom Parker, manager of Elvis Prestley. Coronel was a semi-legal immigrant, almost a con-man, working in side shows. Then he met Elvis-"a country boy, a bird who sings", and reportedly made him (actually his parents) sign a horrendous contract. It practically put Elvis in complete dependence, while Tom got most of the money. Comparrison to a gator means that when the coronel got a hold of you, he won't let you go. Pretty much what he did to his most famous client.

You're too kind -- Parker wasn't semi, he was an illegal immigrant, and since he couldn't get a passport, Elvis only traveled when he was in the army because Parker couldn't take the chance of Elvis making friends or listening to professional advice from anyone. (Parker made him turn down all the offers, including a request from Queen Elizabeth for a Command Performance.  He also vetoed any film that would have required Elvis to go out of the country on location.)  Elvis was of age and signed a contract that gave half of everything to Parker.  His mother was against it, she disliked and distrusted Parker (smart lady).  Parker chose everything, from songs, to films scripts to Vegas only with money in mind.  What a waste of a talented young man's life......

well i must agree with most of the things you said...but Parker , together with RCA and the film producer ONLY chose the movies songs....Elvis always chose the non movie stuff....that means more than 400 songs

[Stanko]

I NEVER would have understood the lyrics without this forum. Thank You !

 

[Stanko]

In my opinion butter paddle refers to Elvis wearing style - I mean the shape of his trousers/pants
So great lol