Elvis - A Lighted Candle

[73smile]

I have been listening to the song recorded by Elvis called "How The Web Was Woven" and I find myself thinking about what Elvis might have thought of the words to this song when he was recording it.
On a first listen it seems as though the singer is talking about how the spider weaves the web so tightly that one caught in the web is not free anymore because this web has captured his soul and his heart. Love and hope are both lost.
Listening more closely it seems to become clear when the singer exposes the intense pain of the one captured--the one no longer free---what being caught in that tight web felt like. It is a painful song to hear now because it took Elvis' physical death in 1977 before we learned of the loss of freedom that occurred on a daily basis for him. He felt lost and lonely and he felt unloved; except by his fans. He was 'married' but not happily and he was powerless to change the parts of his life that were all parts of the 'fine image' woven by others that kept Elvis from believing that he would ever find someone to love him. Just love him. That is all he wanted. Someone to love him just as he was before he was encased inside that woven 'image.'
As he sings about the web taking the ability away to feel free in one's soul and heart, I wonder what he was thinking about those words--- and how much they so closely mirrored his own emotional and his physical life and spirit.
Elvis knew that he had millions of fans who loved the person they saw in a movie or on a stage doing a concert. He said often that ...The image is one thing and the man another... By then, though, Elvis could no longer see that there really may have been a way to change the 'image' and that, of course, is what kept him tightly bound in the web that pulled at him more and more tightly as time passed by and he became more and more afraid of allowing outsiders to know of his pain.
He was a human man who felt insecure, unloved and incapable of breaking through the woven web that kept his heart and his soul imprisoned.
So much we know now about his real pain then. We saw what we were supposed to see.
I wonder if we had known and accepted the truth if Elvis would then have searched for his spirit while also searching for and finding physical well-being.
I believe that he is free now but he suffered so much while on earth. So much pain because at all costs the 'image' had to be kept inside that web along with his soul and his heart.
By the end of the song the man can not sleep and he feels helpless because the web was woven and once he was caught there was no escape for the singer---it is now that we know of the horrific hurt Elvis struggled with each day until he surrendered and was then set free.
It is the belief that he was able to let go on that day in 1977 that allows my heart to know that a web woven can be broken through.
MSue

[Rainbow Light]

Am sure Wanda can comment on this far more than I'm able to but I certainly see what you were trying to say and put over, very well said in general!

[Wanda June Hill]

I don't know if he looked at the lyrics to that song in that fashion, but he might have as he liked to take them apart and try to find out what the writer was truly meaning when he wrote them. He liked to meet the writers and question them about their lyrics and what they were trying to say etc;. Which must have been a task for the song writers who might not want to explain their "babies" to him.... But you sure did put a new slant on the lyrics and it very could have been something he thought about too. His life was much like that-but at the time he sat down at the piano and played it at rehearsals he was still happy and trying to have his marriage be intact-he had problems, but he was hopeful -but too, he was trapped in that the "web" of his career and it was the reason his mariage was falling apart-that and he couldn't spend his every minute with his wife as she might wish he would. Which is wrong to say, too, because actullay she only wanted him to come home, have dinner, play with his daughter and spend the night with her and then go to work and do it all again the next day. Like a normal family life might be-the trouble was, Elvis wasn't a normal life person-never would be and no changing him.... no matter how much he might dream about being normal...he would never be again. wjh

[73smile]

I did not know that Elvis liked to meet with the writers of the songs that he selected to record. Thank you for sharing that information.
I do recall reading that Elvis did make the decision in regard to the songs he would sing at concerts he gave or while on stage.
A beautiful spirited man who gave the world gifts unkike any that it had ever experienced or would experience.

[Wanda Mc]

I'm surprised you took that song to have a feeling of being trapped. I guess I take it as a happier song because of a couple of lines. "At last I'm where you want me. Don't you know that's where, where I wanna be." "That's how the web was woven, how I fell in love, fell in love with you." I feel that way about Elvis. He definitely caught me in his web, and that's where I want to be. It's like you're caught but don't mind at all. I sure don't!

[73smile]

Another way to view the words of the song and I would NOT mind a bit being trapped with him and his love!!

[Rainbow Light]

He definitely caught me in his web, and that's where I want to be. It's like you're caught but don't mind at all. I sure don't!

Count me in too with that one, Wanda Mc!


Thanks as ever, Wanda J for your information and insight! To know he could never truly live a regular normal lifestyle again must have been, at times, pretty tough especially when it came to being with his family I would imagine for sure.

[Rainbow Light]

Taking the chance to bring this back up to the top for anyone who may have missed out on reading this the first time, comments as always welcome! ....

[Barbara Lea]

I HAVE TO SAY THAT SPIDERS ARE NOT MY BEST BUDDIES IN THE WORLD, BUT IF ELVIS WAS A SPIDER THEN I WOULDN'T MIND AT ALL BEING IN THE WEB HE HAD WOVEN. I HAVE SAID THE SAME THING EVERYTIME I HEARD THIS SONG, THATS WHERE I LOVED TO BE TO. I WOULD HAVE LOVED TO BE CAUGHT BY HIM! FAIRYTALE!

[Rainbow Light]