This song was based on Martin Luther King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech and its passionate rendition by Elvis was partly inspired by King's assassination just two months earlier. "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?" Presley delivers it like a man singing for redemption, his voice straining against the lush orchestration and gospel-style backing vocals. The arrangement swells from quiet reflection — it bemoans a world "troubled by pain," shadowed by dark clouds — to an impassioned crescendo, mirroring the ache and aspiration in the lyrics. It is said that Elvis never channeled so much grief and yearning into a song, and that after he recorded it, vowed he would never again sing a song he didn't believe in.
"A great song mutates, makes quantum leaps, turns up again like the prodigal son. It crosses genres. Could be punk rock, ragtime, folk-rock, or zydeco, and can be played in a lot of different styles, multiple styles... A great song is the sum of all things." - Bob Dylan
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