In his Born to Run book from the time, Marsh gives us what we want.

The beauty of the arrangement has Springsteen almost breathless; he sings as if the song were new to him, as if he really had just mustered up the nerve to go up and ask that dream-date if she wanted to dance. His twelve-string guitar notes fall into the night and travel those airwaves like a message home.

Then, in the later The Heart of Rock and Soul, Marsh starts so well.

As a kid, the way people moved in movies like West Side Story struck me as weird. The real teenagers who strolled the blocks near my house moved so much more fluidly and elegantly. The tableaus they set up were finer poses and better thought-out. Where Jerome Robbins made you understand something about the possibilities of human muscles, those kids back in the neighborhood made you understand everything about passion and hope.

"Then He Kissed Me" captures what they looked like in its opening lines, sung at a stately cadence:

Well, he walked up to me and he asked me if I wanted to dance
He looked kinda nice and so I said I might take a chance.

Hearing the Crystals sing those words, you can feel not only the size of the event, but exactly how he moved, slinking his way across the floor, stopping, turning, proposing as elegantly as any cadet, and envision just how she responded, with a mixture of delicacy and suppressed eagerness, each holding back smiles of relief, both hearts jangling like the busy castanets and triangles in the record's background.

Then Marsh argues it's about oral sex. Let's forget that for a moment.

I really need to stop Googling stuff after midnight. Yes? Let's stick with the first verse, and we save this beautiful song for exactly our needs.

Time for sleep! Enough with you, Dave Marsh.

The NYT covers the Elvis master tape fiasco today but doesn't talk to the Elvis Hunter. Instead we only get a statement from RCA. Has the Post staked out Ernst?

But the Times does talk to Springsteen biographer Dave Marsh, and Marsh sums the situation up well: "Either they're destroying history or this is a fraud," Mr. Marsh said. "They can't have it both ways. If it isn't valuable, why are they selling it? And if it is valuable, why are they destroying it?"

Speaking of being history or a fraud, in case you were wondering, the Tony Bongiovi involved in the tape cutting is a cousin of the oft-debated Dr. Jon Bon Jovi.

From the good doctor's Wikipedia entry:

By the summer of 1982, out of school and working part-time – including in a shoe store – Jon finally got a job at the Power Station Studios, a New York recording facility where his cousin, Tony Bongiovi, was the co-owner. Jon made several demos (including one produced by Billy Squier) and sent them out to many record companies – but failed to make an impact.

At 19, Jon had his first recording experience, singing the song "R2-D2 We Wish You a Merry Christmas" on a Star Wars Christmas album, "Christmas With the Stars", with music by John Williams, produced by Tony Bongiovi at the Power Station and released on the RSO label.

Again, in case you were wondering, here are the lyrics to the R2-D2 song. "And if the snow becomes too deep, just give a little beep / We'll go in by the fire and warm your little wires…."

In other news, via the fabolous ElvisNews.com, AP's Paul Garwood and his mysterious cadre of headline writers have brought joy to my heart: Elvis, Castro Visit Last Saddam Hideout. A picture is included.

If I ever win the lottery, I plan to buy myself a gold lamé suit.