CAUGHT IN A NAP (Seditious Crimes) | Don Caron & David Cohen

A music video based on “Suspicious Minds” (Elvis Presley)
Parody lyrics by David Cohen. Performance and video production by Don Caron
Executive Producers Don Caron and Jerry Pender

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LYRICS
David Cohen

He’s caught in a nap
He just zonked out
I guess he’s just too sleepy lately

Why can’t they see?
He’s just sawin’ some “Zs”
So he cannot hear a word they say

He can’t go on forever
With seditious crimes (with seditious crimes)
And he can’t work his schemes
If he sleeps full-time

So, when his eyes start to close
It surely means he’ll doze
Can they not see sedition in his lies?

There he goes again
His head will bob and then
He can’t hear our jeers are real; he’s hiding (Yes, he’s hiding)

He can’t go on forever
With seditious crimes (with seditious crimes)
And he can’t work his schemes
If he sleeps full-time

So, has the time arrived?
When we pry the sand from his eyes
Let’s not choose a crook who spies

He’s caught in a nap
He just zonked out
I guess he’s just too sleepy lately

Why can’t they see?
He’s just sawin’ some “Zs”
So he cannot hear a word they say

ABOUT THE SOURCE SONG

The song is about a mistrusting and dysfunctional relationship, and the need of the characters to overcome their issues in order to maintain it. Written in 1968 by Mark James, who was also the co-writer of “Always on My Mind” (which Elvis Presley would later record), the song was first recorded and released by James on Scepter Records in 1968.
Chips Moman had asked James to come to Memphis to write songs for American Sound Studio. At the time, James was residing in Houston. He had written three songs that became No.1 hits in the Southern United States. American Sound Studio was gaining a reputation in the industry, as the Box Tops had just recorded “The Letter” there, so James relocated to Memphis.

James said that late one night, he was fooling around on his Fender guitar and using his Hammond organ pedals for a bass line and came up with what he thought was a catchy melody. At the time, he was married to his first wife, Shirley Yates, but still had feelings for his childhood sweetheart, who was married back in Houston. James’s wife had suspicions about his feelings. He felt it was a confusing time for him and that all three were “caught in this trap that they could not walk out of”. At the recording session, James sang the lead vocals and the studio band backed him; Moman produced. The horns, strings, and vocals of the Holladay Sisters were later overdubbed. After the tape was mixed, James and Moman flew to New York, where James’s manager had contacts with Scepter Records. The label loved the song and put it out, but Scepter did not have the money to promote new artists, and the song did not make the charts.

Later that year, Don Crews, Moman’s partner, told James that Presley had booked their studio to record what would become the From Elvis in Memphis album. Crews kept asking James if he had any songs that would be right for Presley. James felt Presley needed a mature rock ‘n’ roll song to bring him back, as Tom Jones was a popular artist at the time. Crews and James thought of “Suspicious Minds,” and James began urging others to get Presley to hear it. Though James’s recording had not been commercially successful, upon reviewing the song, Presley decided he could turn it into a hit.

American Sound Studio session
“Suspicious Minds” was a product of a session that took place between 4 and 7 a.m. on Thursday, January 23, 1969. James was in Memphis, but he was not at the recording session. A few days earlier, he had walked into the recording studio during a session and sensed that Presley was uncomfortable with his presence. James did not want to jinx the song, so he stayed away. When he heard the track the day after it was recorded, he initially thought it sounded too slow. When he later heard the embellished version, he said he was blown away. In later years, whenever Presley saw James, he would cross the room to say hello.

“Suspicious Minds” was one of the singles that revived Presley’s chart success in the US, following his ’68 Comeback Special. It was his 14th and last Billboard Hot 100 No.1 single in the United States. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked it No. 91 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Session guitarist Reggie Young played on both the James and Presley versions.

The song was later included on the legacy edition of From Elvis in Memphis and the Follow That Dream reissue of Back In Memphis.