Last Train To Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley - 'The richest portrait of Presley we have ever had' Sunday Telegraph

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The writing is so good here it makes things like the details of signing a contract with an agent into a riveting read. I thought the opening was the strongest, bringing the worlds of poverty in Memphis to life with so much empathy and detail (clothing, language, segregation, mixed neighborhoods, music styles and public housing). But I stayed fascinated throughout as Elvis start to get famous, even in the sections that were mostly a ton of names. In his 1954 essay, "The Loss of the Creature," Walker Percy contrasts the experience of Garcia Lopez de Cardenas, commander of the first group of Europeans to set eyes on the Grand Canyon, with that of a 20th-century tourist. "It can be imagined:," he writes, "One crosses miles of desert, breaks through the mesquite, and there it is at one's feet. Later the government set the place aside as a national park, hoping to pass along to millions the experience of Cardenas. Does not one see the same sight from the Bright Angel Lodge that Cardenas saw?" As, I'm sure, you have guessed, Percy's answer is- decidedly - "no." "It is almost impossible [to gaze directly at the Grand Canyon]," he proposes, "because the Grand Canyon, the thing as it is, has been appropriated by the symbolic complex which has already been formed in the sightseer's mind." You can't see it because you're too busy trying to confirm all the received ideas you already have about it. The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power. I always loved Elvis' music in the early 70s..... the powerful ballads, the top notch band behind him (that boy can sing!). Silence is the resting place of the soul. It's sacred. And necessary for new thoughts to be born. That's what my pills are for...to get as close as possible to that silence." - p. 456

I recommend this as essential reading to anyone interested in Elvis Presley, music in the 50's-70's or the cost of success in the entertainment industry in America.It holds up as a chronicle of the life of Elvis Presley from his release from the Army to his humiliating death. It's also the kind of book that if you aren't interested in the minutia, you can just flip through and read of the young Elvis's on-set affairs with his female co-stars or similar show-biz gossip. Overall, a great read that clued me in on what now seems like a gaping hole in my musical education and understanding of American culture. In many ways Elvis is the USA. The Elvis story has so often seemed to me to be almost Shakespearean in its tragical aspects. Careless Love merely confirms these feelings, with Elvis paralleling Hamlet's manic depression, surrounded by wheelers and dealers. Much in the book has been written before, but this, at last, is a lucid, complete and chronological account. As one progresses through the book, it becomes ever more clear to what extent Elvis was manipulated by all around him, how his talent was largely squandered by a manager whose sole interest was self-glorification and how Elvis, himself, so rarely reacted, but remained quietly professional and did the best with whatever was offered; at the same time he was, equally clearly, seething inside. The book pulls no punches, however, and honestly relates the decline, both personally and professionally, which occurred in the seventies, without resorting to smut or innuendo.

Use italics (lyric) and bold (lyric) to distinguish between different vocalists in the same song part This book is brutally honest about Elvis's countless personal faults, including his sense of making love being nothing more than a kind of infantilism. Garth Hudson – keyboards, organ, accordion, piano, synthesizers, vocoder, soprano, alto and tenor saxophones, bells The book ends in 1958, the year Elvis's music and movie career was put on hold by his induction into the Army. It's also the year his beloved mother Gladys died. The unselfish love and devotion she had always shown him were suddenly gone, at the very time when the rest of his life was going dizzyingly, ridiculously nuts, and it tore him up. Without her as his moral compass, he was never the same again. It's been a wonderful show, folks. Just remember this. Don't go milking the cow on a rainy day. If there's lightning you may be left holding the bag."

Reviews

E L James revisits the world of Fifty Shades with a deeper and darker take on the love story that has enthralled millions of readers around the globe. I learned a lot about Elvis but I think even the biggest Elvis fan can learn something new from this book. Elvis set some all-time records for celebrity, audacity and exuberance. He helped the world break out of a great number of out-of-date constraints and begin new epochs in popular music and style. He spread a joyous sort of Americaness to the rest of the world. For those things he will be remembered, forever, with love and happiness.

From the moment that he first shook up the world in the mid 1950s, Elvis Presley has been one of the most vivid and enduring myths of American culture. If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire. The writing is strong and while it does tend a little bit towards tedium, it only serves to shore up reality and dispel myths. Ultimately, brightening Elvis' star even further as we realise quite how phenomenal he was. It's also the biography of a tremendously gifted interpreter of other writers songs, and a man who though he never toured outside the USA became an international star, beloved by millions.

If volume 1 ( Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley) was the triumphant rags-to-riches part of the story, this is the crash and burn. What is so sad is that the seeds of the final destruction are set so early.

He was a man who thought and acted like a boy. Always craving an entourage that never left him, none of the people who surrounded him could help his addiction to a plethora of drugs. His autopsy showed an enlarged heart, liver damage as well as a painful bowel condition caused by excess drug usage. At the time of his death, at least 14 different drugs were in his body. The amount of codeine was ten times a normally prescribed level. His addiction to quaaludes brought toxic levels to a body that over abused drugs for many years.Written with grace, humor, and affection, Last Train to Memphis has been hailed as the definitive biography of Elvis Presley. It is the first to set aside the myths and focus on Elvis' humanity in a way that has yet to be duplicated. The volume begins with Elvis leaving the Army, where he seems to have been relatively happy, although that is also where his long addiction to uppers began; these enabled him to party late and to be ‘Elvis Presley’. During this period, as the author tells us in the stupefying detail that blights this volume, Elvis dated many women but then meets air force brat Priscilla (Beau, as was), when she was but 14 years old and is smitten. He is respectful and continues to sleep with other women while chastely ‘courting’ her, which makes for slightly uncomfortable reading in 2020. They eventually marry, in 1964, and have a child, Lisa Marie, shortly after, but he does not take readily to the role of father-husband and continues to do as he pleases, being often away with his entourage on tour or just having fun. Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley. Plus: Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley. Connect your Spotify account to your Last.fm account and scrobble everything you listen to, from any Spotify app on any device or platform. It's an interesting enough account but what anyone really wants to read about are the details of his fall from grace.