I have always liked Elvis and I think even to this day when you hear some of his tunes on the radio or on CD they still make you feel good and have a certain feel of time recorded on record. I particular like Hound dog and his cover version of Always on my mind, there is no doubt he was a talented performer a good singer and could even do a little dancing. But I always wondered what made this man so popular, sure he is talented but he can’t have been the first good looking guy to release a song. I guess my liking for Elvis came from hearing his music around my house while I was growing up and I guess I just developed a soft spot for him and his music so I wanted to find out a bit more about the King of Rock, like what was he like as a person an artist and a father. After reading a lot of reviews of the many different Elvis books around (and there is a lot) I made a choice to go for this book from 2005“Elvis and the Memphis Mafia” it was a big book with some 792 pages and was a fair weight to carry in my bag each day but I have to say it was well worth it. This was one of the best books I have ever read if not the best.
At first I was a little disappointed with the layout of the book as it was really just written with quotes from Billy Smith, Lamar Fike & Marty Lacker three members of the Memphis Mafia. I didn’t like this layout in the beginning but then I realised that actually it was a lot better as rather than just getting one person’s view on things I was getting 3 different people’s views on things and sometimes they even disagree with each other in the book. As these guys really spent almost every day with Elvis who better to tell his story from start to finish, which is one of the things I liked best about this book it starts right at the beginning and covers his whole life and not just a certain period of time in his life. This is an unusually honest biography which treats his memory fondly and also sympathetically however they are certainly not afraid of going into the dark side of his character and the character of others in and around his life. The book also tells a lot of little funny stories and has a certain amount of humour about it and you really are taking on a trip through Elvis’s life from is happiest days to his saddest days, you really feel you get to know him and you feel almost sad towards the end of the book as you know what is coming. However I cannot recommend this book enough and if you ever get the chance to read it or want to find out a bit more about the King of Rock n Roll this is a great addition and a great insight into the man.
After reading the book I really don’t know what my feelings towards Elvis are I am not sure if I like him more or less than I did before I read the book. It seems he could change from being the most loving, given caring person in the world to one of the most cold and hurtful people in the world all in the space of the same day depending on how his mood took him. After now knowing some of his darker side secrets and his real drug addiction problem I certainly don’t think he is this true great American that some people made him out to be but at the same time you just can’t help but like the man, so I think my feelings are pretty much as they where and you also get some great quotes from this book. So as Elvis would say after he has just fired a bullet through another television screen because some advert came on he didn’t like “That’s enough of that shit”
Elivs and the Memphis Mafia - 9 out of 10.
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