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

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Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley is beautifully written portrait of Presley's early years -- his impoverished childhood in Tupelo, Mississippi, the move to Memphis in his teenage years, and the amazingly rich and complex soup of musical influences that city offered to a shy, sensitive boy with a huge love of singing and music of all kinds.

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. Connect your Spotify account to your Last.fm account and scrobble everything you listen to, from any Spotify app on any device or platform. I've been watching Oscar nominated 2022 films and while I wasn't really interested in Elvis (I've never been a fan), watched the Baz Luhrmann film about his life. That film completely changed my perspective. I'd never realized how tragic the latter part of his life became. That film and this epiphany were the impetus for wanting to read Careless Love. And Elvis himself? A complicated mix of guilessness and sweet innocence, with something more ambitious and single-minded, entangled with a charisma and natural blazing talent underpinned by a genuine spirituality. The image of him ringing his parents every night from hysterical tours and Hollywood film sets, of bringing home Natalie Wood to stay with his mum and dad, of buying them Graceland to compensate for the single room and shared housing he grew up in is a testament to real feeling.If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire. Also disturbing is his meeting with Priscilla when she's just 14 (he's ten years older) and while he refuses to have a sexual relationship with her until she's older, they certainly have a romantic relationship. His obsession that she remain 'pure' (good wife material) is just as disturbing, as is the increasing flow-through of women.

I get a sense that Elvis never fully developed into a man. He remained an insecure boy, afraid of the dark but owner of an amazing talent and ability to charm people. The empire he created with all its wealth and privilege did nothing to assuage his inner emptiness. Prescription drugs provided him with something only he could understand. It was a hugely destructive choice and in the end forced him to become a ridiculous caricature of himself "the living legend is fat and ludicrously aping his former self..." He just seemed to "run out of gas". of course, ultimately the drugs killed him. It is such a shame. At one time he was "a champion, the only one in his class". The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the sphere of suffering shared, and in this case extended to the death march itself, there is no spiritual or emotional legacy here to offset any reader reluctance. 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.Women grew weary of the self obsessed, narcissistic little boy, who like Peter Pan, simply refused to grow up. By the time of his death, he was only 42 years old with a bloated body, a voice that could not deliver, and performances at his shows were mediocre at best. This massive two-part biography is one of the best books I've ever read. I would put it in a shortlist of the essential nonfiction books to read if you want to understand American culture. Last Train To Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley - 'The richest portrait of Presley we have ever had' Sunday Telegraph Throughout the book a number of issues keep resurfacing. I might have seemed rather disparaging above, writing about Tom Parker's self-glorification; I still feel that this was largely why Parker acted as he did, but although much of what that man did was, I believe, detrimental to Elvis' career, it becomes apparent in Careless Love just how hard Parker worked toward whatever he considered his own goal was. Another issue is the effect that Elvis had on people who initially had a low opinion of him: examples include the American Studio session players, the Sweet Inspirations, and, perhaps most eloquently described, Joe Guercio, but there are countless others. But, like many fans, I've always been limited by the media and the 'myth' of Elvis. Here's a book that takes you behind the scenes and gives you the real story. Believe it or not, he's an extremely insecure, frail human being. Yes, it's sad in many ways. The drugs, the objectification of women (he didn't respect his marriage at all), the pain from losing his mom, retreating to his room all the time, the Memphis Mafia always hanging around him like puppy dogs waiting for the next car he'd buy them.