Friday 7 February 2014

Elvis books eleven
The Hitchhiker’s Guide To Elvis by Mick Farren
 
As Farren points out in his introduction, he first heard Elvis in 1956 and has never been the same since. It’s an alphabetical catalogue of Elvisiana. Where else would you see — recorded with equal parts reverence and irreverence — the fact that Elvis hated fish so much he wouldn’t let his wife eat it while he was around? Or find the code words Elvis gave women to use so they were put straight through to him when they called Graceland? Ann-Margret was Thumper and Ursula Andress was Alan. 



Fish phobia? Naming one of the world’s sexiest women after a Disney rabbit? Let us be honest, a French psychoanalyst could base an entire career on exploring such facts.

Next Elvis and not a French analyst but the French penseur, Montaigne: “Peu d'hommes ont esté admirés par leurs domestiques.” Which, in the King's case, translates as 'No man is a hero to his hairdresser.'

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