Elvis top books, number nine
Private Elvis by Diego Cortez

 
The first arty wacko Elvis book, it came out soon enough after his death to retain a breath of originality. The book was launched, in New York, with a real downtown art show — everyone dressed in black, a high ratio of junkies and friends of Brian Eno, maps on the wall seeking to ‘demonstrate’ the supposed topological similarity between Memphis and Stuttgart. 

Even without the surrounding arty hoopla, the pictures alone are striking enough — amateur monochromes of Elvis in the army. Girls hang on his arm expectantly, mouths open with sexual possibilities. These candid, revelatory narratives are given added depth by the knowledge that, at the same time, Elvis had yet another, even more private life. He was courting the 14-year-old daughter of one of his senior officers, the future virgin(ish) bride, Priscilla. By contrast, these greasy snapshots with semi-professional German girls make him seem an almost-normal young man on the prowl. 

For the film of the book — which, more than three decades on, has yet to emerge — Joe Strummer recorded two versions of Heartbreak Hotel, both of them radical and attractive recastings of the original.

Next That one with Elvis kissing an innocent young girl. And the story of the kiss. And the young girl. Who wasn't so innocent after all.

Elvis book eight 
The Elvis Reader: Texts And Sources On The King Of Rock ’n’ Roll, ed. Kevin Quain

A collection that successfully straddles an uncomfortable divide — academia and journalism. It includes both some of the best well-known writing on Elvis — extracts from the Goldman book, Lester Bangs’ Where Were You When Elvis Died?, Stanley Booth’s A Hound Dog, To The Manor Born — and some of the undeservedly obscure — notably a couple of very early pieces from Harper’s magazine. Its taste is fine, though perhaps a little predictable, and its sweep wide, though perhaps a little heavy on Elvis’ death.


Next The King and the showgirls, in Paris

Elvis bestest books number seven

The Two Kings by AJ Jacobs 

In 1974, according to his hairdresser, Elvis said he believed he was Jesus Christ. This beauteous blasphemy of a book highlights the ‘uncanny’ similarities between Elvis and Jesus. ‘Jesus was a carpenter’ it states. Then: ‘Elvis majored in woodwork.’ Both Elvis and Jesus, of course, made famous, unexpected comebacks. Jesus, in Jerusalem to Mary Magdalene, three days after his apparent death on Calvary. Elvis, in Burbank, to millions of TV viewers five years after his apparent artistic death in Hollywood. 

A better worked and more plausible conceit than Don DeLillo’s in White Noise which is, essentially: Elvis and Hitler, they were both Mama’s boys.

Now Buy the absolute bestest Elvis book, mine, Essential Elvis. PS It's cheap, only £1.99 as download. Buy it. Buy it now. Don't take my word for it. Just ask yourself what would Elvis do? Or Jesus. Or both . . .

Next Elvis goes to college. Or, at least, college goes to Elvis.

Best Elvis books ever: numbers five & six

Last Train To Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley by Peter Guralnick

Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley by Peter Guralnick

The definitive biography in two volumes, as warm and loving as Goldman is bitter and twisted. Goldman’s Elvis is a half-wit who lucked out. Guralnick’s Elvis is a singer who knew what he was trying to do and worked hard at it, in the studio at least, effectively becoming the first self-produced pop performer. 

So much serious (and ironic) Elvis commentary is based on duality. On one hand, the drug addict, on the other, the honorary narcotics agent. Lover of heavy-bodied Mama Gladys and also of pornos featuring heavy-bodied Gladys-like Mama figures fighting like hell-cats. The vibrant young iconoclast versus the ageing, bloated everyman. And, above all, the original duality, Elvis and his stillborn twin, Jesse. Whatever the merits of Guralnick’s biography — and they are overwhelming — it can also be read as the good twin to the bad twin of Goldman’s Elvis. The two portraits of the subject are different enough to make hardened doubters believe in parallel universes — the Sun King versus the Scum King. 

Erudite, sweet-hearted and exhaustive — not to say occasionally exhausting — Guralnick’s first volume takes the story up to Elvis’ departure for Germany in September 1958. ‘This book cancels out all others,’ was Bob Dylan’s judgment.

The second volume finishes the story. Which is a telling fact — four years of Elvis’ artistic career stretched across the first book, the remaining nineteen years squashed into the second. Aesthetically justified or not, it highlights Guralnick’s uneasiness at dealing with pop. The evil twin barely gets a look-in. Sometimes you can’t help but feel he overvalues sincerity, honesty and authenticity at the expense of pop’s other life-affirming demons: lust, avarice, exhibitionism. To put it another way, he wouldn’t know a great jacket if you bought it for him. 

Next The question that calms us all at moments of great stress: what would Elvis' hairdresser do?

Elvis top books: number four

Elvis In His Own Words by Mick Farren and Pearce Marchbank, Omnibus, 1977

A quickie post-death book of real quality. Lots and lots of black and white photographs, arranged and displayed by one of Britain’s best graphic designers and annotated by one of Britain’s best music journalists. The rest is just what it says in the title — Elvis’ very few interviews arranged in chronological order to produce something like a mini-autobiography.

And now today's picture of Elvis  . . . in a Crouch End window display. The King lives in Nappy Valley!
 

RIP Mick Farren who died earlier this year, just off Charing Cross Road, having collapsing onstage while playing with his final bunch of Deviants.


Next A train to Memphis. Not the night one but the last one.

The best of Elvis books, number three

Graceland: The Living Legacy Of Elvis Presley, by Chet Flippo

The Homes & Gardens version of the King’s life. Lavishly lifeless photographs of Graceland’s decor and the contents of the Elvis collections on the other side of Elvis Presley Boulevard. An excellent reminder of the truly fabulous vulgarity of Graceland, with scalpel-sharp text by Flippo. Just one little detail is missing. A picture of the toilet where he died. 


There are cod and funny pictures of Elvis' toilet all over but you won't find a real one. In fact, there has never been a posthumous picture published of not just Elvis' toilet but of the whole upstairs, private section of Graceland. It remains sacrosant and unseen, not just by the 600,000 annual visitors but by non-civilians ones, too. Their requests for tours of Elvis' home quarters are always rebuffed. Even President Clinton was turned down.

There are, though, pictures that were taken before his death — and, apparently, it has been left just as it was. Perfectly. Here is an old shot of the bathrooom. Still no toilet, though.

And here is a different kind of private Elvis picture instead . . .

It was taken by Jane Rule Burdine, an artist from the Mississippi hill country where Elvis was born.


Now . . . buy the essential Elvis book, mine. 'An absolute must for any fan of the King.'
 
Next Elvis talks (posthumously)

Best Elvis books
Number two
Mystery Train by Greil Marcus
 

It’s old — written while Elvis was alive. It’s not just about Elvis — there are three other major essays in it, on The Band, Sly Stone and Randy Newman (well before his Toy Story days, naturally). It’s too often pretentious — even such an original brain and fine writer as Greil Marcus should restrain from sharing his dreams and daydreams with the reader. Yet it is still one of the best things ever published about Elvis. The selective discography was ground-breakingly intelligent and informative when it was first published and it’s still the best beginner’s guide both to the highlights of Elvis’ career and to the blues and country music that stood behind his innovations. 

The long essay on Elvis — which came out at a time when his career was at an all-time nadir — offered the first detailed chronicle of the Sun recordings, the first reconsideration of his later work and a string of bright, sharp comments. An example: ‘To Elvis, Watergate would have been something like a cosmic paternity suit.’ As with a lot of Marcus’ stuff, it’s not even a case of not being sure if I agree with it so much as not even having a clue what he’s on about. But it sounds like it means something. And it made me laugh.

 

And here is a picture of Elvis just down the road from the nearest train stop to his parents' house in Memphis. (I know it looks like a fake. Or one of Paul Graham's slow-jolting pictures of America on foot. But it's not. It's real and genuine and 1956, taken by Alfred Wertheimer, of whom there will be more soon.)

Next At home with the King