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. 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 It's impossible to pinpoint where you'd have to time travel to alter history and save Elvis. It's not like there was one big decision that went wrong. There wasn't one bad guy that led him astray. He slowly unraveled for twenty years. He had serious emotional needs, had way too much money, was isolated by fame, and was a hypochondriac with an insatiable appetite for medications. If he didn't like what you were saying, you could be banished from his life forever. To be close enough to try to save you, you had to enable him. The touring at the end of his life drained him of his energy but at the same time, his fans were one of the few things that brought him joy. I just wish he had been able to hold on long enough to enjoy a renaissance like Johnny Cash or Roy Orbison. He deserved to be appreciated on his own terms. 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. i think what's sad the most is that he was always innocent underneath it all. being a psychologist, i saw someone who was still very connected to his mother though she passed away. (a lot of the women he was "with" felt they often took on the role of "mother," talking to him in baby talk, responding to him when he called them "mommy.") from the time of her death, it was all downhill from there for elvis. that's another reason why i wasn't as traumatized by his death; he finally go to be with her, he finally got to rest. the guy was never at peace.

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.

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I took the plunge. "Elvis, if we're gods, or at least have this 'divinity' in us, why do we need drugs?" I always loved Elvis' music in the early 70s..... the powerful ballads, the top notch band behind him (that boy can sing!). It's an interesting enough account but what anyone really wants to read about are the details of his fall from grace. The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power. If, on the other hand, your only image of Elvis is as a star of the insipid, cookie cutter, musical comedy (I use the term loosely) movies that he turned out after his military discharge, such as "Viva Las Vegas" and "Girls! Girls! Girls!," or the even later image of a bloated, overweight, jump-suited lounge singer, then you might enjoy the story of the singer’s climb to fame, a singer who still holds the top spot for record sales by a solo performer. If so, Last Train to Memphis is your book.

The colored folks began singing it and playing it just like I'm doin' now, man, for more years than I know. They played it like that in the shanties and in their juke joints, and nobody paid it no mind 'til I goosed it up. I got it from them. Down in Tupelo, Mississippi, I used to hear old Arthur Crudup bang his box the way I do now, and I said if I ever got to the place where I could feel all old Arthur felt, I'd be a music man like nobody ever saw." Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley is the first biography to go past that myth and present an Elvis beyond the legend. Based on hundreds of interviews and nearly a decade of research, it traces the evolution not just of the man but of the music and of the culture he left utterly transformed, creating a completely fresh portrait of Elvis and his world. Especially towards the last half of the book, several of Elvis's "girlfriends" complain of his almost sex-less love making. 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.I am left with an overwhelming sadness after reading this book. Elvis Presley had such potential and was poised for greatness but his deep insecurities seemed to have motivated him to create a parallel world for himself to live in which isolated him from all outside influences that could have helped him to remain a successful performer. It was a shrunken world that he inhabited, a sealed environment that stifled creativity. He surrounded himself with a coterie of people, mainly guys who indulged his every whim for both the fun of it and for the financial rewards that rewarded them for their complete loyalty. Family and friends were forced to display sycophantic behaviour, to do otherwise would incur ostracism or ridicule. Along with this was a stream of young beautiful women only too happy to be his escort/girlfriend for the night or longer. Whoever joined this group, all had to change their sleeping habits and exchange day for night. This is the really sad biography of an immature man who built an insular environment around himself, reinforced by an entourage completely reliant on his largesse. A mamma’s boy who never really recovered from his mother's death and who was incapable of having a mature relationship with women. I only caught something of the aftermath of Elvis' music as I was a child in the seventies, but recently I became intrigued with people like Elvis, Johnny Cash, and the Beatles who rose from poverty and obscurity to unfathomable stardom. What were the circumstances at the time that sprouted such abundance of talent, innovation and catalytic changes in music? In hindsight Elvis' downfall is almost as sudden as his rise and the author once again does a masterful job of researching and writing every detail. We all know what's coming at the end, just as we did watching the film Titanic, but like all great true stories the reader's interest is held not by what happened - but how. The pieces begin falling into place during his stint in the Army while stationed in Germany. He's introduced to drugs that will keep him awake on duty and to his future wife, 14 year old Priscilla Beaulieu. It continues through a string of Hollywood B-movies, numerous affairs and an immature lifestyle of "horsing around" supported by the guys now universally known as The Memphis Mafia. As long as they don't say "no" Elvis remains forever young and they remain on the payroll. 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.

He used to say to me, 'Honey, you're not going to change a forty-year-old man.' But in another way there was also this very naive, this almost infantile quality about him - very innocent and very pure, kind of pitiful. He definitely evoked a protective quality - he called me 'mommy,' and I wasn't the mother of his childd. But I was an incredibly maternal presence in his life." - p. 582 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." 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.

Notes

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. there are many ways to interpret his life: as a greek tragedy, as the fall of the american dream, as a religious tale of someone who got totally swept up by every sin in the book. you name it, elvis lived it. 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. 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. 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.

The second part of this two volume definitive look at the life of Elvis Presley slams the brakes on one of the most famous and notorious tales of living The American Dream. Whereas the author's earlier book, Last Train to Memphis, brought home the story of a young boy from a poor family who was blessed with unnatural talent and timing rising almost overnight to unimaginable heights of fame and fortune, Careless Love details his tragic end. A creature of habit and familiar surroundings, the outside world becomes his playground while his inner self struggles to make sense of it all through spirituality, a series of isolating "yes" men and women, and drugs. 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. Meticulously documented and filled with quotations from interviews as well as contemporary news pieces and articles, this is the first volume of an authoritative biography of Elvis from his childhood to 1958 when he is forced to suspend his career as he's drafted into the U.S. army.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. Elvis was always surrounded by an entourage of home-town and ex-army buddies (the ‘Memphis Mafia’), who were all fuelled on uppers and who lived off his largesse (he was extremely generous with money and gifts). Meanwhile, the carnival conman Colonel Tom Parker directs Elvis’s career – towards more trashy films, in particular, and fewer records (so as not to flood the market and keep the value high). The films' OSTs actually sold more than Elvis’ ‘real’ LPs, so the Colonel was happy to keep churning these out, at the expense of his musical career or development. Last Train to Memphis takes us deep inside Elvis' life, exploring his lifelong passion for music of every sort (from blues and gospel to Bing Crosby and Mario Lanza), his compelling affection for his family, and his intimate relationships with girlfriends, mentors, band members, professional associates, and friends. It shows us the loneliness, the trustfulness, the voracious appetite for experience, and above all the unshakable, almost mystical faith that Elvis had in himself and his music. Drawing frequently on Elvis' own words and on the recollections of those closest to him, the book offers an emotional, complex portrait of young Elvis Presley with a depth and dimension that for the first time allow his extraordinary accomplishments to ring true. Also, while Elvis definitely had strange habits and loved the accoutrements of stardom, he was genuinely a nice and caring person. The book has literally a hundred quotes from people of all walks of life who found him to be open, an "innocent" really, who treated everyone with respect and interest. You really feel that you'd have enjoyed meeting him and becoming a member of his entourage for a week. 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.