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"Elvis If We'd Only Known" (Book Review): There are several categories of books about Elvis Presley. Some authors try to discover Elvis’s elusive character by documenting and analysing his every word and move. Some explore Elvis’s effect on other people’s lives. Other authors write about how Elvis affected their own lives. Yet other books are deliberate frauds, the authors claiming to have known Elvis in order to gain fame by association and to sell books. Authors’ motives vary considerably.
In this context, Susan MacDougall explores this little known book by Sandra Richards. Ms Richards falls into the third category mentioned above....but does it have merit and deserve our attention? Read Susan's review to find out. (Source: EIN, July 2008) |
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Eric Zolov. Refried Elvis: The Rise of the Mexican Counterculture: Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. vii + 349 pp. B/W illustrations, 2 tables, 2 graphs, notes, bibliography and index. $45.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-520-21514-6; $18.00 (paper), ISBN 978-0-520-20866-7.
Reviewed by: Mark D. Van Ells, CUNY-Queensborough/ Published by: H-PCAACA (May, 2000)
Although the social and cultural unrest of youth in the 1960s and 1970s was a worldwide phenomenon, scholars have written little about the interrelationship between youth movements in different countries or movements in developing nations.
In Refried Elvis: The Rise of the Mexican Counterculture, historian Eric Zolov of Franklin and Marshall College examines the impact of Rock and Roll music on politics and culture in Mexico. He shows how Rock music stood at the confluence of several potent forces: modernization, trans-national business, imperialism, and nationalism. He then elaborates on the effects of these forces in America's neighbor to the south. |
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Rock music first hit Mexico in the 1950s and grew popular among middle class youth, for whom it represented modernity and participation in an international culture. However, Rock music also had its critics; some complained that it represented a threat to traditional Mexican social and cultural values, while others saw it as an instrument of American cultural imperialism.
By the 1960s, Rock music had become a "vehicle for free expression" (102), and asserted the concerns of young Mexicans from all classes: the desire to interpret for themselves the meaning of Mexico's revolutionary history, the balance between nationalism and internationalism, and the meaning of democracy. A Mexican counterculture known as La Onda ("the Wave") emerged by the mid-1960s, which challenged traditional values and the ossified official memory of Mexico's revolutionary past. Fearing that La Onda posed a threat to its power, the authoritarian Mexican government suppressed the counterculture movement, including the infamous Tlatelolco Massacre of 1968. By 1980, Zolov contends, the Mexican counterculture had been effectively crushed and nearly forgotten.
Zolov describes the political and cultural milieu against which Mexican youth rebelled in exacting and convincing detail, but some phenomena usually associated with the counterculture in developed nations are discussed only briefly, such as drug use among young Mexicans. In fact, one wonders how accurate a portrait of the Mexican counterculture the Rock music genre can provide.
Would a history of Rock in the United States tell the whole story of the American counterculture and political protest movements? Zolov describes Rock as a "mirror" (10) that reflected the concerns of Mexican youth in a rapidly modernization nation. Whether that mirror reflected issues accurately or in a distorted fashion is unclear. Nevertheless, Refried Elvis is an important work.
It provides a wealth of detail on the youth movement in Mexico and highlights the myriad ways in which the world's peoples have been growing closer together, how a global popular culture has been emerging, and yet how domestic issues can still shape the nature of social and cultural protest movements. The book is an important step in the creation of an international history of "the Sixties" and the worldwide youth rebellion of the Cold War Era.
EIN note: Refried Elvis is an excellent examination of socio-cultural movement in Mexico in the context of rock music....with a number of healthy doses of Elvis, including those nasty rumors!
See "Why Mexico Hated Elvis"
Book Review - The Name Code: The God of Elvis Volumes 1 & 2: Complementing our interview with author Chris Matthews, EIN also publishes its review of his highly controversial and challenging books.
The Name Code trilogy, is in a sense, the Elvis world's own DaVinci Code. The books require serious intellectual rigour as they take one on a stunning journey traversing hidden name messages, the Hebrew language and the Bible.
For those willing to approach the controversial issues in The Name Code trilogy with an open mind there is a rich outcome.
(Source: EIN, May 2008) |
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Presley - Movie Icons (Book Review): Another Elvis photobook has been released.
Is it simply more of the same or does it offer value to the viewer?
EIN recently took a look inside to find out. (Source: EIN, May 2008) |
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Book Review: "Elvis' Secret Legacy": Elvis' Secret Legacy is a gripping fictional book full of action, adventure, excitement, humour, kidnapping, unseasonable weather effects and the paranormal. Step into a world of meditation, spirit guides, white light and auras...
Adding to the intrigue around this book is the author's real claim claim to having been Elvis' date at the Humes High Prom in 1952 and the book includes a photograph of the pair in support. But is all as it sems? Read Susan MacDougall's detailed review and make up your own mind. ! (Source: EIN, March 2008) |
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"Growing Up With the Memphis Flash" (Book Review): EIN reviewer, Susan MacDougall, recently delved deep inside Kay Wheeler's memoir of the heady rock 'n' roll 50's and her time with Elvis. Reflecting on Ms Wheeler's book in the context of a similar release by June Juanico, Susan offers insight into Kay's observations on important issues including how Hollywood changed Elvis and Colonel Tom Parker. Susan then gives her appraisal of whether or not Growing Up With the Memphis Flash warrants a place in our Elvis libraries.
Read Susan's full review
....Kay Wheeler’s book contains matters in common with June Juanico’s. Each different perception of Elvis is part of a mammoth jigsaw puzzle. Whether we’ll ever see the whole picture is another matter..... (Source: EIN, Feb 2008) |
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Elvis' intriguing family tree laid bare: Elvis' ancestry is an area rarely covered. Over the years it has assumed fascination for some as different stories have emerged as to the King's historical origins.
German ancestry has been widely suggested, and in recent years Scottish ancestry and familial relationships to people as diverse as Oprah Winfrey and US presidents suggested.
So what is the truth?
To answer that, one needs to read Ancestors of "Elvis Aaron Presley" 50 Generations by professional genealogist, Lorina Bolig. Published after more than 13 years of laborious research many of Ms Bolig's fascinating findings will surprise most fans. That Elvis has direct relationships to royalty....
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'Live In L.A' FTD Book/CD review: 'Live In L.A.' is FTD’s audiovisual documentary of Elvis in Los Angeles. Although it covers 1956-1976, the main focus of the book and bonus CD is the evening show at the Inglewood Forum, May 11th 1974. The book contains 138 pages with nearly every photo in colour. Supergroup Led Zeppelin were in the audience and Elvis needed to put on a good show - and the book gives fans a chance to relieve the feel of the concert through some excellent images of Elvis in action. Since it is a much slimmer volume than FTD's 'Rockin' Across Texas' and also containing some audio problems with the soundboard CD, fan reviews have been varied. Click here to read EIN contributor Armond Joseph's deeper investigation to see whether it is really worth the price. (Source: EIN, Jan 2008) |
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"In Search of Elvis" (Book Review): Regular EIN book reviewer, Susan MacDougall, recently sat down to take in the delights of Charlie Connelly's interesting book, In Search of Elvis. What Susan found was a well researched and entertaining book:
This is not a book about Elvis as such. Charlie Connelly set out on a physical journey to discover why Elvis remains an iconic figure to so many people of so many different backgrounds and where his spirit might be found.
Despite being written in a light-hearted, facetious and entertaining style, In Search of Elvis is well researched. For each location visited, Connelly provides description, historical context and his own comments. In fact, if it had an index, this book could almost be used as a guidebook to the various places. (Source: EIN, Jan 2008)
Read Susan's full review |
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"Elvis The Biography (Book Review): The first serious Elvis biography (Elvis A Biography) was published in 1971. Reaching the top of numerous best seller lists around the world, Jerry Hopkins biography of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll was irresistible reading for millions of Elvis’ fans and those simply wanting to understand more about the 20th century‘s pre-eminent cultural icon.
It was followed in 1980 by a sequel (Elvis The Final Years), completing the remaining years of Elvis’ extraordinary but flawed life.
The 2007 edition of Elvis The Biography combines revised editions of the earlier two volume biography and adds new material advancing the Elvis story to the sale of EPE in 2005 to entrepreneur, Robert Sillerman.
Read EIN's review of arguably the definitive one volume Elvis biography |
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"Elvis, Sherlock & Me" (Book Review): Michael Hoey's account of growing up, working in, and meeting the stars of Hollywood is a wonderfully rich memoir and history of the film business covering the decades from the 40’s to the present.
Hoey deftly weaves among illuminating anecdotes about the industry and at times revealing profiles of some of its biggest stars including Elvis (Hoey wrote the screenplay for six of Elvis' films). There are two chapters about Elvis including some great anecdotes and interesting insights!
Throughout his memoir, Hoey maintains a colorful picture of a vibrant, multi-layered “Tinseltown” from its golden years to the, in its own way, equally fascinating culture of contemporary filmmaking.
Hoey's prose evokes dazzling images of the dramas, highs and lows, and stars of a magical industry which occupies the minds, bookshelves and DVD collections of most people.
Elvis, Sherlock & Me will appeal to both Elvis fans and lovers of film. (Source: EIN, DEc 2007)
Read EIN's full review |
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| The other Elvis lives!: Back in 1998, actor Steve Carlson, a veteran of series such as The Virginian and General Hospital as well as over 500 TV commercials, published the how-to tome Hitting Your Mark: Making a Life and Living as a Film Actor. But his latest work, the fictional novel Almost Graceland, is set to cause a whole lot of shaking with Elvis fans rather than Elvis impersonators.
It supposes that Presley’s identical twin brother did not die at birth, but rather lived to lead a separate life and eventually reunite with his world famous singing brother. The novel is set in 1977, with 42-year-old trailer park protagonist Ray Johnston deciding to sell his story to the tabloids. For Carlson, who could very easily rest in contented retirement in Oregon, it’s but the first of several efforts. Another novel, the romance crime intrigue Tracks, is set for release in 2008, while he is currently at work on a third book.
Chances are the fiction game will be far less lucrative for Carlson than the world of TV commercials. He tells the Wyoming Eagle-Tribune that writing the score and starring in the “Aren’t You Glad You Used Dial [Soap]?” commercial took care of ten years’ worth of house payments.
On the other hand, writing fiction is probably a piece of cake for Carlson compared to his days on soaps such as GH and The Bold and the Beautiful. “It's the hardest work there is,” insists the 64-year-old, who was born in Missouri but grew up in Wyoming. “One day, you could have 30 to 40 pages of dialogue, and the next day could be another 40 pages. You get good at memorization." (Source: FilmStew.com, 23 Nov 2007) |
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MRS release another winner!: The MRS organisation has done it again. Its Elvis Presley New York RCA Studio 1 The Complete Sessions DVD/CD/book (digipack) package is chock full of sublime audio, visual and narrative treats.
"And if they'd only known what was about to happen, most of the big brass RCA would likely have keeled over from heart attacks." (from the 'Elvis Presley New York RCA Studio 1' book)
The CD offers remastered and restored by Real Bouwman from high quality 24 bit/94k resolution!!! The album features 11 Master tracks, Elvis interviewed by Don Davis, and 24 intriguing session takes. The music is glorious, at times resonating with the searing power and energy of rock 'n' roll's King and at other times beautifully tender.
Buy "New York RCA Studio 1: The Complete Sessions" from HMV UK - out now!!
The recordings range from Blue Suede Shoes and Anyway You Want Me to Tutti Frutti, Don't Be Cruel and So Glad You're Mine. Also in the mix is Hound Dog, My Baby Left Me, One Sided Love Affair and I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry Over You; and when supplemented by 12 takes each of Lawdy Miss Clawdy and Shake Rattle and Roll listening is an absolute aural delight.
The CD also includes three bonus tracks: My Baby Left Me and So Glad You're Mine performed by Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup; and Hound Dog from Freddie Bell and the Bell Boys.
The DVD-Audio in 5.1 Dolby Digital features the same tracks (bar the three bonus tracks) as the CD, remastered in high quality 24 bit 96 kHz sound accompanied by rare photographs. For those who have experienced the earlier DVD-Audio releases from MRS you know the very high quality on offer. For those who haven't experienced DVD-Audio this is your opportunity to listen to Elvis as you've never listened to him before!!!
The 68 page book features strong design and high quality paper stock. There are many rare photographs from the famous Alfred Wertheimer Elvis Archives as well as some from the Joseph A. Tunzi Archives; archival session material; and a blow by blow account of Elvis' recording process in the studio.
The visuals are a stunning mix of b&w and color including a knock-out color shot - watch the female fans swoon (page 13) and a hauntingly expressive double page b&w image (pages 56-7).
EIN will publish a full review of Elvis Presley New York RCA Studio 1 The Complete Sessions shortly. (Source: EIN, 13 Nov 2007)
"Elvis: A King In The Making" (Book Review): The Alfred Wertheimer photo archives is arguably the most famous Elvis visual collection in the world. And while the master photographer was only with Elvis for a relatively short time, the visuals he captured offer a timeless exposition of the young King of Rock 'n' Roll Elvis at his peak.
And finally, Wertheimer's magnificent photographs have been released in a way which does them proper justice.
Elvis: A King In The Making was recently released in Australia and New Zealand. What EIN found was the best photo-journal release of 2007 and one of the strongest Elvis book releases in many years! Read our full review |
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"Faux Elvis" (Book Review): The world of Elvis fiction is a particularly rewarding one in which the recent release Faux Elvis is an intelligently constructed and valuable addition. Its themes and believable characters have a broad appeal - from the casual fan to conspiracy theorists who want to debate the events of August 16, 1977.
Faux Elvis is also unusual in that it is a work of historical fiction, where fact and fiction are blended together. The result is a most satisfying one.
Delightfully written, Faux Elvis is an entertaining and absorbing read. ( Source: EIN, Oct 2007)
Read EIN's full review of Faux Elvis
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"Judgment & Grace in Dixie": In this reissue of his study first released in 1995, eminent Southern studies scholar Charles Reagan Wilson takes us on a tour of popular faiths and iconography in the South.
The book is wide-ranging, insightful, and well-written, and it will satisfy the curiosity of any reader interested in such common phenomena as roadside crosses, football as Southern secular religion, and Elvis relics. Wilson takes as his objects of study a range of popular texts that are both well-known and of interest in their own right, including literary figures such as William Faulkner, painters and visual artists such as Howard Finster, and country music legends like Hank Williams.
One real strength of Wilson’s book is that he combines careful accounts of Southern religious history with his analysis of these iconic cultural texts. He notes that Southern popular religiosity involves a merger of civil and religious imagery in a range of cultural expression. Tracing the influences of evangelical Protestantism, Calvinism, and popular folk religion (and supernaturalism) historically in Southern regional culture, Wilson establishes the complex ways in which popular religion informs Southern expression. |
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From the Southern Gospel Music Hall of Fame and Museum at Dollywood to the Bear Bryant sports myth, Southern religious-inflected practices and artifacts are a crucible for such region-shaping ideas as nostalgia for a Jeffersonian agrarian ideal. Wilson establishes how his popular and literary texts reflect racial tensions and negotiations as well as unifying mythologies that are constantly being questioned. He also shows how the influence of religion in Southern rituals illuminates ways of dealing with everything from mortality in the practices involving communal observances of deaths to the ideals of beauty circulated in beauty pageants.
One particularly fine chapter on themes of death in country music scrutinizes familiar recurring tropes and concerns in this mass media form seen as, as Wilson notes, “one of the clearest expressions of southern working-class culture.” Wilson notes numerous songs about accepting death as a fact of life (given historically high mortality rates in the South) or as a daily part of a working class existence. He draws out the association between the “live hard, die young” tragic lives of country stars such as Hank Williams and Jimmie Rodgers to their cult of personality and songs about celebrity deaths, but also frames them as iconic examples of a regional culture that expects death.
As Wilson catalogues, other country songs address tragedies of unrequited love and death ("He Stopped Loving Her Today"), the impact of death on family units, the need to square one’s accounts before going to meet your maker, or even the on-going influence of folk religion supernaturalism ("The Devil Went Down to Georgia"). He underscores a recurring trope stemming from some of the biggest early country music standards (coming out of early Gospel), in which lyrics focus on the hope of the promised land ("I’ll Fly Away").
Throughout his study, Wilson offers smart arguments about the links between Southern worldviews and Southern popular religious history. He engagingly details a mass expression of spirituality in key popular culture artifacts and practices. He cites Flannery O’Connor, who noted that “the South was Christ-haunted”, and he succeeds in his goal of explaining how this observation holds true and plays out in Southern cultural expression. (Source: Leigh H. Edwards, PopMatters.com, Oct 2007)
"Leaves of Elvis' garden (Book Review): On her return from Elvis Week 2007, Susan MacDougall sat down to delve inside the latest book from Larry Geller, one which looks at Elvis' spiritual search. What Susan found was both interesting and challenging, as these excerpts from her insightful review attest:
Behind the distorted image of a hard-living rock and roll sex symbol and super star is revealed a vulnerable man with a thirst for understanding and enlightenment.
Elvis believed that there is one God who is within us all..........At the same time, Elvis never rejected his religion, only its rigid adherents and their intolerance of any deviation from the accepted word, remaining a Christian his whole life, but not a Christian to the exclusion of anything else.
In closing her review Susan observes: "Leaves of Elvis' garden" provides a whole different side to the public image of a celebrity. Geller was never the Memphis Mafia's favourite person, but they can't deny his existence and his access to Elvis. I wonder what certain members of the MM will make of this book? I challenge them to read it. Read full review (Source: EIN, Sep 2007) |
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"Contract with the King" (Book Review): Contract with the King is the debut novel for Paul Pullen. It is a superb piece of storytelling with finely drawn characters and a strong moral center.
As you read Contract with the King you find emotional challenges and emotional highs and lows which have | |
