Written with grace, humor, and affection, Last Train to Memphis has been hailed as the definitive biography of Elvis Presley. It is the first to set aside the myths and focus on Elvis' humanity in a way that has yet to be duplicated. A New York Times Notable Book Winner of the Ralph J. Gleason Music Book Award "Elvis steps from the pages. You can feel him breathe. This book cancels out all others." --Bob Dylan From the moment that he first shook up the world in the mid 1950s, Elvis Presley has been one of the ...
Read More
Written with grace, humor, and affection, Last Train to Memphis has been hailed as the definitive biography of Elvis Presley. It is the first to set aside the myths and focus on Elvis' humanity in a way that has yet to be duplicated. A New York Times Notable Book Winner of the Ralph J. Gleason Music Book Award "Elvis steps from the pages. You can feel him breathe. This book cancels out all others." --Bob Dylan 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. 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. This volume tracks the first twenty-four years of Elvis' life, covering his childhood, the stunning first recordings at Sun Records ("That's All Right," "Mystery Train"), and the early RCA hits ("Heartbreak Hotel," "Hound Dog," "Don't Be Cruel"). These were the years of his improbable self-invention and unprecedented triumphs, when it seemed that everything that Elvis tried succeeded wildly. There was scarcely a cloud in sight through this period until, in 1958, he was drafted into the army and his mother died shortly thereafter. The book closes on that somber and poignant note. 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. Peter Guralnick has given us a previously unseen world, a rich panoply of people and events that illuminate an achievement, a place, and a time as never revealed before.
Read Less
Add this copy of Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley to cart. $25.46, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 1995 by Back Bay Books.
Add this copy of Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley to cart. $37.30, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 1994 by Little Brown and Company.
I read Guralnick's second volume prior to buying this one. Both are must-reads for any Elvis fan or for someone wanting to know how his life developed. It's thorough without being boring. I devoured it.
SteveRG
Jan 4, 2008
Guralnick nails it!
A fascinating and well-written insight into the rise of Elvis. An easy read and structured more like a novel than a biography. There are few direct quotes ( all Notes are extensively included in the back of the book) and it therefore has an excellent narrative style. The book appears very balanced and non-judgemental. I have read many bios and many are either unduly fawning ( the subject can do no wrong), unnecessarily daming ( dishing the dirt) or reading more like a chronology of events, this excellent book is none of these and would well appeal to people who generally avoid biographies. I bought the follow up "Careless Love" and have just started that, also excellent. Highly recommended.
