Rating: 
Summary: me and no one else
Review: i read a good amount of books on musicans and artists and am excited to turn the page , both last train to memphis and carless love bored me stiff. I know i'm the only one who thinks this. Maybe elvis's life wasn't really that exciting , but i think it was and this book does not have exiting in it any where. I've read other books before that i didn't like , but it wasn't because it was boring , it just focused on one elment to long and seemed to be bias. I think i learned more about elvis in Led Zeplin book. These books from what i've read are supose to tell every thing there is about elvis. If this is true he was very dry and boring , i feel like i'm not reading a biography but a dry boring novel about some guy that happened to get famous. My over all Opinion is there are other and probably better books then these on Elvis.
Rating: 
Summary: elvis, in a kids point of view.
Review: I am just a teenager. I love elvis and i decided to read about him. This is the first biography on him i have read. To me it is great, very interesting although somethings were a bit shocking.
But all i wanted to say was this book is really worth reading if you are a fan of elvis.
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Summary: Elvis: *This* Is What Happened
Review: Elvis Presley is one of those singular cultural figures who naturally and without defiance broke America apart and re-invented it. He didn't come as prophet or destroyer, not as a statesman or reformer, but as a guileless, unpretentious young man blessed with a talent and charisma and drive that leaves us mere mortals agape. In a way, he is like several other men of the era--Kennedy, Brando, Dean, later the Beatles--who created the "youth culture" to which we are (unfortunately) more enslaved to now than ever....Wait a minute--did I just refer to Elvis as other than merely mortal? Not so, and Peter Guralnick's astonishing Careless Love finally makes it possible for us to grasp Elvis as human. While other books about him could fill a thousand mausoleums, let them, because Guralnick's two-volume set (the first is Last Train to Memphis (1994)), will stand as the definitive biography of this great American. But before you dive in, let me say that Careless Love, while beautifully and carefully written, and extra-carefully researched--Guralnick had access to unorganized files in Graceland unlike anyone prior to him--it is dense with factual trivia insterspersed with the dramatic events of Elvis' life (and the lives of those around him). This book is not for the casual reader; in its intimate details, vast narrative, and utter lack of superhero worship glitter, this book will probably appeal less to traditional Elvis fanatics than to those seriously interested in this man who became a 20th century phenomenon. Again and again, Elvis is described as "humble, shy, respectful, hard-working." This seems true, right, but what is most effective in Guralnick's portrait is what's shown and not told--Elvis' misplaced affections, his desire to keep family and friends around him at all times (but then, you can't blame him). These people, from his father Vernon, to Priscilla, to old friends like Red West, had to put up with his mood swings, his anger, his jet-setting on a whim, the covert operations of smuggling girls in and out of his bedroom. Seemingly without concern for finances he gave away Cadillacs, motorcycles, TVs, homes, jewellry, to those around him, testing loyalty, wanting only their dedication to his perverse lifestyle. Guralnick makes it clear that one of the young men in Elvis' employ became one of his most trusted friends--and one who was hounded out of the circle by Elvis' "good ol' boy" cronies. Larry Geller was a hairstylist when he met Elvis in April 1964. Immediately there was a rapport, for Geller filled a gap in Elvis' life--a hunger for spiritual, even intellectual pursuits. Geller listened while E poured his heart out about his mother--and if you know anything about Elvis, you know he loved his mother and when she died, well, he was never the same. Elvis became quite the reader--one of the many revelations here. I won't comment on the types of religious books he read--well, suffice to say today they'd probably be shelved in the dreaded "New Age" section of bookstores, but who am I to say? Sometimes the critic in my head won't shut up--but it's obvious that E had found a bedrock for his life that he had not found in Col. Parker, in Priscilla, perhaps not even in his music. You really feel it when Guralnick describes how Elvis' friends (and let's not forget, they were his employees as well) start to openly mock Geller and his interests, and, by proxy, Elvis' interests as well, although they would never do so to his face. This part of Elvis they could never understand, a part that required a depth of feeling--and perhaps an ego--that these guys didn't have. Some of my favorite parts of the book were when Elvis was in Vegas. Contrary to popular belief, Elvis turned in many great performances in Las Vegas. After spending years away from the stage, preoccupied with Priscilla, the baby, bad movies, etc., he was glad to concentrate on the music once again. He handpicked his backup band, and the performances highlighted his freewheeling, energetic, off-the-cuff personality that had been stifled. Guralnick excels in revealing how Elvis' confidence and enthusiasm returned at this point, and how he spent less and less time with Col. Parker. In these pages, Elvis comes across as simply wonderful.
The best thing about this work is that it is simply about Elvis' life--indeed, it ends a mere page after detailing the funeral (50,000+ outside Graceland); James Brown gets a moment alone with the body; and Col. Parker tells a grieving Vernon Presley that even now they must think of the future (ooh, that conniving huckster bastard!) There is very little moralizing, even when it could be so easy: such as when Elvis wanted to have contracts put out on Mike Stone, whom Priscilla had had an affair with,and on his close friends Red and Sonny, who wrote the 1977 tell-all Elvis: What Happened? No, what Guralnick gives us here is the portrait of a great man, a man whose legacy today is encrusted with gold and lacquer, a man who should be rediscovered and remembered as he is here: without myth, without ceremony, but with every respect and honor due him.
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Summary: At last - the definitive Elvis bio
Review: This is without doubt the most balanced Presley biography I have ever read. Peter Guralnick does his subject justice, neither whitewashing Elvis nor demonising the man. In doing so, he consigns Albert Goldman's 1981 pseudo-biography to the garbage bin that it deserves. For unlike the earlier "work", you won't find outrageous criticisms of Elvis' private parts here - or other equally lurid and unnecessary details - but rather an honest and painstakingly researched account from a writer who strives to show what really made Presley tick. Guralnick has the added advantage of being musically literate, a quality that Goldman sorely lacked in his pitiful effort. I disagree with reviewers who found Guralnick's bio too long on detail. For all its length, Careless Love moves along at a brisk pace and is never bogged down with unnecessary information. It's an absorbing, and often profoundly moving, account of a flawed individual with immense talent. Unlike Goldman, Guralnick does not play judge, jury and executioner, but instead presents Elvis' life from every available perspective, leaving readers to form their own judgements. I came away from this book with a heightened appreciation of the awesome destructiveness of superstardom. Whether it was Guralnick's intention or not, I also felt more sympathetic towards Col Tom Parker, whom I'd previously blamed for much of Elvis' decline. Parker was always an easy scapegoat, but as this book makes abundantly clear, the truth is often a good deal more complex than people realise, or wish to know. In the final analysis, there were no real villains in the story of Elvis - just a tragedy of epic proportions. Top marks to Guralnick for his courage in writing this definitive biography.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible Work
Review: Given the astounding body of work out there that purports to tell the story of Elvis Presley, it's hard to imagine the need for yet another volume - - that is, unless you cover the subject as thoroughly and carefully as Guralnick. Gripping from beginning to end.
Rating: 
Summary: An American Tragedy
Review: A thorough, impartial, and, ultimately, extremely sad biography of Elvis from 1958 (going into the army) until his death in 1977. This is a continuation of Last Train to Memphis, a volume which captured the social and historical relevance of Elvis, as well as the wonder and joy of the poor boy who makes good. This volume shows his gradual decline into drug addiction aided by a close cadre of yes-men (including his father) who did not try to stop the slide because they did not want: 1. to be banished from the inner circle and 2. the gravy train to stop. Not as good as the first volume, but absorbing and thought provoking for what might have been.
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Summary: Double Duty
Review: It is ironic (but typical of us, I suppose) that the Great American Novel has turned out to be a two-volume biography.
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Summary: A Careless book made by a NON associate of Elvis
Review: Another quick book, although it is one of the better ones.
what I can't stand is to see these people crawl from beneath rocks and write a book on Elvis, a man they never knew. I don't want to read a book by someone who only stole the information from at least 500 other publications on Elvis! Not my cup of tea
Rating:
Summary: Interesting as a fictional work
Review: Peter Guralnick was the guy who kept Presley's new LP in hands and adored the cover,but he would not listen it before it was presented on a TV.So what else could be expected from him then to writte from a perspective of a fan for other fans - making the point of his intention to clear-up disorted image of celebrity,while others who knew Elvis are more or less mentioned as "too subjective".OK,so Priscilla,security guys and friends were "too subjective" and Guralnick is the Knight who is here to posthumously present Presley as a good fellow,with a heart of gold,just occasionally erratic and shooting his gun around for fun.For all his research and effort,Guralnick is too much of a fan and I find HIM too subjective as he breezes over the slow agonising end and final tours where money was made out of sick man who couldn't care less.No matter what drugs Elvis took,how many girlfriends he had "ordered" in the middle of the night,his Julius Caesar behaviour or alltogether downhill,Guralnick adores his subject and find it all very amusing and understandable.And what is this about doctor as a "saviour" and greddy manager as a "clever bussinesman"... Guralnick has obviously made up his mind long before he wrotte this book,about black-and-white technique of describing living real characters.If you can read this book and still think about Presley as a victim of his surroundings,then you would probably be one of the audience of his Vegas shows,not noticing he was fat and screaming as he openly looked at his watch,bored to death and leaving the stage for 30 minutes just to return with glassy-eyes.I find first part ("Last train to Memphis") too detailed,still gulped the sequel but I guess Presley was too big to be described in the books and no matter what books said,we will all have own own opinion about him.
Rating:
Summary: Superb
Review: As in his previous book on the rise of Elvis Presley, Guralnick writes a detailed and insightful account of Elvis's demise. He does so in an objective manner, free of the intense opinions seen in other works. This is not as straightforward a task as one might suppose, with all the pressures he might have been subjected to. The amount of research that went into this book is surely astounding. Anyone wanting to know the real life of Elvis Presley should read it.
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