Books about Elvis Presley
Last Train to Memphis
Amazon.com Promo Editorial ImageAugust 16 marks the anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley, one of the greatest American entertainers who ever lived. His life was fascinating to people across the world, and his music remains in the collective consciousness of his fans. Numerous books have been written to commemorate the life of this magical, tragic man and for those with even a passing interest in his life or his music, any of these books would be perfect for a read in memory of Elvis.
Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley, by Peter Guralnick, details the live of Elvis Presley before his name was a common household word. For the first 24 years of his life, Elvis was relatively unkown, and Guralnick does a thorough job of explaining the man before he was a star.
Elvis by the Presleys
Amazon.com Promo Editorial ImageCareless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley, by Peter Guralnick, is one of the best of the multitude of biographies written on the life and career of Elvis. The counterpart to Last Train to Memphis, it follows Presley’s life from his introduction to stardom to his untimely death. Many biographies take creative liberties with the facts surrounding aspects of Presley’s life and death, but Guralnick’s work has been noted for its rigorous fairness and meticulous attention to fact. For those looking to start learning about the life of Elvis or for a dedicated fan, Careless Love is an excellent choice.
The Elvis Encyclopedia, by Adam Victor, is a very detailed portrait of the life of Elvis during his time in and out of the limelight. Featuring numerous photographs of the star, including some rare pictures unseen by many, this is one book sure to delight any fan. In addition to more basic biographical facts, there are also entries on Elvis’s opinions on religion, as well as his last will and testament.
E is for Elvis
Amazon.com Promo Editorial ImageElvis by the Presleys, a book written by Priscilla Presley and Lisa Marie Presley, is filled with family stories, photographs and acts as a companion volume to other media recollections of Presley family members. Although it is not a comprehensive retelling of life with Elvis, Elvis by the Presleys is a warm and inviting series of memories and images pair in tribute to the man they knew and loved.
E is for Elvis: The Elvis Presley Alphabet, by Jennie Ivey, W. Calvin Dickinson and Lisa W. Rand, is a whimsical and interesting look at the King. Beautifully illustrated by Ron Wireman, Jr. and featuring entries like O is for Overweight, E is for Elvis offers a humorous and magical look at the image of Elvis and the magic h
August 13, 2009
Books about Elvis Presley
The Gospel According to Elvis Presley: Elvis' gospel recordings (gospel videos included)
The Gospel According to Elvis Presley: Elvis' gospel recordings (gospel videos included)The Gospel According to Elvis Presley
Born and raised in the Bible belt and baptized at First Assembly of God Church in Tupelo, Mississippi, Elvis grew up singing in church, reading the Bible and developing his life-long interest in spiritual matters. According to elvisgospel.com, Elvis held Bible studies at his home in Bel Air, California, where he lived while making films during the mid 1960s, and Wikipedia indicates "It is well known that Elvis Presley was a devout Christian."
As reported in Who Was Elvis Presley? Elvis had a fascination with gospel music from his childhood and he named gospel pioneer Sister Rosetta Tharpe as an early influence. Rolling Stone once reported, "Gospel pervaded Elvis' character and was a defining and enduring influence all of his days." According to Christian Century, Elvis wrote more than 50 gospel songs and recorded many classic hymns in his career.
Elvis recorded and performed with gospel groups throughout his long career. Some of the gospel groups Elvis worked with would include: the Blackwoods, the Songfellows, the Imperials, The Jordanaires, the Sweet Inspirations, and J.D. Sumner and the Stamps Quartet.
In 1957 Elvis released his first gospel EP as well as a Christmas album. The best-known gospel song Elvis recorded and performed is probably the hymn "How Great Thou Art" released on a 1967 album and again as a single. Elvis would sometimes personalize the song by singing "my God how great I think You are." His live version of "How Great Thou Art" won Elvis Presley a Grammy award in 1974.
In total, Presley won three Grammy awards for his gospel recordings: "How Great Thou Art" the album, "How Great Thou Art" the single, and the album "He Touched Me."
Although Elvis Presley turned to spiritualism in his later years, he never completely turned from his Christian roots. According to his friend and background singer Joe Moscheo, not only was being a gospel performer the first dream of his life, it was one one Elvis never fully left. His last gospel recording was Promised Land in 1975. Two years later, on August 16, 1977, Elvis Presley was dead.Elvis Presley's gospel albums and EPs
A list of gospel albums and EPs recorded by Elvis Presley would include:
1957 Elvis' Christmas Album - this album was reissued and repackaged several times over the years
1957 Peace in the Valley - released as an extended play
1957 Elvis Sings Christmas Songs - released as an extended play
1958 Christmas with Elvis - released as an extended play
1960 His Hand in Mine
1967 How Great Thou Art - How Great Thou Art was Presley's second full-length gospel album and won a Grammy Award in 1967 for Best Sacred Performance
1971 Elvis Sings The Wonderful World of Christmas
1972 He Touched Me
1975 Promised Land
Another popular gospel music video on YouTube is Elvis Presley singing "O Happy Day."
For more info:GMA 2004 Year-End Release (features Elvis)
Mr. Skin’s Top Celebrity Nude Scenes!
Mr. Skin’s Top Celebrity Nude Scenes!
“Mr Skin finally unveils the top 10 sexiest, barest babes in all of cinema. Alyssa Milano, Halle Berry, and Jessica Biel are all included, but which sexy celebrity grabbed the #1 spot? Find out from Mr. Skin and a few of his famous, funny friends!”
Mr. Skin’s Top Celebrity Nude Scenes!Back to Big Star | Music Features | Memphis Flyer
Back to Big Star A CD/vinyl reissue and companion book inspire a new look at a classic Memphis band.by Chris HerringtonArticle Tools * Email a Friend * Print * Share o Digg o Newsvine o del.icio.us o Facebook o Reddit * Save this Story Saving… * Add to Custom List Loading… * Comments (1)music_feature1-1.jpgPerhaps no artist or band in the annals of Memphis music has had as long and significant a shelf life based on such a small catalog and as little success in its own time as Big Star, the '70s Memphis rock band that united former Box Tops lead singer Alex Chilton with a pre-existing trio of Chris Bell (vocals/guitar), Andy Hummel (basBack to Big Star | Music Features | Memphis FlyerBack to Big Star
A CD/vinyl reissue and companion book inspire a new look at a classic Memphis band.
by Chris Herringtons), and Jody Stephens (drums). (Though initially his band, Bell left Big Star after the band's first album and died in a car crash in 1979.)In its initial run, the band recorded three haphazardly distributed albums over the course of just a few years (only Chilton and Stephens on board for each record), toured sporadically, got good press, and had no hits. This obscurity grew over time into a considerable cult that famously yielded a generation's worth of alternative and college-radio bands such as R.E.M., the Replacements, Teenage Fanclub, Wilco, and countless others inspired by Big Star's skewed Memphis take on what became known as power pop.Recently, the band's afterlife — a reunited version of the band, led by Chilton and Stephens, now performs and records occasionally — got a couple of new chapters: The single-disc edition of the band's first two albums, #1 Record (1972) and Radio City (1974), has been remastered and reissued by Ardent/Stax via the Concord Music Group, with the addition of singles mixes of the songs "In the Street" and "Oh My Soul." There are also separate re-released vinyl editions of each album with faithful re-creations of the original artwork.Simultaneous with the CD and album reissues is an installment in Continuum's 33 1/3 book series — a popular collection of pamphlet-style treatments on individual albums — on Radio City by Bruce Eaton, a Buffalo, New York-based jazz concert producer who is an acquaintance of Chilton. In the preface, Eaton recounts first buying Radio City at a used bin of a Buffalo record store in 1976 and three years later finding himself on stage with Chilton playing the Big Star classic "September Gurls."The Radio City book can be rough going at first: Eaton's repeated faux-self-deprecating descriptions of himself as a "vinyl junkie" and recovering "rock snob" become annoying. (Typical example: "For rock snobs, the more obscure your favorite band, the better.") And his fandom sometimes results in overwritten overstatement, as when Eaton connects his post-college love of Radio City to the '60s pop he listened to on the radio as a teenager:"It's as if all the music coming out of all the little transistor radio speakers ... had somehow been beamed into outer space to some distant planet and then transformed by a band of musical alchemists into something both fresh and yet familiar and sent back to Earth in a stream of glowing super-charged electrical particles by a wizard of sound."Um, yeah, dude. (The book is also hampered by frequent copy-editing oversights.)music_feature1-2.jpgWhat Eaton's book has going for it is a personal connection to Chilton that provides him with rare access to the somewhat reclusive icon and an insistence on focusing more on the music itself and the circumstances of its recording than the more familiar personality-based story of the band's brief initial life.Eaton tells the story in something close to oral-history form with lengthy interview segments primarily from Chilton, Stephens, Hummel, and Ardent founder John Fry, including song-by-song commentary that is particularly illuminating if you're reading along with the album.The musical discussion includes lots of techie talk and recording jargon that non-musicians may struggle to fully grasp. (Example: "We used an oscillator to vary the speed of the two-track tape recorder, and thus vary the pitch of the instrument being overdubbed.") But you'll also learn a lot about the record and hear things in it you may not have before.In the discussion of "Life Is White," for instance, you see that, in Big Star's hands, slide guitar, honky-tonk piano, folkie harmonica, and maracas somehow joined forces to create "power pop." Eaton's book helps you hear the influence of baroque classical music on the middle guitar-only verse of "Way Out West" and the Paul McCartney influence on Hummel's bass playing on the same song.Partly it seems due to Eaton's own musicianly biases and partly because of Chilton's at times dismissive and at times regretful attitude on the subject that the Radio City book doesn't spend much time on lyrics or even meaning."I had no clue about what songwriting stuff I wanted to do," Chilton says to Eaton. "I knew what musical structures I wanted to play, but putting lyrics with it was not my strong suit in those days. I tried, but I don't think I ever succeeded on the Radio City album. I don't think there's one good song of mine on the record. To me the only good song on the album is Andy's ['Way Out West']. I definitely prefer #1 Record. There are four or five tunes on that record I think are really good."Chilton is too hard on himself here, but there's a kernel of truth to it, which is probably why I agree with him in preferring #1 Record, with its classic, hushed teen anti-anthem "Thirteen" and the rock-and-roll haiku of "In the Street" sitting beside Bell's devotional testaments "My Life Is Right" and "Try Again."With the new two-albums-on-one-disc reissue, it's easy to judge for yourself — in the event you haven't already spent years doing so.
Perhaps no artist or band in the annals of Memphis music has had as long and significant a shelf life based on such a small catalog and as little success in its own time as Big Star, the '70s Memphis rock band that united former Box Tops lead singer Alex Chilton with a pre-existing trio of Chris Bell (vocals/guitar), Andy Hummel (bass), and Jody Stephens (drums). (Though initially his band, Bell left Big Star after the band's first album and died in a car crash in 1979.)
In its initial run, the band recorded three haphazardly distributed albums over the course of just a few years (only Chilton and Stephens on board for each record), toured sporadically, got good press, and had no hits. This obscurity grew over time into a considerable cult that famously yielded a generation's worth of alternative and college-radio bands such as R.E.M., the Replacements, Teenage Fanclub, Wilco, and countless others inspired by Big Star's skewed Memphis take on what became known as power pop.
Recently, the band's afterlife — a reunited version of the band, led by Chilton and Stephens, now performs and records occasionally — got a couple of new chapters: The single-disc edition of the band's first two albums, #1 Record (1972) and Radio City (1974), has been remastered and reissued by Ardent/Stax via the Concord Music Group, with the addition of singles mixes of the songs "In the Street" and "Oh My Soul." There are also separate re-released vinyl editions of each album with faithful re-creations of the original artwork.
Simultaneous with the CD and album reissues is an installment in Continuum's 33 1/3 book series — a popular collection of pamphlet-style treatments on individual albums — on Radio City by Bruce Eaton, a Buffalo, New York-based jazz concert producer who is an acquaintance of Chilton. In the preface, Eaton recounts first buying Radio City at a used bin of a Buffalo record store in 1976 and three years later finding himself on stage with Chilton playing the Big Star classic "September Gurls."
The Radio City book can be rough going at first: Eaton's repeated faux-self-deprecating descriptions of himself as a "vinyl junkie" and recovering "rock snob" become annoying. (Typical example: "For rock snobs, the more obscure your favorite band, the better.") And his fandom sometimes results in overwritten overstatement, as when Eaton connects his post-college love of Radio City to the '60s pop he listened to on the radio as a teenager:
"It's as if all the music coming out of all the little transistor radio speakers ... had somehow been beamed into outer space to some distant planet and then transformed by a band of musical alchemists into something both fresh and yet familiar and sent back to Earth in a stream of glowing super-charged electrical particles by a wizard of sound."
Um, yeah, dude. (The book is also hampered by frequent copy-editing oversights.)
What Eaton's book has going for it is a personal connection to Chilton that provides him with rare access to the somewhat reclusive icon and an insistence on focusing more on the music itself and the circumstances of its recording than the more familiar personality-based story of the band's brief initial life.
Eaton tells the story in something close to oral-history form with lengthy interview segments primarily from Chilton, Stephens, Hummel, and Ardent founder John Fry, including song-by-song commentary that is particularly illuminating if you're reading along with the album.
The musical discussion includes lots of techie talk and recording jargon that non-musicians may struggle to fully grasp. (Example: "We used an oscillator to vary the speed of the two-track tape recorder, and thus vary the pitch of the instrument being overdubbed.") But you'll also learn a lot about the record and hear things in it you may not have before.
In the discussion of "Life Is White," for instance, you see that, in Big Star's hands, slide guitar, honky-tonk piano, folkie harmonica, and maracas somehow joined forces to create "power pop." Eaton's book helps you hear the influence of baroque classical music on the middle guitar-only verse of "Way Out West" and the Paul McCartney influence on Hummel's bass playing on the same song.
Partly it seems due to Eaton's own musicianly biases and partly because of Chilton's at times dismissive and at times regretful attitude on the subject that the Radio City book doesn't spend much time on lyrics or even meaning.
"I had no clue about what songwriting stuff I wanted to do," Chilton says to Eaton. "I knew what musical structures I wanted to play, but putting lyrics with it was not my strong suit in those days. I tried, but I don't think I ever succeeded on the Radio City album. I don't think there's one good song of mine on the record. To me the only good song on the album is Andy's ['Way Out West']. I definitely prefer #1 Record. There are four or five tunes on that record I think are really good."
Chilton is too hard on himself here, but there's a kernel of truth to it, which is probably why I agree with him in preferring #1 Record, with its classic, hushed teen anti-anthem "Thirteen" and the rock-and-roll haiku of "In the Street" sitting beside Bell's devotional testaments "My Life Is Right" and "Try Again."
With the new two-albums-on-one-disc reissue, it's easy to judge for yourself — in the event you haven't already spent years doing so.
Michael Jackson Laid to Rest at The Insider
After weeks of speculation regarding the burial site, Michael Jackson has finally been laid to rest. The King of Pop was buried in an unmarked plot at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills over the weekend. According to a source, the Jackson family and Forest Lawn management are the only people who know the exact location of the grave. The source said “The fear is that thousands of Jackson fans will descend on the cemetery and damage or deface the grave.” If the site is discovered, they already have plans to move the body. It is also being said that the singer has been laid to rest near his grandmother, Martha Bridges, who passed away in 1990.Michael Jackson Laid to Rest at The Insider