9/30/2015

Why Read Elvis Presley Books

By Deana Norton


If you want to read about the King, there are literally thousands of books on the market. Elvis Presley books have a ready audience. There isn't anything you can't find out by now. He has been the subject of vast speculation and a bit of factual knowledge. He is a man of giant proportions. Voracious readers keep seeking new accounts.

They have his life story, of course: an usher at the Loews in Memphis and a truck driver in the early days. This only surviving twin of Gladys and Vernon Presley had a deep spiritual soul. He was always searching for his true self and is said to have been missing something. He probably died without having found it as he was overweight and on drugs.

Elvis thus was on a constant quest to find himself and the meaning of his life. He was successful, married the love of his life, divorced her, and made a fortune. He did inauspiciously on the john. It is ironic that he was reading a book entitled, Search for the Face of Jesus by Frank Adams.

Many lived to tell his unseemly tale at the end in their own books. They remember his remarks about his money losses, "Don't worry about the money, I'll just go out on the road and make more." His last words allegedly were that "this is gonna be my best tour ever."

This is the stuff of legends and we eat it all up. We cry at the story about losing a key role opposite Barbra Streisand in A Star is Born. Colonel Tom Parker, his perennial manager, refused to let him take second billing, but he lost a major opportunity to jump start a serious film career. He was always subjected to such whims. No wonder he lost much of his fortune to bad business deals.

There are many Elvis quotes floating around. His last words to his girlfriend, Ginger Alden, were something to the effect that he wouldn't fall asleep on the john. He is also quoted as saying to his cousin Billy Smith that "this is gonna be my best tour ever."

His death was surely premature and mysterious. He had been playing the piano located on his racquetball court and was singing two favorite songs, "Blue Eyes Cryin' in the Rain" and "Unchained Melody." A quick stop to the bathroom would be his last.

It is a colorful greater than life story and the man was to become a legend. He is buried next to his beloved mother at Graceland, moved in 1977 from the Forest Hill Cemetery in Memphis. Thousands of fans make the pilgrimage to Graceland each year. These same people buy the books that perpetuate the life and loves of the King.




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