“In the end, there should be nothing shocking about human existence, because, in the end, whatever has occurred is simply human.”

I’m not usually a biography person, but this book was amazing! I had a familiarity with the legend of Elvis going in to the book, but it was all tempered by the pop culture jokes and cultural memory of a child of the 90s. This was a fascinating exploration of his life up until the beginning of his military service. It paints a very subtle picture, full of nuance. It’s spectacularly written, weaving in first-person accounts and interviews seamlessly. Highly recommend for anyone interested in the history of American music or just a good story.

I wish Goodreads had half stars. A 3.5 would be more accurate but the last third of the book convinced me to give it 4 rather than 3. I didn’t love the style of this biography. It was told in a chain of lengthy quotations from interviews. Though the author obtained most of that content directly, I still felt it was lacking in input or narrative from the actual author. The early days had a bit more minutiae than I felt was necessary, and many names and “characters” were introduced, making it difficult to keep track of the key players. But as Elvis’s story became more interesting, so did the book. Even if I didn’t love the use of quotations throughout, the end result was effective. Guralnick, through the words of others, painted a vivid and memorable picture of an artist who has become more caricature than human in modern memory. I felt at the end as though I truly understood Elvis’ foundation and could connect the dots to how he ended up the way he did.

Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley is beautifully written portrait of Presley's early years -- his impoverished childhood in Tupelo, Mississippi, the move to Memphis in his teenage years, and the amazingly rich and complex soup of musical influences that city offered to a shy, sensitive boy with a huge love of singing and music of all kinds.

The Elvis you meet in this book is not the troubled, larger-than life, jumpsuit-wearing star of the Vegas years that may first spring to mind when you think of him. Instead author Peter Guralnick introduces us to a churchgoing, family-loving, polite, humble, kindhearted young man who didn't quite fit in anywhere until he knocked (timidly but tenaciously...and repeatedly) on the door of Sun Records in Memphis, eager to make music and have Sun founder Sam Phillips hear him. Once the ball got rolling at Sun, things happened fast. Guralnick paints a vivid picture of lengthy but creatively exhilarating recording sessions, nonstop road trips to play gigs in small towns throughout the South, and the mounting hysteria surrounding this young man (only 21 when he hit it big on the national scene, aided by the smarmy but undeniably effective huckster "Colonel" Tom Parker) as his fame and wealth exploded. Soon he was off to Hollywood, where he dreamed of becoming a dramatic actor like his heroes James Dean and Marlon Brando.

Guralnick must have read everything ever written about Elvis, listened to every interview or press conference Elvis ever gave, listened to every recording or snippet of a recording he ever made, and spoken with every possible person still living who knew Elvis Presley even a little bit. The book is that authoritative and in depth on both the personal and the musical Elvis. It's a brilliant biography, presenting a wealth of research in a totally readable way. The book is a page turner, except for the moments when you want to put it down to Google Dewey Phillips (famed Memphis DJ who first played Elvis's tunes) or The Statesmen (one of the gospel quartets that greatly influenced Elvis's sound), or look at the famous, breathtakingly intimate photos of Elvis on the cusp of massive fame, taken by Alfred Wertheimer in 1956.

The book ends in 1958, the year Elvis's music and movie career was put on hold by his induction into the Army. It's also the year his beloved mother Gladys died. The unselfish love and devotion she had always shown him were suddenly gone, at the very time when the rest of his life was going dizzyingly, ridiculously nuts, and it tore him up. Without her as his moral compass, he was never the same again.

Guralnick continues Presley's life story in the second volume of his biography, Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley. That book delves into the darker side of his life -- the bad choices, the drugs, the women, the entourage of sycophants with their hands out, the ego run amok. Last Train to Memphis focuses on Elvis's rise, however, and it's a remarkable rags-to-riches story about an endearing and talented young man you can't help but empathize with and root for. It made me look at and appreciate Elvis in a whole new way, and wish his story could have had a happier ending.

The focus of this book is on humanizing Elvis -- stripping away the idolatry and mythos and constructively analyzing how this kid (at the time) reached such prominence. It heavily relies on quotes and anecdotal stories as a result, the reliability of which are debatable. As a narrative, though, it succeeds in its goal. The frenzy of Elvis's life during these years (the book covers everything up through the summer of 1958) is captured aptly.

This book was very well researched and included lots of interview bits. I’m a huge Elvis fan so although I knew most of the information in this book, i still enjoyed reading it.

Knowing very little about Elvis, this book gives you a great picture of him as a shy, sensitive boy with an ear for music and a talent for performing who blew up beyond anyone's imagining.

Guralnik paints a detailed picture of Elvis that is nonetheless reserved: an outsider's perspective. He rarely strays into Elvis's unknown inner thoughts, feeling much more comfortable with hard facts and interviews. So you get a picture of Elvis's community and family, with not too much amateur psychoanalyzing or authorial overreach.

Guralnick's passion for the music is evident, and his efforts to tie Elvis into the larger cultural context are admirable. The book has an incredibly satisfying narrative arc and doesn't dwell too much on any one event. It's wonderfully crafted.

Exhaustive and Exhausting but in a deeply fulfilling way. In the same way it would have felt to have been among the screaming masses at an Elvis concert as he created the rock n' roll scene with a shake of his leg. Or to be Elvis up on the stage as he wrung his soul dry teasing and pleasing his fans.

"It's been a wonderful show, folks. Just remember this. Don't go milking the cow on a rainy day. If there's lightning you may be left holding the bag."

as the Houston Chronicle reported

"Four thousand females just died."

Guralnick has created an exceptional music biography, especially considering he never had the opportunity to actually interview his subject. The level of research and detail is extraordinary. I was almost expecting Guralnick to confess to writing under a pen name and actually being one of Elvis' cousins or friends. He's more than a fly on the wall, he's the whole room. He's Elvis, his family, his friends, and his fans.


The writing is strong and while it does tend a little bit towards tedium, it only serves to shore up reality and dispel myths. Ultimately, brightening Elvis' star even further as we realise quite how phenomenal he was.


As for the man in question. I'm stunned. I really don't think we'll ever see his like again. The level of fame and success is actually unbelievable. As much as I dislike the Svengali like Colonel Parker, his ability to turn Elvis into the most successful commodity in the history of entertainment is nothing short of genius. When I try to think of modern correlatives no one even comes close. People might mention stars like Justin Bieber but Bieber is not an actor and nor will there be thousands of Bieber impersonators running nightly shows in Vegas after he's gone. It's the combination of movie star and rockstar with such a ridiculous omnipresence that makes Elvis unique. 


A quick aside, Sam Phillips is a God. To find that sound and recognise something in it and nurture it into what it became, and to then repeat that process again and again with Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, unbelievable. He also did it on his own dollar and a deep faith in what he was doing. It seems that Phillips had basically spent the first part of his life listening to as much as he possibly could and learning every facet of the business, creating the network. He was essentially the internet before it existed. He pulled that sound out of the ether.


Back to Elvis. Guralnick seeks the truth and despite the immense amount of research he's clearly done, he still seems to retain a sense of awe for quite how well Elvis handled his fame and for his deep natural talent to entertain. For some reason I wasn't raised on any of Elvis' music so my appreciation of him has only come later. This book does a great job of identifying the prevailing paradigm in music and the change Elvis wrought. Guralnick recognises the deep debt to black musicians, the blues, and the spiritual sounds of the south. The unholy mix of that with the Hillbilly sound and that gyrating pelvis created the most unbelievably potent brew. Here's Elvis on his musical debts.

"The colored folks began singing it and playing it just like I'm doin' now, man, for more years than I know. They played it like that in the shanties and in their juke joints, and nobody paid it no mind 'til I goosed it up. I got it from them. Down in Tupelo, Mississippi, I used to hear old Arthur Crudup bang his box the way I do now, and I said if I ever got to the place where I could feel all old Arthur felt, I'd be a music man like nobody ever saw."
-Elvis Presley

and Sam Phillips on part of his appeal.

"He tried not to show it, but he felt so inferior. He reminded me of a black man in that way; his insecurity was markedly like that of a black person."
- Sam Phillips

It's fascinating to see how Elvis handled the fame. I understand it's unfair to compare him to modern day stars, and the pressures are different, especially with the pervasiveness and deep intrusion of social media. However, I can't help but feel Elvis handled being the prototype of megastar better than many since. So young and pure. I know it's coming, the fall, but it's amazing that he just kept hanging out with his mates drinking cokes for so many years as he rapidly turned into the most famous person in America. I did find Guralnick's handling of Elvis' sexuality quite interesting, it seems everyone around Elvis implies that he was completely chaste but then we also hear that he's sleeping with all sorts of women. It's never clear whether he actually just stays up late talking and then goes to sleep or participates in more physical activities. I would have been interested for Guralnick to explore whether Elvis was channelling his repressed sexuality and vice into his performances. That seems most likely to me. That he was a good boy who when freed on stage just let it all pour out of him.

Marion Kiesker, Sun Records co-founder had this to say about Elvis' purity

"My total image of Elvis was as a child. His attitude towards people was the equivalent of tipping your hat as you walk down the street - 'Good evening, ma'am, good evening, sir' - but not showing off. He never said a wrong thing from the very first night he appeared on the Dewey Phillips show - he was like a mirror in a way: whatever you were looking for, you were going to find in him. It was not in him to lie or say anything malicious. He had all the intricacy of the very simple."
- Marion Keisker

Two other things stood out to me.


One is Elvis' relationship with his gift. Countless times we hear him saying he can't forsake the gift or God will take it back from him. Was he truly a lamb of god? Did he really believe in this deal with the big guy? It seems he did.

Natalie Wood on his religiosity

"I hadn't been around anyone who was that religious. He felt he had been given this gift, this talent, by God. He didn't take it for granted. He thought it was something that he had to protect. He had to be nice to people. Otherwise, God would take it all back."
- Natalie Wood

Elvis on his own gift

"The Lord can give and.... the Lord can take away. I might be herding sheep next year."
- Elvis on his Gift

The second is the opinion of many of the muso's around him that he was an idiot savant. He seemed to have a genius for creating music but absolutely no intellectual understanding of the process. Almost every recording session has him and the band just improvising and noodling their way through the session until they strike the motherlode. Sometimes Elvis is actively directing take after take until they find the sound he knows he wants and sometimes they're mucking around and someone goes, this could actually sell. Occasionally in later recording sessions Elvis would sit at the piano and sing gospel songs and hymns with his backing vocals for 8 hours.

Here's Bones Howe on the recording process:

"It was always about the music. He would keep working on a song, and he would listen to it played back, and his criterion was always: did it make him feel good? He didn't care if there were little mistakes, he was interested in anything that would make magic out of the record. The sessions were always fun, there was great energy, he was always doing something that was innovative. It was always about whether you had a feeling for music or not, whether you felt what he felt."
- Bones Howe

And here's Sam Phillips on Elvis' talent:

"I was amazed. Here I am twelve years older than him, I'm thirty-one and he's nineteen, and I've been exposed to all kinds of music and lived through the damn depression, and yet he had the most intuitive ability to hear songs without ever having to classify them, or himself, of anyone I've ever known outside of Jerry Lee Lewis and myself. It seemed like he had a photographic memory for every damn song he ever heard - and he was one of the most introspective human beings that I've ever met. You see, Elvis Presley knew what it was like to be poor, but that damn sure didn't make him prejudiced. He didn't draw any lines. And like [Billboard editor] Paul Ackerman said, you have to be an awful smart person or dumb as hell (and you know he wasn't dumb) to put out that kind of thinking."
- Sam Phillips

Interestingly, the thing that Elvis seems to have in common with Sam Phillips is the ear for "the sound". They both listened to insane amounts of music and they developed a particular taste, and an insatiable desire to bring what they weren't hearing but thought they should be to life. In Elvis' case it was gospel, revival, hillbilly and Blues that he could pluck the feeling from and inject it into his songs. It seems that Elvis' ear for the sound was completely natural, whereas Sam could carve it out of what he heard.

"Yep, some of the music is low-down. But, not like Crosby means. There is low-down people and high-up people, but all of them get the kind of feeling this rock 'n; roll music tells about."
-Elvis Presley

I noticed that many times people said Elvis wasn't a prodigy on guitar, in fact they say he wasn't very good. That stops once he becomes famous and then there's a scene towards the end where he easily picks up Bill's discarded electric bass during a Jailhouse rock recording session and plays Bill's part the whole way through, despite Bill having given up in frustration on it and Elvis never having tried it before. There was similar sentiment around his voice as there was his guitar. Most people seemed to think it wasn't anything special but then countless times you see people hear him live either in the recording studio or at one of the early concerts and they're just transfixed. It electrifies their soul. Elvis also never wanted writing credit for any of the songs, he didn't see it as something that he did. Even where it would be normal for him to get credit because he's essentially taken a few words and turned them into something amazing, he wasn't interested in it. He just seemed so focussed on "the sound".


Overall, a great read that clued me in on what now seems like a gaping hole in my musical education and understanding of American culture. In many ways Elvis is the USA.

"I grabbed his hand, and he grinned and said, 'Cut me loose,' so I cut him loose. It was heavenly."
- Girl from the audience.

"Good-bye, you long black sonofabitch."
- Elvis to his Black Cadillac Limousine when leaving to join the Army

I really liked this.

It's very comprehensive and manages to be truthful and good without either pointing out all the good and ignoring the bad, or pointing out all the bad and ignoring the good. Elvis was a person, who made mistakes, but not entirely a terrible person. And that was evident in this.

I will definitely be reading the second one.