With all that has happened in the last month – and it’s been one for the books and I’ve been very very NERVOUS (I hate when I get that way: it’s part of the winter months!) – I have also had to take the time to get my new apartment in some kind of order, just so I have a calm space to work, with my familiar things around me. The most important thing is getting my vast library in order. Once the shelves were built, I took the time to figure out where everything should go. This is the first Elvis shelf. There are two more, with all of his movies, and box sets, and special-edition CDs. I’m so connected to my books that I look at this and it acts practically like an instant-Valium.
Well I, for one, want to see the other two shelves! :)
This post is well-timed; I happen to be reading the Guralnick biographies right now — just started Careless Love, which I first read when it was still in hardback, but this was my first time with Last Train to Memphis. What an achievement those books are. It’s also given me a good excuse to finally hunt around for copies of the last few CDs I feel like I really need to own. I’ll admit I’ve always been skeptical of the movies, though, so that’s sort of a huge gap in my Elvis knowledge. What would you say are the first five I should check out?
Tom – I so agree about Guralnick’s books. So important and long overdue.
My favorite book about Elvis is Dave Marsh’s book, which reads like a bat out of hell – like he wrote it in a weekend, fired up and urgent – but it’s fantastic and he really knows his stuff, in terms of Elvis’ musical development (which is what interests him the most).
In re: movies.
In my opinion there are only a couple of clinkers – and I realize this is an unpopular opinion, but oh well, everyone’s wrong and I’m right. :)
I would say his best are:
King Creole
Jailhouse Rock
Wild in the Country
Viva Las Vegas
Live a Little Love a Little
I have a fondness for the “silly” Elvis “formula” pics – I think the formula works beautifully, he’s entertaining as hell, and they were custom-made for him. I know that HE hated them, but I feel no obligation to agree with Elvis. Sometimes people don’t get that what comes easily, is what they do best.
Some of the formula pics that are great (and I guess Viva Las Vegas qualifies) –
Girl Happy
Tickle Me
Blue Hawaii
They are silly and fun, with good songs, and Elvis is in fine form.
The late 60s are an undiscovered period – nobody was paying attention to Elvis movies anymore – so they got looser, funner, bolder. Live a Little is one of those. But other good ones is the Spaghetti Western-ish Charro, Change of Habit, and Stay Away Joe. Theyre all lots of fun. Elvis is a natural.
Sheila, I want to see the other two Elvis shelves too! I know what you mean about instant Valium. My Elvis books and favourite books in general are like a comfort blanket for me. I work in a library with strictly alphabetised fiction and the Dewey Decimal system for non fiction so I tend to rebel against that at home and my books (and DVDs for that matter) are all over the place on my shelves.
I have been off work since November recovering from brain surgery (long story) which in turn caused a small stroke, so I am too befuddled to find anything and I wish there was some order to the chaos. And when I finally go back to work I’ll probably have forgotten how to find books there too. :(
I hope you are happy and settled in your new home, and I’m glad you’re bringing order to your shelves, with supervision from Hope!
Abigail – my goodness! You have had a time of it – I am hopeful you are on the road to recovery!
I don’t think I realized you work in a library? My dad was a librarian, my after-school job in high school was in a library – libraries are so important to me. I joked on FB just the other day that I learned alphabetization/Dewey Decimal before I even learned my alphabet!
But yeah, I’ve found that keeping subjects clustered together works for me.
I should probably create some sort of Index. There have been times when I’ve bought the same book twice!
I am settling in beautifully, thank you very much.
Best of luck and good health to you!!
I don’t know that this is the right place to ask, except that had they connected and a relationship begun, it might have been a great book all by itself: why didn’t Elvis return any of Dylan’s calls? We know there were calls, from interviews with the Memphis group, but they don’t say why he didn’t call back. Curious about your theory, if any.
I don’t know much about that situation, actually!
So, just for the sake of completeness, here’s from an interview with Jerry Schilling. The idea of these two meeting is intriguing:
“Early in the morning before going into the studio, while we were having breakfast, Elvis would put this album on. It had ‘Leaving On A Jet Plane’ and ‘If I Had A Hammer’. Elvis really liked ‘Leaving On A Jet Plane’. We played it for a month or so. He wound up recording some of those songs. I think half of the songs on that album were by Dylan. I don’t know at that time if he thought he was recording Peter, Paul & Mary or Bob Dylan. Some of the girls who came up to our house were platonic friends. They were friends also with Brian Wilson, who lived down the street, and with Bob Dylan. I know one of those girls must have given Bob Elvis’ phone number, because every few months, he would call and wanted to meet Elvis, and Elvis never met him.”
http://www.elvis.com.au/presley/interview-jerry-schilling.shtml