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Elvis Presley: A Southern Life
In Elvis A Southern Life , one of the most admired Southern historians of our time takes on one of the greatest cultural icons of all time. The result is a a vivid, gripping biography, set against the rich backdrop of Southern society--indeed, American society--in the second half of the twentieth century.
Author of The Crucible of Race and William Faulkner and Southern History , Joel Williamson is a renowned historian known for his inimitable and compelling narrative style. In this tour de force biography, he captures the drama of Presley's career set against the popular culture of the post-World War II South. Born in Tupelo, Mississippi, Presley was a contradiction, flamboyant in pegged black pants with pink stripes, yet soft-spoken, respectfully courting a decent girl from church. Then he wandered into Sun Records, and everything changed. "I was scared stiff," Elvis recalled about his first time performing on stage. "Everyone was hollering and I didn't know what they were hollering at." Girls did the hollering--at his snarl and swagger. Williamson calls it "the revolution of the Elvis girls." His fans lived in an intense moment, this generation raised by their mothers while their fathers were away at war, whose lives were transformed by an exodus from the countryside to Southern
cities, a postwar culture of consumption, and a striving for upward mobility. They came of age in the era of the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education ruling, which turned high schools into battlegrounds of race. Explosively, white girls went wild for a white man inspired by and singing black music while "wiggling" erotically. Elvis, Williamson argues, gave his female fans an opportunity to break free from straitlaced Southern society and express themselves sexually, if only for a few hours at a time.
Rather than focusing on Elvis's music and the music industry, Elvis A Southern Life illuminates the zenith of his career, his period of deepest creativity, which captured a legion of fans and kept them fervently loyal for decades. Williamson shows how Elvis himself changed--and didn't. In the latter part of his career, when he performed regular gigs in Las Vegas and toured second-tier cities, he moved beyond the South to a national audience who had bought his albums and watched his movies. Yet the makeup of his fan base did not substantially change, nor did Elvis himself ever move up the Southern class ladder despite his wealth. Even as he aged and his life was cut short, he maintained his iconic status, becoming arguably larger in death than in life as droves of fans continue to pay homage to him at Graceland.
Appreciative and unsparing, culturally attuned and socially revealing, Williamson's Elvis Presley will deepen our understanding of the man and his times.
Author of The Crucible of Race and William Faulkner and Southern History , Joel Williamson is a renowned historian known for his inimitable and compelling narrative style. In this tour de force biography, he captures the drama of Presley's career set against the popular culture of the post-World War II South. Born in Tupelo, Mississippi, Presley was a contradiction, flamboyant in pegged black pants with pink stripes, yet soft-spoken, respectfully courting a decent girl from church. Then he wandered into Sun Records, and everything changed. "I was scared stiff," Elvis recalled about his first time performing on stage. "Everyone was hollering and I didn't know what they were hollering at." Girls did the hollering--at his snarl and swagger. Williamson calls it "the revolution of the Elvis girls." His fans lived in an intense moment, this generation raised by their mothers while their fathers were away at war, whose lives were transformed by an exodus from the countryside to Southern
cities, a postwar culture of consumption, and a striving for upward mobility. They came of age in the era of the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education ruling, which turned high schools into battlegrounds of race. Explosively, white girls went wild for a white man inspired by and singing black music while "wiggling" erotically. Elvis, Williamson argues, gave his female fans an opportunity to break free from straitlaced Southern society and express themselves sexually, if only for a few hours at a time.
Rather than focusing on Elvis's music and the music industry, Elvis A Southern Life illuminates the zenith of his career, his period of deepest creativity, which captured a legion of fans and kept them fervently loyal for decades. Williamson shows how Elvis himself changed--and didn't. In the latter part of his career, when he performed regular gigs in Las Vegas and toured second-tier cities, he moved beyond the South to a national audience who had bought his albums and watched his movies. Yet the makeup of his fan base did not substantially change, nor did Elvis himself ever move up the Southern class ladder despite his wealth. Even as he aged and his life was cut short, he maintained his iconic status, becoming arguably larger in death than in life as droves of fans continue to pay homage to him at Graceland.
Appreciative and unsparing, culturally attuned and socially revealing, Williamson's Elvis Presley will deepen our understanding of the man and his times.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published December 31, 2012
22 people are currently reading
280 people want to read
About the author
Joel Williamson
15 books5 followersProfessor Williamson is interested in southern culture in the twentieth century broadly conceived. He has a continuing interest in Margaret Mitchell and a developing interest in Tennessee Williams. He is currently working on a book about Elvis Presley.
http://history.unc.edu/people/emeriti...
http://history.unc.edu/people/emeriti...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
May 15, 2019
The book is brilliant from page 65 until pay 130. Here, the author describes the Southern context and culture of Elvis's phenomenal career (as the title suggests). The rest is just a rehash of every other Elvis tabloid biography depicting him as a womanizing drug addict with a Messiah complex. Did we really need more of that? The King's been dead almost 40 years. We get it.
October 16, 2014
A compeling story from an interesting point of view. But in my opinion the bet didn't pay of.
I love THE KING. I do! If i was alive at 60's i would have been propably one of the girls fainting at his concerts with every gyrating of his hips.
So for me it is quite heartbreaking reading the story of his life and his demise at the end. But it would have been less heartbreaking if the author was more sympathetic or even liked Elvis a bit.
Reading this highly detailed biography, i felt that Mr. Williamson handled the situation very clinically and from afar. That is not entirely bad but it has a bad influence on the reader.
Of course Elvis was a man after all, with his vices, bad decisions and mistakes and that is very clear in this read. As a suggestion though, the specifics considering his death were too many and maybe unnecessary, when at the same time the life with his wife amd his daughter were almost left out.
THOUGHTS ABOUT THE BOOK
- Beautiful cover.
- From his birth to his tragic death.
- A very detailed account, which shows amazing research skills from the author's part.
- But it's dispassionate and is read more as a thesis for a master degree.
- A true journey behind the scenes in a try to find the real Elvis.
- Not even one photo inside. Very disappointing.
ARC kindly provided via Netgalley, in exchange of an honest review. Thank you!
I love THE KING. I do! If i was alive at 60's i would have been propably one of the girls fainting at his concerts with every gyrating of his hips.
So for me it is quite heartbreaking reading the story of his life and his demise at the end. But it would have been less heartbreaking if the author was more sympathetic or even liked Elvis a bit.
Reading this highly detailed biography, i felt that Mr. Williamson handled the situation very clinically and from afar. That is not entirely bad but it has a bad influence on the reader.
Of course Elvis was a man after all, with his vices, bad decisions and mistakes and that is very clear in this read. As a suggestion though, the specifics considering his death were too many and maybe unnecessary, when at the same time the life with his wife amd his daughter were almost left out.
THOUGHTS ABOUT THE BOOK
- Beautiful cover.
- From his birth to his tragic death.
- A very detailed account, which shows amazing research skills from the author's part.
- But it's dispassionate and is read more as a thesis for a master degree.
- A true journey behind the scenes in a try to find the real Elvis.
- Not even one photo inside. Very disappointing.
ARC kindly provided via Netgalley, in exchange of an honest review. Thank you!
October 2, 2017
Joel Williamson has written books on Southern culture entitled “William Faulkner and Southern History” and “The Crucible of Race” which would indicate that he is an authority on the American South and its culture. His “Elvis Presley – A Southern Life” does indeed place the Presley phenomenon firmly in a Southern context.
This is not a hagiography by any means. As Ted Ownby writes of Presley in the forward: “He (Presley) did virtually nothing creative from 1958 to 1968, the year of the comeback television special, and only rarely and perhaps accidentally made music of much consequence.” And Williamson makes clear that the celebrated Singer TV special of 1968 was really the brainchild of producer Steve Binder. Elvis merely assented to Binder’s ideas. “No, I like it all,” Presley responded to the producer’s vision for the show.
The most significant parts of this book concern Presley and 1) how the South molded him and 2) how the reaction of young girls to Presley’s early performances challenged the core ideas of Southern womanhood.
In Williamson’s book, one of the major factors in Presley’s live was the imprisonment in 1938 of his father, Vernon, over a forged check on the sale of a pig. Sentenced to the infamous Parchman Farm penitentiary, Williamson vividly paints the picture of Elvis and his mother, Gladys, visiting Vernon at the plantation-like prison: “They went through Pontotoc, where Vernon and Gladys had married five years earlier, then on to Oxford, where forty-year-old William Faulkner lived in his rickety and almost barren antebellum mansion on the south side of town.”
This is a wonderful picture that evokes the South that such disparate figures as Faulkner and Presley sprang from, each putting their own indelible stamp on the world at large, but remaining pure products of the American South and all it represented.
Williamson also relates, in a heart rending scene, how a very young Elvis tried to care for his mother during his father’s incarceration. “Friends and neighbors remember this time well. Soon after Vernon went to jail, Gladys and Elvis would sit on the front porch of their little two-room house. Elvis could not do enough for his mother.
“’Mama, would you like a glass of water?’ he would ask. He would sit at her feet and rest his arm on her knee. He would stroke her face, smooth her eyebrows, and pat her head. ‘There, there, my little baby,’ he would say. Elvis was there, and he was only three years old.
“Elvis felt deeply his mother’s anguish – and his own. People recalled him sometimes ‘bawling so hard he couldn’t catch his breath.’”
One of Williamson’s most arresting moments in the book is where he meditates on the first photo ever taken of Elvis – the famous one where he is between his parents as they stare back furtively at the camera. The photo was taken at Lee County jail in Tupelo, where Vernon had been held for the forged check crime. On Elvis in the photo: “His full cherubic lips are twisted down to the right as if he realizes that he should say something and set his jaw in some certain way to assert an attitude, but he doesn’t know what to say or how…. This is the earliest photograph of Elvis. The photographer was most likely a friend or a relative who had driven Gladys and Elvis a couple of miles over from their home in East Tupelo. It was a defining moment in the lives of Elvis, Gladys, and Vernon Presley, individually and collectively. The very fact of the visit, the camera, and the one photograph that has been preserved indicates that they understood that they were at a critical juncture in their lives. The petty and foolish crime that Vernon committed in the fall of 1937, when he was twenty-one, Gladys twenty-five, and Elvis less than three, deeply marked their lives.”
And one of Williamson’s most detailed portraits is of Elvis’ early girlfriend, Dixie Locke, whom he met at the Assembly of God Church in Memphis. Locke on Elvis: “’He was just so different,’ she recalled …some four decades later. ‘All the other guys were replicas of their dads.’ Elvis decidedly was not a replica of his dad.”
Williamson paints a vivid picture of Dixie’s friendship with Gladys Presley, evoking an era long gone, as she and Dixie bond over their common interest in one man: her son. Gladys and Dixie became very close. “They talked over the phone at length, Dixie using a neighbor’s phone…. They developed a woman-to-woman relationship centered on Elvis that did not include him. Gladys shared her recipes with Dixie and took her to a Stanley Products house party…. Gladys and Dixie often went shopping together, maybe to get something personal – like clothing – for Elvis. They talked about him a lot.”
Dixie loses Elvis when he finds himself becoming a celebrity in Memphis, his thoughts and ambitions cast outward. Dixie, in some ways, represents the last chance of a conventional, home-centered life for Elvis. But the stirrings of fame and fortune were not to be ignored and they soon parted. But Williamson’s depiction of the homey life Dixie and Gladys lived has something of the elegiac about it. It is one of the more evocative passages in the book.
In the second half of “Elvis Presley: A Southern Life,” Williamson significantly shifts his focus from the cultural impact of Elvis Presley to the more well-documented events in his life story: the Memphis Mafia (a very unsettling view of his salaried sycophants), his endless quest for a ‘girl in the bed’ (as he had a great fear of being alone), the frankly bizarre courtship of Priscilla and her own purposeful pursuit of him, their eventual divorce, his pharmaceutical intake (prodigious), his various obsessions with spirituality and Karate, and his out-of-control spending. It is his mishandling of his finances that led to his firing of his longtime bodyguards (Vernon doing the dirty work), which, in turn, led to the damning tell-all book “Elvis: What Happened?” A few weeks after it is published Elvis was dead at forty-two.
“He spent all that he made as fast as he made it – like almost all of the people that worked for him, like almost all of his relatives, like he himself would have done had he become an electrician rather than a star entertainer, like the great majority of the fans who came to see him in Las Vegas or Tahoe, Buffalo, Little Rock, or Wichita. Elvis shared totally the material world view of his people, that is, enjoy to the fullest the fruits of one’s labor now before the boss or the bank or the government snatches it away from you.”
The 1970 impromptu visit to the White House and President Nixon is also rendered magnificently. Nixon is somewhat stunned when he sees Presley: “To begin with, it was a shock to see a man who looked like this outside of a Halloween party or off a movie set, much less in the Oval Office. He looked like an actor in a horror story. He somehow seemed larger than life…. His lengthy Edwardian jacket was draped casually, European-style, around his shoulders, sleeves dangling…. Around his waist, Elvis wore the wide, thick, gold, and sparkly belt given him by the International Hotel for breaking attendance records.”
Elvis, as he intensely rambled to Nixon, attacked the Beatles as anti-American and subversive, an observation that is indeed prescient given the influence that the lads from Liverpool wielded, however innocently, throughout the 1960s.
But in the end, as it was in the beginning, it is Vernon that is the main catalyst as the story winds down. After Elvis died he decided to move the bodies of Gladys and Elvis to Graceland. He would not pay a contractor to take up the cement walkway were the bodies were to be placed, so Vernon got Elvis’ erstwhile bodyguards to do the heavy work. “Soon they were out there armed with jackhammers, hefting chunks of debris and cursing Vernon for this violation of their professional dignity. Vernon relished the sight. ‘They ain’t working on Elvis’ chain gang anymore,’ he declared proudly. ‘They’re working on mine.’”
Parchman Farm, despite all, was never all that far removed from Elvis’ life.
This is not a hagiography by any means. As Ted Ownby writes of Presley in the forward: “He (Presley) did virtually nothing creative from 1958 to 1968, the year of the comeback television special, and only rarely and perhaps accidentally made music of much consequence.” And Williamson makes clear that the celebrated Singer TV special of 1968 was really the brainchild of producer Steve Binder. Elvis merely assented to Binder’s ideas. “No, I like it all,” Presley responded to the producer’s vision for the show.
The most significant parts of this book concern Presley and 1) how the South molded him and 2) how the reaction of young girls to Presley’s early performances challenged the core ideas of Southern womanhood.
In Williamson’s book, one of the major factors in Presley’s live was the imprisonment in 1938 of his father, Vernon, over a forged check on the sale of a pig. Sentenced to the infamous Parchman Farm penitentiary, Williamson vividly paints the picture of Elvis and his mother, Gladys, visiting Vernon at the plantation-like prison: “They went through Pontotoc, where Vernon and Gladys had married five years earlier, then on to Oxford, where forty-year-old William Faulkner lived in his rickety and almost barren antebellum mansion on the south side of town.”
This is a wonderful picture that evokes the South that such disparate figures as Faulkner and Presley sprang from, each putting their own indelible stamp on the world at large, but remaining pure products of the American South and all it represented.
Williamson also relates, in a heart rending scene, how a very young Elvis tried to care for his mother during his father’s incarceration. “Friends and neighbors remember this time well. Soon after Vernon went to jail, Gladys and Elvis would sit on the front porch of their little two-room house. Elvis could not do enough for his mother.
“’Mama, would you like a glass of water?’ he would ask. He would sit at her feet and rest his arm on her knee. He would stroke her face, smooth her eyebrows, and pat her head. ‘There, there, my little baby,’ he would say. Elvis was there, and he was only three years old.
“Elvis felt deeply his mother’s anguish – and his own. People recalled him sometimes ‘bawling so hard he couldn’t catch his breath.’”
One of Williamson’s most arresting moments in the book is where he meditates on the first photo ever taken of Elvis – the famous one where he is between his parents as they stare back furtively at the camera. The photo was taken at Lee County jail in Tupelo, where Vernon had been held for the forged check crime. On Elvis in the photo: “His full cherubic lips are twisted down to the right as if he realizes that he should say something and set his jaw in some certain way to assert an attitude, but he doesn’t know what to say or how…. This is the earliest photograph of Elvis. The photographer was most likely a friend or a relative who had driven Gladys and Elvis a couple of miles over from their home in East Tupelo. It was a defining moment in the lives of Elvis, Gladys, and Vernon Presley, individually and collectively. The very fact of the visit, the camera, and the one photograph that has been preserved indicates that they understood that they were at a critical juncture in their lives. The petty and foolish crime that Vernon committed in the fall of 1937, when he was twenty-one, Gladys twenty-five, and Elvis less than three, deeply marked their lives.”
And one of Williamson’s most detailed portraits is of Elvis’ early girlfriend, Dixie Locke, whom he met at the Assembly of God Church in Memphis. Locke on Elvis: “’He was just so different,’ she recalled …some four decades later. ‘All the other guys were replicas of their dads.’ Elvis decidedly was not a replica of his dad.”
Williamson paints a vivid picture of Dixie’s friendship with Gladys Presley, evoking an era long gone, as she and Dixie bond over their common interest in one man: her son. Gladys and Dixie became very close. “They talked over the phone at length, Dixie using a neighbor’s phone…. They developed a woman-to-woman relationship centered on Elvis that did not include him. Gladys shared her recipes with Dixie and took her to a Stanley Products house party…. Gladys and Dixie often went shopping together, maybe to get something personal – like clothing – for Elvis. They talked about him a lot.”
Dixie loses Elvis when he finds himself becoming a celebrity in Memphis, his thoughts and ambitions cast outward. Dixie, in some ways, represents the last chance of a conventional, home-centered life for Elvis. But the stirrings of fame and fortune were not to be ignored and they soon parted. But Williamson’s depiction of the homey life Dixie and Gladys lived has something of the elegiac about it. It is one of the more evocative passages in the book.
In the second half of “Elvis Presley: A Southern Life,” Williamson significantly shifts his focus from the cultural impact of Elvis Presley to the more well-documented events in his life story: the Memphis Mafia (a very unsettling view of his salaried sycophants), his endless quest for a ‘girl in the bed’ (as he had a great fear of being alone), the frankly bizarre courtship of Priscilla and her own purposeful pursuit of him, their eventual divorce, his pharmaceutical intake (prodigious), his various obsessions with spirituality and Karate, and his out-of-control spending. It is his mishandling of his finances that led to his firing of his longtime bodyguards (Vernon doing the dirty work), which, in turn, led to the damning tell-all book “Elvis: What Happened?” A few weeks after it is published Elvis was dead at forty-two.
“He spent all that he made as fast as he made it – like almost all of the people that worked for him, like almost all of his relatives, like he himself would have done had he become an electrician rather than a star entertainer, like the great majority of the fans who came to see him in Las Vegas or Tahoe, Buffalo, Little Rock, or Wichita. Elvis shared totally the material world view of his people, that is, enjoy to the fullest the fruits of one’s labor now before the boss or the bank or the government snatches it away from you.”
The 1970 impromptu visit to the White House and President Nixon is also rendered magnificently. Nixon is somewhat stunned when he sees Presley: “To begin with, it was a shock to see a man who looked like this outside of a Halloween party or off a movie set, much less in the Oval Office. He looked like an actor in a horror story. He somehow seemed larger than life…. His lengthy Edwardian jacket was draped casually, European-style, around his shoulders, sleeves dangling…. Around his waist, Elvis wore the wide, thick, gold, and sparkly belt given him by the International Hotel for breaking attendance records.”
Elvis, as he intensely rambled to Nixon, attacked the Beatles as anti-American and subversive, an observation that is indeed prescient given the influence that the lads from Liverpool wielded, however innocently, throughout the 1960s.
But in the end, as it was in the beginning, it is Vernon that is the main catalyst as the story winds down. After Elvis died he decided to move the bodies of Gladys and Elvis to Graceland. He would not pay a contractor to take up the cement walkway were the bodies were to be placed, so Vernon got Elvis’ erstwhile bodyguards to do the heavy work. “Soon they were out there armed with jackhammers, hefting chunks of debris and cursing Vernon for this violation of their professional dignity. Vernon relished the sight. ‘They ain’t working on Elvis’ chain gang anymore,’ he declared proudly. ‘They’re working on mine.’”
Parchman Farm, despite all, was never all that far removed from Elvis’ life.
July 23, 2017
Like most of his fans, I am guilty of putting Elvis Presley on a pedestal. I've been in love with his music since I was a teenager, and in love with him, for almost just as long. I'm familiar with the image that shows Elvis at his best. I know of his talent, the stories of his humbleness and generosity, and his overall clean-cut image despite being a rock-n-roller. In Elvis Presley: A Southern Life, Joel Williamson, shines no such light on one of the South's favorite sons. Mr. Williamson chooses instead to illuminate the dark side of the Presley (American) success story. The reader is treated to specifics about Elvis' numerous women, his less than stellar treatment of his entourage, and his dependency on prescription drugs. Through all of this, the question still remains: How could someone so blessed have such an ignominious end? Perhaps some of the answer lies in Part II of the book. The details of Elvis Presley's childhood provide the background necessary to understand the man. The effects of poverty, struggle, annd just plain ignorance had a detrimental effect on Elvis' life as he was growing up, and it didn't end when Elvis became wealthy. Coupled with sudden fame and money, these effects created a perfect storm. Elvis struggled in his interactions with people and with regard to his own well-being. Quite honestly, after finishing the book, I felt like I'd been slapped. Like many of his fans, I wanted Elvis to be above the fray, but he was just as human as the rest of us. The story of his rise and fall will give readers something to ponder.
February 7, 2015
I have just finished this book and I could not out it down. I read it on the bus, at home, even at work. The writing is superb and although I was a bit annoyed by the space he was giving to the life of Elvis before celebrity, this actually helps you understand the psychological process that made them -the Presleys- be what they were and act how they did and especially Elvis. It was quite sad to read about all the things that were not glamorous in the King's life, about the flaws and fears and addictions but that makes this book more real and true as it is not another book fabricated to show a polished history for adoring fans. I enjoyed the book and it actually made me feel sad seeing how someone who could have been happy chose not to be.
August 6, 2015
Elvis Presley: A Southern Life sounds like the title to a mainstream biography, and Williamson says in his notes to the reader that he chose to write the book in the style of a "popular biography". He had started out with footnotes when he began the book, but then took them out. I found myself wondering why the writer felt documentation would make his book less readable. A flowing narrative and discreet documentation that the reader can either reference or not, as they choose, are not incompatible.
My copy came to me free via Net Galley and Oxford University Press USA.
When I checked his sources, which he does list after a chaotic fashion at the end of the book, I noted that he relied exclusively, or almost exclusively, on secondary sources. I could see why he chose not to footnote everything; it draws attention to the fact that he took information from a bunch of other biographies and drew his own interpretation.
Your reviewer did not approach this biography as an Elvis fan; Elvis was a hit singer during the generation before my own. However, I do love biographies, and it seems to me that Elvis Presley occupies an important niche in the history of American music. It was this that drew me to read the go-to biography of Peter Guralnick that is one of Williamson's key sources. If you read just one biography of Presley, Guralnick's is the one to read.
Williamson's thesis is that Elvis developed his entire public personality around what he perceived that the media and the public wanted from him. It's not a difficult point to prove, and Williamson does a fine job of it.
His organizational points are less workable. He divides Elvis's life, which ended at age 42, into three phases, and I found this a bit artificial. Initially, Elvis was "bad", says Williamson. He was the tough guy who set the repressed libidos of teenage girls in the era of McCarthyism free and gave them an outlet to express their passion. So far, so good, I thought.
Then Elvis turned to television and the movies, and his image had to be cleaned up for the mainstream media. Elvis's respectful side, which in truth had never been missing when he dealt with people during his life off stage, was emphasized more in his professional life.
The third part of Presley's life is what Williamson calls "good at being bad". I think the division is an artificial one. He chronicles in salacious detail the deterioration Presley experienced as he relied more on sleeping medication, amphetamines to wake him up before he was sufficiently rested to get back on stage, and the pain medication he took to deal with the terrible digestive issues that came with the other medications. I am using much different language than Williamson, and I am doing so on purpose.
Because although I was never an Elvis fan, apart from owning his Christmas album, it does seem to me that there are some parts of an entertainer's private life that should remain private. I don't need to know about every odd thing that ever took place in his bed. I don't need to know what little endearments he called people that were close to him in private moments when he believed nobody would hear.
Presley did a lot of things that were indefensible, but there is a line in the sand where the public's right to know ought to end and an individual's right to privacy, and his family's right not to have him publicly slimed and dragged through the muck begins. As far as I am concerned, Williamson crossed way over that line.
Excuse me please. I need to go wash my hands a few times and rinse my mouth out.
My copy came to me free via Net Galley and Oxford University Press USA.
When I checked his sources, which he does list after a chaotic fashion at the end of the book, I noted that he relied exclusively, or almost exclusively, on secondary sources. I could see why he chose not to footnote everything; it draws attention to the fact that he took information from a bunch of other biographies and drew his own interpretation.
Your reviewer did not approach this biography as an Elvis fan; Elvis was a hit singer during the generation before my own. However, I do love biographies, and it seems to me that Elvis Presley occupies an important niche in the history of American music. It was this that drew me to read the go-to biography of Peter Guralnick that is one of Williamson's key sources. If you read just one biography of Presley, Guralnick's is the one to read.
Williamson's thesis is that Elvis developed his entire public personality around what he perceived that the media and the public wanted from him. It's not a difficult point to prove, and Williamson does a fine job of it.
His organizational points are less workable. He divides Elvis's life, which ended at age 42, into three phases, and I found this a bit artificial. Initially, Elvis was "bad", says Williamson. He was the tough guy who set the repressed libidos of teenage girls in the era of McCarthyism free and gave them an outlet to express their passion. So far, so good, I thought.
Then Elvis turned to television and the movies, and his image had to be cleaned up for the mainstream media. Elvis's respectful side, which in truth had never been missing when he dealt with people during his life off stage, was emphasized more in his professional life.
The third part of Presley's life is what Williamson calls "good at being bad". I think the division is an artificial one. He chronicles in salacious detail the deterioration Presley experienced as he relied more on sleeping medication, amphetamines to wake him up before he was sufficiently rested to get back on stage, and the pain medication he took to deal with the terrible digestive issues that came with the other medications. I am using much different language than Williamson, and I am doing so on purpose.
Because although I was never an Elvis fan, apart from owning his Christmas album, it does seem to me that there are some parts of an entertainer's private life that should remain private. I don't need to know about every odd thing that ever took place in his bed. I don't need to know what little endearments he called people that were close to him in private moments when he believed nobody would hear.
Presley did a lot of things that were indefensible, but there is a line in the sand where the public's right to know ought to end and an individual's right to privacy, and his family's right not to have him publicly slimed and dragged through the muck begins. As far as I am concerned, Williamson crossed way over that line.
Excuse me please. I need to go wash my hands a few times and rinse my mouth out.
August 27, 2019
A life story of Elvis written by a researcher with a talent for putting information in a format that is clear and accurate but allows you to get to know Elvis in a whole new way while still appreciating his achievements.
October 3, 2014
When I grew up, Elvis lived in our household. My sisters and my brother loved his music, and we listened to it all the time. I myself came to a later appreciation for him. I discovered him later in my life, and, watching his movies and listening to him I developed the same fascination and love that they have. Living in Las Vegas I see his influence around me. Elvis changed music. He was the influence for countless others. He lives on, still influencing, people still fascinated by him. He was, and is still, The King. There was a quality about him that cannot be defined, cannot be parsed, even though Mr. Williamson attempts to do so.
He begins his book with the death of Elvis. In graphic detail. It was enough to know how Elvis died without having it set out before us, detail upon detail. After reading, I believe that Mr. Williamson doesn't like Elvis very much. He gives us details of Elvis' upbringing, offering insights into his life; but he also tells us that Elvis was a 'sex-crazed' man (you do come away with that feeling). Elvis may have had a healthy appetite for sex, but I don't believe he was sex-crazed. No, Elvis was not perfect as none of us are, but Mr. Williamson paints the picture that he was something he was not. Elvis was a gentle Southern man, devoted son, generous and loving to his friends and family.
He was overwhelmed by his success and dealt with it the best he could. Unfortunately, it ate him up at too early an age, and his coping mechanisms were not strong. Elvis did not have an appetite for drugs. He had an addictive personality, and it is unfortunate that he couldn't be helped. No, Elvis was no saint. No man in his position would be. But I believe that he was the best he knew how to be.
Please don't get me wrong: This is a complete biography, as biographies go. It details his life quite well. There was evidently a lot of research that went into this. But it is not the best book there is about Elvis (nor is it the worst). I just don't believe he captured who Elvis really was, or what he meant to the entertainment industry or to people.
He begins his book with the death of Elvis. In graphic detail. It was enough to know how Elvis died without having it set out before us, detail upon detail. After reading, I believe that Mr. Williamson doesn't like Elvis very much. He gives us details of Elvis' upbringing, offering insights into his life; but he also tells us that Elvis was a 'sex-crazed' man (you do come away with that feeling). Elvis may have had a healthy appetite for sex, but I don't believe he was sex-crazed. No, Elvis was not perfect as none of us are, but Mr. Williamson paints the picture that he was something he was not. Elvis was a gentle Southern man, devoted son, generous and loving to his friends and family.
He was overwhelmed by his success and dealt with it the best he could. Unfortunately, it ate him up at too early an age, and his coping mechanisms were not strong. Elvis did not have an appetite for drugs. He had an addictive personality, and it is unfortunate that he couldn't be helped. No, Elvis was no saint. No man in his position would be. But I believe that he was the best he knew how to be.
Please don't get me wrong: This is a complete biography, as biographies go. It details his life quite well. There was evidently a lot of research that went into this. But it is not the best book there is about Elvis (nor is it the worst). I just don't believe he captured who Elvis really was, or what he meant to the entertainment industry or to people.
May 28, 2020
Williamson's book reminded me of the execrable Albert Goldman book on Elvis, the one that rock historian Greil Marcus shredded in his essay characterizing Goldman as trying to commit cultural genocide against the South (THE MYTH BEHIND THE TRUTH BEHIND THE LEGEND: ALBERT GOLDMAN’S ‘ELVIS’ (12/81).
The odd thing about Williamson is that he is from the South, but there is no sympathy or empathy here. The book starts as if it were going to be understanding of Elvis's background, but it winds up in a sort of orgy of loathing against Elvis. In the meantime, the book cribs from Peter Guralnick, Alanna Nash, and all sorts of other people who have actually done research on Elvis, and yet comes up with an end product full of errors small and large, and, as I say, a real and unwarranted hostility towards its subject.
Not a work of scholarship, even if it is by a scholar, or someone who once was a scholar.
The odd thing about Williamson is that he is from the South, but there is no sympathy or empathy here. The book starts as if it were going to be understanding of Elvis's background, but it winds up in a sort of orgy of loathing against Elvis. In the meantime, the book cribs from Peter Guralnick, Alanna Nash, and all sorts of other people who have actually done research on Elvis, and yet comes up with an end product full of errors small and large, and, as I say, a real and unwarranted hostility towards its subject.
Not a work of scholarship, even if it is by a scholar, or someone who once was a scholar.
December 29, 2015
Probably the best biography of Elvis I have read. Of course it made me sad and disappointed because I still want Elvis to be the perfect man I always want him to be. But he was human like the rest of us, and I will always treasure his music and the time I saw him in concert!
May 12, 2022
I’ve heard Elvis Presley’s name off and on throughout my life. My grandmother was a fan and often talked about her visit to Graceland just after he died. I’ve heard his name on TV and caught pieces of his songs here and there. But that’s it. That’s been the extent of my knowledge about Elvis until now.
I recently read Amy Harmon’s book The Songbook of Benny Lament and it is rich in 1950’s and 60’s music references. While I read I listened to 50’s/60’s playlists on Spotify and there were a few Elvis Presley songs that came through. I don’t think I ever truly appreciated his voice until then. It was different than anything I’d heard before and I was instantly curious about him.
So, naturally, I put several books about him on hold at the library 💁🏻♀️ This is the first one I’ve read.
If I could describe what I’ve learned in one word it would be: tragic.
Elvis grew up in Tennessee and experienced extreme poverty his entire childhood. His father had trouble keeping a job and his mother worked tirelessly to pick up the slack just so they could eat. He didn’t realize he had an ability to perform until he entered a high school talent show. He was unpopular and ignored by his classmates until that day.
As soon as he was discovered by a record label his demise began. The sweet boy from Tennessee that loved his Mama and worked hard to help her make ends meet was forced into a world of fame and indulgence. Again and again throughout the book all I could think about is how heavy glory is and how humans were not designed to carry it. We break every time.
By the end of his life he was utterly lost and spent. The industry had squeezed everything out of him and the weight of glory broke him. What a waste. He would have been better off singing gospel songs in a rural Tennessee church for the rest of his life instead of the promiscuity and drugs fame offered.
It’s tough for me to rate a biography but I’d definitely recommend this one if you’re curious about Elvis 👍🏼
I recently read Amy Harmon’s book The Songbook of Benny Lament and it is rich in 1950’s and 60’s music references. While I read I listened to 50’s/60’s playlists on Spotify and there were a few Elvis Presley songs that came through. I don’t think I ever truly appreciated his voice until then. It was different than anything I’d heard before and I was instantly curious about him.
So, naturally, I put several books about him on hold at the library 💁🏻♀️ This is the first one I’ve read.
If I could describe what I’ve learned in one word it would be: tragic.
Elvis grew up in Tennessee and experienced extreme poverty his entire childhood. His father had trouble keeping a job and his mother worked tirelessly to pick up the slack just so they could eat. He didn’t realize he had an ability to perform until he entered a high school talent show. He was unpopular and ignored by his classmates until that day.
As soon as he was discovered by a record label his demise began. The sweet boy from Tennessee that loved his Mama and worked hard to help her make ends meet was forced into a world of fame and indulgence. Again and again throughout the book all I could think about is how heavy glory is and how humans were not designed to carry it. We break every time.
By the end of his life he was utterly lost and spent. The industry had squeezed everything out of him and the weight of glory broke him. What a waste. He would have been better off singing gospel songs in a rural Tennessee church for the rest of his life instead of the promiscuity and drugs fame offered.
It’s tough for me to rate a biography but I’d definitely recommend this one if you’re curious about Elvis 👍🏼
December 6, 2014
The beginning (or 1st part) is an absolute wonderful read, learned quite a bit about Elvis that even my mom probably never even knew. The end (or part 2) just didn't make sense to me. Left me saying over and over "Why didn't the author wrap this story up when Elvis passed away?" Very repetitive and hard to finish, but I pushed through. Excluding the second half, this is definitely worth the time to read (Just as long as you stop after Elvis dies).
September 12, 2017
There are maybe a few pages of original thought in this book . Those thoughts, particularly in the area of Elvis and Southern culture are interesting and would have made a great article in some magazine. However, those original thoughts are surrounded by passages copied almost verbatim from several sources. Williamson heavily borrowed from Peter Guralnick's great two volume biography of Elvis: Last Train To Memphis and Careless Love. Guralnick's work is definitive and monumentual.
March 18, 2015
Antiseptic. Clinical. Detached. Scattered. A bit too focused on the relationship between Elvis and all the women in his life.
August 29, 2018
Why didn't anyone try to help this man? Was there anyone who really cared about him as a PERSON?
June 8, 2024
Almost fifty years after his death in 1977, there’s probably not much left to say about Elvis Presley, If there’s a library at Graceland, you could fill it – and the Jungle Room -- with the sheer tonnage of books written about him. I had some hope, though, for Joel Williamson’s “Elvis Presley: A Southern Life.”
In his introduction, the author lays out a very interesting premise: To tell Elvis’ and his family’s story through the prism of the rural, urban and impoverished South in the ’30 and ‘40s. And for about three chapters, Williamson delivers. To begin with, he notes that author William Faulkner and playwright Tennessee Williams were born not far from Elvis’ birthplace in northern Mississippi. He begins to develop a story encompassing the depression, the post-war economy and racial conflict in Mississippi in that day and how it impacted artists and their art. 20th century Southern culture can be fascinating stuff.
To his credit, Williamson is upfront from the outset about what his book will not be about – music. Fair enough. But removing music from the Presley saga undercuts a huge part of the story as it relates to his Southern origins. His genius lay in how he drew from the deep melting post of the region’s folk, country and blues to lead the way in the creation of rock ‘n roll. Williams touches on this, but only in passing. If you’re going to skip the music, you should probably have a lot more to say.
Sadly, by about Chapter Four, Williamson appears to cast aside his original premise and the book turns into a retelling of the same old Elvis trope. His mama. The Colonel. The screaming girls. The sex. The drugs. The “Memphis Mafia,” The death in the bathroom, etc. I’m guessing – no I’m sure -- that anyone with an interest in Elvis knows all this stuff already. Granted, this book is definitely a page-turner and lots of fun in parts, but it’s all been said many times before. If you need to read about these aspects of his life (especially the sex and drugs) --and those subjects do make for irresistible reading – dig into Albert Goldman’s nasty, massive “Elvis” (1981). At least Goldman did a ton of original research for his dark, controversial portrayal.
“Elvis Presley: A Southern Life” suffers from a serious lack of original reporting. Williamson has done his homework to the extent that he dug up a lot of public record info about the Presley family’s financial troubles and the plight of poor whites in Mississippi and Memphis at that time. He also tracked done some former neighbors – and lots of girlfriends -- from Elvis’ youth. Beyond that, his source notes seem to be largely from other books in the Elvis cannon.
Speaking of other books, Peter Guralnick’s great two-volume set, “Last Train from Memphis” and “Careless Love” remains the very best published work on the life of Elvis. For those not wishing to go that deep, Bobbie Ann Mason’s excellent mini bio is a great place to start. If you’re enough of a fan to have already read those – your time would be much better spent listening to his amazing music.
In his introduction, the author lays out a very interesting premise: To tell Elvis’ and his family’s story through the prism of the rural, urban and impoverished South in the ’30 and ‘40s. And for about three chapters, Williamson delivers. To begin with, he notes that author William Faulkner and playwright Tennessee Williams were born not far from Elvis’ birthplace in northern Mississippi. He begins to develop a story encompassing the depression, the post-war economy and racial conflict in Mississippi in that day and how it impacted artists and their art. 20th century Southern culture can be fascinating stuff.
To his credit, Williamson is upfront from the outset about what his book will not be about – music. Fair enough. But removing music from the Presley saga undercuts a huge part of the story as it relates to his Southern origins. His genius lay in how he drew from the deep melting post of the region’s folk, country and blues to lead the way in the creation of rock ‘n roll. Williams touches on this, but only in passing. If you’re going to skip the music, you should probably have a lot more to say.
Sadly, by about Chapter Four, Williamson appears to cast aside his original premise and the book turns into a retelling of the same old Elvis trope. His mama. The Colonel. The screaming girls. The sex. The drugs. The “Memphis Mafia,” The death in the bathroom, etc. I’m guessing – no I’m sure -- that anyone with an interest in Elvis knows all this stuff already. Granted, this book is definitely a page-turner and lots of fun in parts, but it’s all been said many times before. If you need to read about these aspects of his life (especially the sex and drugs) --and those subjects do make for irresistible reading – dig into Albert Goldman’s nasty, massive “Elvis” (1981). At least Goldman did a ton of original research for his dark, controversial portrayal.
“Elvis Presley: A Southern Life” suffers from a serious lack of original reporting. Williamson has done his homework to the extent that he dug up a lot of public record info about the Presley family’s financial troubles and the plight of poor whites in Mississippi and Memphis at that time. He also tracked done some former neighbors – and lots of girlfriends -- from Elvis’ youth. Beyond that, his source notes seem to be largely from other books in the Elvis cannon.
Speaking of other books, Peter Guralnick’s great two-volume set, “Last Train from Memphis” and “Careless Love” remains the very best published work on the life of Elvis. For those not wishing to go that deep, Bobbie Ann Mason’s excellent mini bio is a great place to start. If you’re enough of a fan to have already read those – your time would be much better spent listening to his amazing music.
June 23, 2018
Beware of the Kindle edition
Four stars for the book. Two stars for the Kindle edition. I was assigned this book for a class so was trying to follow some threads. However, I began to get confused. The author referred to major characters who had yet to be introduced. A large period of his life seemed to have been glossed over or even left out completely. Finally, after reading the conclusion, there was the rest of the book, two sections, one from early in the book and one from the middle of the book tacked on to the end. I went to the table on contents, and even there the two misplaced sections showed up out of order but with correct page numbers.
Four stars for the book. Two stars for the Kindle edition. I was assigned this book for a class so was trying to follow some threads. However, I began to get confused. The author referred to major characters who had yet to be introduced. A large period of his life seemed to have been glossed over or even left out completely. Finally, after reading the conclusion, there was the rest of the book, two sections, one from early in the book and one from the middle of the book tacked on to the end. I went to the table on contents, and even there the two misplaced sections showed up out of order but with correct page numbers.
March 5, 2023
Joel Williamson, a Professor Emeritus of UNC Chapel Hill, explains that he wrote the book from the popular perspective rather than a scholarly one. With a focus on women (some nameless) that Elvis bedded, his dependence on drugs, and his extravagant lifestyle, the book was disturbing to read. The information he presents seems to be his interpretation of many other Elvis biographies that lack credible sources or proper citations. As a scholar, I would have expected him to include a properly formatted Works Cited. Instead, he included a Bibliographic Essay that includes his sources. I do not recommend this depressing account of Elvis Presley's life.
June 7, 2017
This book made me angry. I enjoyed the beginning, but once Elvis began his music career the book became a gossip rag. Yes, we all know Elvis wasn't perfect, but this book made him out to be a monster. There were such intimate details of Elvis ' sex life that I felt dirty just reading it.
Obviously the author didn't have much affection for his subject. It was obvious in his work.
The book also rambled and jumped around which made it difficult to follow.
There aren't too many books that I wish I hadn't picked up but this is one of them
Obviously the author didn't have much affection for his subject. It was obvious in his work.
The book also rambled and jumped around which made it difficult to follow.
There aren't too many books that I wish I hadn't picked up but this is one of them
August 1, 2022
2.75 stars rounded up. I had high hopes for this book, but ultimately it was underwhelming. It only lived up to its premise of putting Elvis into the context of Southern culture for about the first third of the book. After that, as others have pointed out, it really just regurgitated the sensational tabloid-esque bios that are already out there. If I wasn't a fan, I would've abandoned this one after about page 165. Also, I found at least one glaring factual mistake that could've been easily verified that made me question what else the book got wrong.
December 27, 2021
I was lucky enough to meet Dr. Williamson while studying at Ole Miss in the early 90s. My thesis director put us in touch as I was writing on Elvis as well. It was a great talk on a glorious afternoon in the Grove (IYKYK). A little bit of what he expounds on here came out in discussion. Parts of this book are glorious as others have pointed out. Other parts are just what is usually written about the man.
The author knows southern culture well making that bit fascinating.
The author knows southern culture well making that bit fascinating.
September 12, 2022
I always felt there was something missing in most of the books and documentaries on Elvis. I was right. This book is not for everyone. If you want the truth, read the book. If you have an image of Elvis you don't want to let go of I would suggest you not read the book. People, mostly women, made Elvis into the man they wanted him to be not the person he really was and Elvis himself contributed to the illusion.
February 25, 2021
Excellent perspective on Elvis
I am soo glad I did not listen to the reviews. The author delved into Elvis' southern background to give a perspective not fully discussed before. I felt he made Elvis human. I have read many Elvis books and feel the narrative was authentic. Highly recommend for Elvis fans and especially those who did not grow up in the Southern United States.
I am soo glad I did not listen to the reviews. The author delved into Elvis' southern background to give a perspective not fully discussed before. I felt he made Elvis human. I have read many Elvis books and feel the narrative was authentic. Highly recommend for Elvis fans and especially those who did not grow up in the Southern United States.
December 21, 2021
A revelation
Loved this book - a true reflection on Elvis Presley life, Vices and virtues were treated with honesty and integrity, I did not like what I learned about
the man I'd revered for 49 years but The facts are irrefutable. Elvis is revealed in his beauty and also his weakness, I hope he is in heaven now,
Loved this book - a true reflection on Elvis Presley life, Vices and virtues were treated with honesty and integrity, I did not like what I learned about
the man I'd revered for 49 years but The facts are irrefutable. Elvis is revealed in his beauty and also his weakness, I hope he is in heaven now,
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 25, 2025
very good book
January 14, 2017
I've read many books about Elvis, but this one written by a professor is the best. To understand the south and the race-relations and the post-war south and the proper southern society; you realize this could only happen in Memphis at this time in American history. Fascinating !
(Who knew that William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams and EP were all from the same area!?)
(Who knew that William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams and EP were all from the same area!?)
February 14, 2017
Overall this was a very good biography, and it was also a book on race, class and gender issues in the South and in the US in General after WW2. Elvis Presley's stage character and his career were heavily shaped by his environment, and it was interesting reading about the way women responded to Elvis, and the author's ideas as to why they acted the way they did towards him. I did not, however, see the need to have all his many affairs told in detail. I suppose for those using this book for research those details might be useful, but otherwise, especially when it comes to all the women it only took a page of text to cover, those stories might have simply been unneeded gossip.
My other major criticism is the author's simplification of girls' excitement over Elvis as being 'sex'. It sure sounds edgier this way, but it also sounds a bit overstated, contrived, or at least superficial. I liked that he starts to consider why the teenage girls in his audiences went nuts during the shows, and certainly some element of sexuality was there, but I'd also not discount Elvis' own statement that his stage movements and the girls' reactions were innocent. It is, after all, possible for men and women to move their bodies and act wildly excited because it is fun or because it is a silliness they know is not permissable outside the stage context, without sex being the only or even the primary or dominant motive. Girls can enjoy being uninhibited and wild without having to be motivated sexually, and I thought Elvis' understanding of what the girls were doing, from the quotes and scenes the author provided, was far more complex than what the author offered. But, that is a criticism that would be a great college paper for a gender studies class.
For the general reader the litany of Elvis' women gets a bit tedious, but there is still a lot here to enjoy and some interesting perspectives offered on what life was like in the South during the era when Elvis was emerging.
(I received my copy of this book free in exchange for a fair review.)
My other major criticism is the author's simplification of girls' excitement over Elvis as being 'sex'. It sure sounds edgier this way, but it also sounds a bit overstated, contrived, or at least superficial. I liked that he starts to consider why the teenage girls in his audiences went nuts during the shows, and certainly some element of sexuality was there, but I'd also not discount Elvis' own statement that his stage movements and the girls' reactions were innocent. It is, after all, possible for men and women to move their bodies and act wildly excited because it is fun or because it is a silliness they know is not permissable outside the stage context, without sex being the only or even the primary or dominant motive. Girls can enjoy being uninhibited and wild without having to be motivated sexually, and I thought Elvis' understanding of what the girls were doing, from the quotes and scenes the author provided, was far more complex than what the author offered. But, that is a criticism that would be a great college paper for a gender studies class.
For the general reader the litany of Elvis' women gets a bit tedious, but there is still a lot here to enjoy and some interesting perspectives offered on what life was like in the South during the era when Elvis was emerging.
(I received my copy of this book free in exchange for a fair review.)
August 4, 2014
Elvis Presley: A Southern Life by Joel Williamson covers it all. His early life in Tupelo, moving to Memphis, the school days when he was made fun of or ignored by many. The day he walked in to Sun Studio to create a record for his Moma and was discovered. It covers all the time in between the birth and death of Elvis. Elvis had a beautiful voice and moves that many came to see and hear. It got so bad that he could not leave home without being surrounded by bodyguards. I can't imagine not being able to go to the movies or a grocery store without being swamped by people. Even though many envied his life, it had to have been a hard life. He is still famous today all these years later. Graceland and Memphis see several fans/visitors daily. This was very interesting reading. The author has put a lot of research into this book, all listed at the end of the book. I recommend it to Elvis fans, would make a nice addition to your collections and to anyone wanting to learn more about the man, Elvis Presley.
I received an ARC (advanced readers copy) of this book from Net Gallery in exchange for my honest review rather it be good or bad. Thank you.
I received an ARC (advanced readers copy) of this book from Net Gallery in exchange for my honest review rather it be good or bad. Thank you.
June 8, 2017
Elvis!
I really thought this book was going to ruin my image of him.
You know the image of the "image"/icon, considering I did not know much about him.
I'm more or less a new Elvis fan, I've been a fan of his music for more years than I can remember but it wasn't until recent years that I went "full-on" fan. (regular at the annual Elvis festival). So that's mainly how I'll be reviewing this book.
Not based on how well it was researched or how much support some claims have.
It kind of felt like something a student would write for a school project, that's not saying the writing was that of a student, just the attitude towards the subject. He tried hard to make it come off interesting and semi-captivating, and some parts were; mainly the interesting parts of Elvis' life. Everything else just felt placed in as a filler.
I received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
I really thought this book was going to ruin my image of him.
You know the image of the "image"/icon, considering I did not know much about him.
I'm more or less a new Elvis fan, I've been a fan of his music for more years than I can remember but it wasn't until recent years that I went "full-on" fan. (regular at the annual Elvis festival). So that's mainly how I'll be reviewing this book.
Not based on how well it was researched or how much support some claims have.
It kind of felt like something a student would write for a school project, that's not saying the writing was that of a student, just the attitude towards the subject. He tried hard to make it come off interesting and semi-captivating, and some parts were; mainly the interesting parts of Elvis' life. Everything else just felt placed in as a filler.
I received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
January 27, 2015
The King is most certainly not dead, at least not in the cultural sense. In Elvis Presley: A Southern Life, Joel Williamson—a professor at the University of North Carolina who has also written a well-respected biography of William Faulkner—proves that another biography of the man who made rock’n’roll mainstream is necessary.
Like Bobbie Ann Mason’s brief 2002 biography, Williamson delves into Elvis as representative of Southern culture and history, with nods to Faulkner and Tennessee Williams. The changing standards of race, class and gender in the post-WWII South had a great deal to do with the changing styles Elvis embraced, but at heart, his urge to please—and to be polite about it—reflect the deeply-ingrained Southern attitudes about public and private, etiquette and acceptance. ...
(Full review on Lit/Rant: http://litrant.tumblr.com/post/107433...)
Like Bobbie Ann Mason’s brief 2002 biography, Williamson delves into Elvis as representative of Southern culture and history, with nods to Faulkner and Tennessee Williams. The changing standards of race, class and gender in the post-WWII South had a great deal to do with the changing styles Elvis embraced, but at heart, his urge to please—and to be polite about it—reflect the deeply-ingrained Southern attitudes about public and private, etiquette and acceptance. ...
(Full review on Lit/Rant: http://litrant.tumblr.com/post/107433...)
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