Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley

by Peter Guralnick and Peter Gurainick

Book Overview

Hailed as "a masterwork" by the Wall Street Journal, Careless Loveis the full, true, and mesmerizing story of Elvis Presley's last two decades, in the long-awaited second volume of Peter Guralnick's masterful two-part biography.

Winner of the Ralph J. Gleason Music Book Award

Last Train to Memphis, the first part of Guralnick's two-volume life of Elvis Presley, was acclaimed by the New York Times...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316332976
• ISBN13: 9780316332972
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Back Bay Books
• Length: 768 Pages
• Weight: 2.11 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.9" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

A must read for all Elvis fans

Volume 1 & 2 are must reads for all Elvis fans. This book had me riveted until the end. Very revealing and insightful. I don't think a single detail was left out and I've read all the other books out there about Elvis. Wish I'd read these two first. I came away with the realization that no way would Elvis have ever married Ginger Alden. She was just one of many, many woman in his life. It is a sad book though so have the tissue box handy.

Outstanding!

What more can I say. This book brought me to tears. After reading the first book, I didn't think any book could top this. It did! I've been an Elvis fan for my entire life. I thought I couldn't find anything else out about him. I understand more of what made him tick. A definite MUST for the Elvis Presley fan.

Elvis Presley

First off I like to thank the author of this book about Elvis Presley I highly recommend it to all the Elvis Presley fans there others by this author too you should read

A poingant, depressing, and insightful look at Elvis...

First and foremost, this is a depressing book. There is a warning in the author's note that the book is about a tragedy, and this is an understatement. Elvis Presely's "fall" was a hard and bitter one. This book outlines events starting in 1960 up to Presely's death in 1977. Things start out looking pretty good for Elvis as he leaves the army and begins his career almost anew, but as the 1970s emerge, things start to cloud over, and the book follows the downward spiraling vortex that Presley and his somewhat bizarre and almost constantly fluctuating entourage followed up to the end. Along the way, Guralnick allows readers to draw their own conclusions about Presley. Mostly the book outlines details of certain events - sometimes so detailed one wonders if Guralnick was there himself - interspersed with commentary from people who lived through these same events. It is not an uplifting read. One gets the impression that Presley's fame isolated him from pretty much the human race, made him untouchable (reprisals were feared by anyone is his immediate "gang", and it didn't help matters that most of them were on his payroll) and ultimately put him beyond the help of his own family and the people who he thought were his friends. Presely's fame turns horrendously destructive in the 1970s, and some of the stories and anecdotes may make the sensitive reader wince. Some of the stories are just downright strange: Presley's religious enlightenment from seeing an image in the clouds of the face of Stalin turn into the face of Jesus; Presley's determination to secure himself a position of Narcotics officer from President Nixon; the pranks Preseley and his retinue play on each other, on audiences, and on themselves; the fact that, as record sales declined, Presely's revenue actually increased. Other anecdotes have a more disturbing undertow: Presley's manipulation and abject objectification of the women in his life, and the fact that many of them kept coming back even after being brusquely brushed off; Presley's fascination with guns, and his sometime not so comforting habit of pointing them at people when angry; Presely's wild, erratic, and irresponsible spending; Presley's inability to take advice from his wife, girlfriends, business manager, and even his own father on dire personal matters (e.g., his finances, his marriage, his health). It is a tragedy to read about someone who both cared about people but also put himself above others in a way that put him beyond their help or aid.The figure of "the Colonel" lurks behind the entire story. He has Presley's business needs in mind, and, due to his business acumen, makes Presley (and himself) multi-millionaires beyond imagination. It's amazing to read how the Colonel is able to make more and more money from Movie studios, even as movies starring Presley are on a sharp decline in revenue and popularity. The whole story is mind boggling. In the end, the Colonel thought he was taking care of Elvis in the best way he

Masterful and stunningly sad

I was not an Elvis fan before casually picking this up in an airport to have something to read on my flight. Now I can hardly pass a day (or sometimes hour) without thinking about him thanks to this incredible masterpiece of a biography. If the aim of a biography is to guide you to the subject on a personal level, tell you something about them that you never knew before, inspire you learn more about them then Guralnick has accomplished this and more. One of the most fascinating and enlightening aspects of the 2 volume work (Last Train To Memphis) comes in the form of Elvis' recording sessions. To understand him as a person, to truly give him the utter respect that is due him as the ultimate musician, you have to get into those recording sessions and sit alongside him, watch his reactions, listen to his comments, gauge his moods. Guralnick has managed to gain us entrance to these sessions and you are there. At the close of this book beware - even though you know the ending you keep hoping beyond hope that it turns out differently because you will love Presley. You will grieve for him, you will miss him and you will be furious at the utter waste of a genius. Above all, you will be grateful for his life, what he brought us while he was here and to Peter Guralnick for bringing him back to us, if just for the time it takes to finish the book. Thankyou Mr Guralnick.

Elvis: *This* Is What Happened

Elvis Presley is one of those singular cultural figures who naturally and without defiance broke America apart and re-invented it. He didn't come as prophet or destroyer, not as a statesman or reformer, but as a guileless, unpretentious young man blessed with a talent and charisma and drive that leaves us mere mortals agape. In a way, he is like several other men of the era--Kennedy, Brando, Dean, later the Beatles--who created the "youth culture" to which we are (unfortunately) more enslaved to now than ever....Wait a minute--did I just refer to Elvis as other than merely mortal? Not so, and Peter Guralnick's astonishing Careless Love finally makes it possible for us to grasp Elvis as human. While other books about him could fill a thousand mausoleums, let them, because Guralnick's two-volume set (the first is Last Train to Memphis (1994)), will stand as the definitive biography of this great American.But before you dive in, let me say that Careless Love, while beautifully and carefully written, and extra-carefully researched--Guralnick had access to unorganized files in Graceland unlike anyone prior to him--it is dense with factual trivia insterspersed with the dramatic events of Elvis' life (and the lives of those around him). This book is not for the casual reader; in its intimate details, vast narrative, and utter lack of superhero worship glitter, this book will probably appeal less to traditional Elvis fanatics than to those seriously interested in this man who became a 20th century phenomenon.Again and again, Elvis is described as "humble, shy, respectful, hard-working." This seems true, right, but what is most effective in Guralnick's portrait is what's shown and not told--Elvis' misplaced affections, his desire to keep family and friends around him at all times (but then, you can't blame him). These people, from his father Vernon, to Priscilla, to old friends like Red West, had to put up with his mood swings, his anger, his jet-setting on a whim, the covert operations of smuggling girls in and out of his bedroom. Seemingly without concern for finances he gave away Cadillacs, motorcycles, TVs, homes, jewellry, to those around him, testing loyalty, wanting only their dedication to his perverse lifestyle.Guralnick makes it clear that one of the young men in Elvis' employ became one of his most trusted friends--and one who was hounded out of the circle by Elvis' "good ol' boy" cronies. Larry Geller was a hairstylist when he met Elvis in April 1964. Immediately there was a rapport, for Geller filled a gap in Elvis' life--a hunger for spiritual, even intellectual pursuits. Geller listened while E poured his heart out about his mother--and if you know anything about Elvis, you know he loved his mother and when she died, well, he was never the same.Elvis became quite the reader--one of the many revelations here. I won't comment on the types of religious books he read--well, suffice to say today they'd probably be shelved in the dreaded "New Age

A scrupulous, unobtrusive masterpiece!

Painstakingly researched and lovingly constructed, Guralnick's book presents an honest insight into the life of the Twentieth Century's greatest icon. This book succeeds because Guralnick does not seek explicitly to judge Elvis, the colonel nor any of the other main protagonists actions- he sticks to a simple, elegant yet prosaic narrative. In doing so, Guralnick avoids the major pitfall of the biographer by not writing himself into the book. When I read this book, I felt myself slipping into Elvis' environs- I wasn't aware of Guralnick's presence as author. Perhaps one of the greatest pop music biographies written.

Second Half of Two Part Elvis Bio Completes a Perfect Set

In his long awaited sequel to "Last Train To Memphis" Peter Guralnick has proven that he is (in MY mind) the "Premier Rock n' Roll Biographer" of our time. After reading "Last Train" nearly four years ago, I immediately began the search for a date of the release of the promised "second half" of Elvis' life. (It was THAT good.)Guralnick does not let his readers down. He once again portrays Elvis in an honest light. Without pulling a single punch this book takes us on the sad and wasted path of the undoing of The King. We are shown an Elvis that is NOT the tabloid joke that he has been reduced to since his death. Mr. Guralnick has done what many thought could not have been done: He has allowed us to SEE Elvis for the first time.Guralnick never loses sight of what the Elvis story was originally all about: The Music.He lovingly presents the facts of a talented young man's glorious rise to super-stardom then he carefully constructs the details of Elvis' deconstruction.The attention to detail is immediately impressive as he succeeds in getting the reader to "see the chipped paint on the door knob". Never dull, this biography is the perfect example of how some stories are best told (and read) in multiple volumes.My advice for any aspiring Elvis biographers out there: Give up. The job is DONE.My thanks to Peter Guralnick.