Elvis-The Final Years

I summed it up in my title: Peter Guralnick's Elvis books are the standard serious biographies now, but before those, Hopkins' were the best of the dozens of Elvis books out there. He had the proper perspective on the greatness of Elvis's music, the sadness and weirdness of the final years, and who contributed what along the way.

The story of Elvis's demise is a sordid one. Yet it is impossible to read of Elvis's last decade without developing a lasting affection for the man. From the blow-em-away return special of 1968 to the splendor of the early Vegas years, Elvis's performances in the late 60s and early 70s remind us of what the word "comeback" ought to mean. "Suspicious Minds" remains one of his finest hits - and the live version is a treat. As Jerry Hopkins recalls, the King would prepare for those performances like a prize-fighter - witness his incredible weight loss for the TV concert. Elvis was also a remarkably generous, witty individual -- most don't know that "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" was his favorite film. That said, his eventual decline was total and utter, and the only consolation in the stories of guns, drugs, promiscuity, martial arts, bad food and middling albums is that somewhere in that Python-loving psyche he may have found it grimly amusing.