Customer Reviews

Elvis

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Albert Goldman has long been considered a biased hack, and his Elvis bio, if anyone recalls the Rolling Stone article going through it, researching it, and refuting it, is the basis for a lot of Goldman's bad reputation. Anyone, anyone, with a modicum of knowledge about Sam Phillips certainly knows he never used the N word - never - and yet this book is supposedly factual. And his big source is Lamar Fike? Hello!

If you want to read an honest account of Elvis' life, try the books by Peter Guralnick, Last Train to Memphis and Careless Love. This two book set is, in my opinion, the definitive biography of Elvis Presley. This may come as a shock to some, but Elvis was about music and guess what, Guralnick's books actually discuss the music in detail, including the genesis of rock 'n' roll itself, making for fascinating reading.

As someone who has helped to research many biographies for a very, very distinguished biographer, Barry Paris - just look him up on Amazon, why don't you - I can tell you that this book is disgustingly, horribly researched - when there was any research done at all, with bad source notes and a major bias. Like his equally revolting book on Lennon, Goldman's Elvis bio neglects to paint a portrait of a full, complicated human being. Guralnick's books do not in any way portray Elvis as a saint. They do, however, place him and his music in history and give a total picture of a man.

In this book Goldman maliciously sets out to destroy the reputation of Elvis Presley. This is not a biography in the traditional sense of the word, no; it is a vicious hatchet job.

Through his persistently negative line of attack and dependence on unnamed or biased sources Goldman paints the ugliest portrait of Elvis imaginable. But he doesn't stop there. His depiction of Elvis's parents as the "Beverly Hillbillies" and his condescending reconstruction of the sort of gospel show that inspired the young Elvis could even be considered racist.

In short, "Elvis" by Albert Goldman is a thoroughly despicable book, written IMO by a thoroughly despicable man--hold your nose and read it at your own risk.

I was forced to give the book 1 star, as Amazon does not offer a 0 star option. Even people who dislike Elvis should find the writing insulting. Only someone who was severely jealous of Elvis could write the evil words and tone found in this book. I'm not a disillusioned Elvis fan. I'm well aware that Elvis had his faults and find it appropriate to mention some of them in a biography. However, Albert Goldman chose to make up hateful lies and worked hard to make Elvis seem gross and uncouth. I must admit that I did not complete the book. In fact, I could no longer stomach the rubbish and quit at page 22. I wondered where all this jealousy and rage were coming from. A quick flip through the back page flap where I found the photo of Mr. Goldman answered that question. Poor guy.

If you want a book with truth in it, don't waste your time on this book of lies! If you are severely in hate with Elvis you might like it. But if after reading it you find it a good book, I recommend you seek out a qualified psychiatrist.

Shellie Collins

This biography reveals more truths about Albert Goldman than it does about Elvis Presley.

An experienced reader will quickly detect Goldman's biases and turn instead to a credible writer to learn the truth about Elvis.

Goldman's greatest skill is in finding unflattering words in his thesaurus.

Ultimately, Albert Goldman discredits not Elvis Presley but himself.

I am a Ph.D. majored in English writing and I have to say this
book is an artful attempt to use literate phrasing to disguise the evil, mean-spirited and, more important, often outright false
characterizations of a dead celebrity. Greil Marcus, a true rock critic, has written Dead Elvis and Mystery Train and documents the many ways Goldman trashes a celebrity who gave far more to this world that Goldman ever will. Here is a man trying to become wealthy and known by wantonly destroying the reputation of a person leagues more valuable and characterologically elevated than Goldman will ever be. I honestly believe this is an evil man and what he has written is
literally ungly and racist. Please don't waste your time on this. There are, as you know, dozens (actually over 500 written in the U. S. alone) books on Elvis Presley. You will be unhappy paying your good money for this and will not want to contribute one cent in royalties to Albert Goldman. He does, by the way, do the same sort of hatchet job on John Lennon.

If it is possible to give NO STARS, or NEGATIVE STARS, on a book review this book would be the one book (on every level) to deserve the worst rating possible. Albert Goldman has written a book devoid of facts and is a travesty all the while tainting the (earnest) profession of writers/Authors.

The disdain that the "Author" has for Elvis Presley, his life - his upbringing - his accomplishments, etc., is evident from the first pages until the last. In all honesty there should be a Disclaimer on this book that says "Biased" and "read at your own peril. After reading the first chapter I felt like I had to take a shower. This "Author" spews hatred about Elvis - the South - Elvis' family - and 99.9% of everyone that was a part of Elvis' life.

Elvis Presley was not an angel and he had very real, personal/medically/emotionally/etc., issues some of which increased throughout the years. If this "Author" had stuck with the facts, and then stated them, that would have been fine by me. But this "Author" has minimized everything about Elvis and attempted to destroy the truth about Elvis and his accomplishments.

How anyone could take a story about a boy who grew up poor and rose to be the most famous entertainer in the World, not through their connections buy by their talents, and turn it into a "he stole everything" mantra leaves one shaking their head. There is only one reason why he wrote this book, and distorted the life/facts/etc. about Elvis Presley, and that was to make money.

This "Author" never would have tried to write this book while Elvis was alive for he would have, in all probability, been sued for defamation and slander.

If you are looking for excellent books about Elvis Presley fortunately there are several written by Alanna Nash and various members of the Memphis Mafia (i.e. Marty Lacker, Joe Esposito, Red West, Sonny West, Billy Smith, Lamar Fike, Charlie Hodge, Jerry Schilling, etc.) to choose from.

Freedom of the Press, and speech, is a fundamental right deserving of respect. I have the utmost respect for anyone sharing their time, and talents, via the writen word. Sadly, Albert Goldman has put together a book unworthy of its name (i.e. Elvis).

The only recommendation I have for this book is to (a) buy rubber gloves (b) buy hand sanitizer and (c) use both after each page of this book.

Colonel Parker used to say "any publicity is good publicity" and in the case of Albert Goldman he has sunk to a level unbecoming of his subject.

Elvis

Read the book in 1985, and I loved it. All the other Elvis biographies were so cheesy and obviously written to make a buck, that Goldman's book is awesome. For those who believed Elvis to be a saint, there is no more basis for that concept than what Goldman relays from the dark side. Anyway, no matter what biography about Elvis that you read, one thing is true, Colonel Tom screwed Elvis from every angle.

Explosive, inflammatory, malicious, and brilliant. These are just a few of the adjectives that describe this indelible portrait of Elvis Presley -- a portrait that enraged his devoted cult and shocked the rest of the world.

In retrospect, it's difficult to understand what rock "loyalists" like Greil Marcus and Dave Marsh found so offensive about Goldman's books. After all, photographic evidence for years before Elvis' death made his grotesquely obese, flabby appearance clear to everyone. The total decline in his music was charted by his increasingly lackluster albums. And when a 42 year old man dies of a "heart attack" while using the bathroom it's pretty clear that drugs were a factor.

What the "loyalists" of the Marcus/Marsh school really hated was the way Goldman exposed Elvis politically, not just sexually and medically. Read a "good" rock book and all you get is tired, tired, Marxist rhetoric about Elvis as a "poor boy" who never forgot his roots. In the minds of Marcus and Marsh, Elvis is Tom Joad, proud and humble in patched overalls, forever marching across the pastures of heaven arm-in-arm with Lenin and Trotsky.

Please. Albert Goldman may have been wrong about Elvis' music (he doesn't like rock and roll very much, and he says so) but he was absolutely right about the man. The essence of Elvis Presley the man was not pride by self-loathing, not compassion but callous indifference, not rebellion and defiance but hypocrisy and submission.

Elvis could have marched on Washington DC with Martin Luther King -- but chose instead to play toady and lick Richard Nixon's boots. Elvis could have toured with Chuck Berry and Little Richard -- but chose instead to make lousy movies while Little Richard prayed for salvation and Chuck Berry rotted in jail.

No matter what his gifts as an artist, Elvis was a man who always, always took the easy way out, who recorded powerful music only when his back was against the wall. Elvis loathed the Beatles, the student left, the anti-war movement, the feminist movement, the Gay Liberation movement, and (in all probability) the black Civil Rights movement as well. Elvis was the kind of self-hating trash who reacted to his own "outsider" status by toadying to the rich and powerful and bullying anyone whose "differences" reminded him (however faintly) of himself.

Goldman presents Presley as the weak, cowardly, bigoted and self-destructive buffoon he really was -- not as the lily-white working class Virgin Mary of Dave Marsh's pathetic infantile fantasies. The irony, of course, is that there are millions upon millions of working Americans of all colors who are infinitely superior to Elvis in character and moral courage, and yet Marsh and Marcus try to frame the debate so that any attack on Elvis is an attack on "the working class." In reality it is the rock left who have betrayed the working class by substituting sentimentality and hypocrisy for honesty and truth.

I am a 62 year old Elvis tribute artist with a PHD in theolgoy. Goldman attacks everybody including Jews. He seems to think he is cute by caling everybody nasty names. I think he was very jealous of Elivs. While often commenting that Elvis was so much better than his competition, he allows no slack for the tremendous pressure Elvis was under because of the Colonel's greed. I would like to see a more balanced approach that spends equal time telling the good things Elvis always managed to do. I was shocked at his revelations of Elvis' sexual sins with underaged girls. If only one fourth of what Goldman says about Elvis is true, then it is still too much bad news. I want to think that God took Elvis early because he was professing a faith he was not living. Having said that, I still beleive that Elvis never gave up the simple faith he professed when he was a child and wanted to become a gospel singer. The book is worth the read if for no other reason than balacne. Don't believe everything you read and try to imagine how you would have lived your life in Elvis' shoes. Goldman is a narrow-minded biased jerk. Elvis was a controlled man who did not know how to break away from the Colonel. I wonder if he would have acceptedd a committed Christian to be among the Guys. Russell Earl Kelly

I wish I could give it zero stars or minus-20. Terrible book.

BLENDER Magazine dubbed it THE Worst Rock Biography of all time, which is why I bought it off e-bay - just to see how bad it could be.

It lived down to my expectations.