Customer Reviews

Elvis: What Happened?

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

Normally I would never give a book I find to be so sloppily organized and redundant 4 stars. However, I am making an exception with this book because the actual SUBSTANCE in the book is undeniable -- replete with firsthand accounts of many, many different (and often disturbing) scenarios. Full of the demons the kind of life these authors lived has. A fascinating read.

It is a portrait not only of Elvis but of the "yes men" who chose to let Elvis be the center of their universes -- even when they weren't being paid or paid very little. It also describes many, many incidents that show the irresponsibility of Elvis and of themselves in the name of "fun." When Elvis caused damage he just threw money at it, and there was always plenty of money to throw at it; when the "boys" felt any tinges of responsibility for making poor choices they chalked it up to loyalty to Elvis.

He didn't often pay them much, but they lived in the craziness and glamour of a lifestyle only sometime very rich and very famous could have, and -- as it is repeated so often in the book -- their loyalty to him was out of love (at least what they thought was love).

It is amazing that this book came out just before Elvis died of a drug overdose. Most people didn't realize about Elvis's drug habits -- and by the time they did, it was too late.

I can't help but feel that the title: ELVIS: WHAT HAPPENED? was as a direct question to Elvis. As if the guys who wrote it felt that maybe Elvis would read the book and be reminded of how much they loved him -- but also have to face his self-destructive lifestyle.

I find this book very honest not only because of what it says about Elvis -- and it IS about Elvis -- but what it confesses about the men who wrote it -- especially Red West and Sonny West. There is MUCH confession here, and things that would be hard to admit to oneself much less a mass of strangers in a book. If they did not spare Elvis in their truth-telling, I suspect it would be fair to say that they did not spare themselves either. And because of this, I can't help but believe the book is very honest.

The agitatingly redundant part of the book was perhaps more the fault of the ghost writer or editor. It's all right for a two-hour movie to flash back and forth through time, but for an entire book to go from '58 to '73 back to '58 then to '75 then back to '61 and progress to '62 ... well, you get the picture. This is why I don't give the book 5 stars.

If I find a book interesting -- and this one is -- I often like to read it cover to cover in a short amount of time. But this book drove me nuts anytime I gave it more than an hour of reading time due to the unnecessary sense of vertigo from constant drifting and shifting back and forth into different places in time, but also because of certain phrases -- only slightly reworded -- used again and again and again until I could hardly stand it. A good editor, in my opinion, would have cut and pasted that baby big-time -- put it in chronological order -- and then dropped all the repetitive phrases from the book except for perhaps the very beginning and very end of the book.

However it is also those repetitive phrases, along with the title of the book, that make me to feel that this book was written very much with Elvis reading it in mind -- and wanting to remind him over and over how they loved him and were loyal to him in so many ways. Or maybe it wasn't even that. Maybe -- in fact, surely -- they were fighting their own demons after coming out of so many years in their very dysfunctional relationships that they had with Elvis and with each other. Sometimes when you are trying to resolve something and make sense of it you just feel a need to talk about it, hoping that something will suddenly snap and all the pieces will finally fall in place.

Very much a "reality book."

I think the authors really hoped that the book would help bring Elvis to his senses so that he would dry out from all his pills and become the guy they once knew and loved most.

One other thing: I found it fascinating to read all the things people put up with around Elvis. I'm sorry, but just one day with some of his antics with guns for instance and I would be SO out of there. As I read this book I was not just dismayed by Elvis's self-destruction, but by the self-destruction that went on for just about everyone involved in Elvis's daily life (except for the possible exception of Col. Parker who seemed to lead a totally separate personal life, his role being limited more to being Elvis's respected, capable, somewhat heavy-handed and influential personal manager).

Biggest missed opportunity for Elvis: turning down a role in the movie THUNDER ROAD -- apparently under Col. Parker's insistence. Because, like many celebrity singers, Elvis wanted to be a movie star.

I would like to know what Elvis might have done if he had refused to make all the "musical travelogue" movies he hated so and had divorced himself from Col. Parker's ruling hand. Elvis, (and I agree with him), didn't like those movies much and hated making them, but it was "sure money," a thing Parker, like any "good" businessman, always liked to go for. It was Parker too who chose to stage Elvis's "comeback" after the Army in a Las Vegas setting. Well, I won't go on and on anymore. Needless to say, this book got me to thinking about a LOT of things. It's revealing, informative, often brutally honest, and best of all really stirring. It gave me a LOT to think about -- not only about Elvis but about "yes men," women and fans who went over the top in their own personal choices in response to the opportunity to be in the inner circle with this man or chose to storm the stage at one of his concerts, be it for a decade or an hour.

Riveting stuff. Just don't try to read it all at once. I'm tellin' ya, that'd drive you nuts! Perfect would be maybe 15-30 minutes a day. Worth the read.

I for one *do* believe the authors loved Elvis and wanted him to get help. On the other hand, as an expose of a friend, it's pretty coldblooded.

It's sad that Elvis died just prior to the release of this book. It might have been the "hit-bottom-moment" he needed to realize, once and for all, how the pills (and not just the Colonel's singleminded focus on the bottom line, not just "too much fame too soon") had changed him. (The Colonel and fame being aggravating factors, yes.)

Why didn't anyone force Elvis to get help? Because you can't force anyone to help themselves, and Elvis' being "The King" didn't help matters much.

The book really demonstrates anecdotally how incredibly indulged Elvis was by everyone around him, and how extreme fame and drugs combined to shelter Elvis and keep him in a fantasy world.

It's a sad end to a man of faith and generosity.

Why is this book out of print? Two reasons:

1) It's painful to read.

2) While author and bodyguard Red doubtless did have roles directing the musical side of Elvis' career, calling Red "the genius behind Elvis' music" is so patently absurd as to further distance the reader, casting doubt not only on the credibility -- but the sanity -- of the authorial voice.

Still, a fascinating portrait, best in combination with a book like Peter Guralnick's more erudite Elvis biography, "Careless Love".

Contrary to other reviews you've read, this book was extremely well written. No, it's not a chronology of events; however, if one is looking for insight into who Elvis was as a person, I've yet to come across anything as complete as this.
For the pollianna Elvis fan, some of the information may be hard to swallow, but the fact that it was written by those who were closest to him consistantly over a 20 year period provides all the credibility a reader should require.
The book is certainly not a condemnation of Elvis; rather, it is a complete -- seemingly truthful -- sketch of a total man: his talents as well as his faults, his accomplishments and his misfortunes.
The reader who is interested in more than just an iconoclastic version of "The King" will appreciate the candid glimpse of the emperor both in and out of his clothes.

I've been an ELVIS fan for more than 40 years and have read several books about him. Some present him as a god, with no faults and failures, but even we - that will love him forever - must realize he was human. Back in 1977, this must have been a sensation book, but nowadays, like ELVIS himself once said, he "was tame compared to present performers". I loved to read some episodes I've never heard about and I only regret that they are not mentioned chronologically. But of course this is a tell-all gossip and, for a serious biography, we must read Peter
Guralnick's two volumes "Last Train to Memphis" and "Careless Love".

I thought it was a good book. I read a lot of bad reviews so I never bought the book for a long while. I'm glad I finally bought/read it. The author really didn't depict him as being a monster just a human being. I don't understand what all the hype was about. It probably was a little dramatized even. I loved it and couldn't put it down.

Perhaps time heals all but this is not as bad as I thought. Throughout his career, there was no real negative publicity about Elvis so at the time this was published it would have been a real shock but looking at it now it's a case of so what!

These guys actually come across as loving Elvis and really at the end of their rope with his behaviour. Perhaps they thought it was the only way they could get him to listen. Red and Sonny really did respect the guy and were pilloried for writing this, but did they feel this was the final straw?

Worth a look if only to look back and see how tame it all was.

I'm not disputing much of the stories that were told to Steve Dunleavy, (a gossip reporter at the NY Post at the time this book was written),he took much of what was told by "the bodyguards" and put a negative spin on them sensationalizing them, making Elvis seem like an obsessed crazed man! After all, gossip was Dunleavy's forte. I'm not saying that the book is inaccurate, but I am saying that this book does not represent the real "Elvis Presely". And the 3 bodyguards were not happy in the way the book was written. This book is an embellishment on the truth, distorting so to sell that many more books. The structure of the book is so fragmented and confusing...one minute you're in 1958 the next your in 1972! It's apparent that Dunleavy was used to writing columns for the Post. Bottomline is that Elvis was no different from anyone else and had problems as we all do. He hurt no one but himself and for all thats ever been said about this man, the good far outweighs the bad.

This book is one of the first books written when Elvis was still alive. Ironically, Elvis died a few weeks after the publishing of this book. Was the content that shocking? At the time, probably, yes. But we have to consider the fact that before this book was published, most people didn't know that much about the "private Elvis" (you can ask yourself, if we know that much about the "real Elvis" today), therefore most people found this book revealing and shocking back in 1977. Today, this book isn't, of course, shocking any more. Most people already know the stories this book tells us. We all know Elvis had a problem with his medication, we all know that he loved women, that he loved singing and spending almost all his money on cars, clothing, jewelry, houses and charity. Basically, that's the story this book tells us. The only minus is the fact that the book is poorly written with barely any structure. It's more like an interview with the three bodyguards (Red & Sonny West and Dave Hebler) who tell their memories. Ridiculous is the fact, that they admit they had a lot of fun with Elvis, but that Elvis, in their eyes, was going down hill. They say they tried to help him, but he wouldn't listen. This could be true, but they didn't stop working for Elvis, nor did they refuse his gifts. It was because of the fact that Elvis' father fired them, that they went their own way. And here we find the reason for writing this book: bitterness.(At a 1977 pressconference a reporter asked them why they wrote such a sensational book about Elvis, and Sonny West answered: "(...)It was out of bitterness...") That indicates the fact that their memories were more based on emotions than on intellect. Further, the memories told in this book, are written down without any structure. They ran e.g. from 1958 to 1976, back to 1965 to 1972. At one moment they are talking about Elvis' schoolyears and "whoops!" there we are at an Elvisconcert in the 70's. I find it a pitty that the bodyguards didn't got a better writer than Dunleavy was. Their memories could have been written down in a much better, appropriate way.

When Elvis: What Happened? first appeared in 1977 it was a sensation. The book was the first to reveal The King's drug abuse and it became a best seller. The fact that the book appeared just weeks before Elvis' August 1977 death did not hurt sales.

Thirty years later, the book is still an interesting read. You get inside accounts of Elvis' rise to fame, drug abuse, love for his mother, and his disdain for the B-movies that he made after his discharge from the Army. One surprising aspect of the book to me was Elvis' need for an endless string of childish activities to keep him occupied; Elvis regularly rented amusemement parks, skating rinks, and movie theaters to kill the time. As he aged, drugs seemed to be his preferred means of occupying himself.

I do not rate Elvis: What Happened? as any better than a three-star book because it does not contain a lot of insight into the man. Here you find a number of interesting anecdotes about Elvis, but relatively little idea of why he behaved in such a bizarre manner. Another negative aspect of the book is that the narrative is heavily slanted in favor of Elvis' ex-bodyguards who agreed to "tell all" here. The book even refers to Red West as the "genius" behind Elvis' music. Again, it would have been interesting if the book explained why Elvis kept all of his old high-school buddies on the payroll as the pathetic "Memphis Mafia"; but all we get are accounts of their juvenile games.

In the end, Elvis: What Happened" is a reasonably-entertaining book in which The King's former bodyguards "tell all."

This book was a good read.
these guys say they wrote this book to help Elvis I am not so sure about that,because a lot of the stories in this book are very hurtful for not only Elvis but his family as well. the book is a good read because it really lets us see just how bad the drug use had gotten.I do think a lot of this maybe true but at the same time
it seems it was written to get back at Elvis for letting them go after so many years. the book takes us inside the world of Elvis in those last drug filled days. it is a sad book but shows you just how bad drugs can take you down. any Elvis fan would find the book interesting.