The concluding volume of Peter Guralnick's critically acclaimed Elvis Presley biographies, drawing on previously unpublished letters and telegrams from Parker's own archives, it offers an intimate, unflinching portrait of two American originals: the visionary manager who invented the modern superstar and the artist who became one.
In early 1955, Colonel Tom Parker discovered a teenage Elvis Presley and declared him destined for greatness. What followed was one of the most extraordinary partnerships in music history and the creation of a bond built on loyalty, ambition and an unshakeable belief in each other.
From the meteoric rise that reshaped popular culture to the struggles that shadowed their final years, this concluding volume of Peter Guralnick's acclaimed trilogy reveals the full complexity of their relationship.
Brilliant, flawed and inseparable, Elvis and the Colonel changed the music world forever.
MEDIA REVIEWS
'In music circles, a new entry in Guralnick's Presley chronicles is practically the equivalent of an update to Robert Caro's series on Lyndon Johnson. Guralnick's exhaustively researched two-volume biography of Presley in the 1990s revolutionised Presley scholarship and remain vital documents.' *New York Times*
'The enigmatic Svengali Colonel Tom Parker left behind countless mysteries and unanswered questions after his death in 1997. If there's one writer uniquely poised to unpack those mysteries and questions, it's Grammy-winning music writer Peter Guralnick, whose biographies of Presley are universally regarded as the definitive biographies of the King.' *Variety*
'Veteran pop-music scholar Peter Guralnick, Elvis's most ardent and compassionate biographer, makes the case that Parker was hardly the monster he's commonly been made out to be . . . Guralnick's view of Parker is both clear-eyed and sympathetic, but best of all, it's persuasive. You come away thinking differently about a person you thought you'd already nailed down. And isn't that what a biographer is for?' *Time*
'A seasoned chronicler of all things Elvis (his Last Train to Memphis and Careless Love are seminal works), Guralnick here probes the relationship between Presley and his overbearing Svengali. There is no better writer about early rock 'n' roll and roots music.' *Boston Globe*
