[.ca] Elvis, the New Rage: A Radio History from 1945 to 1955 (ISBN 1556229437)

The Most Informative Elvis Book This Year!:
I happened on to this book by just browsing through ..., a great way to find books I would not ordinarily run across. Unfortunately most of the Elvis books I find are very disappointing such as that recent (2001) travesty of a bibliography on Elvis that basically imparts very little information about each entry. Then again, I sometimes luck out and run into a book so fabulous and well done, I want to tell the world. Such a book is Aaron Webster's Elvis: A Radio History from 1945 to 1955. I would have thought that Mr. Guralnick's exhaustive works on Elvis would have covered just about everything but Mr. Webster proves otherwise. This book is detailed, accurate and features much new information, especially on the radio interviews Elvis did in his first full professional year, 1955. The information on Elvis at the Louisiana Hayride is equally as exhaustive. In my opinion, this book shows what a natural communicator Elvis was and how fascinating he would have been, and probably very happy as well, had he been able to interview, visit radio stations, put on live shows, and more, throughout the sixties, instead of being stuck away making some interesting but not too exciting films. Not only is the writing very incisive and to the point, the charts at the end of the book are well constructed and very informative, allowing me to fully understand much of what Elvis did in detail that year plus before he moved on to record for RCA Records. Congratulations Mr. Webster, on a fresh new look at early Elvis and a book truly worthy of ranking up there with the classic works on Elvis such as those done by Mr. Guralnick and Mr. Jorgensen.

EXCAVATING ELVIS:
I compare this book to my two favorites; ELVIS & GLADYS by Elaine Dundy and AROUND ELVIS by Thorne Peters. Those books and this one show us that there are so many layers left of Elvis' life yet to be discovered. Like his music, we have barely scratched the surface of his being and the best is yet to come. These books show us what we've already seen in such a new light that it is fresh and vibrant each time you read it. These books reveal that Elvis' life was as multi faceted as he was multi talented. To this short list I would add IF I CAN DREAM by Larry Geller and LAST TRAIN TO MEMPHIS, by Peter Guralnick. In these books Elvis is shown to be a multi dimesnsional human and not the second coming. The more you humanize Elvis and see him for the man he was the more incredible he becomes and the more you realize just how phenomenal his acheivements are. In life and in death, Elvis is forever 2nd to NONE!