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RIP Ms. Fricker. Along with talent, she obviously had a great taste in music and a life affirming sense of humor.

I am curious, how many new fans ( 3-4 years) are aware of the superb FTD label that is aimed at Elvis collectors?

Also boxsets that focus on different sessions & are available on streaming - do you listen to different outtakes/ session chatter?

I had watched it when I was just a beginner in my fandom, and anything with Elvis was a revelation. Even then I found this version mediocre, and now after watching it again, it was cringier.

Granted it is ' made for t. v.', and so comes with a certain budget/ aesthetic.

But there is literally no point to the story- which points to weakness of the script- my biggest beef with it. It just strings one event after another. There is no framing or an insight into the story- which is inexcusable as it had been almost thirty years since his death.

Very few scenes are stand outs. The emotional appeal just doesn't land. There is a flat tone throughout, that makes it difficult to engage or feel part of that fictional world at any point.

Editing is weird- the transitions just fall flat. The BGM is terrible. Cinematography and production design are OK for a project of this size.

I appreciated that Elvis is not shown as a saint, and his temper/ cheating was not hidden. Including characters like Hall Wallis, Steve Sholes was nice. Scenes at Sun are also better than later RCA ones.

Jonathan Rhys Myers was disappointing, he is an excellent actor- but I think he is miscast here. He does the darker bits well- but lacks the infectiousness, the innocence, the vitality, of Elvis ( the character, not performer). He is perennially wired tense, and after a while, it just seems monotonous. However, it still is somewhat interesting, especially the grey side of the character.

And the musical performances? Oh man, so so so bad. They shouldn't have included performances at all and kept it a personal story.

Although I think his portrait of Elvis was still better than several others that came before. But Kurt Russell truly captured Elvis as a character, even if that film also was quite surface level, and so was the character as written. But Russell embued Elvis with a three dimensional persona- especially his vulnerability. Although that script doesn't allow him to be grey in character- this is where JRM does well.

As far as performances, Randy Quaid as Colonel and Camryn Mannheim as Gladys were excellent. Rose McGowan as Ann Margret was terrible. But it is not her fault- it is the soft p* rn approach of the filmmakers whenever she is on screen.

Overall, I won't watch this one again.

Last year, I had reread her Colonel book, and found it to be far more rounded than the Guralnick one, to my surprise, despite her speculative murderer theory.

Anyway, so I thought I will give the other two books one more chance, as the first time I had read them, they seemed to me highly tabloidy and sensationalist. So I recently reread Baby Let's play House, and Revelations from Memphis Mafia.

I still think they are very very coarse. She has definitely done a lot of research with primary sources. But her focus is almost always to share the more sensationalist anecdotes, and build narrative that is focused on lurid. She rarely challenges or interrogates the anecdotes, or authority of the same. This leaves the reader with a notion that everything we are reading, is somehow tru-ish. She also has bizarre psychobabble theories that she forcefits, which lend a very amatuerish air overall. She rarely deep dives in musical aspects of the impact of the personal life that she is focusing on, on his art. Nor is there any sense of social or cultural context. It is literally a bagful of gossipy tales loosely strung around, peeping into privatemost life of a star.

Reading the books left me, again, with a bad taste in my mouth. And it is not because of unsavoury aspects of Elvis which I fully acknowledge. I also understand that a public figure will always have their lives written about in memoirs or biographies that will necessarily be revealing.

But these two books, lack the heart and the context. The Colonel book, because it is largely about the business aspects also, has a more rounded context. And I must say, is excellent ( except the nurder theory).

I am always surprised that these books are said to be essential for a serious Elvis fan.

What are your thoughts?

Which is your favourite?

1.Way Down in Jungle Room

2.Elvis at Stax

3.American Sound 69

4.From Elvis in Nashville

5.Back in Nashville

6.Memphis (2024)

7.Sunset Boulevard

8. Boy from Tupelo

9. Today, Tomorrow and Forever

10. Platinum

11. Close Up

Seriously, It is now on phone and every now and then I start watching for some sequence- and then keep watching, and rewinding, and watching...

Uggghhh... I had this same thing when my fandom started where I would watch Ed Sullivan, Milton Berle, Comeback Special and TTWII clips on Youtube unhealthy amount of times.

But I am a seasoned fan now and am supposed to get some maturity... Am I never going to be rational about this guy? Like ever???

Part two pleeeeeeaaassseee...