Musician, January 1995: Difference between revisions
(update index links) |
(add hyperlink) |
||
Line 18: | Line 18: | ||
Now you would probably want stained-glass windows in the front room and the odd parade of fancy cars if you had grown up as poor as told here. There is a dark chorus of sullen relations with names that sound misheard but the gothic and social engineering elements are left to lesser writers. Mostly it is the pure, thrilling discovery of the Sun sessions (and the roadwork!) that drives the book along. | Now you would probably want stained-glass windows in the front room and the odd parade of fancy cars if you had grown up as poor as told here. There is a dark chorus of sullen relations with names that sound misheard but the gothic and social engineering elements are left to lesser writers. Mostly it is the pure, thrilling discovery of the Sun sessions (and the roadwork!) that drives the book along. | ||
The country must have appeared twice as big in those days with only a few berserk radio madmen to point the way. Back-scratching country show business didn’t really care if Elvis was part Dean Martin and part pine marten until, suddenly, he was everywhere and they were less than history. However, he really might have stayed a wonderful country freak with a few forgotten hits without the Colonels carney greed and cunning. After that there is a life that is no longer his own , paid friends and the sad falling curtain of occasional greatness struggling against trumped-up RCA excitement. Just listen to ‘Party’ next to ‘Blue Moon’ and you’ll see what I mean. | The country must have appeared twice as big in those days with only a few berserk radio madmen to point the way. Back-scratching country show business didn’t really care if Elvis was part [[Dean Martin]] and part pine marten until, suddenly, he was everywhere and they were less than history. However, he really might have stayed a wonderful country freak with a few forgotten hits without the Colonels carney greed and cunning. After that there is a life that is no longer his own , paid friends and the sad falling curtain of occasional greatness struggling against trumped-up RCA excitement. Just listen to ‘Party’ next to ‘Blue Moon’ and you’ll see what I mean. | ||
''Last Train to Memphis'' is short on penis envy and pop psychology and long on first-hand account. I am not happy to hear that Ira Louvin was a bigoted hothead but glad that Bill Monroe emerges heroically. There are characters absent from other tellings of the tale such as tough Biloxi girlfriend June, who faces down the oafish pranks of Elvis’s guys. Five hundred pages take us only to the Army. The tragedies that must lie ahead in volume two will be hard to take. | ''Last Train to Memphis'' is short on penis envy and pop psychology and long on first-hand account. I am not happy to hear that Ira Louvin was a bigoted hothead but glad that Bill Monroe emerges heroically. There are characters absent from other tellings of the tale such as tough Biloxi girlfriend June, who faces down the oafish pranks of Elvis’s guys. Five hundred pages take us only to the Army. The tragedies that must lie ahead in volume two will be hard to take. |
Revision as of 23:25, 20 November 2013
|