“The Colonel and the King” Review: Elvis Biographer takes Tom Parker ahead

Colonel Tom Parker's popular perception is that he makes Elvis Presley out of a lot of money, forced his participation in some really bad films from the 1960s and caused the services of Presley's Late Career servant to Las Vegas with a gambling dependency for the king's own drug habits. But this is not the story that Peter Guralnick wants to tell in his new book “The Colonel and The King: Tom Parker, Elvis Presley” and the partnership that shakes the world.

The book deals for a long time about the “Colonel”, a nickname Parker who claimed as his first name after the governor of Louisiana gave the honorary title in 1948, and shortly before the king, who was finally countless earlier volumes. Some of the best were actually written by Guralnick, including “Last Train to Memphis” and “Slick whisper”. Only a few writers know more about Early Rock 'N' Roll and Roots music or have such a passion for the topic. If you haven't read Guralnick, you should make a point.

Does that mean that you should read “the colonel and the king”? Only if you are deeply looking for a comprehensive study of Elvis' long -time manager, who, as I said, lived a fascinating life that is defined by self -mythology and willful deception. Guralnick knew Parker from 1988 until his death in 1997, and they feel that the author also saw his topic as a friend. The book is not hagiography, since Guralnick investigates and reports so much for every book that he is unable to write a one -sided report on any topic. That means: “The colonel and the king” often reads like a Parker -Apologia or at least a concentrated effort to make some records clear.

For example, Parkers are often reluctant to tour Elvis internationally towards the end of his career, for the reason that Parker was not a US citizen and therefore had no passport. “The topic of many uninformed speculations,” says Guralnick and suggests other reasons. “How could Elvis go to Japan with his strict drug laws, how could he go through all the customs stations that he would have to clarify in Europe if it was not a single smallland tour without his prescribed medication? And who would carry these medication for him?”

The author Peter Guralnick is a passionate expert for Early Rock 'N' Roll and Roots Music.

(Mike Leahy)

Parker's background as a carnival worker is often used to mock it. How could a mere Carny know about the music business or qualify for Steward The King of Rock 'N' Roll? But the most lively and most insightful parts of “The Colonel and the King” actually comes before the colonel hits the king when Guralnick paints a picture of a tireless cough who desperates to reinvent himself.

Parker claimed Long that he was born in West Virginia as Thomas Andrew Parker. In fact, he was born Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk in Breda, Holland. As a boy he went to “dry”. His father was a Liveryman and retired soldier. When the boy dried to a family circus and brought his father's horses to make tricks, his father roared that the child was “no son, that he would never mean anything, and after beating him in a centimeter of his life, he announced that he would be forbidden to do something with the stables.” As a teenager, Parker smuggled into the USA, was sent back and made the hike successful again.

He developed the habit of being unofficially adopted by substitute families, and then disappeared without trace, a pattern that continued in the US Army, went to Awol and finally received an honorary discharge in 1933 with a certificate of disability in which the reasons of the “psychogenic depression” cited (Parker, he was determined, a bad leg). He finally landed in Florida, where he became a jack-of-all-carny, and developed a sharp instinct for public public relations and promotion.

Elvis was not Parker's first music studies; He first developed his chops with the early pop superstar -gene Austin, the then country star Hank Snow. But when Parker experienced Elvis and Elvis Mania in the Louisiana Hayride for the first time in 1955, he was determined to manage him. Then it went on, he, smart and wild, to RCA, 20th Century Fox and whoever would help build the mighty Elvis industry.

“The Colonel and the King” is a piece of a book that contains 624 pages. This includes about 250 pages with commented letters and from the top one, which were better used, in a shortened form that spread in the actual story. They also have the feeling that the author Parker may have taken up for his word pretty quickly, since Parker joked that he wrote an autobiography called “The Benevolent Con man”.

You can admire Guralnick's thoroughness and mission and at the same time want closer results. I found the arch of Parker's story quite fascinating, even when I was a little full.

Vognar is a freelance cultural writer.