The Death and Resurrection of elvis presley

Ted Harrison Reaktion Books 2016 Hb, 258pp, notes, ind, illus, £16.00, ISBN 9781780236377

Peter Guralnick’s exhaustive, two-volume biography of Elvis Presley is a huge accomplishment, but it can leave the reader feeling that its subject’s life was, for long stretches, startlingly devoid of meaningful incident. No such worries with Ted Harrison’s fascinating, and considerably more concise, examination of the King’s post mortem career, which offers plenty in the way of drama, controversy and flat-out weirdness. It’s a definitive overview of how, ever since Elvis left the building, we’ve witnessed the simultaneous growth of a business empire whose aim is to both police and monetise the singer’s iconic image and a worldwide subculture in which fans “were liberated by Elvis’s physical death to reinvent him for themselves”; the two camps haven’t always seen eye to eye, of course, when it comes to preserving Presley’s considerable pop-cultural legacy. With a keen understanding of how modern myths take shape and a sympathetic eye for his subject, Harrison surveys the contemporary landscape of Elvis impersonators, academic interpreters and followers and finds something very akin to a new religion taking shape: it’s a story complete with holy relics, annual pilgrimages, apostolic succession, theological schisms, messianic imagery and perhaps the possibility of transcendence. Like another, somewhat better established, worldwide faith, this new quasi-religion also dwells on the idea of physical resurrection, and the book offers a useful summation of the current state of play concerning claims both of Elvis’s continued survival and those claiming to be his unrecognised offspring.

Fortean Times Verdict

the King Is DeAD. long live the King… 8