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The Press - Elvis: Born To Rock - Book
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Book
- Review, taken from the "Graceland"
Magazine
Nr. 166 (July / August 2005)
German Elvis Presley Society
If you want to get in contact with
the author of the clipping or are interested in
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Elvis Presley Society: www.EPG-ev.de |
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By
Maria Hesterberg - Translation by Nadine Schwenk
An illustrated book on the Elvis concerts in
New York 1975 and Largo 1976 whose mainly professional
photos show the biggest entertainer of all time.
This article was twice-overdue because the book
“Born To Rock” by American Bud Glass
was already published in 2004 and has found
a lot of friends since. Bud Glass’ book
features on 158 pages more than 250 photos of
a 1975-Elvis Presley and in a bonus section
also photos from the year 1976. Except for a
handful of photos all other photos are color-shots
which come into their own on the high gloss
paper. Glass concentrates in “Born To Rock”
mainly on the pictures and sets detailed texts
aside. The few articles are however worth reading
and offer some interesting details.
Unfortunately the producers again limited the
text to the English language. Especially for
this book it would have been good to publish
the texts in two languages, because the amount
of translations would have been small. If you
take the book in your hands and run over the
pages the extremely good processing quality
stands out. A special binding and gluing technique
compared with a linen stripe avoids the book
looking used even after repeated running over
the pages. This effect is in addition reached
by a special transparent ink, which avoids finger
prints on the pages. The landscape format of
the book is surprising but the pictures are
mainly in that format and the producer wanted
the pictures to be unaltered, uncut and whole.
The preface for “Born To Rock” was
written by Al Dvorin, who should be known to
everybody as the voice who informed the audience
after Elvis’s appearances with the frustrating
message: “Elvis has left the building.
Thank you and good night!”. It is however
less known that Al Dvorin was more than the
voice that closed Elvis' performances. In this
preface he reports shortly that he had been
friends with Tom Diskin since 1955, who became
the right hand of Colonel Parker and so he came
in touch with Elvis and his show. Slowly Dvorin
undertook all the tasks belonging to an Elvis
show and passed through all the stations of
the organization and accomplishment of this
mega-event: “…Tom Diskin told Colonel
Parker I could do it, so I ended up doing every
job on the road with Elvis except dying his
hair.” (p. 3). Like everyone who has worked
with Elvis Dvorin describes his work for the
king as something special. “With Elvis
it was a thrill every night of the week. When
he was on tour, it was a "happening".
It was a "happening" in every city,
and the fans knew that. They felt his love.
They felt his enthusiasm and knew he was the
greatest entertainer the world has ever known.
I worked with the best people. I loved what
I did and did what I loved. I am the luckiest
guy in the world.” (p.3).“Born to
Rock” is one of the last projects Al Dvorin
finished before he was killed in an accident
in August 2004.
Paul Larsen, whose introduction comes after
the preface, reports enthusiastically of his
Elvis concert experience on July 19th 1975 in
the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York.
An introduction from what I only want to quote
two sentences to show the GRACELAND readers
Larsen’s feelings: “I realized he
was doing it to me again, touching the deepest
part of my soul as no artist has ever done in
my life .” (p. 4). Larsen remembers the
process of the concert and its summits and refers
at the same time to the following photos, which
back his reports up. Finally we learn something
about the year 1975 and its meaning for Elvis,
about his activities on the stages of the United
States and about his health problems in the
year of his 40th birthday. In contrary to the
previous texts, this author does not report
any personal memories, but gives facts to the
readers, which are being complemented from time
to time by personal comments. Unfortunately
we don’t know who has written the text
because the name is not mentioned and so we
can only guess that it is Bud Glass himself,
who says in the last line “…Proof
positive that even in his forties, there is
no doubt…Elvis was BORN TO ROCK!”
(p. 7). Now we see Elvis on the following 39
pages on July 19th 1975 in the Uniondale, Nassau
Coliseum, where his first show on that day began
on 2:30 pm. He wore the “Dark Blue Aztec
Suit” with the corresponding original belt.
Afterwards, after a short break for relaxing
and changing, Elvis walked on stage at 8:30
pm for the second time on that day this time
wearing the “Dark Blue Gipsy Suit”,
also with original belt.
The pictures are actually self-explanatory,
but anyway let me bring some things to the foreground.
Apparently Elvis was in top form on that day
and on a lot of pictures we see the king the
way we like him best: he sings and lives the
songs, shows the audience how much his fans
mean to him; takes gifts, gives scarves to the
audience, kisses his fans, flirts with thousands
of people in the arena and is the boss! Especially
the close-ups showing Elvis alone have their
own charisma: The viewer sees the Elvis Presley
who attracts the masses and with his show –
actually already with his single presence –
brings them to ecstasy. That Elvis was in the
mid 70s at a point where there was no turning
back becomes clear in the bonus section, which
shows Elvis during the afternoon concert on
June 27th 1976 in the Capital Center in Largo/Maryland.
These pictures, on which Elvis wears the so
called “Blue Pre-Historic Bird Suit”,
can not hide Elvis’s state of health. Although
it is great that we are presented this pictures
coherently, they leave a depressing feeling,
especially as the end of this book. No matter
how the people may think about it, Bud Glass
emphasizes with his choice of photos consciously
the sensational form of Elvis in July 1975 in
Uniondale/New York. The pictures were taken
by James Faro, a professional photographer with
professional equipment, what you can see on
most of the pictures. Faro must have pressed
the trigger during the show nearly continuously;
fantastic that there are so many pictures showing
Elvis the way he was during 90 per cent of career:
as the biggest entertainer the show business
has ever seen and will ever see. The photos
from Largo however are from Faro’s brother
John.
Technologically seen it is interesting that
all the pictures of the brother are slides.
Editing them, Praytome Publishing worked with
a big technological effort. All the slides were
cleaned with a laser cleaning procedure. Afterwards
with luminance, contrast and color corrections
the constant quality was reached we can see
in the book. When we are talking about “Born
to Rock” we may not forget the well done
Elvis Trivia sections, which appear here and
there between the photos and tell short stories
about the concerts and Elvis and document them
with photos or special photo extracts. Conclusion:The
book “Born To Rock” from Bud Glass
and Praytome Publishing contains a nearly complete
documentation of the two concerts in Uniondale/New
York from July 19th 1975 and a less detailed
bonus section with pictures from June 26th 1976
in Largo/Maryland. The complete material stands
out because of the closeness and charisma Elvis
can transport even after 30 years and the medium
paper. Always fascinating! The chosen texts
are worth reading and contain some unknown details.
Due to “Born to Rock” dealing with
a very special topic, a very small extract from
Elvis’s career it is surely no standard
book in the Elvis literature. However this release
is a piece that should not be missing especially
in the library of the fans being interested
in the concerts. Also the ones in favor of live
pictures get their money worth.
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© 2005 by Elvis Presley Gesellschaft |
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