"Elvis - Born To Rock"
(Praytome Publishing/ Bud Glass Production)

The book lying before me includes Elvis pictures from July 19th 1975 and as a bonus also pictures from 1976. Would you mind? Pictures of Elvis from the years 1975 and 1976?

Maybe the generality would be shivering. In all probability they would name all the prejudices about Elvis that they know: Elvis was fat and lost his own accord, Elvis was a miserable drug addict, Elvis was almost a living dead in his last days and so on and so on.
You could go on with all these stereotyped ideas.
The attempt to disprove these clichés is almost ineffective.
All those yellow press-reports about Elvis - even in his lifetime were mostly ungracious (f.e. "fat and forty") - and the sensationalism by authors like Albert Goldmann ("Elvis" & "Elvis - The Last 24 Hours") still have big influence on the public opinion about Elvis nowadays.
Even Elvis Presley Enterprises has obviously difficulties to accept the fact, that Elvis didn't die after Hawaii 1973.

Elvis in 1975. All those who are familiar with the live-recordings from Uniondale on July 19th 1975, will know what to expect from this book.
It opens with a foreword from Al Dvorin, who died in a car accident short time ago. He remembers the co-operation with Elvis, which started in 1955 as he became acquainted with Colonel Parker. His foreword leads over to the foreword from Paul Larsen, who was present at the afternoon show on this particular date - July 19th 1975.

The afternoon show is treated with a comprehensive documentation.
It starts with a picture, that shows Presley as he left the JFK Hilton Hotel on his way to perform the afternoon show - and it ends with a picture from the end of the concert. What you get inbetween? Pictures, pictures and even more pictures.
In comparison with other books the most obvious difference is the quality of the majority of the used photos, which is nothing less than superb.
Not alone the motives which are mostly unpublished - especially the full-paged close-ups - are convincing, even the paper-quality and the printing are first-class.
Nearly all pictures are very sharp - which is very impressive with regard of the fact that Elvis moved a lot in this concert.
The same goes for the quality of the private candids, which are very good.
Partly the material gets short explanations.
Also you can read the monologues and the band-introductions that were done by Elvis during the afternoon show - plus pictures from that particular moment of the show.
In addition to that, you have full pages - called "Elvis-Trivia" - which are revealing, if you want to know for example which jumpsuit did Elvis wear during the show, why he gave away scarfs and so on and so on.
This part of the book finishes with excerpts of a concert review from John Rockwell, which was published in the New York Times at that time.

The next chapter about the evening show is presented in a similar manner.
First you got an oversight of all the songs Elvis performed during the show, which was also done for the afternoon show in the first chapter.
At this point it should be said, if one never heard the concert presented on the import "America's Own Vol. 2", than this should be changed as fast as possible.
The concert is nothing less then breathtaking and presents the only known live-recording of "You'll never walk alone" with Elvis on piano offering a topnotch performance.
Exactly this concert is also comprehensivly documented throughout the second chapter of "Born To Rock".
Elvis changed the overall and wore the gypsy-jumpsuit for the evening show, after he had worn the aztec-jumpsuit on the afternoon performance.
Because of the high quality of the photos it looks much more colorful and very impressive.
On every page you can see unpublished pictures, which are showing an Elvis, who has nothing to do with all those stereotyped ideas that circulated after 1973 until today.
He looks good, he is obviously in a very good mood - and judging on the pictures - he is very active on stage.
The import CD confirms the pictures and the pictures are confirming the CD.
In the second chapter you also got printed monologues, the band introductions added with fitting pictures from the introductions and also full-paged "Elvis Trivia" inserts.
Beyond dozens and dozens of impressive photos, one special photo should be mentioned here: a photo that shows Elvis in his gypsy-jumpsuit, sitting at the piano - photographed during the performance of "You'll never walk alone"! How can you ask for more?
This part closes also with excerpts from newspaper reviews.

After that a summary follows about the tour-dates from Elvis in 1975 - added with lots of candid-shots: Elvis in the hotel, Elvis backstage, Elvis at the airport etc.etc. - the quality of them is unquestionable good.
The chapter is closing with a private story by the photographer John Faro, who travelled together with his wife from New York to Memphis to meet Elvis. The story gets completed with fitting candid-shots from the meeting.
A survey about the recording sessions, single- and LP-releases in the year 1975 and a general view from the year 1975 are closing this chapter.

Next is the bonus-section, which documents the concert from July 27th in Largo, Maryland. Needless to say that it is done in a comprehensive way.
Like before you got a summary about the tracklisting, musicians and the back-up singers. Similar to the concerts from 1975 it starts with pictures from the beginning of the concert.
In comparison to the pictures from July 1975 you have to say, that Elvis has gained weight through the year. Also you have to admit that Elvis looks in his blue bicentennial jumpsuit only "puffy", but not really fat.
The picture material gets completed by printed monologues from the performance. The bonus-section, which offers also high quality photos, gets closed with a concert review by Phil Gelormine ("Crocodile Rock meets Jailhouse Rock"). Partly the review tells the story from a backstage meeting of Elvis and Elton John before the concert.
If the publishing of the pictures from Largo '76 contradict the wellknown clichés about Elvis the same way the pictures from July 1975 are doing is maybe questionable, but in every case the photos are doing one thing for sure - they're showing an entertainer, who's doing his job after 22 years still and obviously with great enjoyment.

Before the book was released they were discussions and arguments, that the book would be to expensive. To sum it up: There's no kind of pressure to buy Elvis-books, Elvis-CD's or other Elvis related material, so that everyone can decide for him-/herself, if he wants something or not. In this case the only thing that can be discussed is the context, not the product itself. What you get is a more than a pleasant product that convinces in its entirety: that goes for the high-quality paper, the printing, all the rare photos (most of them in color, less in black/white) and nontheless in its circumference with 150 pages. The price for the book is much more like a inducement to buy it when you see it. Highly recommended!