• Careless Love

  • The Unmaking of Elvis Presley
  • By: Peter Guralnick
  • Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
  • Length: 31 hrs and 7 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (592 ratings)

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Careless Love  By  cover art

Careless Love

By: Peter Guralnick
Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
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Publisher's summary

Careless Love is the full, true, and mesmerizing story of Elvis Presley's last two decades, in the long-awaited second volume of Peter Guralnick's masterful two-part biography.

Last Train to Memphis, the first part of Guralnick's two-volume life of Elvis Presley, was acclaimed by the New York Times as "a triumph of biographical art". This concluding volume recounts the second half of Elvis' life in rich and previously unimagined detail, and confirms Guralnick's status as one of the great biographers of our time.

Beginning with Presley's army service in Germany in 1958 and ending with his death in Memphis in 1977, Careless Love chronicles the unraveling of the dream that once shone so brightly, homing in on the complex playing-out of Elvis' relationship with his Machiavellian manager, Colonel Tom Parker. It's a breathtaking revelatory drama that for the first time places the events of a too-often mistold tale in a fresh, believable, and understandable context.

Elvis' changes during these years form a tragic mystery that Careless Love unlocks for the first time. This is the quintessential American story, encompassing elements of race, class, wealth, sex, music, religion, and personal transformation. Written with grace, sensitivity, and passion, Careless Love is a unique contribution to our understanding of American popular culture and the nature of success, giving us true insight at last into one of the most misunderstood public figures of our times.

©1999 Peter Guralnick (P)2012 Hachette Audio

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Wow

The life of Elvis Presley, Elvis was before my time for the most part. I was a child when he died there was so much talk about his death I wanted to know the truth. The way they talk about Elvis one would think he walked on water. This story is as depressing as it was refreshing. Depressing because his life was so stilted, probably because of his mother, read the first installment The Last Train to Memphis, and refreshing because he is seen as a human being. This story made me cry at places, honestly I think Elvis spent life looking for his mother. I would recommend this book that is the second installment and the first book I mentioned above for both fans and detractors of Elvis Presley you will not be disappointed by them no matter what camp you are in.

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Exit the King

This is the book on Elvis you don't want to read--only because, as the subtitle suggests, it documents the unmaking of Elvis Presley.

I've read other books about Elvis in his "declining years." But this is the most engaging and even-handed account. Peter Guralnick is that special kind of biographer. He respects his subject, tries to see the best in him, and yet doesn't shy away from the flaws and major cracks.

Guralnick picks up the narrative where he left off with the first book, Last Train to Memphis, in his two-part history. You'll probably want to read that book first. Like Mark Lewisohn's peerless history of the Beatles' origins, Tune In, Last Train to Memphis offers the captivating thrill ride of Elvis's rise to fame. It's a jaunty ride, full of coincidence, characters, improbability, destiny and great music.

But with Careless Love, we find Elvis Presley in 1958 in the army. This is where he meets Priscilla Beaulieu. And then we find him back in the civilian world pursuing a career in Hollywood, which would be his nexus for the coming decade.

Guralnick weaves together the many threads of Elvis's life as he jets between movie sets and Graceland. There are plenty of on-set romances, parties and bad boy behavior with the Memphis Mafia, the gang of hometown boys Elvis kept on as paid staff but whose main purpose was to provide friendship.

Often that friendship bordered on sycophancy. Interviewees talk about Elvis pulling out a cigarillo and the mafia competing to see who could light it for him. Elvis knew the score. He showed girlfriends how literally at a snap of his fingers he could get his boys to jump.

There's a lot that's contradictory about the later Elvis. He was a passionate spiritual seeker, who yet seemed incapable of using that self-knowledge to improve his life. Rather, he surrendered to bad habits and addictions. He upheld the idea of the perfect family but did everything to sabotage his marriage to Priscilla.

Guralnick doesn't let us forget the high points of this longest stretch of Elvis's life. The singer was still striving for a sound in the 1960s, only not the rock 'n' roll sound he'd found at Sun Records and then turned into a worldwide phenomenon at RCA. He recorded gospel and country. He shook himself together for the comeback TV special and album in 1968 and followed the next year with the Memphis album. He became a Vegas legend, until that stint grew stale and Elvis began to act out his frustration.

As Guralnick lays out the last chapters, you find yourself--or I found myself alternately sympathizing with a star whose spotlight was too big, despising a drug-addled and mean-spirited despot and wondering over and over and over again, What happened?

Careless Love is in many ways an exploration of what happened. But the explanation is not linear. It's as confusing as life itself, with highs and lows and everything that fits in between, as well as the striving of a single human being to live for some greater purpose while undercutting those very efforts with the same insecurities and needy ambition that once rocketed a poor boy into music history.

I love Kevin Stillwell's narration. It's not showy but has a liveliness that keeps the ear interested. Stillwell also narrates Guralnick's Last Train to Memphis and Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock 'n' Roll.

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13 people found this helpful

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Elvis, Iconic one word name recognized arose the world

Both of Peters volumes are detailed, excellent biopics of a story of one of the most iconic figures ever known. Hardly ever a day goes by without a mention of Elvis Presley. Either a joking mention, a song or just a mention of his life and the beautiful music gifts he left us all. These books are sensible, factual and honest. Although objective, they are done with a sensitivity that drew me in and made me an Elvis fan for the first time. He gave me an unquenchable thirst for more knowledge of Elvis & an appreciation of a voice so emotive, versatile & unique that I can understand why his fans & many other famous celebrities thought him a kind generous person & miss him to this day. Just a man with such faith and belief of God that kept him humble in a world of iconic fame that most never come out of without some type of unbearable loneliness and a giving up of any normalcy. If one wants to know what Elvis was thinking, they need to look no further then his songs, his voice and his emotional way in which his singing reaches into ones soul and makes one feel the same emotions that he passionately sings with. It can calm you, make you cry without realizing it or make you smile & want to dance. A gift from God that he recognized could be taken away from him in a whisper as fast as it had been discovered. May he RIP.

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  • JC
  • 07-22-15

Tragic Warning for Anyone Living in the Fast Lane:

I have been profoundly effected by this "fly on the wall" narrative of the decline of Elvis Presley. He was a true American, living life across the spectrum of poverty to great wealth. His story of trying to fill his own black hole with generosity, drugs, and women is both haunting and horrific.

This book is a mirror from which all of us can learn that appearances are often not what they seem.

I sure hope The King has found some peace on the other side. He was a great man!

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Elvis has a new fan

What did you love best about Careless Love?

I just finished both volumes of Peter Guralnick's biography of Elvis. By the time I reached my teens and started paying attention to music Elvis was already past his career revival so I never really had an appreciation for him or his music. This book changed all of that for me. It's a beautifully written biography of one of the most charismatic, talented and influential musicians ever. I enjoyed every word and am grateful to the author for finally introducing me ti Elvis Presley.

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9 people found this helpful

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greatest music biography I have ever read

loved this biography. one of the best ever. if you aren't interested in elvis, you will be after. if you love elvis, you will find this to be a great tribute to one of the greatest

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7 people found this helpful

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stupefying

After reading Albert Goldman's Elvis, I was interested in having another viewpoint on Elvis's life, so I embarked on listening to the first volume of this alternative biography, Last Train to Memphis. I slogged my way through it and hoped that the second volume, Careless Love, would be more stimulating. It is not. It is stupefyingly boring and I can hardly force myself to finish listening. Now I really don't care if Goldman took too many liberties with the material he gathered on Elvis because at least he tried to delve below the surface and speculate on the nature of the personality and motivations generating the events of Elvis's life. Careless Love deliberately stays on the surface and as such is numbingly tedious.

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his time to go

Book was very informarive with more detail but the narrator was difficult to follow his quotes and timeline skipped around.

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His human-ness makes me feel better.

No judgement at all. This isn’t a tragic story, it’s a lesson for everyone. No matter how famous or rich you are, you need to be more educated in drugs. He was not. He could have died several times before he actually did. I think mental health can’t be said enough here. He was majorly depressed and that’s the one thing that held more stigma than taking 14 different forms of uppers, downers and heroin?!? Omg I hope we ALL learn to stop judging others bc to you I say ‘Hypocrite!!!’ stfu. Rip Elvis

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A real insight into the man who would be king...

Elvis was the King of rock and roll, but in the end, rock and roll is just a genre of music, and the King was just a man. In many ways, a very flawed and conflicted man.

It is evident that the child who lost his twin at birth spent his whole life filling that void with his Memphis mafia, women, and even running away from his issues with drugs. It was heartbreaking to accept that a man who really did have it all, was missing something so desperately.

The author does a great job in showing us Elvis the man.

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