Off The Record

Rip It Up, Issue 72, 1 July 1983, Page 8

Off The Record

White Boy Singin' the Blues Michael Bane (Penguin $7.95) Writer Michael Bane takes an intriguing perspective, that of a white American southerner. Not only a white southerner, but one from "rock city," Memphis, Tennessee. Bane's view, in brief, - is that rock derived from black and white influences, but it was no harmonious thing. He uses the word "grinding" to describe the racial friction he sees as integral to the rise of rock. The city of Memphis, described frequently in spiritual terms, is also seen as an essential catalyst to the rock explosion. A different and entertaining view. KW Elvis Albert Goldman (Penguin $7.95) As much as Bane (White Boy Singin' the Blues) loves rock and Memphis, Albert Goldman seems to despise it. His Elvis occasionally resembles an enormous poison pen letter, so consumed is he with disgust for his subject. That aside, Goldman has collected and sifted a colossal amount of material, the bulk of it concerned with the sordid decline of Presley. The more sensational aspects of Elvis' drugged-out last days have been aired aplenty already, but in the context of Goldman's mammoth book (what else for such a subject?) it makes hideously fascinating reading. And Colonel Parker a Dutch illegal immigrant, too.

KW