about Elvis almost 30 years later....?
Well, really not too much is left in my opinion......
Yet, the catch 22 is, it still can be fairly interesting
to read another version of Elvis' private and
public life from someone who was there.
In this case, we are able to read the long over
due book by Jerry Schilling....
Schilling's book wasn't a book which
I expected was going to tell us anything new
about Elvis' prescription drug problem...
or present more explanation in
detail of his business dealings,
nor provide us with more information as to what was
filmed and what wasn't filmed...or even provide us with
new information as to what might be left in the vaults or
what the future might hold for Elvis fans.....
The reality here was in fact he didn't end up
saying anything new about any of those things.....
But what he did do was give us a look in side
as to how his friendship developed over the years
with Elvis and show us once again Elvis over all was
a pretty good guy....
But we all knew that.....now, didn't we....
Still nice to hear or read about it again...
You couldn't help but sit back at
times while reading this book and get the
feeling you would have done anything to be
in Schillings shoes or even be him for that
matter.....
As Schilling was one of the few M/M members
who still to this day isn't a bad looking guy
for his age and what seems to be outside
looking in, he himself appears to have a
pretty good personality and was and is a
pretty nice a loyal guy...to Elvis and his
family....
Schilling appeared wanting not to be entirely
dependant on Elvis while still being allowed to
enter the Elvis circle every now and again an
still have Elvis wanting him as his friend.....
The last part to a certain degree I think he
did achieve.......
Do I end up thinking after reading his book
he was any better than most of the other guys ??
For somethings yes for other things no....
Elvis appeared to always be there to somehow
catch him when he would fall....which was
really no different than it was for any of
the other members who were close and
not so close...
The most interesting part of the book
for me were the first few chapters.
As Schilling explain how he met Red and
Elvis for the first time and how the relationship
developed through football games on Sunday
afternoons...from that to seeing him on stage to
end up being with him back stage by flukes of fate
in the early 50's....
It certainly was a cool position to have been in
as fate would have it for Schilling....
Schilling at times did end up sugar coating or maybe
the better word is he "diplomatically"
touched on certain things without really putting Elvis
down for what we all know Elvis did to himself.
Ironically, the explanation really wasn't so different
in my opinion as to how Sonny, Red or Dave explained
it in their book "Elvis What Happened" some 29 years ago.....
or How Priscilla explained it in her book or how Lisa
has talked about it in some of her interviews....
But of course for them it was just a difference of timing.......
After reading the book did I expect more than what I got?
For some things yes for other things No....
Schilling had a way about him in the book where he
would bring up whatever story out of the blue, which one
might find interesting but he would drop the ball so to
speak and go on to something else, leaving you
thinking he didn't finish the story....or provide enough
detail in words leaving one dissatisfied.....in the result
of playing it out this way.
I was a little dissapointed he didn't talk about his
feelings as they were for some of the other M/M
members, no real insight was given about really
any of them...
It almost, at times seemed as tho he didn't even really
know them....
Surprisely it was Geller who he seemed to think
wasn't such a bad guy....and who he felt was
a positive influence for Elvis....
When it came to the picture section this was
really dissapointing....like 90% of the pictures
had been seen before and the ones that we
haven't seen before were not anything special...
The thing I really did like about the book was
his way of explaining how he kinda moved
up the latter with Elvis so to speak and what
he would be doing during his down time without
Elvis....
Yet, it still seemed like Elvis was always there as
his Guardian Angle almost right to the end.
Over all for the few faults the book had,
or for what it was lacking in bite I would
still recommend the book to anyone......
PEP
