Bøger af Ray Connolly

The intimate yet unsparing biography of the world's first and most iconic rock star.

Hvordan var det at være Elvis Presley? Hvordan må han have følte det, da han i løbet af tre år efter sin studentereksamen blev et af de mest berømte mennesker i verden – lige så beundret som berygtet? Hvor forvirrende må det have været at opdage, at selv om alle smilede, når han trådte ind i et lokale, så afskar hans enestående berømmelse ham fra enhver form for normalitet resten af hans liv? Hvorfor kunne han ikke lide at sove alene? Hvorfor lå han i en alder af 42 år ensom, søvnløs og ulykkelig på et hotelværelse og var overbevist om, at hans karriere havde været en fiasko? Hvorfor følte han sig forrådt af Hollywood? Var han overhovedet klar over, hvor god en sanger han var? BEING ELVIS fortæller Elvis Presleys usædvanlige historie som den forløb – ikke i bagklogskabens lys eller fra en bredere, mere verdensklog synsvinkel, men sådan som sangeren selv må formodes at have set og oplevet det. Ray Connolly er en af de få journalister, der har interviewet Presley – og inden der var gået en uge efter interviewet, havde både Bob Dylan og John Lennon bedt ham om at genfortælle, hvad sangeren havde sagt og sunget, og han har i sin lange karriere talt med mange af dem, der arbejdede sammen med Elvis. Elvis blev født som den overlevende tvilling i et typehus i Mississippi, der hverken havde rindende vand eller elektricitet. I hans liv kolliderede fattigdom, hemmeligheder, religion, uskyld og frygt med sex, grådighed, manipulation, afhængighed, rigdom og Hollywood. Og uanset hvor rig han blev, spøgte fortiden uafbrudt, og hans mareridt var altid, at han ville ende ludfattig og tilbage, hvor han startede. Han var velsignet med en stemme, der spændte over to og en halv oktav, og oprindeligt ville han have været gospelsanger, denne fattige, hvide knægt, som sang blues og som siden med største lethed jonglerede mellem forskellige stilarter lige fra country over rock’n’roll til napolitansk opera. Men var Elvis overhovedet klar over, hvor god han var? Da han i en alder af tyve fik den selvbestaltede ’Oberst’ Tom Parker til manager, frygtede hans mor, at han havde solgt sin sjæl til ”Djævlen selv.” Havde hun ret? Fortrød han nogen sinde den pagt? Han elskede film og havde altid drømt om at blive skuespiller, men da han kom til Hollywood, følte han sig forrådt og blev altid betragtet som en outsider. Hvorfor? Hvorfor kunne han ikke lide at sove alene? Og hvorfor lå han i en alder af 42 år ensom, søvnløs og ulykkelig på et hotelværelse, mens hans alt for tidlige død nærmede sig, og var overbevist om, at hans karriere havde været en fiasko? * Næsten fyrre år efter hans død, med over en milliard solgte plader på verdensplan, og hvor Graceland er det mest besøgte hjem i USA næst efter Det Hvide Hus, kan ingen måle sig med Elvis, hvad angår fascinationen fra utallige fans. Alligevel er han stadig som en gåde fra en anden verden, udenfor rækkevidde og alene bag sit image, sin berømmelse og sin stemme. Det er imponerende research og hundredevis af personlige interviews samt erindringer fra kærester, ansatte og slægtninge, der for bare få år siden ikke var tilgængelige som kildemateriale, der ligger til grund, når BEING ELVIS udforsker og forklarer dette mysterium – Hvordan var det at være Elvis?

On January 30, 1969, John Lennon ended the Beatles' filmed concert on the roof of their Apple headquarters in London by joking 'Thank you very much. We hope we passed the audition' It was the last time the four would be seen playing together.But what would have happened if six and a half years earlier, in the summer of 1962, the Beatles hadn't impressed at their all-important last chance to sign a record deal with Parlophone? What would the future have held for John, Paul, George and Ringo if producer George Martin had said 'No'? A 'what if' novella.

An intimate yet unsparing biography of one of the greatest and most mythologised musicians of the twentieth century.

Elvis Presley is a giant figure in American popular culture, a man whose talent and fame were matched only by his later excesses and tragic end. A godlike entity in the history of rock and roll, this twentieth-century icon with a dazzling voice blended gospel and traditionally black rhythm and blues with country to create a completely new kind of music and new way of expressing male sexuality, which simply blew the doors off a staid and repressed 1950s America.In Being Elvis veteran rock journalist Ray Connolly takes a fresh look at the career of the world's most loved singer, placing him, forty years after his death, not exhaustively in the garish neon lights of Las Vegas but back in his mid-twentieth-century, distinctly southern world. For new and seasoned fans alike, Connolly, who interviewed Elvis in 1969, re-creates a man who sprang from poverty in Tupelo, Mississippi, to unprecedented overnight fame, eclipsing Frank Sinatra and then inspiring the Beatles along the way.Juxtaposing the music, the songs, and the incendiary live concerts with a personal life that would later careen wildly out of control, Connolly demonstrates that Elvis's amphetamine use began as early as his touring days of hysteria in the late 1950s, and that the financial needs that drove him in the beginning would return to plague him at the very end. With a narrative informed by interviews over many years with John Lennon, Bob Dylan, B. B. King, Sam Phillips, and Roy Orbison, among many others, Connolly creates one of the most nuanced and mature portraits of this cultural phenomenon to date.What distinguishes Being Elvis beyond the narrative itself is Connolly's more subtle examinations of white poverty, class aspirations, and the prison that is extreme fame. As we reach the end of this poignant account, Elvis's death at forty-two takes on the hue of a profoundly American tragedy. The creator of an American sound that resonates today, Elvis remains frozen in time, an enduring American icon who could "seamlessly soar into a falsetto of pleading and yearning" and capture an inner emotion, perhaps of eternal yearning, to which all of us can still relate.Intimate and unsparing, Being Elvis explores the extravagance and irrationality inherent in the Elvis mythology, ultimately offering a thoughtful celebration of an immortal life.

The campaign of terror in London begins with a televised death-threat and climaxes in a spectacular, on-the-air takeover of capital radio. One man has been following the terrorists from the beginning. John Huckleston, one of their first victims, is also a top reporter after a hot story - and a lonely man, more than half in love with their seductive, ruthless woman leader. He will be with them at the death...

Kathy, a luscious Californian blonde, arrives in Paris looking for the gay life. There, she soon falls prey to the advances of the enigmatic Ille, an exotic Eastern beauty skilled in the sensual arts. A passionate romance develops. Together they share everything. But it is not long before they discover that the intensity of the relationship demands more than either girl alone can offer. They want desperately to be a family. They want a baby. So, ironically they need a man. A man who's willing to play their sexual-games and become their unsuspecting stud...Trick or Treat is a frank, outspoken novel about erotic game-playing and romantic taboos, but above all, it is a story of sinister sexual manipulation.