"First published in Great Britain in 2016 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, The Orion Publishing Group, Ltd., London"--Title page verso

"Well, the bear shall be gentle" -- "Don't you worry none, Mama" -- "I would just sit there in class" -- "I don't sound like nobody" -- "What the hell y'all doin' in there?" -- "What happened, what happened?" -- "Doesn't everybody love their parents?" -- "That Colonel . . . he's the Devil himself" -- "I'm like a Mississippi bullfrog" -- "Why should music contribute to juvenile delinquency?" -- "The colored folks have been singing and playing" -- "Imagine! A Memphis boy with Natalie Wood" -- "I hate to get started in these jam sessions" -- "I wish we was poor again" -- "Hang up your pretty stocking" -- "This rancid-smelling aphrodisiac, rock and roll" -- "I'm lucky to be in a position to give" -- "Wake up, Mama" -- "The world is more alive at night" -- "There was a little girl that I was seeing" -- "Whatever I become, will be what God has chosen for me" -- "I didn't have any say-so in it all" -- The schoolgirl who carried a derringer in her bra -- "If we can control sex . . ." -- "The only thing worse than watching a bad movie" -- "If you guys are just going to sit and stare" -- "I know that I'm a joke in this town" -- "Some of you maybe think that Elvis is Jesus Christ" -- "What am I going to do if they don't like me?" -- "And what was I thinking?" -- "I want musicians who can play every kind of music" -- "I don't want some sonofabitch crazy bastard" -- "Mr. President, you got your show to run" -- "I was a dreamer" -- "It's very hard to live up to an image" -- "Sorry that I didn't break his goddamned neck" -- "If you want me to leave" -- "I'd rather be unconscious than miserable" -- "I'm self-destructive, I know" -- "I get carried away very easily" -- "I don't know who to talk to anymore" -- "I'm just so tired of being Elvis Presley" -- "A lonely life ends"

Taking a fresh look at the twentieth-century icon who fundamentally transformed American culture, a veteran rock journalist explores the extravagance and irrationality inherent in the Elvis mythology, offering a thoughtful celebration of an immortal life