Elvis and The Colonel-Greg McDonald- book review
I gave the book a good review on Goodreads. This is one of the few books that actually tells about Tom Parker. We find out about his youth in Holland and how he got to America. Parker was actually in the military at one point.
The book wants to tell Colonel Parker’s point of view as best the author can. There are some things that too many books say and it makes me the question the truth here. I listen to the TCB podcast. There are stories that I heard on the podcast, did this author hear those stories too? Did the podcast get this book ahead of time?
There are points that made me think.
Elvis couldn’t tour Europe because Parker couldn’t get a passport. McDonald says Parker had so many connections that Parker could’ve got a passport. That sounds possible. Parker is often shown to be such a control freak that he wouldn’t allow Elvis to tour with other promoters and that was the reason. McDonald doesn’t answer that one. Could it be Presley’s drug issues? That is plausible. How would they get through customs?
The movies. There are equal stories that is was Colonel forcing Elvis into contracts vs. Elvis didn’t care and just wanted to play around and get easy money.
Why didn’t Presley fire Parker when it was obvious that things changed and Parker didn’t keep up? It’s never said, but McDonald makes a good point that Elvis wouldn’t have a pick of managers in 1974. Supposedly his drug use was known in entertainment circles. His shows were uneven. His recording schedule was erratic. Who would deal with that? That is almost a circular argument. Was Elvis erratic because he couldn’t get out of Parker’s control? Was his behavior the reason he couldn’t get out?
The 50-50 deal to sell Presley’s back catalogue to RCA. Elvis needed cash bad. According to this, this was the one time Parker couldn’t get a better deal. Gee that one time Parker couldn’t work a better deal.
Parker didn’t interfere in the music. Elvis didn’t interfere with the business. It only applied when it didn’t look bad for Parker. It was Elvis that wanted to sell the back catalogue. Shouldn’t the businessman Parker stop him? Parker picked out a few songs for Elvis to sing and they turned out to be big hits. Amazing.
It’s funny because there are past posts about The Beach Boys. Brian was the creative one. Mike didn’t want to #$&&# with the formula and wanted the money. In this book, Elvis is the Mike not the Brian. We want him to the Brian. We believe Parker held him back. In this book, Elvis wasn’t creative, just out for money.
As Parker and Presley have both passed on, we can only guess and surmise what their relationship was.