Elvis: Still Taking Care Of Business
by Sonny West

The King and I

Thirty years after his death, and still the Elvis books keep a-rolling. So many people have claimed to be one of the ‘Memphis Mafia’ that you wonder how they all squeezed into Graceland. That Jungle Room sure must have got crowded. Sonny West has a better claim to genuine ‘insider’ status than most, having been The King’s bodyguard and friend from 1960 until he was sacked with just a week’s pay by Presley’s dad, about a year before Elvis died.

It wasn’t the first time he’d been dismissed, as he reveals in this chatty, sometimes bitchy but generally affectionate memoir. He spends a fair amount of time justifying why he collaborated with his cousin Red West on the blockbuster expose Elvis: What Happened, published just two weeks before Elvis’s death, and you get the impression that accusations of ‘betrayal’ still tweak his conscience. If so, he makes amends for it with this detailed and well-illustrated book, which, while offering no major revelations, will be essential reading for Elvis completists.

ISBN 1572439394

Reviewed by Alan Lewis
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