89. Peter Guralnick - Last Train to Memphis / Careless Love

April 1, 2019 John Mitchinson

Joining Andy and John on this episode are David Keenan, the novelist, one-time musician, and critic whose work, in particular for the The Wire, has introduced a wider audience to experimental rock, noise, folk, industrial and psychedelic music. He has also published books on England’s esoteric underground, tarot and two highly acclaimed novels, both published by Faber: the first, This Is Memorial Device, winner of the 2018 Collyer Bristow/London Magazine Prize and earlier this year, For The Good Times, described by Suzanne Moore as ‘Occult, transformative, difficult, fantastic’. He once claimed his favourite Beatle was Yoko. He is joined by Bethan Roberts, the author of five novels, including Mother Island (published by Chatto & Windus) which won a Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize 2015 and her latest, Graceland, inspired by the relationship between Elvis and his mother Gladys, also published by Chatto in February, and which the Financial Times claimed ‘prompted the reader to burst into song’. Bethangrew up in a house filled with Elvis’s music and, according to her publisher, ‘first became captivated by the story of Elvis and Gladys as a girl, poring over her mother’s scrapbooks and annuals.’
In a rare departure form Backlisted tradition, David and Bethan are talking about two books, Peter Guralnick’s epic account of the life of Elvis Presley - Last Train to Memphis and Careless Love, published by Little Brown in 1994 and 1999 respectively. We’ll also hear how Andy has come to terms with Trollope through his 800 page ‘fluently written’ masterpiece, The Way We Live Now and John remembers the centenarian archaeologist and poet, Nancy Sandars. But mostly its Elvis, and Guralnick, and you even get our four favourite Elvis songs, Desert Island Discs style.

Book mentioned:

Peter Guralnick - Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley; Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley; Lost Highway: Journeys and Arrivals of American Musicians; Feel Like Going Home: Portraits in Blues and Rock 'n' Roll; Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm and Blues and the Southern Dream of Freedom
Bethan Roberts - Graceland; Mother Island
David Keenan - This Is Memorial Device; For the Good Times; To Run Wild In It: A Handbook of Autonomic Tarot
Anthony Trollope - The Way We Live Now
Nancy Sandars - Grandmother’s Steps; The Epic of Gilgamesh
Lester Bangs - Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung
Nick Tosches - Dino: Living High in the Dirty Business of Dreams
Elaine Dundy - Elvis & Gladys
Hick Hornby - High Fidelity