Fortunate Son: The Life of Elvis Presley (American Portrait (New York, N.y.).)

Elvis Presley was celebrity's perfect storm. His sole but substantial contribution was talent, a fact Charles L. Ponce de Leon is careful to demonstrate throughout his wonderfully contextual Fortunate Son. Even as the moments of lucidity necessary to exercise that talent grew rarer and rarer, Elvis proved his musical gifts right up to the end of his life. Beyond that, however, he was fortune's child. Fortunate Son succinctly traces out the larger shifts that repeatedly redefined the cultural landscape during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, using Elvis's life to present a brief history of American popular culture during these tumultuous decades. Days before his death, Elvis Presley saw a chance to earn the U.S. Marshals badge President Nixon had given him in the Oval Office back in 1970, where, in his bejeweled leisure suit, the drug-addicted Elvis had sworn himself to law and order. Spying a fight breaking out between two men and a gas station attendant, an overweight Elvis did his best to leap out of his limo and strike a karate pose. He was met with stunned disbelief and requests for autographs; when his police escort finally arrived, it was in hopes of a photo with the King. In the 1950s Elvis was celebritys perfect storm. Gifted, charismatic, and telegenic, he was a rebel rooted in conservative Southern working-class morals. By the late 1960s, the storm had largely passed. A surging popular culture had upended those morals, and what had once seemed rebellious looked more and more reactionary. Far from daring and racy, Elviss moves seemed treacle; rather than trendsetting, his musical talent seemed grist for country ballads. Charles Ponce de Leons brilliant Fortunate Son succinctly places Elviss life within the larger shifts that redefined the cultural landscape during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, discovering in the mounting ironies of Elviss waning success the seeds of the mythology we live with today. "Days before his death, Elvis Presley saw a chance to earn the U.S. Marshal's badge President Nixon had given him back in 1970 in the Oval Office, where, in his bejeweled leisure suit, the drug-addicted Elvis had sworn himself to law and order. Spying a fight breaking out between two men and a gas station attendant, an overweight Elvis did his best to leap out of his limo and strike a karate pose. He was met with stunned disbelief and requests for autographs; when his police escort finally arrived, it was in hopes of a photo with the King." An account of the final years of the rock-and-roll legend's life discusses how his charismatic, rebellious personality and his firm grounding in conservative, southern working-class morals influenced his persona in the 1950s before his struggles with drugs and shifting pop culture preferences irrevocably shaped his final decade