Review by Piers Beagley & Geoffrey McDonnell
Fashion for A King is a massive 3kg 510-page hardcover book some 30cm tall and 25cm wide. It also includes two new live soundboards. It is written by Norwegian authors Tommy Edwardsen and Atle S. Larsen and published by Pal Granlund and FTD books.
As the publicity explains...
It all started with the “Black Leather Suit” in 1968, and ended with the “Mexican Sundial Suit” in 1977.
This book is the result of hundreds of working hours with research and “digging” through enormous amounts of documentation. After doing a long article series in the Norwegian “Flaming Star” Fan Club Magazine, our publisher, Pål Granlund asked if we were interested in making a book of the published material. Pål Granlund is one of a few Norwegians who have had the honour of meeting The King in person in Las Vegas and on tour. We have worked closely with Pål in this project, and as a result of this, we can now present - for the first time - a book with a fully documented story and pictures of Elvis Presley’s stage outfits. This book is not meant only for the hardcore “jumpsuit”-fan, but also as an encyclopaedia for fans all over the world to learn more about these great, original stage-outfits. Never has a book been more complete on this issue, and you will see rare photos and photos you have never seen before. We are very proud of this project and the opportunity to give you an idea of how these suits became the typical trademark of Elvis’ legacy as a live performer.
- - Best regards Tommy Edvardsen and Atle Larsen - authors.
The Book
This is an almighty project, a coffee-table book described as an "Encyclopedia for fans all over the world" including details and photos of all of Elvis’ stage outfits.
There is no doubt that Elvis collectors found the pre-publicity mouth-watering since it promised "a full documentary of all Elvis’ suits" and nothing of this magnitude has been done before - and certainly not with FTD as the official co-publisher.
The book assembles an astounding selection of images of Elvis from 1968 to 1977 from many notable photographic contributors including the well-known Ed Bonja, Keith Alveston, George O’Hill, Judy Palmer, Sandi Picton, Sue McCasland, Pal Granlund, Bob Heis, Sherif Hanna and Len Leech - amongst twenty-seven others. The book starts with a foreword by Pal Granlund remembering his June 9 1972 meeting with Elvis – beginning the book with a nice personal touch.
Before the main section, pages 11 to14 set the scene with mention of fashion designers Bill Belew and Gene Douchette and pages 14 to 20 feature nice June 1968 photos from when Bill Belew first started working with Elvis.
The book presents an explanation of each jumpsuit, where it was worn, description of the design etc, a multitude of photos as well as where the costumes may be seen nowadays.
This works nicely in favour of the book since Elvis had less and less new jumpsuits as the years progressed, so that the vast majority of the photos are of Elvis in his iconic early ‘70s years. And boy, did he look magnificent!
All years/tours, Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe seasons are mentioned and with sixty pages dedicated to 1970 alone, the selection of the photos is very impressive.
The images are printed on matt paper - perhaps a gloss finish would have looked better - and while a few have been printed in lesser quality than I have previously seen, the overall impression is pretty stunning (especially if you have previously bought expensive Elvis photo books to find the majority of pictures out of focus or disappointingly in black and white!).
Rather than run through each season, tour and fabulous jumpsuits that most fans all know and are well covered, I would like to mention a few missing suits. Las Vegas August 1970 season seems to ONLY mention suits featuring in the movie That’s The Way It Is - since I have a photo of Elvis wearing a Dark Blue jumpsuit from August 24 1970 that doesn’t even get a mention in this book!
Lake Tahoe 1971 gets very brief coverage and Tahoe 1973 is completely lacking any pictures at all, yet I have seen some Tahoe May 1973 photos! The Las Vegas Summer season of August 1972 doesn’t mention in near enough detail the number and range of Elvis cool shirt and pants combinations that he wore! These were an excellent change from the regular jumpsuits and I would have liked to seen more about them.
On a positive note, some seasons are well documented, such as Las Vegas August 1974, which does cover Elvis’ alternative two-piece leather suits rather well.
In fact throughout the book there are several costumes and plenty of variations that will be new to a lot of jumpsuit fans. While we are all familiar with Elvis’ mid-1975 Red and Black Phoenix jumpsuits, it is interesting to note that the original “Turquoise Phoenix” jumpsuit came from as early as June 1974, a year before.
If fans buy Fashion For A King purely to gaze at over 1000 great photos of Elvis splendour then there is little to disappoint with this sumptuous looking book - however the real problem is with the poor and repetitive text that accompanies these iconic images.
The authors of this giant labour-of-love are Norwegian so we could forgive a little slip or two in the text, however much of it is actually annoying to read. There are spelling errors on nearly every page and so many sentences are grammatically incorrect. Some of them you have to read twice just to understand what they are trying to say. In contrast, the prose in Norwegian Stein Erik Skar’s marvellous book Elvis: The Concert Years is totally engaging.
Should we write a book in Norwegian (heaven forbid!) we would:
A) Run the document through a basic WORD check for grammar and spelling
B) Have it proofread by a Norwegian author or writer.
It is obvious that neither of these have been done here. I also cannot believe that since it is an official FTD co-produced book neither Ernst Jørgensen nor Roger Semon gave the manuscript a quick read-through before printing.
Having two people, Leif Erik Sander and Carla Brundle, credited in the book as proofreaders is actually an embarrassment.
There are too many mistakes to note in detail and many silly ones repeat, like Elvis wearing a suit "under this Lake Tahoe Season" and "witch" instead of "which", "Kurt Russel" named as the famous actor not "Russell".
It is also annoying that on the last page they note that Elvis performed 'Release Me' at his final concert on June 26 1977, for the first time since 1975. Seeing as Elvis performed it a couple of times in 1977 - including the Columbia, February 18 1977 version released by FTD themselves, this is a silly mistake.
Two examples of the kind of sentences that make difficult reading are…
"He also told the audience that he did not know the lyrics to ‘Auld Lang Syne’ so he just mumbling the first verse and he were very surprised it was a second verse to it." (page 434) and,
"The spectator's ecstatic approaching climax in the giant Concert Hall as the stage overflows from lightning by large amount of stage-spotlights." (page 9)
Some mistakes also read very strangely in English (page 456), "On July 4th @ 2:30pm he held a god concert in Tulsa, Oklahoma" Who knew God was there?!
But worst of all for a book of this depth and detail - there is NO INDEX!
This is ridiculous, as the whole point of the book is to enjoy these wonderful images of Elvis on stage and to hopefully to learn what Elvis wore at each performance.
Although the suits are presented in chronological order, the photos that go with them often jump in date sequence. This would be fine IF there was an overall index but there is not. Seeing as Francesc Lopez of the great website Elvis Presley In Concert is credited in the book, surely an updated jumpsuit index compiled from everyone’s knowledge would have been been easily to include.
The book’s two concert CDs come without a CD case or cover pictures since they are just an insert in plastic envelopes. Yet when pictures in the book do come from the matching performances, (i.e. December 14 1975, pages 426 to 429), no reference is given!
Whilst some pages inevitably feature some “out of focus” pictures (i.e. page 63), in general most of the full-page images are a true delight - such as pages 42 and 43 from August 29 1969. And some of the rare images such as page 23 Black Herringbone 1969 suit and the fabulous one of Elvis with the "Hound Dog" December 15 1975 (page 425) are sensational.
Generally speaking the “Tour shows” and associated suits are the best covered in the book and it’s nice to have a good collection shown here. I particularly like the type of high-quality photo and great resolution on page 194 - nice!
However, close-ups of the belts Elvis wore are few, and here the book ultimately falls far short of what I expected- yet it does cover what microphones he used extensively!
I DO like this book because it is the first serious attempt to comprehensively document everything Elvis was wearing “on stage”, so it is a pity it doesn’t match one’s high expectations. Unlike some fans, I have no objection to the very few ‘new photos’ simply because the “known” photos used here are such iconic images, showing Elvis at his best.
What DOES annoy me is that for twenty-five years I have grown up to accept that three suits Elvis wore in 1975 were known as White Bicentennial, Gypsy and Aztec suits. Apparently the correct names for these I now discover for the first time in this book are:- “White Egyptian Bird” suit, “Eskimo Totem Pole” suit and “Chicken Rib” suit. Many other suits also suddenly appear with completely new names I have never heard of which can be utterly confusing when a suit such as the Gypsy has around five descriptive names!
I also find it quite interesting though that the light blue Spanish Flower suit shown on pages 215 and 217 has a remarkable similarity to the final “new suit” shown on page 508!
A double-page spread of Elvis on April 27 1975, shown together with a standard CD cover, demonstrates the massive size of this book along with the photo quality.
As a bonus from FTD, readers of Fashion For A King get two previously unreleased soundboards recordings to listen to while looking through this gigantic book.
The CDs
The two CDs feature concert material from 1974 and 1975 respectively.
Omaha - July 1 1974
Elvis performed three nights running in Omaha to sold-out audiences of 10,400 each night - this concert was the final Monday night performance. This disc runs for a total of 63 minutes including the “bonus track” of ‘Steamroller Blues’ performed at the closing tour show in Salt Lake City on July 2 1974.
When you start to listen to the show it is noticeable that, like many others already heard from this tour on June 15, 19, 28 and 29, the sound is nicely mixed with the band well-balanced but somewhat “flat and dull”. Obviously recorded on cassette with its apparent hiss, just about ALL the soundboards from this June 1974 tour sound the same! However, despite the audio quality, it is an enjoyable show with Elvis in ‘good form’.
The CD starts immediately straight into an OK ‘C.C. Rider’ but with the 2001/opening riff not being recorded. ‘I Got A Woman’ begins with Elvis teasing the audience "I ain’t got off the ground yet, I’m in love!" and the usual having “fu”’ with J.D. Sumner, plus a very short ‘I Got A Woman’ ending, which on our disc then goes into an ‘Amen’ performance!
This is where I started to lose my pleasure in the FTD “editing” of releases!
In actual FACT ‘Love Me’ is performed next before the solo ‘Amen’, but here ‘Amen’ has been edited back into its “normal place” to presumably add to our “smooth listening pleasure” - well it doesn’t! Elvis even mentions, "That’s what we were supposed to do earlier but we didn’t do it. We forgot the first part of the show" - so why alter the sequence, as now Elvis’ own comments make no sense?
Many June 1974 shows whilst being good shows were remarkably similar often only with ‘An American Trilogy’ and ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ as songs swapped around in the evening performances, and so a unique occurrence at the Omaha show is mis-represented and must have required more work than simply leaving the show to play as performed! You can also hear the tape-edits.
Anyhow on the CD, next is a completely unmemorable version of ‘Love Me’ but then we get back on track with an inspired version of ‘Tryin' To Get To You’ ("streaking all the way" version!) which Elvis seemed to perform very well throughout the whole tour.
‘All Shook Up’, ‘Love Me Tender’ ("My first movie was ‘Gone With the Wind’" Elvis jokes) and ‘Hound Dog’ all sound the same and are completely forgettable with Elvis throwing away the oldies but doing them just to please his fans.
‘Fever’ finds Elvis more involved and it’s fun, with the crowd is on-board and you can hear them all clapping along to the cool-vibe.
‘Polk Salad Annie’ is ok for a 1974 version (it always was a Jerry Scheff driven song, who this year was replaced by Duke Bardwell) and the crowd responds accordingly.
Thankfully ‘Why Me Lord’ which follows is sung “straight”, a beautiful version with reprise "Thank you J.D. that was out-of-sight, let’s do the last part again" - and taken seriously for a change. "Thank you everybody, that was really nice", notes Elvis afterwards, "If it was left up to the Stamps they would do that all night."
‘Suspicious Minds’ sounds all right for a 1974 version, then it’s the surprisingly funny introductions- including Elvis getting each one of the Stamps to say "Hello". Elvis announces John Wilkinson as from Wahoo, Nebraska (this inside joke gets Elvis giggling) and teases that Joe Guercio is from Omaha. They are brief, short yet “funny” introductions the way I enjoy them!
After this ‘I Can’t Stop Loving You’ is a good version with Elvis obviously enjoying singing this classic, and yet ‘You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me’ that follows lacks the vocal-power of a couple of years previously.
‘Help Me’ is a delightfully sincere version "This next song is a new song we have out" - and after an odd false start to ‘An American Trilogy’, Elvis changes his mind, "I’m sorry my mistake, ‘Bridge’"- and Elvis performs a passable version of ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’, but not up with his best versions.
‘Let Me Be There’, new since the beginning of the year, is again enthusiastic and gets a reprise. ‘Funny How Time Slips Away’, with some very nice James Burton guitar, gets a funny J.D. reprise ending with Elvis laughing and calling J.D. "Jack Daniels"! - Why we even get a one-liner of ‘I’ll Be There’ thrown in! "Way to go, Jack!!" Elvis jokes at the end.
‘Big Boss Man’ has a nice brass presence and funny J.D. ending and Elvis obviously enjoying himself throughout, but NOT the greatest sound.
Elvis is very sincere in his closing dialogue saying, "I’d like to tell you you’ve really been a fantastic audience to work to - of all the three shows we’ve been here" and oddly states, “A lot of people ask me a lot of questions that I really can’t answer…. The only thing I can tell you is we really like what we are doing."
Elvis then goes into a very ”cut short” ‘Can’t Help Falling In Love’ on this incomplete CD as the show ends.
The bonus track from the next night, the final concert of the tour in Salt Lake City, is a clear “highlight” being in better sound and a good version of ‘Steamroller Blues’ - so much so I just wish the next song, a rare 1974 version of ‘Help Me Make It Through The Night’, had also been included - certainly the CD running time would have allowed this.
This is a “Good” Summer 1974 tour show with a very enthusiastic audience – a nice addition to my collection but ultimately not different enough from the previous Rockin’ Across Texas FTD Amarillo June 19 1974 show to get me too excited. The sound certainly isn’t the “best ever” or “excellent” as some reviews have mentioned, and certainly in no way comparable to FTD’s March 1974 multi-track Live On Stage In Memphis.
Also, unlike the Amarillo show, this recording is incomplete and also edited (NO edit during the intros though as noted in the book’s wrong track-listing - as the book shows ‘I Can’t Stop Loving You’, ‘Help Me’ and ‘You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me’ in the wrong order!) Nor are the book photos of Elvis in Omaha on July 1 1974 (pages 332 and 333) correct either as I believe they are in fact from June 30 1974! - clearly the least interesting of the two shows that came with the book.
Las Vegas - December 14 1975
Wow! What a complete “value for money” second CD this turns out to be - an absolutely packed CD with 79 minutes and also coming from a ¼ inch reel-to-reel mono soundboard tape giving a MUCH better overall sound too. Unfortunately, the parts where Elvis sings loud on all six-cylinders does overload the tape with peak-distortion which does detract from the listening pleasure at times. However, it is a great show and on the whole the audio quality is brilliant, with very clear bass drums and chicken pickin’ guitar.
First of all I have to admit that it has to be a little similar to the previous night’s dinner show (FTD Dinner At Eight). Still a below par Elvis putting out a very acceptable show but CLEARLY tired after yesterday’s marvellous performances on December 13 - Elvis tonight just couldn’t perform to such a high standard.
The CD starts straight away into ‘C.C. Rider’ after which Elvis says "Everyone’s entitled to one stupid mistake" and that he made three this year.... one we know (the August 1975 engagement?!) and two we will never know.... presumably attempting to ask Kathy Westmoreland out again in July 1975 ... and something else?
During ‘I Got a Woman’/‘Amen’ Elvis says he is trying to wake up and sounds lacklustre tonight. Elvis even elaborates on this saying that, whilst people were queuing up to see him outside, he was "upstairs trying to get myself woke up… alone". It‘s a very average version of the song.
The Elvis greets the audience and gently teases fans "There’s just so far this suit will go honey, you gotta meet me! .. She said, "Hurry up, her legs are like mine!" I don’t want to kiss her legs!"
At the end of ‘Love Me’ that follows, we experience our first vocal overload, or distortion, before a decent version of ‘Tryin' To Get To You’ – a great audio mix with powerful bass, and not bad at all!
‘And I Love You So’ builds to a beautiful intimate version - nice! The audio quality and mix with the orchestra is THAT good on this quiet track that Felton Jarvis could have easily included this on the 1977 Moody Blue album.
Medleys of ‘All Shook Up’/’(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear’/’Don’t Be Cruel’ are all passable before a funny thing happens (towards the last part of ‘Don’t Be Cruel’) when Elvis quips to a woman that "one of us has got to get bigger lips!"
‘Hound Dog’ is the regular audience- pleasing “throwaway” until at the very end Elvis asks for it to be ramped up. Still it’s his worst performance so far tonight. Afterwards, Elvis plays with the fans, "You know there’s little kids in the audience so we can’t really get serious about this whole thing!"
Unfortunately, Elvis messes with the words of ‘Until It’s Time For You To Go’ at the start, although the crowd are obviously loving it - and it’s otherwise a passable version. Elvis would only perform this song another four times and this is the only officially released live version we have.
However, ‘You Gave Me A Mountain’ next is a solid performance, albeit with a little distortion on the peaks.
‘Polk Salad Annie’ turns out to be sounding rather good, due to an excellent Jerry Scheff bass line. It‘s always good to have Jerry rocking on this song, and on this reel-to-reel the bass is prominent and clear. It’s a surprisingly good sounding extended version with Elvis pushing it to five minutes!
Just before the introductions Elvis has fun with two more female fans, giving one the scarf and one the kiss and laughs about "Tic-Tacs for bad breath"!
From the Introductions J.D. Sumner And The Stamps Quartet’s performance of ‘Sweet, Sweet Spirit’ is edited out, and along with 2001/opening riff and closing riff this saves seven minutes from the show, allowing the 79 minutes and 33 seconds to fit onto one disc.
There is nothing particularly notable about the intros - except James Burton playing ‘Johnny B. Goode’ (whilst Elvis sings off mic) and then Elvis asks James Burton to demonstrate some rather fine chicken pickin’ guitar. Charlie Hodge gets a cute "Happy Birthday" from Elvis and also “Tony” from the Joe Guercio orchestra gets a special ‘School Day’ reprise performance.
‘Just Pretend’ "from an album about three years ago" is another good version and a delight to have in this reel-to-reel quality (which makes the peak distortion a shame). Elvis only ever performed this classic song a few times in concert before this December 1975 season - and the only official version we have so far is from a cassette soundboard of December 6 1975.
‘How Great Thou Art’ turned out to be THE performance highlight tonight - especially with a great reprise!
‘Burning Love’ follows quickly before Elvis jokes that he is going to tell the true story of ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ and does a great job on ‘Softly As I Leave You’. Again, this mix is clearer than the version RCA released on the 1978 single and could have easily been used on the Moody Blue LP.
‘America’ is well performed and ‘Little Sister’ is a nice laid-back version and a treat tonight. ‘Little Sister’ was only performed four times in the whole of 1975 and only once since 1973! Elvis even points out "last time" before the final chorus. This is the only officially released 1975 version of ‘Little Sister’ we have.
‘Heartbreak Hotel' is ok, with nice ringing guitar from James Burton and Elvis singing along, before Lisa Marie and Vernon Presley get introduced - "I’d like to introduce you to my little daughter, Lisa; she’s seven years old." Both get big applause from the crowd.
Then Elvis sings ‘O Sole Mio’/’It’s Now or Never’ but this time Elvis and not Sherrill Nielsen sings the first part in Italian. Although Elvis partially messes up the ‘O Sole Mio’ lyrics but as it‘s Elvis it has its charm and is another concert highlight.
Finally Elvis wishes everyone a "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year" if he doesn’t see them and closes with ‘Can’t Help Falling In Love’.
Overall this was a good show with a slowish start but with mostly great sound and Elvis relating especially well to his adoring fans. There are quite a few highlights in the show that you’ll want to listen to again and again!
On pages 426 to 429 are four pictures of Elvis wearing the White Bi-Centennial or White Egyptian Bird suit, as he did at this show.
Overall Verdict
We note that this huge project has received some extremely poor reviews, as well as some outstandingly positive reviews (usually from sites selling the book). There is no doubt that the pre-publicity raised everyone’s expectation level, as well as knowing it was an FTD co-produced package. We also have to take account that for most fans it is not a cheap book.
We, however, have also spent large amounts in the past for pretty disappointing Elvis photo-books. So for the overall value of this massive book packed full of stunning Elvis photos - combined with the two unreleased concerts on CD - we award it a 7/10.
Three points have to be deducted from the book for the lack of an index, text faults and incompleteness.
Individually we would rate the bonus CDs, Omaha July 1 1974 show 6/10, the second Vegas December 14 1975 show 8/10, and the book itself 7/10.
