By Maria Hesterberg - Translation by Nadine Schwenk

An illustrated book on the Elvis concerts in New York 1975 and Largo 1976 whose mainly professional photos show the biggest entertainer of all time. This article was twice-overdue because the book “Born To Rock” by American Bud Glass was already published in 2004 and has found a lot of friends since. Bud Glass’ book features on 158 pages more than 250 photos of a 1975-Elvis Presley and in a bonus section also photos from the year 1976. Except for a handful of photos all other photos are color-shots which come into their own on the high gloss paper. Glass concentrates in “Born To Rock” mainly on the pictures and sets detailed texts aside. The few articles are however worth reading and offer some interesting details.

Unfortunately the producers again limited the text to the English language. Especially for this book it would have been good to publish the texts in two languages, because the amount of translations would have been small. If you take the book in your hands and run over the pages the extremely good processing quality stands out. A special binding and gluing technique compared with a linen stripe avoids the book looking used even after repeated running over the pages. This effect is in addition reached by a special transparent ink, which avoids finger prints on the pages. The landscape format of the book is surprising but the pictures are mainly in that format and the producer wanted the pictures to be unaltered, uncut and whole. The preface for “Born To Rock” was written by Al Dvorin, who should be known to everybody as the voice who informed the audience after Elvis’s appearances with the frustrating message: “Elvis has left the building. Thank you and good night!”. It is however less known that Al Dvorin was more than the voice that closed Elvis' performances. In this preface he reports shortly that he had been friends with Tom Diskin since 1955, who became the right hand of Colonel Parker and so he came in touch with Elvis and his show. Slowly Dvorin undertook all the tasks belonging to an Elvis show and passed through all the stations of the organization and accomplishment of this mega-event: “…Tom Diskin told Colonel Parker I could do it, so I ended up doing every job on the road with Elvis except dying his hair.” (p. 3). Like everyone who has worked with Elvis Dvorin describes his work for the king as something special. “With Elvis it was a thrill every night of the week. When he was on tour, it was a "happening". It was a "happening" in every city, and the fans knew that. They felt his love. They felt his enthusiasm and knew he was the greatest entertainer the world has ever known. I worked with the best people. I loved what I did and did what I loved. I am the luckiest guy in the world.” (p.3).“Born to Rock” is one of the last projects Al Dvorin finished before he was killed in an accident in August 2004.

Paul Larsen, whose introduction comes after the preface, reports enthusiastically of his Elvis concert experience on July 19th 1975 in the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York. An introduction from what I only want to quote two sentences to show the GRACELAND readers Larsen’s feelings: “I realized he was doing it to me again, touching the deepest part of my soul as no artist has ever done in my life .” (p. 4). Larsen remembers the process of the concert and its summits and refers at the same time to the following photos, which back his reports up. Finally we learn something about the year 1975 and its meaning for Elvis, about his activities on the stages of the United States and about his health problems in the year of his 40th birthday. In contrary to the previous texts, this author does not report any personal memories, but gives facts to the readers, which are being complemented from time to time by personal comments. Unfortunately we don’t know who has written the text because the name is not mentioned and so we can only guess that it is Bud Glass himself, who says in the last line “…Proof positive that even in his forties, there is no doubt…Elvis was BORN TO ROCK!” (p. 7). Now we see Elvis on the following 39 pages on July 19th 1975 in the Uniondale, Nassau Coliseum, where his first show on that day began on 2:30 pm. He wore the “Dark Blue Aztec Suit” with the corresponding original belt. Afterwards, after a short break for relaxing and changing, Elvis walked on stage at 8:30 pm for the second time on that day this time wearing the “Dark Blue Gipsy Suit”, also with original belt.

The pictures are actually self-explanatory, but anyway let me bring some things to the foreground. Apparently Elvis was in top form on that day and on a lot of pictures we see the king the way we like him best: he sings and lives the songs, shows the audience how much his fans mean to him; takes gifts, gives scarves to the audience, kisses his fans, flirts with thousands of people in the arena and is the boss! Especially the close-ups showing Elvis alone have their own charisma: The viewer sees the Elvis Presley who attracts the masses and with his show – actually already with his single presence – brings them to ecstasy. That Elvis was in the mid 70s at a point where there was no turning back becomes clear in the bonus section, which shows Elvis during the afternoon concert on June 27th 1976 in the Capital Center in Largo/Maryland. These pictures, on which Elvis wears the so called “Blue Pre-Historic Bird Suit”, can not hide Elvis’s state of health. Although it is great that we are presented this pictures coherently, they leave a depressing feeling, especially as the end of this book. No matter how the people may think about it, Bud Glass emphasizes with his choice of photos consciously the sensational form of Elvis in July 1975 in Uniondale/New York. The pictures were taken by James Faro, a professional photographer with professional equipment, what you can see on most of the pictures. Faro must have pressed the trigger during the show nearly continuously; fantastic that there are so many pictures showing Elvis the way he was during 90 per cent of career: as the biggest entertainer the show business has ever seen and will ever see. The photos from Largo however are from Faro’s brother John.

Technologically seen it is interesting that all the pictures of the brother are slides. Editing them, Praytome Publishing worked with a big technological effort. All the slides were cleaned with a laser cleaning procedure. Afterwards with luminance, contrast and color corrections the constant quality was reached we can see in the book. When we are talking about “Born to Rock” we may not forget the well done Elvis Trivia sections, which appear here and there between the photos and tell short stories about the concerts and Elvis and document them with photos or special photo extracts. Conclusion:The book “Born To Rock” from Bud Glass and Praytome Publishing contains a nearly complete documentation of the two concerts in Uniondale/New York from July 19th 1975 and a less detailed bonus section with pictures from June 26th 1976 in Largo/Maryland. The complete material stands out because of the closeness and charisma Elvis can transport even after 30 years and the medium paper. Always fascinating! The chosen texts are worth reading and contain some unknown details. Due to “Born to Rock” dealing with a very special topic, a very small extract from Elvis’s career it is surely no standard book in the Elvis literature. However this release is a piece that should not be missing especially in the library of the fans being interested in the concerts. Also the ones in favor of live pictures get their money worth.