Mick Farren’s collection about so much more than Elvis (but that’s the best part)

book cover - farren elvisCollections of essays are my favorite thing to read after I’ve mixed a cocktail and sprawled out on the couch. You talk about music, and I’m absolutely rivetted. Mick Farren‘s collected writing, Elvis Died for Somebody’s Sins But Not Mine, out now via Headpress, works especially well, as he talks booze, in addition to music, politics, and assorted lyrics from his band, the Deviants.

The music writing is the big draw, here — his writing on the King, especially, given the title and all. You’ll read about somebody putting on one of Presley’s records at a make-out party and the response of all the girls just seals the deal. Farren has this way of expressing exactly why Elvis is more than just impersonators and Vegas and bad movies.
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