Go to main content

America The Beautiful

December 23, 2001 | Book
The latest book from Joe Tunzi has a very patriotic title and theme. In the foreword and introduction both Joe Tunzi and Mike Eder give tribute to the people at BMG who give you a lot of good releases and Elvis as a typical American (realizing his dreams but also meeting tragedy during his life) who is proud of his country.

Browsing through the pages we see a lot of pictures of Elvis during all stages of his career. From great shot of Elvis performing at Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show in 1954 through some great sixties (incl comeback show) shots from the movies, publicity shots and some "candid" to Elvis on stage in the seventies. We see Elvis with Tom Jones, and a shot we knew Tom is sitting next to Elvis, but not in this photo. There are other celebrities in the book too, like Sam Philips, Presidents Nixon and Carter, some co-stars from his movies and George Bush is supposed to be in a picture, but we only see his back.


Going back to the theme of the book "America The Beautiful" we don't see the theme coming back that much in the book. Of course we see Elvis in the Army (in Germany, in the U.S. and on the movie screen), we see Elvis giving something back to his country by doing his fundraise for the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial and of course wearing his "Eagle Suit". But most pictures are not linked to this theme, they are just good images of The King.


The book "America The Beautiful" has been issued with a promo CD with the same title . The CD contains: "America The Beautiful", "If I Can Dream", "An American Trilogy", "Goin' Home" and 'Stay Away". These are all very patriotic songs, like on the BMG Release "America The Beautiful" or songs about going / coming home to the place you belong. These add a lot to the theme and the general feeling in America today.


Conclusion


Overall this is a nice book with a good theme for Americans during these days. There are a few great and new shots in this book, but also a lot of well known (publicity) shots we've seen lots of times before.