Released in Italy is the bootleg book “From The Dark To The Light”. Should we put our spotlight on it?
Design
The picture on the book’s cover is a nice find; Elvis as a pirate on the cover of a book filled with pirated music. Too bad he isn’t holding up the first ever Elvis Presley bootleg “Please Release Me” which would have been a nice touch since so much bootleg material is officially unreleased. The cover also shows the book really is home made by a fan; the album Elvis is holding up is taken from eBay, the recognizable little camera you fin don eBay clearly shows.
The content of the book is written in Italian and English, the printing is plain black and white and although done consequent throughout the entire book, not very readable. Most images a scans printed in black and white; not very attractive.
Content
A book on Elvis’ bootleg is a welcome addition to most collectors’ bookshelves. That’s the reason I wanted to pick up a copy of this book. But when in my favorite Belgian Elvis Shop I hesitated when I had it in my hands. The book contains the front cover and track listing of a lot of import releases thrown together on one page. The track listings are cut out and enlarged so you can read them. Although a nice idea to present the original track listing on paper the result becomes very messed up.
The author used a system of symbols to give an impression of the audio-quality, color or B&W cover and single disc or double album. When pictured next to the album covers the result isn’t very readable or clear, why not use a simple table with text.
Why did I pick it up? Because inside the book I found a lot of old releases I didn’t know myself. So it is a nice shopping list for the collector inside ? And with no other book available I’ll take this one.
Conclusion
A nice try by a fan, now let’s hope a real designer picks up on this idea. It can’t be that hard to write a nice bootleg book and there are some nice cover and memorabilia books out there, which could be used for inspiration. Otherwise I will have to do it myself ...