FERGUS NOLAN,
Sir, - What a pity the Weekend feature article on Elvis's forthcoming anniversary, "Love me tender", emphasised such a negative side of the man.
Here was a guy who brought untold happiness to so many people the world over and yet, sadly, we are treated yet again to the story of his personal problems and undignified death. Indeed, as with every newspaper article on Elvis it seems, the obligatory errors can be found. For one, Elvis's stillborn twin was not named Vernon. An easy fact to establish if one is interested in the subject matter.
As for "misshapen weeping Americans mourning their rhinestone king" and the "lumpy faithful plodding along the pilgrimage route"; how many years does one go to journalism college to come up with that? Anna Mundow has clearly spent far too much time reading the book by the professor of Jungian psychology rather than Peter Guralnick's definitive, warts and all, biography. Guralnick is widely regarded as the pre-eminent writer on 20th century American popular music and I would suggest that for Anna's next article on Elvis (may it be a long time coming), she invests the time and energy to educate herself about her subject before putting pen to paper.
After all it is The Irish Times she writes for and not one of the tabloids.
Elvis was above all a singer, Anna Mundow states, it's such a shame there's so little in this lengthy article about that fact. - Yours etc.,
FERGUS NOLAN,
Clonsilla,
Dublin 15