That's Alright, Elvis

Memoir of Scotty Moore, Elvis Presley's first guitarist and manager.\nThis is a re-release of a landmark music book first published in 1997 by Simon & Schuster. It was a finalist for the prestigious Gleason Award, given out by BMI, New York University and Rolling Stone magazine. Scotty Moore passed away in 2016 and the book has been revised and brought up to date.\nWhen Elvis Presley first showed up at Sam Phillip's Memphis-based Sun Records studio, he was a shy teenager in search of a sound. Sam asked guitarist Scotty and bass player Bill Black to work with Elvis—and the music they created as the Blue Moon Boys launched what became known as rock ‘n’ roll.\nScotty and Bill toured with the young singer, and played on all of his Sun sessions and his first recordings for RCA; Scotty also served as Elvis’s manager. With Bill Black and Elvis both gone, Scotty was the only remaining member of the original trio who could tell the true story of how Elvis transformed popular music—and how Scotty created the guitar sound that has become the prototype for all rock guitar that followed, prompting Rolling Stone guitarist Keith Richards to proclaim, “Everyone else wanted to be Elvis—I wanted to be Scotty.”\nAfter he stopped touring with Elvis on a regular basis, Scotty moved to Nashville, where he recorded an instrumental album, “The Guitar That Changed the World.” He joined Elvis on stage in 1968 for the heralded “Comeback” session, but after that he put his guitar aside to engineer the recordings of others. In 1970, he engineered Ringo Starr’s Nashville album, “Beaucoups of Blues.” By the 1990s, he decided to play guitar again, accepting offers to record with Keith Richards, Jeff Beck, Ron Wood, and Paul McCartney.\nFor all fans of Elvis Presley and his music—and for all lovers of rock ‘n’ roll—this is a compelling story.\nScotty Moore was a guitarist, recording engineer and record producer. As Elvis Presley’s first guitarist, he is considered one of the co-founders of rock ‘n’ roll. This was his first book with James L. Dickerson, his hand-picked biographer. He passed away in 2016 at his home in Nashville, Tennessee. His second book with Dickerson is titled, “Scotty & Elvis.”\nJames L. Dickerson is an award-winning writer and journalist who is considered the ultimate authority on the music of the South—blues, country, and rock. He is the former editor/publisher of the once third-largest-circulation music magazine in the U.S., NINE-O-ONE Network. He is the author of Colonel Tom Parker: The Curious Life of Elvis Presley’s Eccentric Manager, which was purchased by Warner Bros. for its upcoming Elvis film starring Tom Hanks as the Colonel, and Mojo Triangle: Birthplace of Country, Blues, Jazz and Rock ‘n’ Roll. Dickerson’s music writing has received numerous awards over the years, but none as welcome as the one from the Library of Congress, which asked him in 2002 to write an essay on the Sun Records Sessions with Elvis (1954-1955) for permanent inclusion in the National Registry.