Elvis Has Left the Building: The Day the King Died

By Dylan Jones

‘The King’ departed this world during the month of punk rock’s apotheosis. Punk had set out to destroy Elvis, or at least everything he came to represent, but never got the chance, as Elvis destroyed himself before anyone else could. Nearly forty years after his death, rock’s ultimate legend and prototype just won’t go away and his influence and legacy are to be found not just in music today, but the world over.
          
Elvis Presley has permeated the modern world in ways that are bizarre and inexplicable: a pop icon while he was alive, he has become almost a religious icon in death, a modern-day martyr crucified on the wheel of drugs, celebrity culture, junk food and sex. In Elvis Has Left the Building, Dylan Jones takes us back to those heady days around the time of his death and the rise of punk. Evoking the hysteria and devotion of The King’s numerous disciples and imitators, Jones offers a uniquely insightful commentary on Elvis’s life, times and outrageous demise.

Recounting how Elvis single-handedly changed the course of popular music and culture, Jones delves deep into the cult of The King and reveals the universal importance of what Elvis’s death meant and still means to us today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Release date: Mar 1, 2006
• ISBN: 9781468310429

Dylan Jones

A former editor at i-D, The Face, Arena, the Observer and the Sunday Times, Dylan Jones is the award-winning editor of GQ magazine. He has won the BSME Editor of the Year award a record nine times, in 2013 was awarded an OBE for services to publishing and the fashion industry, and last year was awarded Editor of the Year at the PPA Awards. He is the author of many books about music and popular culture, the most recent being Elvis Has Left the Building: The Day the King Died. He collaborated with David Cameron on Cameron on Cameron: Conversations with Dylan Jones, which was shortlisted for the Channel 4 Political Book of the Year, is a Trustee of the Hay Festival and Chairman of London Collections: Men.