Die Bücher von Paul Belard sind vom Druck wohl alle sehr schlecht. Ich habe nur 1 Buch von ihm...May 1956...und das reicht mir. Die Fotos gibt es in anderen Büchern in sehr viel besserer Qualität

Dieses buch ist produziert dürch Memphis Mansion und die ganze aufmachung ist dürch Henrik Knudsen sein team gemacht. Tekst kommt vom autor

Patrick, legst du dir das Buch zu? Falls ja, berichte mal bitte.
Ich habe da schon Interesse dran, bin aber ebenfalls skeptisch. Selbst wenn die Bilder und der Druck okay sind - Paul Belard hat in seinem letzten Buch extrem schlampig gearbeitet. Ich fürchte, dass auch die Texte mit nicht allzu großer Ambition verfasst sind.

Aber ich lass mich gerne überzeugen!

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Would you sign me an autograph? - Sure, Honey!

Wollte ich eigentlich ja... aber ich bin im allgemeine eher sjeptisch geworden mit 'blind' kaufen. Ich werde nochmal zum Elviscorner in Utrecht (Holland) fahren und mir das buch mal anschauen... das buch mit guns usw war eher slecht in aufmachung, king of the rings daher wieder besser.

Ich melde mich mal, wird aber eh etwas im neuen jahr, da gibt es bestimmt schon reviews im nets

Ein review des buches, da bin ich (leider) noch nicht überzeugt und muss ich dan doch zugeben das die arbeit zusammen nicht das bringt wie gehofft:

I came across this review of the book on the Danish 'Alt om Elvis' FB page. It was written by Christian Rantzen.

Bill Black is one of the early figures in the American history of rock, who definitely deserves a biography. Memphis Mansion is behind this publication, which was written by Paul F. Bélard. The book is easy to read, and the layout is clear and simple, and overall it works well.

With regards to the text, I would have preferred a better “flow”, where references should have been added to an appendix in the back of the book. I believe this would have resulted in a better reading experience. The different lead figures in this story are being introduced continuously, which hampers the flow of the book and results in a somewhat messy work - especially if the main intent was to have the focus on Bill Black.

There are too many anecdotes (which by themselves are fine), which make things a bit confusing when there are too many references to future events, in a time that realistically only covers the period 1926 – 1965, Bill Black’s era. I think it would have benefitted the book to have an additional chapter with detailed descriptions of the different personalities involved, if indeed this would have been of interest to the reader.

What the book sorely lacks is a critical editor who would have edited the text down a bit, and made it a more cohesive work. It’s a great pity that this did not happen. The layout is fine, but many of the photographs are in poor quality; another disappointment. The publishers should have used more time trying to find these photos in a better quality. The alternative would have been not to use them at all, simply because they are not good enough for print. In some cases, that can be the wiser choice. It’s also a pity that the good pics in the final third of the book are not used in those parts of the book where they would have been relevant.

Bill Black deserves a better book than this. Even if it would have taken a year more to rewrite the text, get the right flow, move the anecdotes to the appendix, and last but not least, find the photographs in a better quality. It’s clear that things simply went too fast, and one senses that the producers didn’t use the necessary time and reflection to get a satisfying result.

So is this a failed work? No, not at all. The book has many nice elements, well-written parts and a good story about a fantastic life, which unfortunately came to a very early end. But I believe that the book would have been better if it had been more focused and more tightly-written.