The Skiffle Movement

If you want a book on the Skiffle music and early British rock and roll, you could not do better than this one. Honkers and Shouters by Arnold Schor is an account of the 50s R&B scene from someone who was part of it. I also want to recommend all of Peter Guelvain's books, but especially Last Train to Memphis, the first of his two-volume biography of Elvis Presley. He doesn't flinch from showing the men he writes about as egocentric, often misogynist, manipulatorswho damage the people around him. But nor does he turn his books into Albert Goldman-style denunciations of his subjects