Customer Reviews

It Came from Memphis

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If you've never been to Memphis, this book will either make you drive straight to the airport or convince you to stay far, far away. Gordon's round-up of Memphis eccentrics, flops, and genuises is short on Elvis and B.B. King, and long on Alex Chilton, Dewey Phillips, Jim Dickinson, and Furry Lewis. An indispensible and hilarious guide to America's deep-fried music capital.

Gordon's It Came from Memphis helps to unravel the rich heritage of a city whose musical heritage is largely overlooked save for BB King and Elvis Presley. He succesfullly attempts to expose the politics, racism, and situations of circumstance that fueled Memphis to become what it is today both musically and socially. A young gifted author whose style is both easily readable and profound, Gordon offers a book that is a must read for any fan of modern music. I recommend this one highly.

Gordon's It Came from Memphis helps to unravel the rich heritage of a city whose musical heritage is largely overlooked save for BB King and Elvis Presley. He succesfullly attempts to expose the politics, racism, and situations of circumstance that fueled Memphis to become what it is today both musically and socially. A young gifted author whose style is both easily readable and profound, Gordon offers a book that is a must read for any fan of modern music. I recommend this one highly.

I enjoyed the first half of this book the most. Gordon's descriptions of the 1950s and 60s music scene in Memphis are really vivid, insightful, and a lot of fun. The quirky qualities of the area, such as the wild on-air patter of Dewey Phillips, the professional wrestling of Sputnik Monroe, the wack-o antics of Harry Fritzius (a deejay who appeared in public wearing a gorilla mask, hence the name "Harry"), and the stories about the Bitter Lemon Coffee Shop and Gallery are interesting, and often very funny, to read. For some reason, the description of the music scene from the late 70s to early 90s isn't quite as engaging. I don't think that's the fault of Gordon's fine writing. It's just a sense that recent history isn't quite the same, and I was left wondering if Memphis, or any American city, could ever develop such a vibrant, innovative, and eclectic music scene, even with the new variety of media and recording innovations of the digital age. Although Gordon maintains his enthusiasm for Memphis's music scene into the 1990s, there is a sense of well-grounded nostalgia for the early days of rockabilly and soul that forms an emotional core of this book. It feels like Gordon wants to move beyond this sense but that he can't quite reconcile his appreciation for the early days of rock-n-roll with his desire to keep up with the newest sound.

Robert Gordon has performed a valuable service to music history in penning "It Came From Memphis" and correctly amplified attention to names known to cognoscenti but are overshadowed by the overly familiar. Indeed, Gordon could increase his scope for a second and third volume with little trouble. Gordon's focus on the offbeat musical offerings paired with the critically respected Chilton, Dickinson, and Lewis, captures the spirit of Memphis music that emerges in the rich melange of swamp trash culture overlaid with bourgeois convention and its anti-thesis of rebellion. In many ways this is Gordon's point: this music could only have come from Memphis. The casual reader may wonder why this matters, and the simple answer is that between the clean sounds and production values of Los Angeles, Nashville, and New York City, Memphis's Sun Studios, Stax Records, and Ardent Studios emerged as birthplaces of something that was much more than merely "The Memphis Sound." Indeed the Memphis sound could not be circumscribed. Gordon's proper emphasis on the commercially overlooked is also appropriate. For the tragedy of Memphis music is also rooted in its curse: Memphis Music is nearly always damned with commercial failure yet critical success. Today, musicologists speak in reverential tones about Dickinson's work with Ry Cooder, and hold Big Star 3rd and The Scruffs as mortal products that now abide as music for gods; such is the influence of these masterpieces that lack the airplay and exposure of even Elvis's "Clambake." Commercial success of Memphis music is a binomial model, either you are elder god like Elvis and W.C. Handy, or you have a number one hit record like "The Letter" but still end up a flophouse habitude and washing dishes in New Orleans. Yet the influence of these Memphis artists abides and, like the Snopes, they endure. Gordon has brought our attention to Memphis music and corrected the oversight of history with this foundational work, and it merits inclusion in the music reference section of every library. We owe Gordon our thanks.

I never knew him because he left my mom when I was three. While deciding to do some research I came across this book. It depicted my dad as an absolute horror and menace to society. The only thing I ever knew about him was what I read or heard around town. Even though I didn't know him before he was killed, I did get to know my grandmother and uncle, Jim and Ariel, and for that I do feel fortunate. They are/were great people that maybe protected me from the dark side of my dad. Please don't call my dad a punk or whateverelse enters your small mind at the time, it hurts me and his now grandkids. I have written Gordon for some information but guess what - he never responded. Come on now Gordon, you owe me that.

Hello I know this is weird but Campbell was my Uncle my dad is his younger brother. I was named after their mother my name is Ariel. I tried your e-mail address but it was sent back to me. If you get tgis please reply back I know I can give you information about your dad.

I was particularly fascinated by the chapter on Spunik Monroe, Memphis' leading wrestling bad guy, who I used to see when he was in Texas. He played to the Black audience,who were relegated to the balcony of Memphis auditorium in segregation era, with his colorful antics and trademark self-description,"235 pounds of twisted steel and sex appeal." When contract renewal time came, he used his clout as biggest boxoffice draw by refusing to sign unless Blacks were allowed full access and the promoters caved in to his one man integration campaign. Also was big inspiration for Memphis garage rockers of early Sixties, many of whom dyed white streaks in their hair in his homage.

This book is something of an anthropological excavation of the Memphis music scene in the second half of the twentieth century. Although Gordon focuses largely on the underbelly of unsung heroes, the reader implicitly learns how Memphis' most famous artists could never have exploded into the stratosphere without the lesser known, yet equally important personalities stoking the creative fires.

That Memphis music (black or white, soul or rock, country or blues) shook the world is undeniable; but what Gordon does is introduce the reader to the milieu of largely unknown influential people who left their own mark.

There are so many unforgettable characters in this book that one is reminded of Wolfe's Electric Koolaid Acid Test as we are shown a parade of unique scene makers, artists, and musicians who have disproportionately impacted society and popular culture.

Essential read for anyone who beleives the whole punk/art/garage music concept was hatched in New York. All this, and not a speck of Elvis.