Rythm Oil: A Journey Through The Music Of The American South [Paperback]

Stanley Booth (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2000

Here are Stanley Booth's acclaimed writings about the South and the music that emanates from it. Rythm Oil—you don't have to know how to spell "rhythm" to have it in your body and soul—is a potion sold on Beale Street in Memphis. The home of Sun Records, B. B. King, Elvis Presley, Howlin' Wolf, and Jerry Lee Lewis, Memphis is also the home of fantastic stories and broke-down dreams. As Booth makes his way from Memphis to the Mississippi Delta to the depths of the Georgia woods exploring the sounds, the music, and the culture of the American South, "he has produced some of the most gracefully written, thoughtful, and thought-stirring musings on the characters—the famous and the forgotten, the infamous and the unknown—who command the kingdom or drift through the shadowland of the South's rich-chorded patrimony" (Nick Tosches, Los Angeles Times).

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A disjointed but ultimately interesting collection of essays, most of which previously appeared in various publications, Rythm Oil (the title comes from a potion sold in Memphis) is less a journey than a series of snapshots covering 70 years of Southern and Southern-influenced music and performers. Beginning with a dramatized version of bluesman Robert Johnson's infamous encounter with the Devil--"the embodiment of Faustian legend"--Booth ( The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones ) also chronicles his own meetings with such musicians as B. B. King, Furry Lewis, Otis Redding, Keith Richards and a host of others. The book explores, through interview and observation, who influenced and was influenced by these performers. In an introduction to a Rolling Stone article included here about Janis Joplin, Booth writes: "I slowly awoke to the realization that I was describing the progress of something, a kind of sexy, subversive music," which is about as close to stating a central theme as he comes. There is a raucous quality to Booth's style that is in keeping with the lives and music of his subjects. Photos.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

Top-flight memoir/article collection on Memphis, blues musicians, and rock 'n' roll, by the author of 1984's Dance with the Devil: The Rolling Stones, who has abandoned the gonzo style of that work for a much more intimate and moving tie with the reader. Most of these pieces first appeared in Playboy, Esquire, Rolling Stone, Smart, etc. Here, however, Booth dresses them up with tasty slabs of soul-memory about how each came to be--so the collection hangs together with unusual strength, emerging from the weathers and currents of Memphis and the blues at the birth of rock 'n' roll. Perhaps the most brilliantly inventive piece is the first, ``Standing at the Crossroads,'' a two-character, one-act play about haunted bluesman Robert Johnson literally (he thinks) selling his soul to the devil at midnight on a deserted crossroads in the Mississippi Delta. Several sections commemorate the fading energies of Beale Street and its music halls, and the deaths and funerals of many bluesmen and rockers Booth knew personally, including Mississippi John Hurt, Charlie Freeman, and Otis Redding. Booth interviewed Redding a week before the singer died. Outstanding is ``Furry's Blues,'' the true story of a one-legged blues singer/guitarist who spent 40 years as a Memphis street- sweeper while playing occasional weekends in clubs. Booth relives the first glories of Sun Records in his hometown and the rise of Elvis, then does a stinging piece on Elvis in 1967, when he was supersaturated with success. Janis Joplin's failure before a half- black audience, because her pickup band wasn't blues trained, is a highlight, as are pieces on Keith Richards, Al Green, and Phineas Newborn. Feelingful all the way, and a tribute to the blues. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (October 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306809796
• ISBN-13: 978-0306809798
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #812,262 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Author Booth breaks back, spirit in attempt to convey music, October 27, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Rythm Oil: A Journey Through the Music of the American South (Paperback)

Stanley Booth has always sacrificed something for his work; whether it's his health or his sanity or his relationships but never his sense of humour. Rythm Oil takes its shape as an overview of Memphis, living on through yellow fever and famine, the death of all its musical heroes, who as it happened, came to Memphis and died there or who were born there and who left never to return. Even Booth, who today lives in Georgia, his home state, can't seem to find it in his heart to repudiate this strange and fascinating town with its greasy river that recently claimed another musical hero, Jeff Buckley. Memphis is a town of contradictions: its streets run north-south and its avenues run east-west, something Priscilla Presley never knew. "It's like she lived in a cocoon," remarks Booth, talking to his mother who replies "She did, it was on top of her head."

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A look at the source of all popular music; Memphis Blues., February 13, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Rythm Oil: A Journey Through the Music of the American South (Paperback)

Booth seems to have written this book in his own blood. He lived among and through many of the people who's stories he tells. Booth shows Memphis to be the fountain from which popular music has flowed across the years and the world. Booth exposes the roots of rock & roll, soul and even country music with love and devotion

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All roads lead to Memphis, September 10, 2001

By 

Bill McIntosh (Georgia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rythm Oil: A Journey Through The Music Of The American South (Paperback)

This book really captured the true essence of the influence of Memphis on the world music scene. Popular music is poorly written about and is normally glamorized or scandalized. This book really seems to capture the true essence of the music, the musicians, and the times. This book was so interesting to me I went to Memphis last summer on vacation and went to many of the old out of the way musical history spots in Memphis.