Name: It Came From Memphis
ISBN: 9780743410458

Robert Gordon

Exploring interwoven threads of personality, coincidence, progress, and taste--all essentially unrelated to music--a veteran journalist explains how popular culture and business intersected in Memphis to set the stage for rock and roll well before Elvis arrived. Reprint.

It Came From Memphis

Melody Izard

Sometimes Robert Gordon's writing made it hard for me to know what was being quoted and what was being observed and commented on by the author. He wrote in a sort of stream of consciousness style and used descriptions as if he had inside info - which he may have had. 

But an excellent peek into the studios and music halls of Memphis before corporate righteousness tore down Beale Street and rebuilt a Six Flags version. 

Yeah - there were drugs and plenty of knives and guns - but maybe that's what you gotta have if you want the pure blues and grit of real real real southern music.

And what a perfect segue this book is to Warmth of Other Suns. Talented blues men left to mop the white kids school's bathroom floors while their music was on everyone's lips.