Research Catalog

Title

Memphis rent party : the blues, rock, & soul in music's hometown / Robert Gordon.

Author

Gordon, Robert, 1961-

Publication

New York : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

254 pages : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

The fabled city of Memphis has been essential to American music--home of the blues, the birthplace of rock and roll, a soul music capital. We know the greatest hits, but celebrated author Robert Gordon takes us to the people and places history has yet to record. A Memphis native, he whiles away time in a crumbling duplex with blues legend Furry Lewis, stays up late with barrelhouse piano player Mose Vinson, and sips homemade whiskey at Junior Kimbrough's churning house parties. A passionate listener, he hears modern times deep in the grooves of old records by Lead Belly and Robert Johnson. The interconnected profiles and stories in Memphis Rent Party convey more than a region. Like mint seeping into bourbon, Gordon gets into the wider world. He beholds the beauty of mistakes with producer Jim Dickinson (Replacements, Rolling Stones), charts the stars with Alex Chilton (Box Tops, Big Star), and mulls the tragedy of Jeff Buckley's fatal swim. Gordon's Memphis inspires Cat Power, attracts Townes Van Zandt, and finds James Carr always singing at the dark end of the street. A rent party is when friends come together to hear music, dance, and help a pal through hard times; it's a celebration in the face of looming tragedy, an optimism when the wolf is at the door. Robert Gordon finds mystery in the mundane, inspiration in the bleakness, and revels in the individualism that connects these diverse encounters.

Subject

• Popular music > Tennessee > Memphis > History and criticism
• Blues (Music) > Tennessee > Memphis > History and criticism
• Rock music > Tennessee > Memphis > History and criticism
• Soul music > Tennessee > Memphis > History and criticism
• MUSIC > Genres & Styles > Pop Vocal
• Blues (Music)
• Popular music
• Rock music
• Soul music
• Tennessee > Memphis

Genre/Form

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Preface: Give me something different -- Sam Phillips: Sam on Dave -- Jim Dickinson: On the edge -- Ernest Willis: Mississippi reverie -- Mose Vinson: No pain pill -- The Fieldstones: Got to move on down the line -- Lead Belly: Nobody in this world -- Robert Johnson: Hellbound on the money trail -- Junior Kimbrough: Mississippi juke joint -- Charlie Feathers: the onliest -- James Carr: Way out on a voyage -- Otha Turner's fife and drum picnic: Let us eat goat -- Mama Rose Newborn: Useless are the flowers -- Townes Van Zandt: All the federales say -- Jeff Buckley: Northern light -- Bobby "Blue" Bland: Love throat -- Tay Falco: Panther burns forever lasting -- Jerry Lee Lewis: Last killer standing -- Cat power: Kool kween -- Jerry McGill: Very extremely dangerous -- Alex Chilton: No chitterlings today -- Afterword: Stuck inside the Memphis blues again.

Call Number

JNE 18-85

ISBN

• 9781632867735
• 1632867737
• 9781632867742
• 1632867745

LCCN

2017028389

OCLC

990248461

Author

Gordon, Robert, 1961- author.

Title

Memphis rent party : the blues, rock, & soul in music's hometown / Robert Gordon.

Publisher

New York : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Research Call Number

JNE 18-85