Book - It Came From Memphis

IT CAME FROM MEMPHIS
By
ROBERT GORDON
Foreword by PETER GURALNICK

Paperback
311 pages, 22 pictures


Robert Gordon begins where most chroniclers of the music world end and spins a magical tale peopled with Delta bluesmen, a peanut vendor, a matinee cowboy, a professional wrestler, and a manic deejay. IT CAME FROM MEMPHIS doesn’t focus on Elvis, Al Green, or the Sun/Stax studios. Instead it creeps into the shadows cast by those institutions, concentrating on artists like Jim Dickinson and Alex Chilton, and bands like the Mar-Keys and Big star. Gordon limns, with respect and the fascination born of true devotion, the story of white teenagers caught in the middle of an extraordinary confluence of music, entrepreneurship, and eccentricity, breaking thoroughly informative and completely engrossing history of rock n’ roll and Memphis—its alma mater.

“If you haven’t read this book, do it now.”
---Rolling Stone

“Superb…”
--The New York Times

“With its hip-hugging grooves and hell-for-leather joie de vivre, IT CAME FROM MEMPHIS is a welcome departure from the usual destination points of the music world.”
--BAM

Chapter Headings:
1. The Dream of a Common Language
2. Tell ‘Em Phillips Sentcha
3. The World’s Most Perfectly Formed Midget Wrestler
4. Nothing Ever Happens But the Impossible
5. Kicks and Spins and All the Flips
6. I Know You Can Play, But can You Dance?
7. What’s What
8. The Catfish That Ate Memphis
9. Smile on the Outlaw Dreamer’s Face
10. Magic Time
11. Extreme Realizations
12. That’s Mister Boy to You
13. Stranded in Canton
14. Thank You Friends
15. Attempted Gawk