IT CAME FROM MEMPHIS

The Unturned Roots of Rock and Roll

ROBERT GORDON

Seeker &Warburg

'It Came From Memphis asserts the presence of real rock and roll

- rude, unkempt, brash ... flying in the face of propriety and power, it's gonna getcha!' THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL, MEMPHIS

Delta bluesmen, a peanut vendor, a matinee cowboy, a professional wrestler, a manic

D] - these were the intersections where the cultures collided in Memphis, Tennessee, in the 1950s. It Came From Memphis documents through first-hand accounts how an audience of white teenagers, caught in the middle of the extraordinary confluence of music, entrepreneurship, and eccentricity, broke through the walls of institutional racism and helped usher in a new musical form called rock and roll.

Beginning with notorious DJ Dewey Philips and his show "Red, Hot & Blue", It Came From Memphis is a rollicking tale of street-corner jug bands, shady West Memphis nightclubs, first bands and first hits, of hippie puppet shows and outdoor musical festivals, and of learning the ropes of the music business as the ropes were strung. It is also the story of how a generation of Southern white kids befriended a generation of Mississippi Delta blues artists, and what happened to Memphis and the music industry when these two ostracized cultures met and found mutual inspiration on society's margin.

Unlike previous books about Memphis, this one does not focus on Elvis Presley, Al Green, and the Sun and Stax studios. Instead, It Came From Memphis prefers the shadows cast by these institutions, focusing on artists like Jim Dickinson and Alex Chilton, and bands like Mud Boy and the Neutrons, the Mar-Keys, and Big Star.

The result is an anecdotal, digressive, thoroughly informative and entertaining history of rock and roll's hometown.