IT CAME FROM MEMPHIS

by Robert Gordon

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 through the walls of racism and helping to usher in an exciting new musical form. The result is a 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" -- New York Times