Book Review: Robert Gordon's Memphis Rent Party (2018)

Grammy® Award-winning writer, filmmaker, and music historian Robert Gordon (no relation) is the author of some of my favorite books on music, including It Came From Memphis, Respect Yourself: Stax Records and the Soul Explosion, and Can’t Be Satisfied, the very best Muddy Waters bio, bar none. Born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, Gordon has spent 30+ years writing about Southern art and music, with an emphasis on his hometown sounds and the talented and eccentric artists who make the music. With his latest effort, Memphis Rent Party, Gordon digs into his archives to spin a paean to the rich musical heritage of the Bluff City.

Robert Gordon’s Memphis Rent Party

Gordon’s Memphis Rent Party is a collection of essays, many of them previously-unpublished, that cover the gamut of musical styles and larger-than-life personalities that make Memphis a virtual breeding ground for unique and exciting American music. Although, in my opinion, Gordon shorts bluesman Furry Lewis (one of my longtime faves) by relegating him to the book’s preface, the remainder of Memphis Rent Party more than makes up for this relative oversight by covering both non-musical trailblazers like Sam Phillips, founder of Sun Records, and outsiders like the late Jeff Buckley and indie-rock darling Cat Power whose fates are inextricably linked to the city on the big Mississippi River.

I admittedly brought a fair degree of familiarity with many of the musicians that Gordon profiles here, as I have also written about artists like Alex Chilton, Junior Kimbrough, Jim Dickinson, and Robert Johnson throughout my 45 years as a music journalist. Still, Gordon fills in the edges with insightful anecdotes courtesy of a personal history with many of his subjects, and chapters on all of the aforementioned provide a greater understanding of their music or, in the case of Dickinson (an underrated figure in rock ‘n’ roll overall, IMHO), deeper knowledge of the individual. His chapter on Jerry Lee Lewis provides a deep assessment of the rock legend’s life and career without actually interviewing the subject, while Gordon’s conversation with singer Cat Power swings the pendulum in the exact opposite direction, providing a starkly revealing glimpse at the artist’s psyche.

Where Memphis Rent Party really shines, for this reader, is in Gordon’s tales of the eccentric and original talents that make Memphis a musical melting pot that has long struggled for the respect the city deserves. Gordon paints soul singer James Carr as the tragic figure that he was, while an interview with Mama Rose Newborn – wife of Phineas and mother of Phineas, Jr. and Calvin – provides all three of these incredibly talented musicians with long overdue accolades. Gordon’s beleaguered friendship with the troubled singer/songwriter Jeff Buckley ends with his accidental death while his brief relationship with career criminal Jerry McGill results in a tense but ultimately satisfactory conclusion. Chapters on the Fieldstones and Otha Turner are, realistically, field reports by an intrepid reporter and outsider offering a glimpse behind the curtain to reveal an enticing musical culture.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Memphis Rent Party, the LP

Overall, I have few arguments with Gordon’s editorial choices for Memphis Rent Party. I’d like to have seen a chapter on garage rocker Greg Cartwright and his various bands (Reigning Sound, Compulsive Gamblers, the Oblivians); perhaps something more on the talented Sid Selvidge, a friend of Jim Dickinson and a member of his Mud Boy and the Neutrons band; or perhaps something on sonic terrorist Alicja Trout and her various garage-punk bands (Lost Sounds, River City Tanlines). But those are minor cavils; there’s more than enough meat on the bone here to satisfy any free-thinking music fan.

An appendix to the book offers plenty of information on further reading (including Peter Guralnik’s excellent books on soul music and Elvis) and a couple dozen LPs and CDs of Memphis music well worth your while to track down. If you want to take the easy way out, Fat Possum Records has released a vinyl-only compilation with songs by many of the musicians featured in Memphis Rent Party. Overall, Gordon does an impressive job in capturing the grease, sweat, and heartbeat of Memphis music on the pages of Memphis Rent Party, and you can’t really ask for nothing more from this literary love letter to the writer’s hometown. Grade: A+ (Bloomsbury Publishing, published March 6th, 2018)

Buy the book from Amazon.com: Robert Gordon’s Memphis Rent Party

Also on That Devil Music.com: Robert Gordon - Can’t Be Satisfied book review  

Stax Records reissues rare Moloch LP

Stax Records has been enjoying the label’s celebration of its 60th anniversary this year with reissues of classic Memphis soul albums and the release of a slate of Stax Classics CDs covering artists like Isaac Hayes, Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Carla Thomas, and others. On July 21st, 2017 Stax will reissue the long-lost, self-titled 1969 album from the cult blues band Moloch as both a 180-gram vinyl album and as a high-resolution digital download. The album will be packaged in a single-pocket, old school-styled cardboard jacket with a printed inner sleeve with new liner notes by writer Bob Mehr.

Moloch was comprised of singer Gene Wilkins, guitarist Lee Baker, bassist Steve Spear, keyboardist Fred Nicholson, and drummer Phillip Durham. The band was a popular mainstay of the late ‘60s Memphis rock scene, their sound a high-octane blend of blues, rock, and soul filtered through psychedelic influences. The band’s lone album was produced by Memphis roots ‘n’ blues legend Don Nix, who wrote most of the material including his song “Going Down,” which would later become a blues-rock standard covered by artists like Freddie King, Gov’t Mule, and Stevie Ray Vaughan, among others – but Moloch put their stank on it first.

Moloch’s 1969 album is a bit of an anomaly for Stax, tucked in between releases by stone cold soul artists like Isaac Hayes and Sam & Dave. It was an important release, however, as influential on the development of the stateside blues-rock scene as Eric Clapton and Cream’s first album was on British blues. The band’s late guitarist, Lee Baker, was an underrated but imaginative player whose influence would spark the creative muse of a younger generation of Memphis pickers, including Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars and Steve Selvidge of the Hold Steady. Long available only as a pricey import CD, here’s your chance to grab a bona fide slab of Memphis blues on glorious black vinyl!

Buy the vinyl from Amazon.com: Moloch's Moloch

Moloch track listing:
A1. Helping Hand
A2. Maverick Woman Blues
A3. Outta Hand
A4. Same Old Blues
A5. Going Down
A6. She Looks Like An Angel

B1. Gone Too Long
B2. Dance Chaney Dance
B3. Mona
B4. People Keep Talking
B5. I Think the Same of You
B6. Night at the Possum

Alex Chilton Live Album Coming October 8th

Alex Chilton fans – they are legion and are growing – have a lot to be happy about these days. For one thing, there's Nothing Can Hurt Me, the recent documentary covering Chilton's long-suffering cult band Big Star and the Memphis rock scene of the '70s. The critically-acclaimed film is accompanied by a briskly-selling soundtrack album that is earning Chilton, Chris Bell, Andy Hummel, and Jody Stephens new fans among a generation of hipsters too young to have enjoyed either Big Star's brief day in the sun or Chilton's often maddening solo career during the late 1970s and throughout the '80s.

On October 8th, 2013 Bar None Records will release Electricity by Candlelight, a previously unreleased live performance by Chilton that was fortunately caught on tape. The back story goes like this: Chilton and crew were performing at the Knitting Factory in New York City on February 13th, 1997 when the lights went out. Undeterred, Chilton borrowed an acoustic guitar from somebody and, accompanied by his drummer Richard Dworkin on half the songs, launched into an inspired solo set that was spontaneous, intimate, involved the audience, and featured songs not often performed by the singer/songwriter. 

Because of the nature of the performance, Electricity by Candlelight offers up rare performances of songs Chilton seldom played before or after this single show, including some country tunes, a little Beach Boys, and some original material that seldom saw the light of day. A talented and often underrated musician, Chilton sadly passed away in 2010. His immense legacy lives on however, whether through his 1960s-era chart success with the Box Tops (Chilton sang the classic "The Letter" when he was just 16 years old), his cult status as Big Star frontman, or his eclectic solo career, all of which would influence bands like R.E.M. and the Replacements during the 1980s and '90s, an influence that reaches to today and a wealth of like-minded, pop-oriented rockers that can be glad that Chilton was there to blaze the trail.