Memphis Mayhem: A Story of the Music That Shook Up the World

by David A. Less

Overview

Memphis gave birth to music that changed the world — Memphis Mayhem is a fascinating history of how music and culture collided to change the state of music forever

“David Less has captured the essence of the Memphis music experience on these pages in no uncertain terms. There’s truly no place like Memphis and this is the story of why that is. HAVE MERCY!” — Billy F Gibbons, ZZ Top

Foreword by renowned music historian Peter Guralnick

Memphis Mayhem weaves the tale of the racial collision that led to a cultural, sociological, and musical revolution. David Less constructs a fascinating narrative of the city that has produced a startling array of talent, including Elvis Presley, B.B. King, Al Green, Otis Redding, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Justin Timberlake, and so many more.

Beginning with the 1870s yellow fever epidemics that created racial imbalance as wealthy whites fled the city, David Less moves from W.C. Handy’s codification of blues in 1909 to the mid-century advent of interracial musical acts like Booker T. & the M.G.’s, the birth of punk, and finally to the growth of a music tourism industry.

Memphis Mayhem explores the city’s entire musical ecosystem, which includes studios, high school band instructors, clubs, record companies, family bands, pressing plants, instrument factories, and retail record outlets. Lively and comprehensive, this is a provocative story of finding common ground through music and creating a sound that would change the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781770415089
Publisher:	ECW Press
Publication date:	10/06/2020
Pages:	232
Sales rank:	1,089,451
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

David A. Less has studied Memphis music for over 40 years, and has conducted research for the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Gibson Guitar Foundation. His work has appeared in Rolling Stone, DownBeat, Blues Revue magazine and the Bulletin for the Society of American Music. He is a third-generation Memphian who still lives in Memphis, Tennessee.

Read an Excerpt

“I love you!” yelled the man in the audience.

The diminutive soul singer with the big voice ignored the outburst. She was accustomed to rowdy admirers. After all, she had played in the clubs in Memphis. And this was the legendary Troubadour, one of the top showcase clubs in Los Angeles. She had dealt with hecklers before. What could go wrong?

“I love you!” shouted the obviously intoxicated man again.

This was Memphian Ann Peebles’s big showcase. The Troubadour was the hot club in town where stars and music aficionados gathered. Where careers could be launched and the elusive “buzz” could begin.

Decades later, she told me in an interview, “I looked out in the audience and somebody just kept screaming my name and screaming, ‘I love you. I love you.’ And I kept looking and I was saying, ‘Who is this?’ I kept looking out and I saw him, but he had a sanitary napkin taped to his forehead. And he kept screaming and screaming. I said, ‘Who is that?’ And somebody said, ‘That’s John Lennon.’ So, I just laughed.”

It was 1974 and Lennon had moved to Los Angeles and begun an eighteen-month period of debauchery. He had gone to the Troubadour with friends to listen to Peebles. Her rendition of “I Can’t Stand the Rain” had been released a year earlier, and Lennon had declared it to be “the best song ever” in Billboard magazine. That evening, he was inebriated and had slipped into the ladies’ room, emerging with a sanitary napkin across his forehead. As the evening wore on, his declarations of admiration for the soul singer from Memphis grew more graphic. After the show, he came backstage and apologized to Peebles.

“He came backstage and we had a long talk. He’s a funny guy.”

Table of Contents

Foreword Peter Guralnick ix

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 Mutual Admiration 7

Chapter 2 Race Relations 13

Chapter 3 Black Neighborhood Schools 26

Chapter 4 The Racial Bridge 34

Chapter 5 That Was Just Memphis 41

Chapter 6 The Memphis Beat 50

Chapter 7 Ghosts Walked among Them 60

Chapter 8 City Mice and Country Mice 68

Chapter 9 Jazz: Teachers and Students 78

Chapter 10 Booker and Doughbelly 88

Chapter 11 Saints and Sinners 93

Chapter 12 Heads or Tails or … 102

Chapter 13 Sam Phillips and the Birth of Rock and Roll 108

Chapter 14 Radio and Television 120

Chapter 15 Joe Cuoghi and John Novarese 131

Chapter 16 Hi Records: Biracial Recording 138

Chapter 17 Hi Records: Willie Steps Up 143

Chapter 18 Stax: The Torch Is Passed 149

Chapter 19 The End of the Sixties: Big Changes for Stax 155

Chapter 20 American and Ardent Studios 161

Chapter 21 The End of Stax, Hi, and American 168

Chapter 22 A New Paradigm 175

Chapter 23 The Dawn of Punk 179

Chapter 24 Music Tourism: Memphis Cashes In 185

Epilogue 191

Chronology of Significant Events in Memphis Music 197

Acknowledgments 205

Notes 208

Editorial Reviews

★ 07/06/2020

Music writer Less presents a fascinating history of the music of his native Memphis. He begins by saying he isn’t attempting to write “the ultimate, comprehensive story of Memphis music,” and rather focuses on “the events, personalities, and circumstances that led to Memphis’s rightful recognition as a key capital on the map of American music.” In doing so, he captures what makes Memphis special: “The great paradox of Memphis music is that it transcends race and genre while simultaneously being defined by both.” Less explains how, from the early days of Beale Street in the 1940s—which offered big-band music in concert halls, country blues in parks and on street corners, and barrelhouse boogie piano in gambling joints—Memphis was a cohesive community that broke racial barriers in music. Less expertly shows how this interracial spirit infused Memphis music: in the early 1950s, the rise of Sam Phillips’s Sun Records and of Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Elvis Presley, coincided with that of bluesmen Howlin’ Wolf, Rufus Thomas, and Ike Turner. The late 1950s saw the emergence of HI Records, founded by record store owner Joe Cuoghi and singer Ray Harris (and which featured soul singer Al Green as well as the Bill Black Combo). Stax Records—founded in 1957 as Satellite by siblings Estelle Axton and Jim Stewart—would release records by Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, and Booker T. & the M.G.’s. Less brings to vivid life the music of Memphis. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Music writer Less presents a fascinating history of the music of his native Memphis … Less brings to vivid life the music of Memphis.” — Publishers Weekly, starred review

“A lively combination of personal observation, scholarship, and insider knowledge of an important era of American music.” — Kirkus Reviews

“This quick romp through Memphis music from a racial perspective will complement Robert Gordon’s books, as well as James Dickerson’s Goin’ Back to Memphis.” — Library Journal

“Wow. Memphis Mayhem tells the history of the music from my hometown with fun and entertaining stories. David Less’s role as the ‘everyman narrator’ works perfectly because of his long involvement within the Memphis music community. Anyone interested in American music should read this book. O, my Soul.” — Jody Stephens, Big Star

“I like the way Memphis Mayhem represented Hi Records, Stax, and all of Memphis music. I totally enjoyed this book. Great job.” — Ann Peebles, soul singer

From the Publisher

07/01/2020

Music writer Less breezes through a potpourri of rock, jazz, and soul stories within the context of changing white, Black, and Jewish relations in Memphis. Using interviews and research gleaned over the past 40 years, he focuses on well-known figures such as Sun Records owner Sam Phillips and more obscure musicians, including Harmonica Frank Floyd. The author deals with high school jazz bandleaders, such as Jimmie Lunceford, who trained a cadre of jazz luminaries, and early bluesmen Furry Lewis and Gus Cannon, as well as gospel star Sister Rosetta Tharpe of the Memphis-based Church of God in Christ. Less reviews the histories of two major Memphis record labels: Stax, which reached a national audience with Otis Redding and spawned the racially integrated group Booker T. and the M.G.'s; and Hi Records, which hit with the soul of Al Green under the musical supervision of Willie Mitchell. The author also discusses Memphis radio/television personality "Daddy-O" Dewey Phillips, Chips Moman's American studio, Poplar Tunes record store, and music as a Memphis tourist attraction. VERDICT This quick romp through Memphis music from a racial perspective will complement Robert Gordon's books, as well as James Dickerson's Goin' Back to Memphis.—David P. Szatmary, formerly with Univ. of Washington, Seattle

Library Journal

2020-07-07
A Memphis musical insider chronicles a signature chapter in the city’s history.

For most of the 20th century, Memphis was a cauldron of creativity for the most vibrant strains of American music, including blues, jazz, country, gospel, soul, and rock ’n’ roll. In his debut, musical historian Less captures it all, combining social and musical history into a coherent narrative. The author discusses the city’s beginnings as a rambunctious river port; the achievements of the musician W.C. Handy, who first annotated the blues of the Deep South; and the contributions of Memphis’ Black high schools, which, from the 1920s through the 1950s, burned with the beats of virtuoso teachers and talented jazz and blues musicians. Bluesmen roamed the city’s streets and squares, and nightclubs packed in mixed-race crowds. In 1954, Sam Phillips of Sun Records, who had already recorded numerous Black musicians, persuaded Elvis Presley to record Arthur Crudup’s “That’s All Right.” Black music and White musicians converged, and Phillips launched the careers of blues-influenced musicians like Presley, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, and others. Meanwhile, an astonishing array of talent emerged from the city's studios: Isaac Hayes, Carla Thomas, Al Green, Otis Redding, and Booker T. and the M.G.s, whose mixed-race makeup made its members the “poster children for racial harmony in Memphis in the turbulent 1960s.” It was a glorious time, but as Less notes, it didn’t last, as the region’s network of record stores, radio stations, music producers, and musicians crumbled, undone by the tragic deaths of signature musicians, industry consolidation, the rise of disco, and racial estrangement after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. The author is an engaging writer, but he indulges in many digressions. It’s the dilemma of the regional historian—who to include or leave out? Most readers will conclude that more is better, and the book will fill in the blanks for anyone interested in this unique period.

A lively combination of personal observation, scholarship, and insider knowledge of an important era of American music.

Kirkus Reviews

This thoughtful reflection on Memphis’s music history is complemented by narrator Chris Abernathy's soft Southern accent and relaxed timing. Abernathy uses a conversational tone when reporting on the cultural roots of the blues and rock and roll and employs a storytelling mode when recounting music memories. While Memphis had its racist incidents, including lynchings and the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., it also pioneered interracial songwriting, integrated bands, and racial diversity in recording sessions. The combination of local school music programs, interracial venues, and innovative studios and labels produced hits for artists including Elvis Presley, Otis Redding, Johnny Cash, Al Green, and Isaac Hayes. The audiobook also tracks current phenomena such as Black Lives Matter activities and the city’s $3.6 billion music tourism industry. R.W.S. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2020 - AudioFile