100 great records from Memphis

47. All The Way From Memphis - Mott The Hoople

(Well, maybe not, but, kinda, in a way ;) )

Memphis is of course the most overrated city in the history of music.

of course

Memphis is of course the most overrated city in the history of music
wal, Geir, it's the only city that ever made a record that beat yer damned old Beetles at their own game--Radio City, so maybe that's why you'd say that. It's the only place I've ever been in the USA where the "psychological freedom" that Sam Phillips spoke of in his infomercial was palpable underneath the haze of Bible Belt All-American cheez-whiz blandout that the city carries with it, making it impossible for people like you to ever figure it out. don't worry Geir, there's probably some rednecks down there trying to put together a Split Enz cover band at this very moment.

46.Sonic Youth <i>Washing Machine</i>

Fuck me.

Memphis is of course the most overrated city in the history of music.

Black or African American persons, 61.4%
White persons, percent, 34.4%
Persons of Hispanic or Latino origin, 3.0%
Asian persons, percent, 1.5%
Persons reporting some other race, 1.5%
Persons reporting two or more races, 1.0%
American Indian and Alaska Native persons, 0.2%

I'm down with Memphis...overrated legacy or not, it just feels like a city that births great music (as opposed to Nashville, a city which records great music)...

US Maple - "Stuck" 45

44. Eddie Floyd, "Big Bird"

Memphis has too much rhythm, not enough melody for Geir.

That's one way of putting it

New Orleans too?

by the by, the Robert Gordon-compiled It Came From Memphis is a pretty great overview, from Elder Beck to Big Star to Jon Spencer and everything in between...

That's one way of putting it
Yes, I was being polite.

I miss the real Geir.

Love this list & wish I could recall exactly which Led Zep track(s) were recorded there. (They're on II or III).

My band just recorded a live session at Ardent Studios, and I seem to recall that the Led Zep stuff recorded there was for III.

43. Gin Blossoms, "Hey Jealousy"

42. Toots and the Maytals, "Knock on Wood"

the third Led Zep had tracks that Terry Manning recorded at Ardent. compare that record with Big Star sometime. so, let's give Terry Manning his props for

41. Guess Things Happen That Way, on his Home Sweet Home from '70, a song by
40. Jack Clement, who captured Jerry Lee Lewis' "Whole Lot of Shakin' Going On" in one take at Sun, and who wrote "It'll Be Me" later covered by The Move who used to to
39. Dusty Springfield imitations but not as good as her own imitation of herself in the sublime "Just a Little Lovin'" recorded at American Studios where
38. Bobby Womack recorded "It's Gonna Rain" with the American studio crew who also played on many of the
37. Box Tops' records but Gary Talley plays guitar on "Soul Deep" if not
36. "Neon Rainbow," surely one of the most sublime '60s singles and speaking of obscure Memphians in that overrated city
35. Cordell Jackson wrote many obscure but great rockabilly songs but none greater than Allan Page's "Dateless Night" although
34. "She's the One That Got It" also by Page comes close and let's not forget
33. Cordell's own "Rock and Roll Christmas," one stupid fucking song from Memphis.

32. none of which have anything at all to do with Three 6 Mafia f/ UGK & Project Pat, "Sippin' on Some Syrup"

used to do Dusty Springfield imitations

did U2 record anything in Memphis, or did they just patronize Sun Studios during their Rattle And Hum days?

I'm going to be really freaked out if Edd Hurt turns out to be my uncle who lives off Summer Ave.

Gotta admit, U2 is pretty good at patronizing.

31. Neil Diamond, Shilo

30. I'm Gonna Murder My Baby - Pat Hare
29. Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On - Jerry Lee Lewis
from wikipeida:According to the album liner notes, "I'm Gonna Murder My Baby" "is doubly morbid because he did just that in 1962 and spent the last 16 years of his life in prison." He also murdered a policeman sent to investigate.

He also murdered a policeman sent to investigate.
This I did not know. Goddamn.

28. Wanna Meet The Scruffs?--The Scruffs

Weren't some tracks off Sticky Fingers recorded by moonlighting musicians in Memphis?

I'm going to be really freaked out if Edd Hurt turns out to be my uncle who lives off Summer Ave.
I think he is really Jim Dickinson's more reserved younger brother.

Weren't some tracks off Sticky Fingers recorded by moonlighting musicians in Memphis?

I thought that was Muscle Shoals, Alabama.

Yeah, you're right.

wal, Geir, it's the only city that ever made a record that beat yer damned old Beetles at their own game--Radio City,

I like Big Star but they surely never beat The Beatles at their own game. Nobody has, and the band who has come closest were from Oz rather than the American South.

(You don't beat The Beatles at their own game by substracting a few chords and singing in a more soul influenced way - rather the opposite)

White Stripes: White Blood Cells
Afghan Whigs: Gentleman
Isaac Hayes: Black Moses
Linda Heck: Dig My Own Hole
Lucero: That Much Further West
Chris Bell: I Am the Cosmos
Reigning Sound: Timebomb High School
Little Junior's Blue Flames: Mystery Train
REM: Bittersweet Me

(Also, parts of Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space were recorded locally, but I'm not sure which ones)

I'll third that Ross Johnson shout-out above.

Also, Black Sunday: Tronic Blanc

All of Green was done at Ardent, right? I'll leave it to others to decide if it's "great" or not.

Chris Bell's I am the Cosmos was recorded all over the place.
There's a story in the liner about him meeting McCartney in France while recording some tracks. But parts of it were recorded in Memphis, surely.
All the Ice Water and Rock City tracks were recorded in Memphis. Maybe even in Germantown.

Cosign on the 'Psychological freedom' thing - of all the places I've ever visited, its the one where I've most wanted to live; even all the Elvis stuff - and I was there accidentally for the 30th anniversary - is actually kinda laid back and cool and not half as crass as it could be anywhere else; saw James Burton playing in a bar for a $5 cover, when he prolly could have played anywhere else in the world that week for 10 times that....

And I like the way this thread is mentioning stuff I don't know rather than laying out the obvious - no one's mention Furry yet, though...

alrighty, now for the obvious:
Soul Man - Sam & Dave
Dock of the Bay - Otis
memphis jug band [best of, Yazoo]
Blue suede Soes - Carl Perkins

Chris Bell's I am the Cosmos was recorded all over the place.

Yeah, but this is what I don't get. I Am the Cosmos is from Memphis no matter where it may have been recorded. Just like Washing Machine is from ... somewhere else.

Yeah, but this is what I don't get. I Am the Cosmos is from Memphis no matter where it may have been recorded. Just like Washing Machine is from ... somewhere else.

Yeah.... was wrestling with this a bit when framing the question; but (for example) Elvis, Ike Turner, Howlin' Wolf, Carl P. Ann Peebles etc. aren't from Memphis anymore than Dusty is; Rocket 88 is a Memphis record, but is A Black Man's Soul? you see the problem? 'recorded in Memphis' seemed the fairest criterion so as to include all the great non- natives who've made great records there (although, clearly, Ann Peebles is more 'Memphis' than Primal Scream)

Dusty and Elvis really did make Memphis records, though. Recorded with Memphis-based backing musicians and producers. Records with a distinctive Memphis style. Like the Dead Boys made New York records, even if some of them were from Cleveland.

less parse, more list

"Memphis," Lonnie Mack: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC2Pcw-WwOo

"Cosmos" really is Memphis, as are the Big Star records in general. As usual Geir or whoever it is that signs that name--a pest put down to annoy me--is wrong about stuff, like, I sat down to play "Back of a Car" this morning and it's got a lotta chords in it. There are many many people in this world who have barely listened to the Beatles but have gotten that whole thing thru the Big Star records. I mean I like the Beatles. And Memphis Anglophilia is interesting--the power-pop style that Big Star, Bell and Van Duren came up with is definitely a style of its own (tensed, chromatic, etc.). So, whatever; and Memphis is a city that's always been looked down upon, which makes me all the more eager to defend it. I never lived off Summer Ave., by the way.

Dusty: well, that's her best record by a mile. In fact, the bulk of her stuff, fine as it is, sounds bombastic compared to In Memphis. Why is that? The musicians.

whatever number we're up to: Van Duren, "Grow Yourself Up" (2 versions: from Are You Serious? and the (superior) Ardent demo with Jody Stephens. By the way, Geir: this one's a McCartney steal, with about the same number of chords Macca would've used, and pretty damned good.

xpost to myself in re: lonnie mack, wanted to show my favorite album title perhaps ever:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51tAjmIfJBL._AA240_.jpg

and yeah Memphis contains multitudes, and yeah Fake Geir only exists to be ignored, and probably Real Geir too if there is one

"Memphis," Lonnie Mack
No pedant has come to point out that Lonnie is from Lovebug Starski's hometown, Cincinnati?

Just you, pedant!

Sadly seeing on Facebook now that Memphis drummer Howard Grimes has passed away. He played on Stax and Hi records and efforts by Al Green and Ann Peebles. He released a book about his life last year (mentioned upthread April 3 2021)

Grimes said that Stax co-founder Jim Stewart welcomed Grimes into the fold and asked him to record on Carla Thomas’ first solo singles, including the smash, “Gee Whiz.” Grimes writes that they cut that song at nearby Royal Studios, with Willie Mitchell and Moman as co-producers, after an equipment malfunction at Stax.

Grimes also would play on William Bell’s “You Don’t Miss Your Water,” released in 1961 and the first hit on the newly christened Stax Records. Otis Redding cut the song in 1965 right there at Stax...he band also would back visiting acts such as B.J. Thomas and Dusty Springfield. That’s how tour man Jerry Williams spotted Grimes and asked him to tour with Paul Revere and the Raiders.

“I was the only Black (person) in the band at the time,” Grimes said.

But that was the late 1960s. After Grimes endured threats in Dallas and Montgomery, Alabama, he began to consider his safety.

Teenie Hodges had mentioned to Grimes that they needed a drummer at Willie Mitchell’s studio...

Then worked with OV Wright and then Al Green, Ann Peebles and more

https://staxmuseum.com/howard-grimes-and-memphis-greatest-grooves-july-21-book-signing-by-the-legendary-timekeeper-where-it-all-began/

What an amazing history Grimes had. Sadly based on that link he had a down period ( after his 70s success) where he was living in his car for a bit. Glad his last years were up, playing with Bo-keys, backing Don Bryant & others, the book.

Hadn’t realized Grimes drummed on so many awesome OV Wright records

picked up the goodees' "condition red" 45 recently not realizing they were memphis gals. it's so good! great addition to the bad-boy-boyfriend-in-horrible-wreck subgenre.

https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/entertainment/music/2022/07/28/sidney-kirk-obit-isaac-hayes-sideman-jazz-pianist-memphis-history/10176527002/

RIP Sidney Kirk , Memphis sideman for Isaac Hayes, Denise Lasalle and others

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAEHXTiQEmQ

RIP Spencer Wiggins who recorded for Goldwax and lived in Memphis till 1973 when he moved to Miami, Fl

https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/entertainment/music/2023/02/15/spencer-wiggins-dies-obit-memphis-soul-music-history/69907734007/

I need to dig into Wiggins catalog. Wiggins and a number of folks who need up on Stax all went to same high school

https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/entertainment/music/2023/05/23/floyd-newman-obit-stax-records-memphis-music/70249053007/

Floyd Newman Stax horn player who also played with BB King dead at 92

Or 91 per correction