100 great records from Memphis

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!

Ok I think we're up to 13 (which should have been '13' obv.)

I'm going to put in the one I was thinking of holding for number 1

13 Panther Burns - Behind the Magnolia Curtain

oh and on further review "Memphis" WAS recorded at the end of a Charmaines session in Cincinnati, so mea culpa, bitches, and we're still on 13!

Memphis is a city that's always been looked down upon

Outside music, maybe. Elvis and Stax alone are enough to make it the most overrated city ever in music.

You know, along with NY, London, Chicago, Detroit, Manchester, Nashville, Seattle, Liverpool, etc., etc., etc. until we all fucking die.

More Sun:
Charlie Rich: Lonely Weekends
Bill Justis and His Orchestra: Raunchy
Roy Orbison: Devil Doll

More Stax:
Linda Lyndell: What a Man
Rufus Thomas: Walking the Dog
Johnnie Taylor: Jody's Got Your Girl and Gone
Staple Singers: If You're Ready
Bar-Kays - Soul Finger

More:
WC Handy:Memphis Blues
Oblivians: ...Play 9 Songs with Mr. Quintron

The Staple Singers - "Respect Yourself".

Memphis is a city that's always been looked down upon

Outside music, maybe. Elvis and Stax alone are enough to make it the most overrated city ever in music.

-- Geir Hongro, Thursday, 14 February 2008 21:47 (Yesterday) Link

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srsly wtf geir? most overrated city ever

= vienna, new york, london, berlin, liverpool, blah, blah, blah, piss, off.

From Sun to Stax to Ardent to Shangri-La, Memphis deserves whatever high rating it gets.

Home of the Blues, Birthplace of Rock N' Roll.

word.

http://www.heavyharmonies.com/bandpics/toratora.jpg

damn did it disappear?! lemme try that again

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c163/wvferrell/toratora.jpg

heh, I really enjoyed that album cover of their's when I was a teenager.

damn so small

http://www.sleazeroxx.com/bands/toratora/toratora1.jpg

Liverpool and Manchester are miles and miles better. And in the US, LA and San Francisco are home of most of the best music.

Unimpeachable:
http://earthwaverecords.com/Pictures/AlbumImg/A/A0085442.jpg

And in the US, LA and San Francisco are home of most of the best music.

Geir loving The Eagles, X, Santana, and Metallica.

His house is not a motel.

Geir loving The Eagles, X, Santana, and Metallica.

The Eagles and Santana are OK. Same about Beach Boys, Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, The Doors, Love, Sly & The Family Stone, Toto and the entire Sunshine Pop universe.

Liverpool and Manchester are miles and miles better. And in the US, LA and San Francisco are home of most of the best music.

-- Geir Hongro, Friday, 15 February 2008 09:26 (12 hours ago)

idiot. unless you can give examples of what was consistently produced in and of liverpool/mcr that is better than memphis.

well go on then...

And in the US, LA and San Francisco are home of most of the best music.

what does this mean geir? do they produce better music indigenously? or are those cities home to big record labels?

look, i'm a few beers down here, but seriously what's your fucking point? it's surely not as simple as the beatles were born in and around liverpool therefore liverpool has produced good music is it? please please me say it aint' so.

http://dvweb.mpf.arcstarmusic.com/mdb_image2/SL/tSVRL_269294_l.jpg

it's surely not as simple as the beatles were born in and around liverpool therefore liverpool has produced good music is it?

In 1963-64, there were lots and lots and lots of fantastic Liverpool bands. But the city has also has its share of great music afterwards: Elvis Costello, Lightning Seeds, OMD, Badfinger, The La's, The Coral, A Flock Of Seagulls, China Crisis.

In 1963-64, there were lots and lots and lots of fantastic Liverpool bands

Maybe, but Beatles aside, (who didn't record in Liverpool) not a huge amount of fantastic records; Liverpool had bands, but Memphis had a whole industry - writers, studios, producers and brilliant musicians

Most of them only used the same boring three chords over and over.

I got two words for you, over and over.

D5 OTM. So fucking ignorant.

I despise the blues, and Mempis is way too much based on the blues.

Oh really I did not know that you felt that way, maybe if you mentioned it a bit more we would all know how you felt. Maybe you should also try trolling a few more threads like this so we could finally understand. Oh also maybe keep talking about how music is only good when there are lots of chords, I find that theory infinitely fascinating no matter how many times you say it, which is probably up in the tens of thousands now. Furthermore I would like you to continue to ignore the fact that none of the bands that you love would exist without the blues, even your precious Beatles and yes, even Genesis. Oh and one more thing I love how you never seem to understand how your basic musical prejudices end up breaking along racial lines, that is so sweet and not at all creepy. The end.

;)

yeah, see it all gets down to what-is-the-blues questions and answers that Europeans can have trouble with, is my take on it. really and truly, I love melodic rock and pop and always have. it is surprising to me that some folks, let's call one of them Geir or the person who plays him here, can't get with what, say, Chris Bell actually did, apart from all that beautiful-loser shit that Memphis is really good at. It's so obviously an homage to the British Invasion (and also to the West Coast American scene of the '60s, Byrds, Springfield, Grape) that only differs from the Beatles' music in its rhythmic drive and its squeezing out process that took the drolleries and chromaticisms of, say, "Doctor Robert" or "Drive My Car" and played changes on them. "I Don't Know" by Chris Bell does it so well; it's composed of sections that seethe with forward-motion-that-isn't-really-motion and some Revolver-era overlay of "power pop." That whole way of doing things you hear in obscure but worthy Memphis records of the late '70s by Van Duren and Tommy Hoehn and the Scruffs, and of course, Bell's solo shit and Chilton's intermittent stabs at pop, like the dreamy (chromatically insane) intro to "She Might Look My Way." So I don't get Geir's objections to this; what I'm talking about here is just as sophiscated as the Beatles' shit; musically, "Back of a Car" and "Daisy Glaze" are pretty thought-out, solid ideas, and as solid as "Rain" or "And Your Bird Can Sing" on any level you wish to choose, but it's not mere formalism either. I also fail to understand how someone who posts here all the time can't see that this music fits into that tradition nicely.
If you don't get the blues, you have no swing, twist or otherwise nasty little mental or physical wriggle in you, no life as far as I'm concerned, and, at the very least, you simply don't get American culture or the 20th century very well, musically speaking. Rock on.