LATEST DISCOUNTS & SALES: PROMOTIONS
Robert Gordon has been writing about Memphis music and history for thirty years and is the author of It Came from Memphis, Can't Be Satisfied, The King on the Road, The Elvis Treasures, and Respect Yourself. He won a Grammy in 2011 for his liner notes to the Big Star box set Keep an Eye on the Sky. His film work includes producing and directing the documentary Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story and also the Emmy-winning Best of Enemies. Gordon lives in Memphis.
In this excellent collection of essays, Gordon, a veteran music journalist on the Memphis scene, masterfully writes about the outlaws, rebels, and tragic figures who provided the spark for the city's entertainment industry . . . A grand, funky musical tour of Memphis. * Publishers Weekly * The artists and musical styles Gordon covers here, while united by the Memphis connection, are highly diverse . . . As an insider, Gordon is perfectly placed to bring together all the aspects of the incredibly varied Memphis music scene . . . It hits the mark. * Booklist * Robert's feel for his subject is very similar to the subjects' feel for their music. Blues, being the wellspring of all American music for over a century, is always worth studying. Robert does it right. -- Keith Richards This is an emotional map of musical Memphis. If you don't know these characters, let Robert Gordon introduce you. If they are familiar to you, then you will enjoy the wit and modesty of his portraiture and perspective. -- Elvis Costello Long before he died, a writer stepped forward to call Sam Phillips, founder of Sun Records in Memphis, 'America's Real Uncle Sam.' We hear a lot of talk today about Southern heritage, which turns out to mean statues of white people. Beginning with Sam Phillips turning David Letterman to jelly on national TV--an event that needs Robert Gordon to fix it in history--his book is proof that Southern heritage is American heritage, and all sorts of people--black and white, familiar and strange, dead and alive--are what it is. -- Greil Marcus Robert Gordon has done more than anyone alive to plumb the extraordinary depths of Memphis music and to chart the lives of the intensely original souls who've produced and performed it. Here in this richly reported collection of non-fiction gems, Gordon gives us a powerful sense of the weird and wonderful cross-pollinations that have long made Memphis the gestation ground for our nation's most righteous and authentic music. With Memphis Rent Party, you'll be tapping your foot from the first page to the last. -- Hampton Sides, author of HELLHOUND ON HIS TRAIL Robert Gordon is the real thing. -- Nick Tosches [A] marvelous history... Mr. Gordon captures the glory years of Stax in a series of exciting chapters that reflect his fine ear for prose as well as for the music the studio made. * The Wall Street Journal on RESPECT YOURSELF * The triumphant and tragic story of [Stax] . . . receives definitive telling in RESPECT YOURSELF . . . Gordon imbues it all with a wealth of fresh insight and perspective. * The Austin Chronicle * The voices of the members of the Stax family, and Gordon's deep knowledge of Memphis, give the book a significance that extends beyond a single recording studio. Robert Gordon knows the place, and he'll take you there. * The New York Times Book Review on RESPECT YOURSELF * To read RESPECT YOURSELF is to step back into a time and place . . . Gordon's writing goes deep within the music. * Chicago Tribune (Best Books of the Year) *
