Ghosts behind the Sun : splendor, enigma, & death / Tav Falco.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Falco, Tav.

Series:

Mondo Memphis ; v. 1.

Mondo Memphis ; v. 1

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Falco, Tav.

Musicians--Tennessee--Memphis.

Musicians.

Memphis (Tenn.)--Social life and customs.

Memphis (Tenn.).

Memphis (Tenn.)--History.

Memphis (Tenn.)--Biography.

Tennessee--Memphis.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

310 pages : illustrations, map ; 26 cm.

Place of Publication:

[London?] : Creation Books, 2011.

Summary:

Up river from New Orleans, past the ports of Natchez and Vicksburg, looms Memphis-metropolis of the Midsouth and city of murder, necrolatry and blues. Memphis' muse hangs in the air like crows circling in menacing descent with sardonic eye winking at the tail draggers below. Its chant of sex and death had existed in the Delta since time immemorial the same handful song that had been caterwauled up in the nearby hills - albeit with a more lyrical lilt - and eventually traveled up or down river into the city, where its malevolent tones lingered over the bayous and creeks and crossroads. From there, this song of sun and moon, of loss and betrayal, of night and sacrifice, spread outward across the Earth like seed, catching the wind off the side of a boxcar or drifting on the black wave of a river barge or floating skyward on the winding smoke of a burning mansion...

Tav Falco's sprawling study of Memphis begins with the Civil War massacre at Fort Pillow, the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1878 and the grisly murders of the Harp Brothers. Falco traces these legends of Reconstructionera Memphis to an equally brutal twentieth century underworld - Beale Street kingpin Jim Canaan. Edward Crump's political machine, the Dixie Mafia, and others. Also included are revelatory dialogues concerning the city's - many music legends, from rockabilly icons Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Charlie Feathers to more underground figures such as Jim Dickinson, arid country blues wailer Jessie Mae Hemphill. Interwoven with these accounts is an autobiographical history of Falco's own time in Memphis, including his involvement with performance art ensemble Insect Trust, working with pop/rock maverick Alex Chilton, and the formation of his seminal rock and roll band, Panther Hums. The book also contains over 80 illuminating photographs. Book jacket.

Contents:

Migrations, plagues, and lost causes

Boss Crump don't allow and the Sublime Ouro

Stirring up a little hell

Big Dixie Brick Co. and the Insect Trust

The fall of West Memphis and the rise of Charlie Feathers

Ghosts behind the Sun

Freedom ride

Hop head rage

Poets, Tillers, Outlaws, and the Iron Horsemen

Behind the magnolia curtain

Mudboy and the deconstruction of Panther Burns

Jim Dickinson : godhead, guru, and übermensch

Discourse of rage, conjuration, and exile.

Notes:

Includes index.

ISBN:

1840681810

9781840681819

OCLC:

726821603