The Essential Memphis Library: ‘Walk the Line’
The film stands as both a great Memphis story and a showcase for the city as a filmmaking location that can do more than play itself.
There are 21 article(s) tagged Essential Memphis Library:
The film stands as both a great Memphis story and a showcase for the city as a filmmaking location that can do more than play itself.
Recorded at Midtown’s Ardent Studios in late 1986 and early 1987, the Replacements’ “Pleased to Meet Me” is a fusion of the Minneapolis’ band’s ramshackle, often poetic post-punk with soul-honed Memphis studio sensibilities.
“Forty Shades of Blue” hit theaters 15 years ago today, and it is now among the many examples of films not currently available on any streaming platform. But if you’re lucky enough to find a way to see it, you’ll encounter a very good move.
From King’s WDIA debut in 1949 to his departure from Memphis only a few years later, he recorded a handful of early sides in the city.
Three decades ago, Hibbert brought his sound — and all of reggae’s — back to one of its sources with a 1988 album recorded at Midtown’s Ardent Studios that went on to a Grammy nomination.
As a depiction of the terrain of Memphis, circa 1993, “The Firm” is notable for its trip to the now dated and decaying Mud Island River Park, arguably the most inventive use of a Memphis location in any film. Here, it’s the setting for a climactic Hitchockian chase scene.
Named after a Memphis grocery store chain, Big Star recorded three haphazardly distributed albums over the course of just a few years, toured sporadically, got good press and had no hits. This obscurity grew over time into a considerable cult.
Elvis’ popularity may have started this week in 1956. That’s when “Hound Dog” and “Don’t Be Cruel”— constituting two sides of one 45 rpm single — reached the top of Billboard's pop singles chart.
This 1969 album established Hayes’ sound and persona. It not only made him a star, but it made him a new kind of star.
Memphis was a way station for the Wolf on a journey from the Delta to Chicago, but he was in Memphis long enough to cut a two-sided single as monumental as anything created in one of America’s signature music cities.
The book focuses on the family of Robert Church, who built a fortune operating brothels, then converted his wealth into building a black political dynasty in the Jim Crow-era South.
Cash recorded his debut single, released in June 1955, at Sun Records.
In all, the album comprises the coolest version of the Elvis the public tended to adore and rock puritans resist, mixing great schlock with great art until you can’t quite tell the difference.
The crazy-talented wunderkind Jay Reatard was coming into his own with 'Watch Me Fall.' Five months later, he was gone.
From Sam Cooke to Motown, blues to the British Invasion to his own classic songwriting, Otis Redding’s groundbreaking 1965 album turned everything it touched into one man’s soulful sound.
In 1997, Matt Damon's first starring role and Francis Ford Coppola's last major film intersected in Memphis with the third and (so far) final locally set John Grisham adapation.
In a month’s time, during the late summer of 1878, the city’s population plummeted from 50,000 to 20,000, with the vast majority of those remaining infected by the fever. Crosby's "The American Plague" takes you to this crucible moment in Memphis history, and helps explain what it meant.
John Prine was raised in Illinois and settled in Nashville, but he recorded three of his first six albums at different Memphis studios, including his classic debut, “John Prine.”
At a Chicago church, on the day after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Mississippi-bred bluesman Otis Spann delivered what arguably remains the most profound musical response to the tragedy.
The only Pulitzer Prize-winner with “Memphis” in the title, Peter Taylor's 1986 novel explores the fine social distinctions between Memphis and Nashville at mid-century.
With three hit singles, two turf-grabbing country covers, definitive secular and religious anthems and some of the most tender pop music ever recorded, 1973's "Call Me" is Al Green's finest moment.
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