It Came from Memphis

I've discovered a fantastic book about the weird rock music scene in Memphis in the 1960s & 70s. It's called "It Came from Memphis" (1995) by Robert Gordon, a Memphian. It has an introduction by Peter Guralnick and features lengthy interview excerpts with the late great Memphis singer/guitarist & songwriter Alex Chilton (The Box Tops, Big Star).

Dig this grisly little taste, from Gordon's description of a bizarre mid-1970s cinema verite-style documentary called "Stranded in Canton," mostly shot in Memphis. It describes a scene in which a pair of circus geeks square off in a chickenhead-biting contest on the streets of New Orleans:

"The disappointing part of seeing a human being bite the head off a live chicken is the ease with which the chicken's neck disengages from its body. Geeks don't so much 'bite' the head off as, with the chicken's head in their mouth, they pull the head and neck loose, kind of like sucking your thumb but yanking it all the way off."

Now that's what I call journalism you can use. God, I miss the weirdness of the South sometimes.