Memphis 68 : the tragedy of southern soul
Cosgrove, Stuart2018
Books, Manuscripts
Find it!
In the 1950s and 1960s, Memphis, Tennessee, was the launch pad of musical pioneers such as Aretha Franklin, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Al Green and Isaac Hayes, and by 1968 was a city synonymous with soul music. It was a deeply segregated city, ill at ease with the modern world and yet to adjust to the era of civil rights and racial integration. Stax Records offered an escape from the turmoil of the real world for many soul and blues musicians, with much of the music created there becoming the soundtrack to the civil rights movements. The book opens with the death of the city's most famous recording artist, Otis Redding, who died in a plane crash in the the final days of 1967, and then follows the fortunes of Redding's label, Stax/Volt Records, as its fortunes fall and rise again. But, as the tense year unfolds, the city dominates world headlines for the worst reasons: the assassination of Martin Luther King.
Memphis 68 : the tragedy of southern soul / Stuart Cosgrove.
Edinburgh : Polygon, 2018.Edinburgh : Polygon, 2018.
ix, 324 pages : illustrations (black and white) ; 20 cm
Originally published: 2017.Includes bibliographical references and index.
9781846974137 (pbk)
781.644
English
Soul music -- History and criticismRhythm and blues music -- History and criticismAfrican American musiciansNineteen sixty-eight, A.D.African Americans -- Civil rights -- History -- 20th centuryMemphis (Tenn.) -- Social conditions -- 20th centuryMusicTennesseec 1960 to c 1969MusicPopular musicBiography: general
1922983