Memphis Going Down

For over one hundred years, Memphis, Tennessee, was been the center of musical innovation for American popular music. From W. C. Handy to Alberta Hunter and Lil Hardin Armstrong, in the early years, to B. B. King in the late 1940s, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis in the 1950s, to Otis Redding, Booker T. and the MGs, and Al Green in the 1960s and early 1970s, Memphis music sizzled with a level of creativity unrivaled in the history of American music. With the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis, the city's music industry began going "down, down, down" only to sputter to a halt in the mid-1970s. In the decades since only Memphis native Justin Timberlake and Memphis producer "Boo" Mitchell, who produced Bruno Mar's hit "Uptown Funk," have been able to show glimpses of the city's past glories.

For five decades of the city's marvelous music history, author James L. Dickerson was at ground zero  as a Memphis journalist, magazine publisher, and radio syndication owner, who had unparalleled access to many of the music greats of the latter half of the century.

Originally published as "Goin' Back to Memphis" by Simon & Schuster's music imprint, this book was a finalist for the prestigious Gleason Award, previously given out annually by Rolling Stone magazine, BMI, and New York University. Memphis Going Down is an expanded and updated edition with additional text and photos.

Memphis Going Down is told in the words of the record producers, performers, and songwriters themselves as they reflect on their lives and music and its impact on popular culture. You'll hear legendary record producers such as Chips Moman, Willie Mitchell, Sam Phillips, and Jim Stewart talk about the ups and downs of the industry. And you'll hear the artists themselves: Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Al Green, Bobby Womack, B. B. King, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Rufus Thomas, members of the Box Tops, and the Fabulous Thunderbirds go one-on-one with the author in an effort to understand the mysteries of Memphis music.