Behind the Magnolia Curtain
was recorded at Memphis' Ardent Studios, and issued by
Rough Trade
in 1981. The lineup was
Falco
with
Alex Chilton
and
Jim Duckworth
alternating on guitars and drums (original drummer
Ross Johnson
had been kicked out just before recording), and bassist
Ron Miller
. Also on board for four tracks was
the Tate County Fife & Drum Corps
, which included
Abe Young
Jesse Mae Hemphill
. The music, simultaneously drenched in and made in reaction to Memphis music history is equal parts primal, early rock & roll, deviant Delta-style blues, and avant-garde art -- played without cynicism. In these songs, completely off-the-rails psychobilly, blues, tangos, wrecked '40s-era tunes, and more often co-exist in the same moment. The sound is dense, the time is elastic (if you're looking for a constant rhythm, forget it). This is ramshackle, raw, unholy, and utterly amazing; a timeless classic. It took the band a tad over six hours to record, and you can hear that. It sounds like swampy scraped mud, but somehow
's acoustic guitar comes through. The songs are all covers --in those days
felt there were too many songs in existence already. While it's true that the
Cramps
had an aesthetic that seemed similar, on the surface,
's
Panther Burns
was at least as much about conceptual art as it was about music -- this was revealed more in the band's live show.
is one of the great recordings to emerge from the post-punk era and remains the essential
document. [In 2012,
Fat Possum
reissued the album with its follow-up EP, 1982's
Blow Your Top
, in a deluxe edition entitled
Lore & Testament, Vol. 1 Behind the Magnolia Curtain
. It contains rare photos and wonderful, lengthy essays by
,
Miller
, and even
Johnson
.] ~ Thom Jurek