F2K Ep. 19: Documentarian and Author Robert Gordon

Fun 2 Know Podcast

Writer, film director and musicologist Robert Gordon is a specialist in the music and history of the town of his where he still lives, the legendary American Music hub of Memphis Tennessee. He's written about Muddy Waters. Al Green, B.B. King, Otis Redding, Alex Chilton and beyond. Many writers have charted the course of Memphis music but almost none have done it with the emotional depth and deep historical knowledge that Gordon has and his works always stood out to musicians and music lovers as the work of a deeply-devoted fellow soul. Since 2003 Gordon has transformed himself from writer to filmmaker, making acclaimed documentary films, contributing to Martin Scorsese's THE BLUES series, adapting his Muddy Waters bio for the PBS "American Masters" series and producing works on ultimate cult band Big Star and Memphis' powerhouse r&b label, Stax Records. Gordon's vast curiosity and sense of history takes him away from music for his first theatrical film, the documentary BEST OF ENEMIES, co-directed with Morgan Neville whose documentary on the lives of backing vocalists 20 FEET FROM STARDOM won the "Best Documentary" Oscar in 2014. . BEST OF ENEMIES explores the debates between Conservative publisher William F. Buckley, and historical author, satirist and playwright Gore Vidal. Their ten articulately cantankerous bouts, held during the fledgling ABC Network's coverage of the Presidential conventions of 1968 are forever remembered for the moment when Buckley angrily lashed out at Vidal, threatening violence and calling Vidal “a queer” after Vidal labeled Buckley a Crypto-Nazi. The network news divisions saw big money in name-calling debates and the film suggests we've been down a dreary road ever since. We discuss BEST OF ENEMIES before falling into a conversation about Memphis music and arts, discussing Alex Chilton, Jeff Buckley, Tav Falco and Panther Burns, Isaac Hayes and the photographer William Eggleston.