Roxy Blue
Nineteen years ago this week, the Flyer was weighing the
potential benefits and pitfalls of the “Great American Pyramid,” set to
open the following spring, with a two-part piece from Allen Hester. But
Robert Gordon’s music column in the August 30th Flyer is
particularly interesting in retrospect.
Gordon leads with reports on major-label prospecting on the Memphis
scene: “Another Memphis act signs big! Roxy Blue, Memphis’ metal
wonder, has inked a big deal with David Geffen Company, home of Guns N’
Roses, Whitesnake, and other way-loud thumpers. … [The band’s demos]
set Virgin and Geffen sword to sword, and the band had the happy chore
of picking from two good deals. Tom Zutaut, who signed chart-monsters
Guns N’ Roses and Edie Brickel, signed the band after hearing them live
at the Stage Stop. Big things ahead!”
Gordon also mentions Geffen’s interest in a collaboration between
local musicians R.T. Scott and Mike Barnes.
Big things never emerged from any of this.
But a counterpoint within the same column are early mentions of a
couple of artists who would bloom in significance later on. Gordon
mentions a successful showcase in Atlanta for Phalon Alexander, the son
of Bar-Kays bassist James Alexander. More than a decade later,
Alexander would come into his own as the hit-making hip-hop and R&B
producer Jazze Pha.
Gordon also reports on a newish band, A Band Called Bud, getting a
cease-and-desist order from Budweiser and changing their name to the
Grifters, arguably the signature Memphis band of the ’90s.
