What do Alex Chilton, Jim Dickinson, Tav Falco, Peter Buck, Monsieur Jeffrey Evans and Jon Spencer have in common? They’ve all lent their talents to the skewed genius that is Memphis drummer/ranter/raconteur extraordinaire Ross Johnson.
Johnson’s name may only be familiar to a cult of faithful followers, but he’s one of the true heroes of the Southern alt and punk rock underground. From his days riding shotgun with Chilton, to his efforts helping found the Panther Burns to his work with outfits like the Gibson Bros. and ’68 Comeback, Ross has been a dedicated soldier in the trash rock trenches for four decades – while creating a catalog of truly brilliant and bizarre solo recordings on the side.
This January, Goner Records, will release Make It Stop!: The Most of Ross Johnson. This career-spanning collection includes 20-plus tracks, covering Ross’s solo sides and numerous all-star collaborations from 1979 to 2006. It’s a wild, wooly, sonic and lyrical journey that’s sure to take its place among the more outré anthologies in your CD collection.
Ross' mostly spontaneously composed songs – which concern his fraught relations with women, booze, and the very nature of being a Southerner -- are part deconstructionist roots music, part absurdist comedy. Imagine a cross between Hasil Adkins and Sam Kinison, or Charlie Feathers and Albert Brooks, or Kim Fowley and Jerry Clower, and you’ll get the picture (please forgive the groping hybrid comparisons, but as you’ll find out, Ross is rather hard to define). Call it southern fried outsider art or rockabilly psychosis, but once you get a glimpse of Ross’ twisted vision, you’ll never look at the world the same way again.
But Johnson’s story is more than that of just an unhinged rock and roll hellion. An Arkansas native and son of a respected newspaper editor, he moved to Memphis as a teen, just in time for the city’s mid-60s garage band boom. He got his foot in the music scene as a one of the few original and enthusiastic fans of hometown pop group Big Star. Johnson then went on to write for the legendary Lester Bangs at Creem, under the memorable alias of Chester the Conger Eel. He soon befriended Alex Chilton, helped introduce punk rock to Memphis, and later became a notorious imbiber/MC/ringleader as a founding member of Tav Falco’s Panther Burns. Since then he’s spent time thumping the tubs for a variety of wild outfits from the Gibson Bros. to the Ron Franklin Entertainers --- all the while maintaining his alter-ego as a mild mannered librarian at the University of Memphis.
Make It Stop! is a treasure trove of material that collects a variety of out-of-print, hard-to-find, and previously unreleased selections from Ross’ colorful career, including singles, album and comp appearances for labels like Peabody, Sympathy for the Record Industry, Sugar Ditch, and Loverly.
There is of course his legendary vocal debut, “Baron of Love Pt. II,” one of the highlights of Alex Chilton’s famed Like Flies on Sherbert album. Also, included are solo tracks ranging from 1982’s infamous “Wet Bar” – which was featured on the companion CD to Robert Gordon’s book It Came from Memphis – to early-‘90s cult classics like “It Never Happened” and “Nudist Camp,” down to the recent acoustic nugget “Signify,” a ridiculously raw self-confessional that will have you laughing and crying simultaneously.
The disc also unearths some never before heard (and suitably insane) tracks Ross recorded with R.E.M.’s Peter Buck amid a drunken haze sometime in early 1983. Credited to Our Favorite Band, songs like “Rockabilly Monkey-Faced Girl” and “My Slobbering Decline” represent some of Buck's first work outside of R.E.M. (Amazingly, when the tapes were discovered in late 2007, Buck had total recall of the sessions and the songs; Ross has no recollection of recordings whatsoever).
Also included is Ross’ work with a couple mid-‘90s groups he fronted like Adolescent Music Fantasy – dig the band’s twisted take on “Theme From ‘A Summer Place’”. Ross and multi-instrumentalist Tim Farr stir things up as The Young Seniors – check their brilliant cover of Bobby Lee Trammell’s “If You Ever Get It Once” and a revamp of The Gentrys’ hit “Keep on Dancing,” which Ross mutates into a meditation on the embarrassing nature of “ass whoopings.”
Further highlights include a handful of team-ups between Ross and fellow garage cult icon, Monsieur Jeffrey Evans (Gibson Bros., ’68 Comeback). The duo essays everything from the freaky holiday anthem “Mr. Blue (Cut Your Head on X-Mas)” to a souped-up take on “Farmer John,” with equal parts guitar distortion and manic glee.
Make It Stop! comes packaged with a handsome 16-page color booklet, featuring Ross' own hilarious biographical essay, as well as tributes from acclaimed author Robert Gordon ("It Came From Memphis," the Muddy Waters bio "Can’t Be Satisfied"), MOJO writer Andria Lisle, and pop culture critic John Floyd.
Once the proverbial needle drops on this collection you’ll be – as Gordon notes in his liners – “seduced then debauched” by Ross’s “rivulets of rage, humor, and words words words.”
Hi Ross Johnson! Hope you're having a great summer! Thanks for having me as friend. Keep me in mind if you need any high quality/low cost mastering. All the details and samples are on my page. Free sample for every new friend and client. Take care!
I'm gunna make an ask! Please watch my hilarious, yet beautiful southern wedding! My wonderful wedding at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis Tn. To my lovely Mitra Murphy! By the Reverend Ross Johnson of Panther Burns/ Alex Chilton / 68 comeback / Jon Spenser and many others! Thanks to The Hellcats! The Reigning Sound and Kevin for filming it! Love and Yahtzee, Malibu Mike & Mitra Mau Mau Murphy
HELLO ROSS, WELCOME brother to my circle of FRIENDS. I am grateful to have your friendship. It is nice to be included in yours. All the best for you & yours,& all that you do. MIKE BINET/DRUMMER fro HUGH WATSON's "THE DROWNING MAN"
