The back cover liner notes on this disc state "It's no secret that
the Beatles were influenced by Memphis -- America's musical crossroads and birthplace of rock 'n' roll." That statement is certainly true enough, but the trouble with
Fried Glass Onions, Vol. 3: Memphis Rocks the Beatles, Vol. 3, in which a handful of Memphis-based acts tackle classic
Beatles numbers, offers precious little in the way of the rockabilly or soul sounds that captivated the Fab Four back in the day. While
David Brookings' cover of "I'll Cry Instead" has a nice Sun Records feel, the closest thing to blues here is Crazy & the Crutch's overblown take on "Love Me Do," and the arena level bombast of
Steve Selvidge's "She Said, She Said"; the metal guitar mauling of Rabid Villain's "Don't Let Me Down" and the sub-
Joe Satriani instrumental overkill of
Tim Simmons' "Eleanor Rigby" are more typical of the wrong-headed interpretations that dominate this disc. And while those are the low points of the album, most of the rest of
Memphis Rocks the Beatles is either faithful enough to be pleasant but unchallenging (such as "When I Get Home" by
Ross Rice) or a rethink that lacks the confidence to bring anything really revelatory to the material (like
Van Duren's slightly rocked-up take on "Hey Bulldog"). And significantly, there's not a hint here of the Anglophile power pop of Memphis bands like
Big Star or
the Scruffs, who took
the Beatles' influence and made something new out of it. Only the most obsessive collectors of
Beatles' spin-offs need to go out of their way to check this out. ~ Mark Deming