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Wayward Sons: The Ballad of Big Star

Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, February 2000

THE SUN IS going down on Memphis, site of rock’n’roll’s immaculate conception and explosive birth. On a warm spring evening, the Mississippi’s purplish-brown waters are swirling and eddying beside us. In the distance loom the empty towers of the city’s devastated downtown centre. People drift into a performance area demarcated as "The Budweiser Stage", one of several set up for this weekend’s annual Memphis In May music festival.

Total word count of piece: 9990

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