Two girls are driving their 1964 Thunderbolt out of Memphis down Highway 61 where their car breaks down. Looking for help they find an enchanted garage inhabited by Tav Falco and his motorcycle riding comrades.
le label New Rose
In 1979 Falco founded his band the PANTHER BURNS :
From this cacophonous beginning Falco began to emerge as an underground cult artist with the formation of his band 'PANTHER BURNS', named after a legendary plantation in the Mississippi delta. Alex Chilton (guitar) was a founding band member along with Jim Dickinson (guitar), Eric Hill (keyboard), & Ross Johnson (drums). The band has had a number of revolving members that now include Michael Lo (bass), Peter Dark (guitar), & Tall Cash (drums).
He also used to write songs under the name of Eugene Baffle.During his early collaboration with Alex Chilton, Tav Falco obtained an unapproachable cult-like status, a position he since has been able to maintain with a repertoire and music that is a surprising mix of conversion of obscure rigmarole, tangos, sambas, mambos, ballads, and obscure pop standards. The PANTHER BURNS first record came out in 1980 on the band's own label FRENZI in the USA. Since then their records have been released by Rough Trade in London, New Rose in Paris, Marilyn and Munster in Spain, In The Red in Los Angeles, & Au Gogol in Melbourne, Australia.
Even if his own style was different, Tav Falco spent some time in 1980/1981 in New York, part of the No Wave movement, playing and making friends with such bands as DNA, Walter Stedding, James White, united around the concept of musical freedom and experimentation.
Because of its raw, unbridled, lurking sound the band has been called a ‘ballroom gothic junta billy garage band’. Still, Falco has received critical success in publications such as 'New York Times', 'Village Voice', 'Chicago Sun-Times', 'New Orleans Times-Picayune', 'Andy Warhol's Interview', etc. Even though Falco cultivates the image of a suave singer, his new records show his rough style lurking underneath polished productions. Singer and guitarist Tav Falco has always been very interested in making movies (see videos section). He has also appeared as an actor in movie bio of Jerry Lee Lewis, "Great Balls of Fire", as a motorcycle gang leader in the road movie, "Highway 61", and as a criminal mastermind in the forthcoming, "Wayne County Rambling".
His last music film/video clip "Love's Last Warning" was made with the American underground film pioneer, Kenneth Anger.His last studio recordings Panther Phobia were realized in the late-2000, some 20 years after his first recordings.2001 saw him played several concerts in Europe and USA, often 2 hours long, unanimously acclaimed to be great & brilliant, enthusiastic & full of energy.2002 saw a wide autumn tour and also a winter tour (Austria, Germany, Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, France, Italy, Slovenia, Yugoslavia, Switzerland)An album has been recorded, to be released soon !!& 2003 begins with some dates in Spain (winter tour).
"Back in the mid-Nineties, when Primal Scream were recording their album Give Out But Don't Give Up in Memphis, they paid a call on Eggleston to ask if they could use Troubled Waters, his strange image of a neon Confederate flag and a palm tree, on the cover. 'I remember he was wearing jodhpurs and leather boots, some kind of military outfit, and walking about with a rifle and a bayonet,' recalls lead singer Bobby Gillespie. 'When he heard we were Scottish, he sat down at the piano and started reciting great chunks of Rabbie Burns. It was surreal.' Gillespie's friend, the filmmaker Douglas Hart, takes up the story. 'William and his wife were knocking back these massive drinks. He asked us to let him hear a song, and then he would decide if we could have the picture. We played him 'Moving On Up', and he fell on his knees and started shouting, 'Bo Diddley! Bo Diddley! Y'all love Bo Diddley!' He rummaged through his records and pulled out 'I'm the Meat Man', by Jerry Lee [Lewis] and played it so loud the speakers blew. Then his wife shouted, 'Y'all want ribs?' She insisted we all go to a local rib joint. It was wild.' Gillespie nods in agreement. 'He let us have the picture though. He was a true gent.'"Poke around and you get these Eggleston anecdotes: the time he pulled a butter knife on a professor at the Harvard faculty club while he was teaching there, the long affair he had in the 70s with Viva from Andy Warhol’s Factory, his cameo in the movie “Great Ball of Fire” as Jerry Lee Lewis’ father, his interest in antigue guns, especially shooting them indoors in the dark, the Gatling gun he has pointed at his front door in his Memphis mansion (which can shoot 1,100 rounds a minute), the time he was stranded in a small town Mississippi motel by an enraged girlfriend with just the clothes on his back and his box of colored pencils.William Eggleston: 5X7
1939 Born July 27, 1939 in Memphis, Tennessee.
1957 Acquires his first camera, a Canon rangefinder.
1958 Acquires his first Leica.
1959 Sees Henri Cartier-Bresson's "The Decisive Moment" and Walker Evans' "American Photographs".
1965 Begins to experiment with color transparency film.
1967 Starts to use color negative film. Goes to New York and meets Garry Winogrand, Lee Friedlander and Diane Arbus. Presents his work to John Szarkowski at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
1974 Harry Lunn publishes the first portfolio of dye-transfer photographs, "14 Pictures." Receives a Guggenheim Fellowship. Appointed Lecturer in Visual and Environmental Studies at The Carpenter Center, Harvard University. Completes his "Los Alamos" project.
1975 Receives a National Endowment for the Arts Photographer's Fellowship.
1976 The Museum of Modern Art exhibits work in first solo exhibition of color photographs accompanied by a monograph, "William Eggleston's Guide." Commissioned by Rolling Stone to photograph Plains, Georgia before the election of President Jimmy Carter. Project becomes "Election Eve," the first of the artist's books of original photographs published by Caldecot Chubb.
1978 Appointed Researcher in Color Video at Massachusetts Institute of Technology at the invitation of Richard Leacock. Photographs the Gulf states on a commission from A.T. & T. Receives another award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Visits Jamaica.
1979 Chubb published three smaller volumes of original photographs, "Morals of Vision," "Wedgwood Blue," and "Flowers."
1980 Travels to Kenya with Caldecot Chubb and creates a body of work known as "The Streets Are Clean on Jupiter." Commissioned to produce the "Louisiana Project" and to photograph throughout the state.
1982 Invited to photograph the set of John Huston's film "Annie".
1983 Begins to photograph in Berlin, Salzburg and Graz and titles the series "Kiss me Kracow". Commissioned to photograph the mansion of Elvis Presley, Graceland.
1986 Invited by director David Byrne to visit and photograph the making of his film "True Stories". Commissioned by the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art to photograph in Egypt.
1988 Begins a series of color photographs of England he calls "English Rose".
1989 Photographs in the orange groves of the Transvaal. Accepts one of 54 Master Photographers of 1960-1979 awards from Photographic Society of Japan. Plays the role of musician Jerry Lee Lewis' father in the movie "Great Balls of Fire".
1992 Travels to China, mainly photographing in Beijing.
1993 Commissioned by Delta Pine and Land to photograph Scott, Mississippi.
1996 Commissioned by Coca-Cola to photograph their plants in four cities in the U.S. Invited by producer Caldecot Chubb to visit and photograph the making of the film "Eve's Bayou". Receives the University of Memphis Distinguished Achievement Award.
1999 Invited by director Gus Van Sant to visit and photograph the making of the film "Easter". Invited by the J. Paul Getty Museum to photograph the museum and its grounds. Also photographs religious locations in Orange County, California.
2000 Commissioned by Paramount Pictures to photograph studio lot in Hollywood, California. Commissioned by the Cartier Foundation to photograph the American desert.
2001 Travels to Japan and photographs Kyoto.
2002 Travels extensively and photographs locations including Pasadena, California; the New Jersey Shore; Queens, New York; St. Petersburg, Russia; and Tuscany, Italy.
2003 Travels to and photographs the Niagara Falls area. Travels to Arles, France to attend Rencontres d'Arles and meets Henri Cartier-Bresson. Accepts Gold Medal for Photography from National Arts Club, New York.
2004 Receives the Getty Images Lifetime Achievement Award at the International Center of Photography (ICP) Infinity Awards. Travels to Hawaii and photographs with new panoramic format camera. Travels to Madrid to accept 2004 Photoespana Award. Travels to Clovis, New Mexico and photographs the city and Norman Petty Recording Studios.
2005 William Eggleston In The Real World, a documentary film on Eggleston by Michael Almereyda is completed.