sam phillips is gone.
here's elvis' best biographer, peter guralnick, on sun studio's guide:
It was a lonely path, and one that Sam trod without regard to personal gain or popularity ("I could be a mean motherfucker. Now this may sound like a contradiction, because I needed everybody's help, but I didn't need myself kissing anyone's ass"). He was a man swept up by a belief, in a sound and in an idea. And as discouraged as he might sometimes get, as harsh as the reality of selling this new music might be, he never strayed from his belief, he never allowed himself to be distracted from his main goal. Which was to get them to listen. (Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley 113)
as anyone who's seen phillips command whatever screen he's occupying knows, this was no calm soul. his overexcited presence and his tendency to perform the legend of visionary madman always made me a little nervous, particularly when his interviews were played against the understated and shy young presley. this, however, was the same mind that recognized just what it meant when elvis, scotty moore, and bill black -- goofing off, really -- ended their first session together with "that's all right, mama." any other ear might have continued to pack up the sound booth, not really hearing elvis' voice do something few, if any, had ever done before. phillips heard. he made them do it over again. and again. his was also the same mind that persuaded a brother madman, dj dewey phillips (no earthly relation), to play the record on whbq the next night. as dewey satisfied his station's pleading callers and played the song no less than twenty times, american music changed.
all talk of "firsts" fails at some point. was "rocket 88" the first rock and roll song? was elvis the first popular (read: white) rock and roll artist? or was it bill haley? was sam phillips the first to realize that "race records" would only make it into the living rooms of the nation with a white voice? all talk of race at sun studio falls short, too. phillips' insistence, much like presley's, that he understood black life in the rural south, doesn't really satisfy many questions. were he and elvis ultimately guilty of stealing a kind of music? maybe. is that ameliorated by the fact that sun studio pretty much integrated popular music in the mid-twentieth century (phillips claims to have "knocked the shit out of the color line")? maybe. everyone could record at sun. and many did. at the very least, phillips took that wall down.
phillips was undoubtedly a moneymaker. he contributed happily to the maintenance of his role in the legend. he was, as he says, a "mean motherfucker."
in the face of all that, though, try to imagine things without his elvis. without his little junior parker. without his carl perkins. without his jerry lee lewis. without his johnny cash. all of them brought their art to 706 union avenue.
sam phillips let us know they were singing.
Posted by dave at July 31, 2003 10:09 AM | TrackBack