I Love Men: Sonny Burgess and the Blasters

Women can rock, too. Don’t misunderstand me. But there’s something about a bunch of men going APE. SHIT. like this that makes my knees melt. Here is Sun Records artist Sonny Burgess – whose big Sun hit was “Red-Headed Woman” (you probably know it), in the current-ish day playing with one of the most kick-ass bands I’ve ever heard. Macho creative Southern DUDES. There’s something about those Southern boys, with their hair and their slick duds and their innocent aggression and their talent. Pitter-pat.

That performance screams out of the tiny Youtube screen. The piano player alone!

Sonny Burgess is one of the only guys “left” from those long-ago Sun Records days – outside of Jerry Lee Lewis, the remaining Big Kahuna. Burgess was such a character. Hugely tall, gorgeous, he would wear head-to-toe bright red suits.

Apparently, he was really something to see onstage. He didn’t have a voice like Elvis’, he couldn’t write songs like Carl Perkins or Johnny Cash, and he wasn’t a mega-watt genius like Jerry Lee Lewis, but he made up for all of that in passion and bombast and showmanship and a pure sense of fun.

Sonny Burgess & the Pacers

Billy Lee Riley, another Sun Records artist (his big hit was “My Gal is Red Hot” – which you can still hear on the radio or in movie soundtracks from time to time), complained until the end of his days that he could have been as big as Jerry Lee Lewis or Elvis, if only Sam Phillips had devoted more time to him. Billy Lee Riley was, like all of those guys (is there something in the water in the Mississippi Delta) drop-dead gorgeous, had a crazy energy, a rough sexy voice, and people loved to see him. But Elvis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis … they were just on another planet. (And I’m just talking the white boys on the Sun roster. The black men – Rufus Thomas, Howlin’ Wolf, Ike Turner – were equally as ferocious and world-changing.) Billy Lee Riley felt Sam Phillips abandoned him. (Meanwhile, Sam Phillips didn’t quite trust Billy Lee Riley to be professional, didn’t think he could go the distance.) Johnny Cash, too, felt abandoned (and he was: Jerry Lee Lewis took up all of Sam Phillips’ time – other Sun artists had a right to be pissed off) – and Cash jumped ship as soon as he could. Billy Lee Riley, though, never got over the feeling that Sam Phillips had betrayed him and that he could have been a huge star IF ONLY Sam had promoted him more.

There’s footage of Billy Lee Riley saying something like that to Sonny Burgess (they’re both old guys, it was in the last 10 years), and you can tell Sonny is hesitant to say something along the lines of, “No way would you ever have been as big as those guys, Billy Lee.” He hears Billy Lee Riley out, though. Then says, “But I don’t think that’s true. If I was going to be as big as Elvis, I WOULD have been as big as Elvis. Same for you. Neither of us were ever gonna be that big.” Billy Lee Riley (poor guy) shook his head in disgruntled disagreement. Billy Lee Riley, like Sonny, continued performing up until the very end, and people always loved to see him. I am sorry I never got to see him (although there are tons of clips on Youtube.) But he seemed to be fairly bitter that he missed out on the chance to have the life he felt he SHOULD have had.

Sonny Burgess’ attitude is a rare and precious thing for an artist. Imagine being a hopeful musician, recording songs at Sun in 1953, 1954, hoping for a hit. Or to be put on some kind of regional tour. Or to get radio play. Or to get a contract at the Grand Ole Opry. You know: that was the definition of success to those guys (pre-Elvis, that is. Elvis single-handedly defined what success could look like). And then imagine that a pimply high school boy with a stutter who can’t even play the guitar walks in, records one song, and becomes the biggest star the world has ever known, and may ever know. Imagine how that situation could turn you bitter, furious, eaten up with envy and resentment. “It’s Sam Phillips’ fault. I coulda been Elvis!!” That was Billy Lee Riley’s attitude. (The black artists at Sun – who were the entire reason for Sun being created in the first place – had far more reason to complain, and boy, they DID complain.)

Sonny Burgess watched Elvis explode, and who knows, he probably had a couple of moments of thinking, “Damn, I wish that was me.” Sonny Burgess was good-looking and an electric performer. Maybe … But Sonny seems to have a realistic attitude, and has continued performing and touring ever since those 1950s years. People still pour out in droves to see him. (Watching that clip above, it is obvious why. I need to keep my ear to the ground if Sonny ever comes this way.)