The myth. The legend. There’s a lot of bull shit with the legend, and saying that does not mean throwing out the whole thing. But Sam did have a way of placing him at the center of every story in the decades following the Sun Records years. One can’t blame him. He WAS at the center of most stories. He played key roles in the lives of Jerry Lee Lewis, Howlin’ Wolf, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Elvis, and, of course, American culture. He changed it. But … did he FORESEE it all in his mind beforehand? Did he have a VISION of the heaven-on-earth he could create? And once he followed that vision, did nothing surprise him because he had already seen it all? This is how Sam Phillips sometimes spoke, when he was interviewed about the 50s, in the decades that followed. He deserves a lot of credit; he changed our world forever. One man did that. But … do you have to take credit for Elvis’ hair, too?
There’s a lot of that in the Sam Phillips story. It reminds me a little bit of Howard Hawks, another extremely important figure. Hawks takes credit for everything, even things he had nothing to do with, lol. Pointing this out does not take away Hawks’ actual accomplishments, but it does mean you should take some of his claims with a grain of salt!
More – much more – after the jump:
Phillips was on a mission. To record Black artists and to bring to “the world” the music he loved. But there was no sense of what would happen. “The world’ meant “Memphis”. I actually don’t believe he had a clear-cut idea of what would happen – because … how could anyone? He was a part of something, he felt something, in the way he grew up, in the sounds he liked, and he was fed up with racism. He was not alone in this. It was the late 40s/50s, the civil rights movement was already coalescing. But movements like that need individuals, at every level, to finally be fed up enough to refuse to participate. So. All of those things were present in Sam Phillips, and it’s why he wanted to set up the Memphis Recording Service, where he could – using the new recording technology – to record these “forgotten” voices, or unheard voices, etc. Blah blah, we all know the story.
I personally have doubts about his famous statement “If I could find a white man who could sing like a Black man I’d make a million dollars”. I realize he apparently said it to a couple of different people, so okay, maybe he said it. But post-Elvis, it took on the shape of PROPHECY, and Sam could look at the chaos and say, “I SAW THIS. I PREDICTED IT.” He was very invested in seeming like he knew all this would happen, he saw it all in his head. And I just don’t believe it. He probably said something along those lines, and he definitely had a vision of the races mixing together, of not being afraid anymore. The man grew up in the South in the 1930s and 1940s, and he grew up the son of sharecroppers. Scraping not even a living out of the dirt. So many of the people who changed the music world in the 50s had that exact same biography. But Sam, being a bearded prophet, closing his eyes, and picturing a “white man” who could sing this way and then … lo and behold he walks through the door?
I don’t think so, Sam. I honestly think he was as blind-sided as everyone else was. Marion Keisker was as central a player as Sam Phillips, and he did whatever he could to sideline her contribution in interviews over the following decades. Marion was the one who first met Elvis, interviewed him, recorded him: this is a FACT, Sam. Elvis stuck in her head. Because of course he did. Sam heard Elvis’ singing and wasn’t interested. Elvis was a white boy singing Ink Spots songs in a quavery falsetto. Not Sam’s thing at all. But Marion kept pushing. She put a little notecard in her file, reminding herself to call the boy in if anything came up.
Sam needed to be convinced about Elvis. Marion needed no convincing. She sensed it- whatever “it” was – immediately. And the fact that Sam made a point – over and over again – to discount Marion’s version of events makes me tend to believe her over him. Otherwise, why would he be so … weird about it?
Elaine Dundy had similar thoughts which she wrote about in her book Elvis and Gladys, and she really broke down all the events of July 1953-July 1954, picking apart why the official story had inconsistencies and moments that made no sense. Lester Bangs called the bullshit in his own frantic manic way. (2024 UPDATE: I finally developed this idea into an article for Liberties Journal.)
Mentioning this is not meant to take away from what Phillips actually did, but the story of how Elvis happened is – obviously – pretty important. Incidentally, I loved how Baz Luhrmann handled Sam in the movie (he’s sidelined. He’s barely in it). And I loved how Baz pulled Marion out of the shadows. This was an extremely deep cut, but I really appreciated it.
Phillips was a very complicated man. A storyteller. A weaver of tales. He had a couple of pretty major breakdowns and submitted to electric shock therapy multiple times. He had a Messianic belief in what he saw in his own head. The equipment he put together for the recording service was so rudimentary you can’t even believe it WORKED. He trusted the sound of the room, and this was one of his main contributions. The room was small. There are no frills. It looks like an office. But the room had feel. There was the slight echo Sam created, and probably also just the natural acoustics of the place, but this echo became synonymous with the Sun sound. To this day, you can tell if a song was recorded at Sun. That’s all Sam. And he created an environment of freedom and individuality: comfort, no pressure, just do your thing, be yourself as hard as you can be! Let whatever happen happen! Mistakes are there, on the final tracks. Sam didn’t ask for more takes because the mistakes were real. He was a purist.
Perfect example of this: In 1953, bluesman Jimmy DeBerry was recording “Time Has Made a Change”, and during the session the front telephone rang. Marion’s telephone. Naturally, everyone assumed they’d have to go again, but Sam said no. The take was perfect even with the telephone ring, maybe even because of the telephone ring, because you know it’s REAL.
See if you can clock the ringing of the telephone.
I think it’s funny and ironic that Sam didn’t make his millions with Sun Studio. He made his millions investing in Holiday Inn (also started in Memphis). Sam was smart. Sam looked ahead. He may not have recognized Elvis right away as the man he had been dreaming about, but he got it soon enough, gave Elvis the freedom to let his SELF come out … let Elvis go when it was time for him to go … and moved on with his life, becoming a Professor Emeritus of music until the end of his days. Well-deserved.
There were so many artists he recorded, beyond the usual suspects.
Billy Emerson
Joe Hill Louis
Little Jr. Parker
Rufus Thomas
James Cotton
Harmonica Frank
The Miller Sisters
Charlie Feathers
Ike Turner
Charlie Rich
Billy Lee Riley
Sonny Burgess
Roy Orbison
The Prisonaires
B.B. King
Warren Smith
Conway Twitty
Jackie Brenston
Lou Sargent
Billy Love
L.B. Lawson
… some of these people were local celebrities and/or hopefuls, some went on to be huge stars … but they all started at Sun, or were drawn to the famous yellow label with the rising sun, symbolizing a new day dawning.
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