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Home , Carl Perkins, Country music, Jerry Lee Lewis, Rockabilly, Rock music, Sam Phillips

Music 262: Rock , History and Social Analysis, Memphis Renegades

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[Brian Ward]: So many historians believe that the true birth of rock n’ roll happened in Memphis. In fact, it happened on July 5th in 1954. Presley, a singer came into and recorded for , some for his mom and he ended up blowing off some steam between takes and he doing this called, That’s Alright Mama. What happened was, Sam Phillips heard Elvis doing this song, That’s Alright Mama, which was kind of a rhythm and type country song and Elvis had a distinctive way of doing this. He probably didn’t know it at the time, but Sam Phillips recognized it and that’s how it all started. So he recorded it and put it out at Sun Records. So Sun Records is a company in Memphis and it’s very famous for early rock n’ roll. A lot of the great artists came out of there, , , and of course. They really started this style and Elvis really invented it, called . Now rockabilly is an early form of rock n’ roll. It’s a frenzied mix of country, blues, , and pop. It’s played on the , , and it’s sung. Originally, rockabilly had no . All of the percussion was done from the bass, slapping the strings against the fret board and also the guitar playing really percussively. Rockabilly is a very distinctive form of music and Elvis invented it. It had this distinctly southern, pervasive youthfulness to it. It was very brief in its popularity, but it was a crucial sound in the image of rockabilly and the rebellious spirit of this music really appealed to teenagers. Now you have to understand, before this there was really no teenaged culture in the . in the , after World War Two. It was when this culture of the teenager starts important and people start to cash in on it. That’s how rock n’ roll kind of grew up with that whole idea.

So what are the style traits of rockabilly? Well they use very simple . There’s no horns, there’s no strings, no extra instruments. There’s no in the originally, and the use of that slapping bass is very important. They alternate between a country kind of two- beat style and a blues walking four-beat style. They play the very hard, kind of like . I mentioned Sam Phillips. He is the owner and operator of Sun Records. Now Sam Phillips was a huge fan of blues music and . He knew then that he needed to find a white artist that could play this music and do it effectively and convincingly. Then he would really have something. That’s actually a paraphrase of a quote of his. He’s a very important figure in the development of rock n’ roll and a huge proponent for , which is important to say. In fact, he was the first guy to record B.B. King, first guy to record , , Willie Mae Thornton. He loved the for its intensity and its vitality. So when he found Elvis, he really knew he had something. The recordings of early Sun Records really reflect this discovery. In fact, at the very beginning, Elvis was dubbed the cat, which is a slang term. Hillbilly meaning white, and cat was a slang term for a black man. So he was the white black man. That was the whole thing about Elvis. Some important observations about Elvis Presley. Elvis remains the most indelible image of rock n’ roll. You 1 see the image of Elvis Presley everywhere: on a postage stamp, on a black velvet poster, and everything in between. He was the first rock hero and he was known as the n’ roll. The thing about Elvis though, is that he was a singer. He was not a song. He only recorded other people’s music. He never wrote any songs, but he was very popular and he was on TV in the 1950s. TV was new. Elvis was new. Rock n’ roll was new. They all kind of grew up together. Elvis appeared on the show and created quite a stir. He was so popular with the , he kind of forced rock n’ roll or actually at the time, rhythm and blues music down the mainstreams throat. He made rock n’ roll than just a passing fad. He kind of distinguished it from rhythm and blues in the kind of way that only Elvis could. By doing so, the positive thing that came out of this, is that he opened the gates for a lot of the rhythm and blues artists to become more popular as well. By popularizing this music.

So a little bit about Elvis. He was with Sun records . Then he signed with RCA, a bigger label, much bigger, and became his manager. He reached national status when he recorded his song, . Eventually, he became a movie star. He starred in movies. At one point he joined the army. That was a big deal because it kind of endeared him to the older generation when he did that. At first they very skeptical of Elvis and shaking his pelvis on TV. When he joined the army it really kind of solidified his image. He really was these two different people. He had this persona on stage. His performances had this crazy wild man. He was unafraid to really express himself in an uninhibited way. In his private side, he was very polite, shy, country boy. He loved his mom and apple pie just like everyone else. After the army, he went to Hollywood and made some movies. The earlier pictures were much stronger than the later ones. Then he kind of made a comeback in the late 60s. He did a TV special. Then he went to Vegas and kind of made a hit there. After that he declined. He had a lot of health problems, problems with substance abuse, and he died in 1977.

Another important artist was this guy named . Carl Perkins was a real country boy and he had a real country sound to his music. He took rockabilly and really refined it into his own thing. He was known as the king of rockabilly and when Elvis left Sun Records, Sam Phillips really looked to Carl Perkins to fill that void. He did it to a degree. He grew up very poor kind of like Elvis. He loved blues. He loved gospel. And he loved the . He had all this background in blues, gospel, and . Unlike Elvis, he wrote his own songs. He always remained true to his style. He didn’t change, ever. A quote for Carl Perkins that kind of sums it up is that “Country music needs the black man’s rhythm.” That’s what he said. So he understood that by combining country music, blues, rhythm and blues, and gospel, he really had something that he could sell. His first recordings were real country kind of weeper songs. He had a famous song called Movie Magg about growing up and going to the movie and riding a donkey with his girlfriend to the movie show. That’s the humble beginnings of Carl Perkins. His music is really an extension of his hillbilly roots and not really a rebellious streak or break from tradition like Elvis.

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We can’t really talk about Sun Records without talking about this man who was Jerry Lee Lewis. Now Jerry Lee Lewis is from and he was a hell raiser. He grew up in a very religious family, but he was very rebellious. He would often sneak away and listen to these barrel house piano players in Louisiana; you know New Orleans and that whole region. Barrel house piano players are the real rough boogie woogie style of piano. They are very hard driving; they play really hard on the piano. That’s the style of music that he picked up. He became known as the killer when he became successful. He came out of Sun Records and did these songs like and he was a great showman. He would do crazy things on stage. He would stand up and play the piano. He would play the piano with his feet. He would hit the piano so hard that he would break strings. He even lit the piano on fire one time. Just a crazy man. He was really viewed as Elvis’ rival because of this. Because he was a really great showman and he had some hit songs that came out of Sun Records. His outlandish image kind of became the foil to Elvis’ more clean cut country boy image. Jerry Lee Lewis kind of had a decline though. He went to England, and in the at the time, it wasn’t such a big deal, but he had married his 13 year-old cousin. When he went to England, they found out about that and the English tabloids were just as bad then as they are now. They just jumped all over it and destroyed his career. He kept doing what he was doing. He never really changed, but he lost his popularity and never really regained his stature as a rock n’ roll artist.

To sum things up about Sun Records and Memphis sound. Elvis clearly invented rockabilly. Carl Perkins took it and refined it, but Jerry Lee Lewis gave it its very soul.

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