The sage of Sam Phillips

TownHall.com ^ | Wednesday, August 6, 2003 | by Paul Greenberg

[JohnHuang2]

Sam Phillips of Sun Records and the South's musical history died last week at the age of 80. He'll be remembered by others' names, for he was the promoter who brought us one household name after another, starting with B.B. King of blues fame and going on to many another: Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl "Blue Suede Shoes" Perkins, Roy Orbison, Conway Twitty, Charlie Rich . and his biggest find, Elvis himself.

Sam Phillips should be remembered in his own name, too. Because he didn't just bring us stars but validated the music we had had with us all along, the sounds we grew up with, the vibrations we caught when passing honky-tonks and blind pigs, the kind of rhythms and blues we were told was their music, not ours.

Sam Phillips knew better, and, as the son of a tenant farmer, always did. More to the point, he staked his life on it. Also his health. The money and reputation and security he risked were the least of it.

Sam Phillips didn't walk away from the big recording houses to start his own tiny studio in Memphis just because he wanted a fair break for himself and his artists, though that was certainly part of it.

[JohnHuang2]

Wednesday, August 6, 2003

Quote of the Day by Paleo Conservative

[lorrainer]

'Nuff said.

[driftless]

I remember as a kid in the fifties and early sixties having to watch polka bands on local programming or slick popular singers on network tv for entertainment on sub-zero weekends in Wisconsin. It was extremely annoying to find out when I got older that there was this great music out there that was denied me and millions of other Americans by the powers who ran popular entertainment. Blues, folk, and other southern musical manifestations were kept out of the mix by the "experts" who "knew" what people would listen to. Or so they thought. I like now a lot of those slick popular singers I hated then, but polka music is still pretty tough to listen to.