Sun Records: An Oral History (Second Edition)
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- 4,99 €
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- 4,99 €
Beschreibung des Verlags
The tiny Sun studio at 706 Union Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee may not have looked like much from the outside, but inside musical miracles were being performed daily by its enigmatic owner, Sam Phillips. After discovering a wealth of talent in his own backyard in the Mid-South area, Phillips began his own record label – Sun – with an emblematic rising sun and rooster logo.
A white man who loved and understood African-American music, Phillips recorded soon-to-be blues icons such as Howlin’ Wolf, Rufus Thomas, and B.B. King. A seismic shift occurred during one session in 1951 when Phillips recorded “Rocket 88” with Jackie Brenston and Ike Turner. That shift was to become known as rock and roll.
A shy white boy named Elvis Presley came in the studio to record a song for his mother’s birthday. Phillips recognized something in the young man, and a moment of silliness in the studio ruptured into the first record of the future King of Rock & Roll, “That’s All Right.” Elvis shot to stardom; Sun Records didn’t stop there. Hot on his heels came Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash. However, there wasn’t a day that the studio wasn’t searching for other artists, other hits.
Sun Records: An Oral History (Second Edition) brings to readers the voices of the pillars of Sun Records, the artists, producers, and engineers who made the place tick. Rufus Thomas (the first hit-maker for Sun), Scotty Moore, Rosco Gordon, Little Milton Campbell, Billy Lee Riley, producer and musician Roland Janes, producer Cowboy Jack Clement, and others all tell their inimitable stories about the making of a music empire, the label that put rock and roll on the world map.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In his introduction to the inaugural volume in a new series of rock oral histories, series editor Dave Marsh writes, "For the Record isn't concerned with the most obvious stars; exploring the stories untold and half-told which need to be properly retold constitutes our mission." The problem is the first-person accounts of a handful of session musicians fortunate enough to witness history (Roland Janes, Scotty Moore, Jim Dickinson) and a few hopefuls that fame would pass by (Billy Lee Riley, Malcolm Yelvington) will give neophytes, at least, little sense of the importance of the legendary Memphis record label that offered first breaks to the likes of Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison, not to mention the young Elvis Presley. By sidestepping the admittedly well-trodden paths of The King's meteoric rise or Jerry Lee's fall from grace, it's hard to grasp the importance of what Sam Phillips created and the command he had of popular American music. Fans of Marsh's music journalism are justified to expect more of his characteristic vigor and immodesty. Perhaps other inaugural volumes on less well-covered subjects (soul shouters Sam and Dave and British goth metal progenitors Black Sabbath) will be more straightforward.