| August 3rd, 2005 07:07 AM |
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| Ten Thousand Motels |
'American Masters' looks at legacy of Sun Records
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
During the 1950s, the segregated South kept black people and white people apart in schools, at lunch counters and at public water fountains.
But it proved difficult -- impossible, really -- to keep cultures from mixing on the AM radio band. They "couldn't segregate the radio dial," says the late recording industry pioneer Sam Phillips in an installment of the PBS documentary series "American Masters" airing at 8 tonight on Alabama Public Television's WEIQ-TV42.
After Phillips founded the historic Sun Records recording studio in Memphis, Tenn., at the very start of the decade (the studio opened its doors for the first time on Jan. 3, 1950), Phillips sought a niche and found it with African-
"It suddenly dawned on me that black people did not have an opportunity to make a phonograph record," Phillips says on "American Masters." "Now, they were untried, unproven people with great potential talent. It was up to me to listen to them."
In those early years of its existence, Sun Records provided an avenue for such musicians as James Cotton, B.B. King, Howlin' Wolf, Roscoe Gordon, Junior Parker, Little Milton and Rufus Thomas. Phillips found he had much in common with the acts he signed and recorded.
"I knew their proverty background because I lived it," he says on the PBS show.
These acts eventually became too big, too successful for Phillips and his small record label. As the big labels proved willing to sign black musicians once their marketability was established, Phillips had to go looking for new artists and new sounds.
Perhaps you've heard of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis?
It was on July 5, 1954, when a 19-year-old Presley walked in the door at Sun Records. His recording of "That's All Right" made history, and some say rock 'n' roll was born right there and then in that little storefront recording studio at 706 Union Ave. in Memphis.
The story of Phillips and Sun Records and many of the acts mentioned here and others will be told tonight on "American Masters." This installment is called "Good Rockin' Tonight: The Legacy of Sun Records." Phillips died in 2002, and this documentary from a year earlier includes some of his last interviews.
Episodes coming during the balance of the month are "Hank Williams: Honky Tonk Blues," "Richard Rodgers: The Sweetest Sounds," "Ralph Ellison: An American Journey" and "F. Scott Fitzgerald: Winter Dreams."
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| August 3rd, 2005 07:15 AM |
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| lotsajizz |
all true rockers should visit Memphis and specifically see Sun Studios--a well presented combination museum/working studio to this day
and then hit Beale Street
and don't plan on being back before sunup |
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