Robert W. Dye - Memphis: Birthplace of Rock and Roll

IMAGES
of America

MEMPHIS

BIRTHPLACE OF
ROCK AND ROLL

MEMPHIS, 1948. Memphis has always been at the musical crossroads of the nation. Riverboats from New Orleans and St. Louis would bring jazz music and musicians into the clubs and saloons of Beale Street in the early 20th century. Country musicians from middle and east Tennessee brought their distinctive sound with them as they traveled west. In 1948, Elvis and his family moved to Memphis from Tupelo, Mississippi, and WDIAthe nations first all-black radio stationwas formed. A few years after Sam Phillips moved from Alabama, Memphis was on the verge of creating a new genre of music, a style that would become known as the Memphis sound. (Authors collection.)

ON THE COVER: Memphis radio deejay Dewey Phillips joins Elvis onstage performing a song at the Ellis Auditorium on February 6, 1955. Elvis had just turned 20 and was, as one writer described him, the King as Crown Prince. Earlier in the week, Elvis had recorded his fourth single for Sun Records, Baby Lets Play House, and cut the Ray Charles song I Got a Woman. It was Phillips who first played an Elvis record on the radio on July 8, 1954, from the WHBQ studios in the Chisca Hotel. Elvis and Dewey had a close friendship based on their mutual love of music and the fact that Dewey treated Elvis like a regular guy. (Elvis Presley Enterprises.)

IMAGES
of America

MEMPHIS

BIRTHPLACE OF
ROCK AND ROLL

Robert W. Dye

Copyright 2017 by Robert W. Dye
ISBN 978-1-4671-2739-4
Ebook ISBN 9781439663714

Published by Arcadia Publishing
Charleston, South Carolina

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017938442

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This book is dedicated to all the creative musicians who gave us a sound track for our lives.

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The photographs contained in this book come from a variety of sources, each one telling the story of Memphis music. I would like to thank the staff at the University of Memphis for their assistance. By preserving the images and documents of our city, the Special Collections department helps to preserve our history. Gerald Chaudron, Brigitte Billeaudeaux, Sharon Banker, James Cuching, and Charles Griffith were very helpful in helping to track down photographs and documents related to Memphis music. A thank-you goes to Emily McMackin for all her support and help in editing this work. Thanks go to Hal Lansky for the loan of images from his family collection. The story of Memphis music cannot be told without the contributions of the Lansky family. Thanks are extended to the staff of the Memphis Room at the Memphis Public Library (MPL) for collecting and preserving the history of Memphis for so many years. Also, thanks go to all the photographers, both known and unknown, who documented the Memphis music scene; without their artistic work, we would not have this book. A thank-you goes to my father for his inspiration and photographs, which have documented for future generations the music and people of Memphis. Unless otherwise noted, all photographs in this book come from the University of Memphis, Special Collections.

INTRODUCTION

Rev. Dwight Gatemouth Moore once said to his congregation, If youve never taken a drink then you have no idea what it is like to be drunk. Youre just guessing. Words cannot fully convey the feeling of the music that has come out of Memphis over the past 100 years. Whether it is Memphis Minnie singing to a lost love, Elvis Presley riding the mystery train, or Otis Redding asking for respect, the sound produced in recording studios throughout Memphis captures a feeling that until you have heard it for yourself leaves you guessing at how it will affect you.

W.C. Handy first came to Memphis in 1909 after performing throughout Mississippi, where he committed to memory the songs and sermons of the Delta. What he brought to Memphis was a feeling, a passion for life expressed in the rhythm of song. Settling on Beale Street, the 36-year-old Handy showed his talent for writing by composing a campaign song for Edward Boss Crump, who was running for mayor of Memphis in 1912. The song, later renamed the Memphis Blues, introduced Handys new style of 12-bar blues. It is considered by many to be the first blues song. Handy enjoyed seeing the reaction his music had on his audience, something Elvis Presley would also delight in 50 years later. After playing the St. Louis Blues for the first time, Handy said, My eyes swept the dance floor, then suddenly I saw lightning strike. The dancers seemed electrified. Something within them suddenly came to life. An instinct that wanted so much to live, to fling its arms, to spread joy, took them by the heels. This feeling would be repeated 50 years later when a young Elvis Presley burst onto the scene. Elvis once said, A live concert to me is exciting because of all the electricity that is generated on stage and in the crowd.

Highway 61, known as the Blues Highway, brought Delta musicians such as B.B. King, John Lee Hooker, Robert Johnson, Howlin Wolf, and Muddy Waters to Memphis, if only to be lured by the musical sirens of Beale Street before traveling north to Chicago or Detroit. The highway also gave the promise of opportunity and musical freedom, something in short supply in the cotton fields of rural Mississippi. This Delta music struck a chord with the urban audiences of Memphis. Not only blues, but also jazz and large orchestras dominated the Beale Street clubs and theaters for the next 50 years. Beale Street became an incubator for music throughout the South. From W.C. Handy to Howlin Wolf and B.B. King to Elvis Presley, Beale Street has fostered in its saloons and darkened street corners a musical genre that has, in turn, inspired and entranced the soul of the nation for yearsand years to come.

Sam Phillipss first experience with Memphis was a stopover in 1939 on his way to Dallas to attend a religious event. He had heard stories about Beale Street but he wanted to see and, more importantly, hear for himself what this legendary street was all about. It was that short stay, lasting only a single night, that would haunt him until he could return six years later to try and capture the soundand especially, the feelinghe felt that summer night. He began working for WREC in 1945 as a sound engineer recording the big bands that played on the Peabody Hotel roof and skyway ballroom. The Memphis area was open to a man like Phillips, who wanted to record the untapped depth of musical talent in the region. Representatives from Wisconsin-based Vocalion had come down to Memphis in 1929 searching for new talent for their record label. Setting up a makeshift recording studio in the Peabody Hotel, they captured onto acetate undiscovered blues musicians like Furry Lewis, Robert Wilkins, and Charlie McCoy. Before then, there was no place for an aspiring musician to cut an acetate for himself or have the chance of being discovered. When Phillips opened his Memphis Recording Service at 706 Union Avenue in 1950, his motto was We record anything, anytime, anywhere. He gave an opportunity to a segment of society who had been overlooked by larger recording labels. Whether they played on a street corner on Beale Street or picked cotton all day and played house parties on the weekend, Phillips was ready to give these musicians a chance. He just had one stipulation: be original. To Phillips, the feeling of the performance mattered. If a song had a small flaw but had the feeling he was looking for, he made that the master. Perfect imperfection is what Phillips liked to call it. He began by recording many of the black artists in the area. Joe Hill Louis, Rufus Thomas, and Howlin Wolf helped to establish Phillipss small studio as a place of opportunity, where anyone could get discovered. Howlin Wolf had the biggest impact on Phillips and his growing studio. Standing six foot three, Wolf was an imposing man in whose voice Phillips said, The soul of man never dies. His Sun recordings included Moanin at Midnight and How Many More Years. By 1952, Wolf would be lured to Chicago, where he signed with Chess Records, leaving Phillips to look for his next star.