Telecast Review: Good Rockin' Tonight - Tribute to Sun Records (SZC)

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PBS Special Celebrates Sam Phillips and Sun Records

By TIMOTHY FINN
The Kansas City Star
Published: Wednesday, Nov 28, 2001

He first opened the doors of his modest studio more than 50 years ago in 
Memphis, but Sam Phillips remembers everything about the time and the place: 
the address, the neighborhood, his neighbors and especially the racial 
climate. "Sun Records was a little storefront at 706 Union Avenue -- the 
only place I could afford the rent on," he told The Star recently from his 
home in Memphis. "Every business around it had been there for 100 years, all 
white owners. I primarily wanted to work with black artists, so I knew I had 
to take care of things on the diplomatic end." Phillips said he talked to 
all the neighborhood merchants and explained that he'd be making records and 
that black musicians would be going in and out of the studio. "Of course, 
the black artists couldn't eat at Miss Taylor's restaurant, but I wanted to 
try to avoid any bad feelings elsewhere," he said. "Because you know if 
blacks started getting cursed out for parking in front of Walker's Radiator 
or Shelby Tires or the service stations or barbershop, that wouldn't have 
been conducive to them coming in and feeling welcome. And I knew what these 
black musicians had in them, and I really wanted to give them an opportunity 
to let it out so young white kids could enjoy the music, too." He 
accomplished that, of course, gradually but decisively bringing the Delta 
blues and other strains of black music to young audiences of all races from 
deep in the middle of the Jim Crow South. Sun Records remains one of the 
earliest important symbols of rock 'n' roll: where Ike Turner laid down 
"Rocket 88," where blues legends like Howlin' Wolf and Rufus "Bearcat" 
Thomas made records, where Elvis Presley cut "That's All Right" and where 
Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison first exposed 
their considerable talents. Sun Records is where country music met the 
blues, where black bluesmen and white rockabilly singers churned out unique 
recordings by the hundreds. On Wednesday night as part of its American 
Masters series, PBS will air "Good Rockin' Tonight: The Legacy of Sun 
Records," a two-hour tribute to Phillips, his studio and the long parade of 
artists who went through its doors. The TV special follows last month's 
release of "Good Rockin' Tonight," a tribute CD on Atlantic Records 
featuring performances by Paul McCartney, Bryan Ferry, Bob Dylan and Led 
Zeppelin's Robert Plant and Jimmy Page. Many of those performers and their 
performances are scattered throughout the American Masters special, and none 
is more engaging than McCartney, who rips into "That's All Right" with the 
guys who backed up Elvis on the first version: Scotty Moore and DJ Fontana. 
The rest of the special is devoted to artists and stars like bluesman Rufus 
Thomas and to Phillips, who is both proud and humble about what he 
accomplished in his storefront studio -- especially what he saw and heard in 
Presley. "From his first audition, I knew we could cut a ballad worthy of 
release at any time," Phillips said. "But I knew we already had people like 
Dean Martin, Doris Day and so many great ballad singers. Elvis would have 
been a great ballad singer, but I didn't think that's what he really was." 
It took him awhile, but Phillips discovered what Presley really was almost 
accidentally. And to this day he retells the story like it happened last 
week: "We were getting ready to close down another session. Scotty and Bill 
(Black) had both put their instruments away but Elvis still had his guitar 
around his neck. So he cuts down on `That's All Right.' I had no idea he 
knew it -- a song Big Boy Crudup cut six years before. "I thought, "Lord of 
mercy, this is what I've been looking for!' and I swear to God, I knew I 
could sell it and that I'd have to be the one to do it. "I thought it had 
the energy that fit the younger class of people who would be much fairer 
than older people. I just knew that as a dead moral certainty that it would 
be given a fair hearing by younger people." He was right, though it took 
lots of legwork and more diplomacy to convince disc jockeys and record 
distributors of that. Elvis soon became the biggest thing in music -- so big 
that he outgrew Sun Records and Phillips, who sold Presley's rights to RCA 
for $35,000. "We'd paid $3,000 for the rights to Ray Charles, but we offered 
$25,000 for Elvis," Ahmet Ertegun, founder of Atlantic Records, wistfully 
tells McCartney in the American Masters special, which is filled with such 
small but intriguing moments. Elsewhere, some of his artists and cronies 
debate Phillips' role in the evolution of rock 'n' roll -- "he did not 
invent it," Rufus Thomas adamantly declares -- but none doubted his real 
forte: "He wanted to push you into doing what you wouldn't normally do," 
Scotty Moore says. Phillips, a member of both the Rock and Roll and Country 
Music halls of fame, knows his place in history. And he hasn't forgotten who 
helped him get there. "I must give credit where it's due," he told The Star. 
"Without my black brothers being in there, I don't think we'd have survived. 
"I'm not brilliant or anything. I'm just a hard worker who loves music 
because it's the greatest form of communication in the world." To reach 
Timothy Finn, pop music writer, call (816) 234-4781 or send e-mail to 
tfinn@xxxxxxxxxxx