(SLAPS FOREHEAD)

Gads! I've been doing this thing for almost ten years and have never posted any Carl Perkins. What the hell? That's a hugh oversight. It didn't even occur to me until I started reading the Sam Phillips bio. My only excuse, if there is one, is that he's such an obvious go-to rockabilly guy that I figured I'd already posted some of his stuff before.

Perkins was the first Sun Records artist with a million seller, "Blue Suede Shoes", right after Elvis jumped ship. He was only on the label for a few years, and, like Billy Lee Riley, left in the dust as Phillips put all his promo resources behind Jerry Lee Lewis. Pissed off, he went to Columbia, a label ill equipped to get the performances that Phillips had, and make no mistake, Phillips didn't just press "record" and turn knobs. He coached and he coaxed. It doesn't matter what your studio is like, if you don't have the patience or wherewithal to do that, you might get a good record, but you won't get the awesome shit for the ages that Phillips did.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Carl Perkins - Blue Suede Shoes mp3 at Rocky 52
Carl Perkins - Honey Don't mp3 at Rocky 52
Carl Perkins - Put Your Cat Clothes On mp3 at Bag of Songs
Carl Perkins - Gone, Gone, Gone mp3 at Cold Splinters
Carl Perkins - Matchbox mp3 at Mp3 Rockabilly
Carl Perkins - Dixie Fried mp3 at Mp3 Rockabilly
Carl Perkins - Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby mp3 at Mp3 Rockabilly

THE NUT WHO BROKE ELVIS

I'm still in the thick of reading Peter Guralnick's Sam Phillips - The Man Who Invented Rock 'n' Roll, and it's a whopper. So good that I've found it hard to listen to anything other than Sun related stuff for the past week. Just about every page has some factoid, story or quote worthy of a bookmark. My brand new copy is no more. It's dogeared to shit.

If you happen to have read it, or are reading it, you know the name Dewey Phillips, the Memphis DJ that was pals with Phillips. The only guy Sam Phillips really let his hair down with, particularly because Dewey Phillips was such a good natured fast talking good ol' boy. Sam Phillips's girl Friday, Marion Keisker MacInnes, who was dedicated and indispensable at Sun from the start, thought Dewey Phillips was crass, common, in short a hick. You can get a good a good idea of where both impressions come from by listening to an hour his show, Red Hot and Blue as aired on WHBQ in the early fifties. An interesting thing to note is the way he talks over the records, not just as the intros but even in the middle of songs, which is exactly how the whole reggae DJ sub-genre began a decade and a half later. A hick U-Roy.

Phillips song selection on this particular show is 100% hell yeah: Amos Milburn, Rosco Gordon, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Larry Williams, Bill Dogget..you get the idea, and when this non-stop yapper opens his mouth, you can understand why he was a hot DJ. Even his improvised pitches for beer, furniture, suits and beer are entertaining. To wit, in a spot for CV beer, he recommends that when you're "playin' canasta or whatever" and you have your CV beer, "you jus' go back to the fridge there, and if the ol' lady has it crammed full of ham 'n eggs 'n all dat, you jus' pull 'em out and lay 'en down on the floor, put dat CV in there and get it cold." This guy's a trip.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:

Dewey Phillips - On the Air mp3 at Beware of the Blog An hour of his WHBQ "Red Hot and Blue" show

Dewey Phillips - The same show (streaming) at Memphis Music Hall of Fame

Dewey Phillips - On the Air (streaming) at YouTube 16 minutes

Dewey Phillips - On the Air, 1952 (streaming) at YouTube 4 minutes

Video:

Dewey Phillips - Short narrative profile at YouTube Described by Knox Phillips, Sam Phillips's son

Visit:

Dewey Phillips at Memphis Music Hall of Fame

Dewey Phillips at Wikipedia

I TOO AM DIGGING IT

You all know Jackie Brenston's "Rocket 88", right? It was a very early recording done at Sam Phillips studio, then sold to Chess Records, who whipped into a hit in 1951. Phillips, realizing that it was a relatively bonehead move, took his cue and started his own damn label. That worked out for him.

"Rocket 88" was actually recorded by Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm, and Brenston, a member of the band, just happened to sing lead. The Chess brothers decided that Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats had a little more pizzazz, so they exercised the label asshole option, and that's how the record ended up being credited.

"Rocket 88" is a fine song, no doubt about it, but most of you have heard it enough to know that. No matter, the song that got me all worked up is another recorded the same year, "Juiced". I ran into that at Diggin' It!, and although you have to jump through a few hoops to download it, believe me, it's worth it. Just the guitar tone alone is worth it, but that Phillips Studio sound...yeesh! Add to that Brenston's yelp in the intro, and the yelp buckshot unleashed during the seriously tweaked guitar solo, and what you have is a two and a half minute party.

To get that one, once you get to DivShare, just click on the green "Download" button and scratch your head for fifteen seconds. When the button reappears, you're good to go.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Jackie Brenston - Juiced mp3 (via DivShare) at Diggin' It!
Jackie Brenston - Leo the Louse mp3 at Rocky 52
Jackie Brenston - Trouble Up the Road mp3 at Rocky 52
Jackie Brenston - Rocket 88 mp3 at Rocky 52