Play it again, Sam

Even though he grew up loving and singing the song, Bruce Springsteen had never performed a full-length live version of "Mystery Train" until the proper occasion demanded it.

But on Aug. 1, 2003 - two days after the devastating death of the "Father of Rock 'n' Roll," Florence native Sam Phillips - rock's reigning showman led his E Street Band in a thundering, impassioned rendition of the rockabilly anthem during a three-hour Boston concert.

Appropriately, Springsteen dedicated his journey on the "Mystery Train" to the memory of music visionary Phillips, whose death July 30 at the age of 80 concluded a pioneering chapter in the annals of American music's most rebellious and liberating movement.

"What I wanted to do was find a new and different sound for young people - their starvation for music in the early 1950s was very pronounced," Phillips recalled in 1997, on the 20th anniversary of the death of his most dynamic and famous discovery, Elvis Presley.

"Musically, what there was a need for at that time was a rhythm that had a very pronounced beat, a joyous sound and a quality that young people in particular could identify with," Phillips explained. "What I heard in Elvis was an exceptional white talent who had a love for black music and also happened to be quite a good-looking dude. His music broke down every barrier we had."

Three years before his first commercial recordings with Presley, Phillips was blazing a trail for the rock 'n' roll revolution from his home base in Memphis, Tenn. Establishing the fabled Memphis Recording Service at 706 Union Ave., he first cut blues sides by Howlin' Wolf, B.B. King, Little Milton and others, leasing the raw, unrefined recordings to labels like Chess, Modern and RPM.

"I wanted to record black people, those folks who grew up poor and disenfranchised and never had the opportunity to record," Phillips remembered. "My unconscious mind was just saying I should do it because I could feel such a spiritual connection with those untried and unproven talents."

In 1951, Phillips - a former WLAY radio engineer and deejay who had moved to Memphis from the Muscle Shoals area six years earlier -- recorded Jackie Brenston and the Delta Cats (including young Ike Turner) on a rollicking rhythm-and-blues song called "Rocket 88." Today it's considered the prototypical rock 'n' roll record.

"Rock 'n' roll was a masterwork of genius, of letting an inhibited individual be uninhibited," Phillips explained in 1998. "I can't think of a better way to reach people. They might not listen to you from a pulpit, but they'll damn sure listen to you on a record."

Phillips started his landmark Sun Records label in 1952, scoring his first hit in 1953 with Rufus Thomas' "Bear Cat," followed by the Prisonaires' "Just Walking in the Rain."

In 1954, he found the ultimate musical messenger in Presley, a white country boy who could sing with a black blues man's soul.

"We drew so much from country and blues in our rock 'n' roll," Phillips explained in 2001, when he added the Country Music Hall of Fame to his induction honors from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Alabama Music Hall of Fame and the Rhythm-and-Blues Foundation Hall of Fame. "We were simply building a bridge between two types of pure American music."

After Elvis, the musical dam burst and a cultural revolution was born. Young, hungry, unknown rockabilly rebels Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Charlie Rich and many others stepped out of the hills and swamps of the Deep South, ventured through the doors of Sun and played their own dramatic roles in American music's mythos.

"Finding Elvis was the fork of the road for me," Phillips explained in a 2001 "American Masters" television documentary on the 50th anniversary of Sun. "I had been looking for a person, white-skinned, that could put the feel of a black person into a phonograph record. I wanted to broaden the base of music and let white kids enjoy black music and black kids enjoy white music."

Between 1954 and 1958 - the heyday of Phillips' independent label - Sun released such musical milestones as Presley's "That's All Right, Mama" and "Good Rockin' Tonight," Cash's "I Walk the Line" and "Folsom Prison Blues," Lewis' "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" and "Great Balls of Fire" AND Perkins' "Blue Suede Shoes" and "Boppin' the Blues."

Phillips also produced two classic cuts on "Mystery Train," a song he co-wrote

- the first was Junior Parker's haunting R&B original, while the second was Presley's redefining rock 'n' roll cover.

"I never cared about making a hit record," Phillips always insisted. "I only cared about making a good record."

Phillips faded from the pop-music scene in the early '60s, concentrating instead on lucrative investments like the Holiday Inn hotel chain and his chain of radio stations in Memphis, Florence and Florida. But his true legacy is the birth of rock 'n' roll and the "Sun sound" that shaped an era. By the end of the 20th century, he was hailed as a musical legend and an American original.

In honor of Sam Phillips' influential life and achievements, the TimesDaily looks back at observations and reflections made by friends, relatives, proteges and admirers before and since his death - along with some lasting words of wisdom from the man himself.

Sam was only 4½ years older than me, so we kind of grew up together.

There were indications even then that he was a person that could not just do ordinary things. It was pretty plain that he was going to do something above and beyond what ordinary people do.

-- Phillip Darby,

nephew, Florence

Sam's story had to be told. It's a story of an American hero, every bit as much of a distinctive American master as Walt Whitman, Thomas Edison or Mark Twain.

When I first met Sam in 1979, I was completely blown away. I had created my own image of what Sam Phillips might be like, but Sam Phillips in the flesh was something altogether different - something far more overwhelming than anything I could have imagined.

-- Peter Guralnick,

Elvis Presley biographer and writer of the 2000 A&E"Biography" on Sam Phillips' life,

Newbury, Mass.

Sam had the knack, you know - a real gift for spotting talent that nobody else could see or understand, whether it was blues or country or rock 'n' roll. He knew what was unique. He knew how to get it out of you, and he knew how to make it appeal to the people. He had better ears and better instincts than anybody in the business.

-- Little Milton,

blues singer-songwriter andformer Sun artist, Memphis, Tenn.

The evidence of Sam Phillips' intuitive feel for talent is astonishing. During an eight-year period, he discovered and recorded B.B. King, Howlin' Wolf, Ike Turner, Rufus Thomas, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison and many others.

The "Sun sound" is still an industry catchphrase, connoting a raw, sparse production, long on feel and short on contrivance. The general consensus now holds that the music he cut is one of the true touchstones of American culture.

-- Colin Escott,

Author, "Good Rockin' Tonight: Sun Records and theBirth of Rock 'n' Roll"

Sam Phillips was the greatest teacher a musician ever had. Working with him was like going to the greatest college in the world. He knew how to get the music out of all of us - me, Elvis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins.

He's the man that opened that first door for all of us. Without Sam Phillips, there would have been no rock ''n' roll, no Elvis, no Beatles, no Rolling Stones and certainly no Jerry Lee Lewis.

He's the man that started it all.

-- Jerry Lee Lewis,

rock 'n' roll legend and former Sun artist

Sam couldn't tell you what he wanted in the studio, but he damn sure knew it when he heard it.

He was trying to push you into doing something that you wouldn't normally do - just that little bit extra.

-- Scotty Moore,

Sun studio musician andElvis Presley's first guitarist

Those early records that Sam made in Memphis were just phenomenal - they were out of this world.

He was doing things that nobody else would even dare to even try. I mean, can you imagine what it was like for a 20-something-year-old country boy like me to hear a record on the radio like "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" by Jerry Lee Lewis? That was some pretty hair-raising music, and it got your attention.

When I finally met Sam, he looked every bit as impressive and charismatic as Elvis and some of the other artists he discovered. He was handsome and debonair, and he had that wavy hair and those bright eyes and that big, warm smile. He looked like a movie star.

Sam became one of the biggest influences on my life and my career in music, and that's the way I always looked at him. He was like a movie star to me, and I idolized him. I thought, "He not only discovered all those stars - he is a star."

-- Rick Hall,

Founder of FAME Recording Studios, Muscle Shoals

To me, losing Sam is almost like losing a member of my family. I have dwelt on his passing as much as any I can imagine.

I think that's because Sam and his family - every one of them - have always treated me like one of their own. They've always been so nice to me, and so willing to do anything I've ever asked them to do to help us out down here.

As far as Sam's life and music go, I think the bottom line to me was vision - whether it was the music business or radio or whatever he was interested in.

I was talking to (Big River Broadcasting station manager) Nick Martin the other day. About 12 years ago, Sam was talking about someday wanting to put WQLT on a satellite and broadcast it all over the world. He could see the whole potential of satellite radio 10 years before it ever happened.

That was his great gift, I think - the gift of vision.

-- David Johnson,

executive director,Alabama Music Hall of Fame, Tuscumbia

Once the State of Tennessee challenged Sam concerning excise taxes he allegedly owed. Sam came to Nashville, met with the state tax people and charmed them so much they dropped the tax claims and tried to persuade him to run for governor of Tennessee.

I think that all of us who worked for Sam unconsciously or consciously tried to emulate him. At times, Sam had such a beautiful way of presenting himself, we would try to borrow from some of his mannerisms. I could especially see this in Bill Justis, Jack Clement and Jerry Lee Lewis.

I remember once, in the early '60s, Sam was approached by some Hollywood executives trying to recruit him as an actor. He declined, but I think he could have pulled it off.

Shelby Singleton told me the story about he and Sam having dinner in Los Angeles. Sam had ordered green beans and discovered they had charged some ridiculous amount. Sam called the waiter over, sent the green beans back, and told the waiter he could buy a bushel for that amount in Alabama. That's vintage Sam!

-- Kelso Herston,

Florence native and former Phillips employee, Nashville, Tenn.

When you look at the people from Memphis and Muscle Shoals, none of us followed any prescribed path or formula.

To do the things that we've done, you have to be a little crazy, and you damn sure have to be independent.

Nobody could put a label on what we were doing - and that was the beauty of it.

-- Sam Phillips,

Sun Records founder,Memphis, Tenn.

Terry Pace can be reached at 740-5741 or terry.pace@timesdaily.com.