{"id":1850,"date":"2017-05-06T14:45:51","date_gmt":"2017-05-06T14:45:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/?p=1850"},"modified":"2017-06-03T17:01:48","modified_gmt":"2017-06-03T17:01:48","slug":"memphis-cast-delta-beacon-for-rockabillies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/?p=1850","title":{"rendered":"Memphis Cast Delta Beacon for Rockabillies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Second in A Series<\/em><\/p>\n

By Matt Chaney, ChaneysBlog.com<\/p>\n

Posted Saturday, May 6, 2017<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a92017 for historical arrangement by Matthew L. Chaney<\/p>\n

In 1970 an Ontario writer interviewed musician Ronnie Hawkins at the latter\u2019s backwoods home in his adopted Canada. John Lennon had recently visited\u2014or hidden\u2014at Hawkins\u2019 place, and the famed Beatle topped the writer\u2019s topics. Hawkins also answered questions on his former American band The Hawks, which led to founding of legendary group The Band.<\/p>\n

But Hawkins relished discussing Arkansas, his native home south in the states, and Memphis, Tennessee, fading rock n\u2019 roll capital.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn that circuit you\u2019d play with Carl Perkins and some of those cats,\u201d Hawkins said. \u201cYou\u2019d travel one-nighters then, and some of those dates were 400 or 500 miles apart. That\u2019s why I ended up in Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA friend of mine, Harold Jenkins, was playing in Hamilton, and he convinced me to come up here because you could play one club for six nights at a stretch. He eventually wrote a song called \u2018It\u2019s Only Make Believe,\u2019 changed his name to Conway Twitty and split.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are two choices in Arkansas,\u201d Hawkins continued. \u201cYou either pick cotton for three or four dollars a day, or you can play music and get out. So there\u2019s an awful lot of people trying to pick guitars in that area.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eastern Arkansas encompassed thousands of flat square miles in row crop, but a hungry musician could find light across the muddy Mississippi in Memphis, city on the hill. \u201cThere were so many of these real good rockabilly acts that came out of Memphis that you\u2019ve never heard of. Maybe they had one hit in the Memphis area and that\u2019s all,\u201d Hawkins said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was Johnny and Dorsey Burnette with their big old slim cousin playing guitar. They were the ones that showed Elvis Presley how to play a little bit. That was when he had pimples, broken teeth and blond hair.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul Burlison was guitarist for the Burnettes, and, following Hawkins, the musician and former deejay took his own look back for journalists.<\/p>\n

Burlison recalled the Memphis area in post-World War II, when a special sound was fermenting, growing audible from streets and farms. Burlison said the emerging strain had that name too, rockabilly<\/em>, long before kid Presley entered a recording studio.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack in the early \u201950s, you would hear black groups from out in the fields playing the blues over the radio in Memphis,\u201d Burlison said. \u201cI used to play country music over KWEM in West Memphis [Arkansas], and sometimes I\u2019d play blues on the same station behind Howlin\u2019 Wolf. That was around 1951.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSee, all of us liked certain parts of the blues and certain parts of country, so we just tied them together and put a little beat to it, and that was what we called rockabilly. And the people [in bars] really liked it. Whenever we\u2019d blast \u2019em with something that had a pretty good beat, they\u2019d get out there on the dance floor and the dust would get to flying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burlison was speaking in 1981, during separate interviews with Robert Palmer and Robert Hilburn, of the New York Times<\/em> and Los Angeles Times<\/em>, respectively. The writers were natives of the \u201cdelta\u201d valley along the lower Mississippi River.<\/p>\n

In 1953 Burlison was older than Presley when they worked together at Crown Electric in Memphis. Elvis had just graduated from Humes High, and on breaks the buddies strummed guitar and harmonized. When Presley cut \u201cThat\u2019s All Right\u201d at Sun studios, shaking the music world, Burlison felt energized.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat record opened the door for all of us around here,\u201d Burlison said. \u201cIt combined country and blues, which we had been doing in clubs but which no one would play on the radio. Suddenly, we all had momentum.\u201d<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Fred Horrell remembers his Elvis Presley moment in 1954, at Cape Girardeau, Missouri, along the Mississippi River.<\/p>\n

Horrell was 16, driving to school when the radio blared Presley\u2019s hit \u201cThat\u2019s All Right,\u201d released by Sun Records in Memphis. \u201cIt was the darnedest sound that I\u2019d ever heard in my life. Man, it was crazy,\u201d says Horrell, who played football as a schoolboy and worked nights, weekends.<\/p>\n

A busy kid already, the passionate Horrell was stoked over rockabilly, and he traded for a guitar. \u201cI bought a book and started learnin\u2019 chords,\u201d he recalls, during a recent interview in Cape Girardeau. \u201cI learned how to get the [fingertip] coordination, how to strum and change. And it just kind of evolved from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved the sound of that guitar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, Horrell owns a carpet business on Highway 61, historic river road known as the \u201cRock and Roll Highway.\u201d Downhill from his store, great delta bottoms stretch southward<\/a> to the Gulf of Mexico. This vast flatland, lightly populated, has yielded waves of musical talent in rock, country, blues, jazz and gospel. Stars of American music hail from the delta, always.<\/p>\n

At the breakout of rockabilly, Highway 61 traversed 100 miles from Cape Girardeau south to the Arkansas border. Throughout the corridor, youths grabbed guitars to bang \u201cthe beat.\u201d They sang up-tempo and jittered and swung, trying to emulate the \u201cBlue Moon Boys\u201d on stage: Presley, guitarist Scotty Moore, and bass player Bill Black.<\/p>\n

Across southeast Missouri, boys dreamed of going to Memphis. They talked of playing guitar and cutting records like Elvis, taking their crack at stardom.<\/p>\n

Fred Horrell would be one to do it.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Call it a good problem, but Sam Phillips had one nonetheless at Sun Records in the wake of Elvis Presley. His suddenly famous studio was besieged by youths, begging to cut discs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese were the rockabillies, the first punks, the original wild men of rock and roll,\u201d Palmer recalled for The New York Times<\/em>. \u201cBeginning around 1955, encouraged by the early successes of a young man who called himself the Hillbilly Cat\u2014his real name was Elvis Presley\u2014they came pouring out of the southern backwoods, pounding on record company doors to ask for auditions. For a brief, incandescent moment, it seemed that they were about to take over the western world.\u201d<\/p>\n

At independent Sun Records, Phillips and his small production staff would hear practically anyone, at least. \u201cIf you walked in with a guitar, they would record you,\u201d recalled Hayden Thompson, a Mississippi musician. \u201cThey might not release you, but they\u2019d record you. There must have been 1,000 guys they recorded there and stuck up on the shelf.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery boy in the South with a guitar lined up outside Sam\u2019s door,\u201d Carl Perkins said later. \u201cHe just picked the best of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perkins was rock icon in the making when Phillips signed him in late 1954. Sun Records also latched onto future superstars in J.R. \u201cJohnny\u201d Cash, from Dyess, Arkansas, and Jerry Lee Lewis, the piano revolutionist from Ferriday, Louisiana.<\/p>\n

But Phillips and staff missed on legitimate artists, including Burlison and the Burnette brothers. The hot Memphis trio tired of waiting for Phillips\u2019 attention, particularly since they\u2019d help bring up a raw Elvis, and bolted for New York City. Known as Johnny Burnette and the Rock n\u2019 Roll Trio, they won an ABC talent show, signed with Coral Records, and appeared prominently in the movie Rock, Rock, Rock!<\/em><\/p>\n

Missourian Narvel Felts was overlooked at Sun while Roy Orbison fell disenchanted and returned to Texas. Harold Jenkins languished, of Mississippi, as did Charlie Rich, an immense talent from Forrest City, Arkansas, across river from Memphis. Rich wrote and sang the Top 30 hit \u201cLonely Weekends\u201d for Phillips, but he left Sun in following Felts, Orbison and Jenkins\u2014Conway Twitty\u2014out the door.\u00a0 All charted hits on other recording labels.<\/p>\n

Major studios plucked away Sun stars as their popularity exploded. In late 1955, for example, Phillips felt forced to sell and relinquish Elvis rights to RCA and \u201cColonel\u201d Tom Parker, the badgering, conniving agent.<\/p>\n

Perkins, Lewis and Cash recorded No. 1 songs for Sun, but they departed too. Sun Records suffered of constant capital shortfall, problems in promotion and booking, and for a distribution network that Phillips had to tend himself, driving thousands of miles. Plastic discs and audio tapes piled up everywhere in the modest building.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere wasn\u2019t any way for Sam to deal with all that,\u201d says Joe Keene, retired musician and studio owner in Kennett, Missouri<\/a>, who was friend and associate of Sun personnel. \u201cSam couldn\u2019t get big enough to be like RCA, or Decca. I think that after Elvis came along, the door was flooded with people.”<\/p>\n

\u201cIt got to be a little bit overwhelming, and they had to start making choices.\u201d<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

By his senior year in high school, 1956-57, Bill English fashioned himself a rock n\u2019 roll singer. English was an Ozark kid in little\u00a0Piedmont, Missouri<\/a>, secluded in rocky hills, who was a natural showman aspiring for big stage.<\/p>\n

Elvis was role model for English, naturally, much to the chagrin of Louis Chaney, athletics coach and math teacher at Piedmont High. \u201cForget Elvis Presley, he\u2019s a flash in the pan,\u201d Chaney griped. English liked the youthful instructor, respected him, but didn\u2019t buy the dire prediction for Presley and rock music. Mr. Chaney wasn\u2019t much older than the students but square<\/em>, man.<\/p>\n

English continued answering to the nickname \u201cHound Dog,\u201d proudly, and kept up appearances, greasing his hair in the Elvis do. English wowed kids at the school talent show, looking snazzy on stage in blazer without necktie, moving in his suede shoes. Fluid and handsome, the dark-haired English sang Presley songs, snapping fingers and shaking in time.<\/p>\n

Hound Dog English loved rockabilly and Memphis beckoned. The Elvis hometown was barely three hours from Piedmont by car, driving fast enough. For young Bill English, a rockin\u2019 attitude and Memphis visions could get serious.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Singer-guitarist Fred Horrell got his chance to audition at Sun Records in 1958. From southeast Missouri, however, that involved more than merely walking in \u201cdown there\u201d with a guitar.<\/p>\n

Horrell fronted Mert Mirly and The Rhythm Steppers<\/a>, hotshot band based in Cape Girardeau, 170 miles north of Memphis on Highway 61. Sun Records typically didn’t schedule appointments by phone or letter. The matter involved being there<\/em>, per the old saying, to corner Sam Phillips or another producer.<\/p>\n

Horrell assumed the task himself. He\u2019d already made the Memphis trek to see Presley\u2019s Graceland mansion and to hunt music contacts. \u201cI was wantin\u2019 to go with this business, and I\u2019d been down there before,\u201d Horrell says.<\/p>\n

Horrell, 20, drove to Memphis and strode into the Sun office, where he encountered Leon Barnett and Jerry Tuttle, two top musicians from Missouri. Barnett and Tuttle sat waiting, as members of the Felts band, but Horrell wouldn’t take a seat. \u201cI said, \u2018Hell with it. I ain\u2019t got time.\u2019 I went on back to the studio, up to the control room. [Producer-musician] Bill Justis was in there, and I\u2019d never met him before. But I set up an appointment for us to come down there.\u201d<\/p>\n

A couple weeks later, Mirly\u2019s Rhythm Steppers traveled to hallowed Sun studios for audition. \u201cWe went down there and did it,\u201d Horrell says, smiling. \u201cCourse, they didn\u2019t take us. I wouldn\u2019t either, with the songs we had. But Justis did tell me I had a good recording voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Incredibly, dynamite song content was at hand for the Cape band. Horrell heard it one evening after a session, when a teen-aged group member, schoolboy poet, rapped out his own tune right in Horrell\u2019s car. \u201cHe got down in the damn floorboard, and he was beatin\u2019 it out on the dash, and singin\u2019 that song. And I knew<\/em> that was a great song,\u201d Horrell declares yet, excitedly.<\/p>\n

Indeed, that kid songwriter was Billy Swan<\/a>, and his fresh verse was \u201cLover Please.\u201d<\/p>\n

Horrell considered Swan\u2019s lyrics as prime opportunity for the band. Others weren\u2019t so impressed. \u201cWe had a practice session, and I learned that song, and I wanted us all to learn,\u201d Horrell says. \u201cI wanted to record that song<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried to get the guys to practice it, and they were out of the mood for that stuff. They sat around playing \u2018Wildwood Flower,\u2019 crap like that. And we had an excellent guitar player, Charlie Thurman.\u201d The Lover Please project sputtered as Horrell left Mirly\u2019s to form his own band, and an eventual cut by Dennis Turner<\/a>, another Cape phenom, didn\u2019t fly with record buyers.<\/p>\n

Finally, for music posterity, pop singer Clyde McPhatter released his cover of Swan\u2019s tune<\/a>, which rose to No. 7 on the Billboard<\/a> chart. \u201cMcPhatter took the same arrangement, changed the key, put the R&B styling in,\u201d Horrell says.<\/p>\n

Horrell did catch a break in 1962, when former Presley bass player Bill Black raided Cape Girardeau for musicians. The Bill Black Combo was charting hits and Black wanted Horrell for touring. Horrell took the job and hit the road, as The Combo headlined big clubs and opened for stars like Orbison.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

By August of 1964, Bill English had resigned himself to a career as schoolteacher, not a rock singer. English had given his all to music in college at Arkansas State University. His band had played the Memphis circuit, met music stars and cut songs. But the records didn\u2019t sell and the group broke up.<\/p>\n

Now English was working for Louis Chaney, his former teacher and coach at Piedmont. Chaney, an administrator of Potosi Schools in the Missouri Lead Belt, had hired English to teach PE and coach in the junior high. The new school year would begin in three weeks.<\/p>\n

Then English got a phone call from Memphis.<\/p>\n

Bob Tucker<\/a>, former band mate and college roomie of English, was playing guitar for the Bill Black Combo and managing the group. The Combo had just signed as opening act for the Beatles tour of North America, and Tucker wanted to hire English as singer. They would leave immediately for San Francisco, first show date for The Beatles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to play rock n\u2019 roll. So bad,\u201d English later recalled<\/a>. Moreover, Tucker\u2019s offer would almost triple the teaching salary of English, with the Beatles tour and further bookings for the coming year. But English begged time from Tucker, for apprising two mentors of this development.<\/p>\n

Hound Dog drove to Piedmont to tell his father, Joe English, school music director, who gave his blessing. Then the young man returned to Potosi to inform Mr. Chaney, the guy who used to trash Elvis and rock music.<\/p>\n

But Chaney\u2019s perspective had mellowed; he supported English in joining the Bill Black Combo and Beatles tour. Chaney had to find a new PE teacher, quickly, but he better understood Bill English\u2019s music passion in 1964. Chaney\u2019s three young sons were Beatles fans, after all, including this writer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was proud of him,\u201d Dad wrote in 2006, following the death of Bill, our family friend, to recurring cancer. \u00a0\u201cBill English was making music\u2026 something he always wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were all happy for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Series continues soon at ChaneysBlog.com\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Select References<\/strong><\/p>\n

Assembly Memories. (1957). [Photographs collage.] Bobcat\u2019s Meow<\/em>, p.22. Piedmont High School: Piedmont MO.<\/p>\n

Artist looks for chance at fame. (1993, April 5). Greenwood Index-Journal<\/em> SC, p.12.<\/p>\n

Bate, M. (1973, Aug. 24). Charlie knuckles under to new musical image of sweet blandness. Ottawa Journal<\/em>, Ontario Canada, p.32.<\/p>\n

Burke, K., & Griffin, D. (2006). The Blue Moon Boys: The story of Elvis Presley\u2019s band<\/em>. Chicago Review Press: Chicago.<\/p>\n

Chaney, L. (2006, Feb. 16). Letters to the editor. Wayne County Journal-Banner<\/em> MO, p.2.<\/p>\n

English, B. (1994, Dec. 21). Interview with author, Poplar Bluff MO.<\/p>\n

Gormley, M. (1970, Feb. 13). Canadian music legend: The story of an Arkansas rock singer and his band. Ottawa Journal<\/em>, p.30.<\/p>\n

Guralnick, P. (1994). Last train to Memphis:<\/em> The rise of Elvis Presley<\/em>. Little, Brown and Company: New York.<\/p>\n

Henderson, B. (1954, Feb. 18). Hillbilly record demand continues heavy in Texas. Corsicana Daily Sun<\/em> TX, p.3.<\/p>\n

Hilburn, R. (1969, July 13). Sun discs back in the spotlight. Los Angeles Times<\/em>, p.M42.<\/p>\n

Hilburn, R. (1969, July 14). Clearwater revives its delta heritage. Los Angeles Times<\/em>, p.B18.<\/p>\n

Hilburn, R. (1970, Jan. 4). Rock enters 70s as the music champ. Los Angeles Times<\/em>, p.P1.<\/p>\n

Hilburn, R. (1981, April 7). Rockabilly survivor looks back. Los Angeles Times<\/em>, p.G1.<\/p>\n

Horrell, F. (2017, April 19). Interview with author, Cape Girardeau MO.<\/p>\n

Jerry Lee\u2019s got himself another \u2018smash\u2019 album. (1973, March 27). Anderson Daily Bulletin<\/em> SC, p.8.<\/p>\n

Johnny Cash Stars in Crown Film. (1969, Nov. 16). Florence Morning News<\/em> SC, p.26.<\/p>\n

Keene, J. (2017, April 20). Interview with author, Kennett MO.<\/p>\n

Mox. (1956, Sept. 21). [Display ad for Mox Theater.] Blytheville Courier News<\/em> AR, p.5.<\/p>\n

Narvel Felts Gains Fame After 17 Years. (1974, June 22). Sikeston Daily Standard<\/em> MO, p.7.<\/p>\n

Nostalgia Big Point For Felts. (1975, Sept. 24). Danville Bee<\/em> VA, p.41.<\/p>\n

Palmer, R. (1978, April 23). The punks have only rediscovered rockabilly. New York Times<\/em>, p.D19.<\/p>\n

Palmer, R. (1981, March 4). Recapturing the magic of the early Elvis Presley. New York Times<\/em>, p.C19.<\/p>\n

Piazza, T. (1996, Nov. 13). Lost man of R&R rediscovered. Salina Journal<\/em> KS, p.27.<\/p>\n

Rock N\u2019 Roll\u2026 It\u2019s Busting Out All Over As Pop Music Enters Boom. (1955, April 12). Blytheville Courier News<\/em> AR, p.7.<\/p>\n

Soberanes, B. (1960, Oct. 6). All about Johnny. Petaluma Argus-Courier<\/em> CA, p.14.<\/p>\n

Tucker, B. (2017, March 10). Interview with author, Marion AR.<\/p>\n

Matt Chaney is a writer, editor, publisher and consultant in Missouri, USA. For more information visit\u00a0<\/em>www.fourwallspublishing.com.\u00a0Email:\u00a0<\/em>mattchaney@fourwallspublishing.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Second in A Series By Matt Chaney, ChaneysBlog.com Posted Saturday, May 6, 2017 Copyright \u00a92017 for historical arrangement by Matthew L. Chaney In 1970 an Ontario writer interviewed musician Ronnie Hawkins at the latter\u2019s backwoods home in his adopted Canada. John Lennon had recently visited\u2014or hidden\u2014at Hawkins\u2019 place, and the famed Beatle topped the writer\u2019s … Continue reading Memphis Cast Delta Beacon for Rockabillies<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[374],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4ywFp-tQ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1850"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1850"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1896,"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1850\/revisions\/1896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}