BB pal and periodic guestblogger Richard Metzger has an amazing blog post up about the off-Broadway musical Man on the Moon. The play was conceived by John Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas and his third wife, South African actress, Genevieve Waite, as a potential film or stage production originally entitled "Space."
The stage performance was produced by Andy Warhol. Long-lost video footage of the play is embedded above. More video over at Metzger's blog, too, amazing stuff.
The following text was written by Chris Campion and Jeffrey A. Greenberg from the liner notes of the CD release of Andy Warhol Presents Man on the Moon.
I'll post a snip here, but you have to read the whole thing to hear about the part Philips wrote for Elvis, and all the weird little factoids about Warhol's work, and allegations that George Lucas stole the idea for Star Wars from this offbeat project. Snip:
"Space was born the day Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon. Like millions of other people, John watched the 1969 moon landing on TV. He was living, at the time, on the Malibu property rented by British film director Michael Sarne, who was under contract at Fox to direct the adaptation of Gore Vidal's novel, Myra Breckenridge, with Rex Harrison, Raquel Welch and Mae West. Sarne had commissioned John to write songs for the film. The Apollo 11 moon landing became an obsession. John would watch a recording of the TV transmission made on an early video tape machine over and over. The idea of exploring this new frontier - and particularly Neil Armstrong's scripted aside as he stepped onto the lunar surface that it was, "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" - fired John's imagination, and he began to piece together ideas for a mythical space opera set to music. "He loved myths," says Genevieve, who was first introduced to John by Sarne that summer. "He liked Homer - The Iliad and The Odyssey."
(...) Genevieve bemoaned the fate of the show to her friend, Andy Warhol, who offered to find a backer, and did. Warhol also agreed to serve as a producer, and provided a director in the form of Paul Morrissey, who had made a series of avant-garde exploitation films under Warhol's aegis (Flesh, Trash, Heat, Chelsea Girls, etc.). John expressed his bemusement about Warhol's involvement in the song, "Oh Andy My Assistant": "Oh Andy, my assistant/your mind is so consistently blank/that I'm banking on you now/so please so don't try to comprehend/the reason why I have to send/ you up or else, I'm sure that we, shall have a terrible row/It's either you or I must save the race/ So bye-bye Andy and off you're goin' to Space."
LONG LOST FOOTAGE OF MUSICAL PLAY BY JOHN PHILLIPS, PRODUCED BY ANDY WARHOL (1975) 07.31.2009 - 09:52 am Topics: History Tags: Andy Warhol Genevieve Waite John Phillips Paul Morrissey
The following was written by Chris Campion and Jeffrey A. Greenberg and is taken from the liner notes of the CD release of “Andy Warhol Presents Man on the Moon: The John Phillips Space Musical” on Varese Sarabande Records.
The off-Broadway musical Man on the Moon was conceived by John Phillips and his third wife, the South African actress, Genevieve Waite, as a potential film or stage production originally entitled Space. John would spend more time trying to realize this project than anything else he worked on in his career; nearly five years all told, beginning in 1969 during the period he was recording his first solo album, John the Wolfking of L.A.
Space was born the day Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon. Like millions of other people, John watched the 1969 moon landing on TV. He was living, at the time, on the Malibu property rented by British film director Michael Sarne, who was under contract at Fox to direct the adaptation of Gore Vidal’s novel, Myra Breckenridge, with Rex Harrison, Raquel Welch and Mae West. Sarne had commissioned John to write songs for the film.
The Apollo 11 moon landing became an obsession. John would watch a recording of the TV transmission made on an early video tape machine over and over. The idea of exploring this new frontier – and particularly Neil Armstrong’s scripted aside as he stepped onto the lunar surface that it was, “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” – fired John’s imagination, and he began to piece together ideas for a mythical space opera set to music. “He loved myths,” says Genevieve, who was first introduced to John by Sarne that summer. “He liked Homer – The Iliad and The Odyssey.”
John first began performing a small song cycle he had written about “space exploration” as early as the fall of 1970, as part of the short tour he undertook to promote Wolf King. Over the next two years, he and Genevieve formulated ideas for the story, and created a theatrical treatment (later adapted as a screenplay). Seeking a backer, they pitched it to Michael Butler, producer of the stage musical Hair. He provided seed money to realize a book and a score for Space, and brought a young director called Michael Bennett on board.
For several months, the Italianate mansion at 414 St. Pierre road in Bel Air that John and Genevieve were renting became a hive of Space-related activity. Among their collaborators was British costumier Marsia Trinder, who had designed clothes for Elvis Presley and Raquel Welch. “It was a very creative period for about two or three months,” says Trinder, who moved into another wing of the mansion with her then boyfriend to work on costumes for the production. “John was the key person organizing it all and coming up with ideas. But everybody was feeding into it. John felt that with all the secrets in the world, there wouldn’t be wars if people didn’t have secrets. And then they kind of figured out the plot.”
The initial story for Space gradually took shape: When a humanoid bomb left on the moon by the Apollo space mission threatens to blow itself up and destroy the universe, an astronaut on Earth is tasked with leading a delegation of interplanetary dignitaries to travel there and defuse it. Humanity is forced to curb its destructive impulses for the universal good.
The role of the astronaut was originally written for Elvis, whom John and Genevieve had befriended in 1971, while living in Palm Springs shortly after the birth of their son Tamerlane. “John was trying to sell him songs,” says Waite. “They would sit around and John would sing him different songs.” At one point, Ricky Nelson was also approached for the part.
The show was also intended as a vehicle to help launch a musical career for Genevieve; the only problem being that she was not a trained singer. John set about preparing her for the role of her character, Angel, through some informal voice coaching, but he also tweaked the script to take into account Genevieve’s idiosyncratic vocal style. Angel hailed from Canis Minor, a star with a rotational axis that was off-kilter. All the inhabitants sang off-key and had to tap dance in order to maintain their balance. John’s description of Angel fit Genevieve to a tee. She was “wild-looking, child-like, out-of-step and out-of tune – and capable of immaculate conception in space, merely by falling in love.”
Trinder designed elaborate costumes for the principals. Prototypes were designed at Disney. For the astronaut, she designed a flight suit that could be inflated with helium during the show. For Pluto, the space pimp, a brightly-colored sharkskin suit, diamond-encrusted teeth and black gloves with mirrored palms that reflected beams of light like a disco ball. The original supporting cast also included a troupe of young, black synchronised street dancers called the Lockers, regular guests on Soul Train, whose fluid, machine-like “locking” movements prefigured 80’s “body-popping.” The troupe convened every week in the underground ballroom at John’s mansion for rehearsals. There was also to be a weightless ballet performed on wires above the stage. “This was way before Michael Jackson,” says Trinder. “The whole thing would have been very hip.”
Unfortunately it was not to be. Michael Butler pulled out just as the final cast was to be approved. “Michael [Bennett] came to me one day and said, ‘I can’t work with John Phillips anymore’ and quit,’” says Butler. “And that, frankly, knocked me out as well.”
Phillips maintained that Bennett wanted to jazz up the project for Broadway with a slicker staging. He had envisioned a funkier production driven by the energy of rock-n-roll. The problem, Butler says, was nothing to do with the creative aspects of the show, but rather John’s temperament. Cocaine was now an accepted part of his creative process. Bowls of it were laid out on the table during production meetings for anyone to dip into, according to John’s autobiography, Papa John. But the drugs were also starting to cloud his judgment.
“Drugs made him very difficult to work with,” says Butler. “He also had a lot of paranoia. And that was the last thing we needed. He always felt that we were trying to take advantage of him, or fool around with his work, and stuff like that. That’s the last thing on earth that either Bennett or I were interested in doing.”
Bennett went on to direct the original production of A Chorus Line. At this point Len Holzer, a real estate broker from New York who was among John and Genevieve’s circle of friends in Los Angeles (and was the inspiration for John’s song “Mister Blue”), wanted to turn Space into a film. He envisioned it as a science fiction comedy-musical starring Jack Nicholson and Barbara Streisand. Holzer’s girlfriend at the time, Julia Robinson, had just appeared in Bob Rafelson’s The King of Marvin Gardensalongside Nicholson. According to Holzer, Nicholson was receptive to the idea of working on Space, pending further confirmation of the director and cast. A copy of the script was also passed to George Lucas through John’s then-12 year old daughter, Mackenzie, who had been cast in Lucas’s American Graffiti. According to Genevieve, John always maintained that Lucas stole the idea for Star Wars from his script!
When it became obvious that the film was also going nowhere, John and Genevieve moved to New York to seek out funding for their musical, performing songs for potential backers at brunch meetings, again with little success. Genevieve bemoaned the fate of the show to her friend, Andy Warhol, who offered to find a backer, and did. Warhol also agreed to serve as a producer, and provided a director in the form of Paul Morrissey, who had made a series of avant-garde exploitation films under Warhol’s aegis (Flesh, Trash, Heat, Chelsea Girls, etc.). John expressed his bemusement about Warhol’s involvement in the song, “Oh Andy My Assistant”: “Oh Andy, my assistant/your mind is so consistently blank/that I’m banking on you now/so please so don’t try to comprehend/the reason why I have to send/ you up or else, I’m sure that we, shall have a terrible row/It’s either you or I must save the race/ So bye-bye Andy and off you’re goin’ to Space.”
In the meantime, John began helming sessions for Genevieve’s 1974 solo album, Romance Is On The Rise, at Media Sound studios in New York with members of John Lennon’s Plastic U.F.Ono Band (the group that played on Lennon’s Mind Gamesalbum). Some of the songs on Gen’s album – namely, “Love Is Coming Back” and “American Man On The Moon” – had already been written for Space. Another song, “Girls,” ended up as a late addition to the show.
By this stage, John had written over 30 songs for the project; a suite of songs that were, by turns, touching and witty, like a space-age Cole Porter, and told of a communal quest for love, truth, peace and freedom in the outer realms. But they also reflected his own personal hopes, quests and struggles. On “Yesterday I Left The Earth,” John’s lyrics recall that “beautiful flying creatures stopped me from pushing the button.” The song is both a mythic flight of fantasy and a plea to prevent his own self-destruction. It wasn’t much of a stretch to imagine John as the human bomb and Genevieve the angel sent to save him.
For John’s space opera, like all his work, was at its heart autobiographical. “Andy’s Talking Blues,” a song written to introduce the astronaut hero of the piece (inspired by Mickey Rooney’s Andy Hardy character), is drawn literally from John’s own biography, as is “Boys From The South.” He sings about his education at convent, military and boarding schools, and of his drunken ex-Marine father singing with his dogs down in the basement of the family home in Virginia. Despite the camp, comedic tone of the narrative and music he constructed for Space, there was also a serious undercurrent.
“John didn’t believe that anyone could survive life on this planet,” says Genevieve. “And that there must be a planet where you could survive life, where you didn’t die. He believed that there was life on other planets. He thought that the Earth was fatal… I don’t know if he was happy in his own skin. I don’t think he was. I think he felt that the human condition was very sad.”
These contradictory emotions of entrapment and confinement coupled with humor and hope for the future became repeated themes in the musical, from the heartbreaking “There Is A Place” (sung by Genevieve) to “Handcuffs,” “Truth Cannot Be Treason” and “Last Of The Unnatural Acts” – a song written for the musical but which first appeared in Robert Altman’s 1970 film Brewster McCloud.
“There is a Place” is another real-life lament about John’s longing to escape. The lyrics directly address the difficulties of maintaining a celebrity marriage - “There is a place/ between two stars/ somewhere in space/it’s yours/ it’s ours/we’ll watch the worlds roll by/and never even think of dying/there is a place in space that’s ours”; of raising his children- “There is no room for me here/ no room to raise a family here/ not enough to eat/ the wind doesn’t smell sweet anymore”; substance abuse and dealing with the glare of public scrutiny- “People everywhere/are inclined to stare/I have a need for privacy dear/ feel like a sardine/and I don’t feel very clean/I’d like a star of my own/there is a place in space for stars.”
Space finally debuted at the Little Theatre on Broadway in January 1975 under a new title, Man On The Moon. The cast included sex-bomb Monique van Vooren (star of Warhol’s Flesh for Frankenstein) as Venus and Papa Denny Doherty in a dual role as the President and King Can. The production had been greatly diminished from John and Genevieve’s original vision. Budgetary constraints necessitated a redesign of Trinder’s costumes and the sets were extremely rudimentary. John and Morrissey were continuously changing the script and music and arguing about each other’s changes. Then Waite contracted laryngitis and lost her voice the first day they were to rehearse with the full orchestra. John became anxious that the play was heading for a calamitous opening.
His worst fears came true when, two weeks before the opening, producer Richard Turley fired Paul Morrissey and installed a more experienced Broadway director who changed all the stage directions, dropped songs, added new ones, made cast members switch roles and ordered a last minute re-write of the script to jazz it up with gauche one-liners. As a result of the constant rewrites, the narrative was now incomprehensible, and bore little resemblance to the original story. “It was a nightmare,” says Waite.
Among the audience on the opening night were Warren Beatty, Andy Warhol, Diane von Furstenberg, Diana Vreeland, Jules Feiffer, Kurt Vonnegut, Geraldo Rivera, Rex Harrison and Yoko Ono. The cast and star guests partied the night away afterwards at Sardi’s, a famed hangout in the theater district. But celebrations came to an abrupt halt when the reviews came in the next morning, all unanimous in their condemnation of the show. Clive Barnes of The New York Times led the charge with a review that seemed more concerned with critiquing Andy Warhol but was, nevertheless, brutally frank about the show’s charm (or lack thereof): “Mr. Warhol’s artistic practice – if I have caught his drift alright – is to produce works of arts so inept that their ineptitude becomes their value….For connoisseurs of the truly bad, ‘Man on the Moon’ may be a small milestone.” Barnes was a bit more forgiving of the music: “The score is in a fairly nostalgic and eclectic vein; perhaps Mr. Phillips is hoping to start up a group called the Grandmamas and the Grandpapas – it could well catch on. But the music was almost the best part of the evening. (The best part actually was the half-hour wait before the show started when all the beautiful people were arriving in well-swept hordes.)”
The show closed within five days. John and Genevieve were devastated. All the passion and years of work they had put into making it happen were wrecked in one night. “I think the failure of the show broke John’s heart,” says Waite. The humiliating collapse of this long-held dream also exacerbated all the demons within John. From this point on, his addiction to drugs would take a much deeper hold on his life.
When John was commissioned to work on the soundtrack for Nicolas Roeg’s film The Man Who Fell to Earth (on the recommendation of its star, David Bowie), the couple moved to London. By some strange irony, John was now working on a project with a storyline that was the polar opposite of Space. In The Man Who Fell to Earth, a humanoid alien arrives on Earth to try and save his own doomed planet, but is corrupted by humans. Not surprisingly, John utilised some of the songs written for Space – “Boys From The South,” “Love Is Coming Back,” “Black Broadway” (originally about Pluto, the sharkskin pimp, but dropped) – re-working them for the soundtrack with former Rolling Stones guitarist, Mick Taylor. While in London, it was also with Taylor, Jagger and Richards that he would start the sessions for his next solo album (Pussycat, also available).
Chris Campion and Jeffrey A. Greenberg, 2009 from the liner notes of the CD release of “Andy Warhol Presents Man on the Moon: The John Phillips Space Musical” on Varese Sarabande Records
Slam Bang Theater returns to local television (and the internet) on Dallas iMedia Network for a retrospective weekend that will bring back memories of Dallas and Fort Worth during the formative years of today’s baby boomers. September 24 & 26, 2009, Dallas iMedia Youth Channel and the TCU Writing Scholarship will receive the proceeds from a weekend-long celebration that will feature:
*Slam Bang Theater documentary screening *Slam Bang Theater cable television marathon *60’s dance band *a live interactive discussion about the early days of local children’s television programming with the stars that were there *appearances from original Slam Bang cast members and other VIPs that grew up watching the show
Bill Camfield created the character Icky Twerp and the program Slam Bang Theater as a means to showcase local products or services. Early sponsors included Dr. Pepper Bottling Company, Borax and many others. Paul Camfield, Bill’s son, says his father entered the profession at a time when most of the programming was being created in house and his father’s talent as a writer served him very well. “My Dad and most of his co-workers had no idea they were creating lasting TV memories. They were just having a blast showing up for work each day.” Bill Camfield’s character Icky Twerp even enabled him to be invited to play a bit role in the last Three Stooges feature length film “The Outlaws is Coming” in 1965.
When Dallas Morning News reporter, Jacquielynn Floyd, published her list of the “Ten DFW Things That I Miss Most”, Slam Bang Theater was in the #1 spot. iMedia contacted Paul Camfield about collaborating with us and the SBT DFW Retro Weekend was born.
What: Slam Bang Theater DFW Retro Weekend
When: Thursday and Saturday, September 24 & 26, 2009
Where: September 24 – Dallas iMedia Network Studio - 7-8pm September 26 – Scott Theater in Fort Worth - 10am–9pm
Why: Support Dallas iMedia Youth Channel, iMedia youth media literacy programs, and TCU Writing Scholarship
For more information contact : Lisa Hembry at Dallas iMedia Network, 214-631-5571 ext 304 lhembry@dallasimedia.net
"Whether it was Slam Bang Theater, Nightmare, Million Dollar Matinee, Hoover the Hound, Binky & Belinda, Reveille, Home Town Harmony, or The Three Stooges, this site has some basic background information about my father's career and highlights from his years in television in the Fort Worth area from about 1955 until 1972. My hope is that this site will be a place that people who have been looking for information about my father's shows and other programs from the early days of KTVT history can come read and see some images from the past. On the "Fans Speak" page, I have imported comments and thoughts from the great fans who have emailed me about Dad's career and work. Click here to see what the fans have said in recent weeks and months. All materials I have used for this website come from the personal collection of my father. I inherited his entire archive when he passed away in 1991." --Paul Camfield
From Barry Kooda's personal collection, Icky thanking him "for the good, solid beat":
KTVT KFJZ TV Slam Bang Theater Opening Theme circa 1960
Fort Worth's own Icky Twerp was our host of Slam Bang Theater. The pie thrown broke the plate glass window in front of the camera. This was NOT suppose to have happen. The beauty of live TV! Bill Camfield (Icky Twerp) was the reason the Three Stooges came back to popularity on TV. Thank you Mr. Twerp. More nostalgia at www.ickytwerp.net
"...At Samstock: the Teen Canteen Reunion 2009 on Sunday, August 23 at Floore's Country Store-14492 Old Bandera Rd-San Antonio, more than a dozen bands and musicians from its heyday will reunite for fun and to pay tribute to owner-promoter Sam Kinsey. The northside nightclub that catered to teenagers during the 1960s and 70s lay forgotten in the city's musical history…almost..."
AUGUST 6, 2009** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE* * * TEEN CANTEEN REUNION SET FOR SUN. AUG. 23 "Samstock" Reunites Bands and Musicians from the 60s and 70s Party Like It's 1969!
(San Antonio, TX) Until a few years ago, San Antonio's Teen Canteen was relegated to "remember when?" status. The northside nightclub that catered to teenagers during the 1960s and 70s lay forgotten in the city's musical history…almost. At Samstock: the Teen Canteen Reunion 2009 on Sunday, August 23 at Floore's Country Store, more than a dozen bands and musicians from its heyday will reunite for fun and to pay tribute to owner-promoter Sam Kinsey.
At the behest of local civic and church groups, Sam Kinsey opened the first Teen Canteen in 1960, at Jefferson Methodist Church Hall. Kinsey played deejay to the youthful crowds, spinning 45s on a portable record player. This was the format for several years, as the Canteen moved around to several locations, including a ballroom dance studio, until it settled at Wonderland (now Crossroads) Mall in 1963.
In its new, larger location, the Teen Canteen went from records to the real thing. It housed two separate stages so bands could perform at the same time during the regular rounds of Battle of the Bands and entertain the hundreds of teens who flocked there. In 1968, the Canteen moved to its last location on Bitters Road across from Northeast Stadium, the place it would occupy until it closed in 1977, a victim of the lowered drinking age and more generous all-ages policies.
In retrospect, the Teen Canteen was the staging ground for San Antonio's vibrant rock & roll scene before the Beatles until the dawn of punk, and its roster of local and touring bands made it a gem in the crown of Texas music. The Teen Canteen gave many San Antonio and area bands their start, including the Laughing Kind, Homer, the Chayns, the Outcasts, Swiss Movement, Virgil Foxx, the Zilches, Rocksand, Castle, Spook Julius, Mr. Moose, Meadow, Mourning Dove, Stillwater, Excalibur, Nassur Blue, United, and Island.
Those bands and/or members of them will be performing at Samstock. Teen Canteen owner and promoter Sam Kinsey will be in attendance. For website updates and band times, see http://www.mikesban darchive. com/news
Samstock: the Teen Canteen Reunion 2009 takes place at Floore's Country Store, 14492 Old Bandera Rd., on Sun. Aug. 23, 4-midnight. Cover is $10, the memories are free.
FOR MORE INFORMATION AND PHOTOS Neka Scarbrough, 210-573-6352 Margaret Moser, 512-292-3005 teencanteensa@ gmail.com
Also from MM: Sam Kinsey from the Teen Canteen has finally gotten out his memorabilia. He kept all his posters, handbills, flyers, band photos - everything! - from his years with bands, including the Teen Fair '64 where the Stones played their first two and only Texas dates that year.
The Yahoo group is TeenCanteenSA@ yahoogroups. com, if anyone is interested.
Billy Lee Riley ...
one of the greatest original Sun Recordings artists, peacefully passed away on Sunday, August 2nd, 2009 at 5:20 am. His family was at his bedside. Funeral arrangements are pending. Billy, 75, had his share of health problems and medical bills. Please consider sending something to his wife, Joyce, to show Billy Lee's family that he meant a lot to us.
Checks or money orders can be made payable to:
Joyce Riley
723 Crest Drive
Jonesboro, Arkansas 72401
Or Donate via PayPal here: https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_flow&SESSION=tfsijB447bZ6CVQWAsO43IFH6sQolUaWMlJ9QG8jfLlMVhoKwEEMHw7y9MC&dispatch=5885d80a13c0db1fb6947b0aeae66fdb090c3508df63c7a01f761c9e563d3d93
BILLY LEE RILEY MEMORIAL BENEFIT SHOW: Sunday, August 30th. Newport, Arkansas at the Silver Moon Club, located on 167 Highway, North of the Rock and Roll Highway. The show will start at 1 pm. Scheduled to appear: Sonny Burgess and the Pacers, WS Holland and his band, Travis Wammack, Carl Mann, Smoochy Smith, Ace Cannon and his band, Jr Rogers, Warren Crow, JM VanEaton, Dale Hawkins, CW Gattin, Teddy Reidel, Jeannie and the Guys, Matt - Jim & Tim the Blues Bros. Band, Teddy Hill, Larry Donn - Contact: Rapidbc1@aol.com BILLY LEE RILEY Newport, AR. Depot Days 2008. (photo courtesy Mike Chojnacki - mikechoj@suddenlink.net)
Good Ole Country Music, Hillbilly, Western Swing, Rockabilly, Rock'n Roll, Blues...
DIMANCHE 2 AOÛT 2009
R.I.P.
BILLY LEE RILEY ...
...one of the greatest original Sun Recordings artists, peacefully passed away on Sunday, August 2nd, 2009 at 5:20 am. His family was at his bedside. Funeral arrangements are pending. Billy had his share of health problems and medical bills. Please consider sending something to his wife, Joyce, to show Billy Lee's family that he meant a lot to us.
Checks or money orders can be made payable to:
Joyce Riley
723 Crest Drive
Jonesboro, Arkansas 72401
BILLY LEE RILEY , Most (Ruggedly) Handsome Man in Rock'n'Roll , True Sun Rockabilly legend , conqueror of all American music styles , great singer and performer , and all around super nice guy , just moved to a better place ,that'sall.
I just got the word , as some of you have , that the legendary Rockabilly/R'n'B/Blues / Country , you name it , he did it , artist , Billy Lee Riley has left behind a latter day period of intense suffering and grave hardships , but , of course , leaving behind people who loved him dearly.
In leaving this world , you could say we've lost , you could say he lost , but , it's not so. It is Cancer itself that has just been shot full of holes , set on fire , and given no place to go. Not even a swine. Billy Lee's departure is his victory. We may not live to see Cancer banished from this Earth forever , but , if it has to be that way , please tell your children , those of you who have them , that the day will come , most likely in their lifetime. But , what we need to do , now , is talk about life. It goes without saying that Billy Lee had a voice that could have sent instructions to planes and boats in danger from 100 miles away.
It also goes without saying that he never turned his back on The Rock , even in The 60's when , like most people who were even still in the game , he experimented with many different styles. His alternate (You might say...) career in Blues won him the patronage of no less a fan than Bob Dylan , but , his big call to arms came from England , where The Rockers , Teds , and newly emerging Rockabilly Rebels called for his return to the stage in the late 70's. Eventually ,The U.S. did the same , and by the 90's , he was rockin' the clubs and festivals right here at home. I think Billy Lee was most concerned about playing for people that just wanted to hear some good music , and where they were from was inconsequential. I had the pleasure of seeing Billy Lee perform several times ,and he never disappointed , he poured his soul into every song , and , if any of if got away , he picked it up and laid it out all over the next song. I was also fortunate enough to meet Billy Lee a few times , and he was always a no - nonsense , down to earth , individual who seemed to really love his work and the people that came to bear witness to it.
But , Billy's soul is everywhere , now , with you , with me , with everything.
Happy Ascension Day , Billy , We Love You. John Battles , Chicago.
Sun Records' 'lost giant' Billy Lee Riley dies at 75
By Bob Mehr (Contact), Memphis Commercial Appeal
Originally published 03:46 p.m., August 2, 2009
Updated 03:46 p.m., August 2, 2009
The sky grew dimmer today, as another great ray of light from the Sun Records roster, Billy Lee Riley, died. Riley, who’d been battling cancer since May, passed away at St. Bernards Medical Center in Jonesboro, Ark., after being admitted on Saturday. He was 75.
Mike Brown/The Commercial Appeal
Billy Lee Riley delivers his signature Sun Studio rockabilly sound at the Memphis In May Music Festival in this 2007 file photograph.
Although Riley had been diagnosed with stage four colon cancer which had spread to his bones, his wife Joyce Riley says the singer was feeling optimistic. “We weren’t thinking the end was coming so soon,” says Joyce. “He was actually feeling better lately. So the very end was unexpected. But, he went peacefully.”
One of Memphis’ truly unique rock and roll characters, Riley is considered by many to be Sun Records’ lost giant. A true multi-threat, he possessed the myriad musical gifts of Carl Perkins, the unhinged spirit of Jerry Lee Lewis, and the punkish insouciance of Elvis Presley — yet fate never rewarded Riley beyond cult acclaim.
Born in Pocahontas, Arkansas in 1933 to a poor sharecropping clan, Riley developed a passion for blues and learned to pick guitar watching the older black musicians his family worked alongside.
Although he made some early appearances performing on local radio, Riley’s career took shape after he was discharged from the Army in the mid-’50s. Moving to Memphis, Riley soon hooked up with a crew of fledgling country musicians that included “Cowboy” Jack Clement.
Clement and his truck driver partner Slim Wallace founded the tiny Fernwood label in a South Memphis garage and cut Riley’s debut recordings, “Trouble Bound” and “Think Before Your Go.” Clement took to the tapes to Sam Phillips over at Sun Records so he could master a single. Impressed by what he heard, Phillips ended up hiring Clement to work at Sun, and signed Riley.
Riley and his group – which included drummer J.M. Van Eaton and guitarist Roland Janes – would also become the de facto house band at Sun, providing the backing on numerous hits.
Riley is perhaps best remembered for his classic 1957 single, “Flying Saucers Rock and Roll” — a novelty rockabilly rave-up inspired by the era’s U.F.O. mania – which proved a hit and prompted him to rename his band the Little Green Men.
Despite this promising start, Riley’s commercial fate was sealed after Sun put its promotional efforts behind Jerry Lee Lewis' “Great Balls of Fire” – a song Riley played on – which zoomed up the charts and past his own follow-up single “Red Hot.”
Despite his disappointment, Riley continued to record for Sun and Phillips for several years, before going onto cut sides for Mercury, Atlantic and Crown, as well his own Nita and Mojo labels, creating a body of work that’s been championed by rock critics and notable fans, including Bob Dylan.
In the early-’60s, Riley headed west to California where he became an in-demand studio musician, playing sessions for The Beach Boys, Sammy Davis Jr., and Dean Martin, among others. Riley returned to the South in 1966, and was one of the first artists signed to Shelby Singleton’s reactivated Sun Records label in 1969.
Although Riley stepped back from music for a time in the 1970s, working in home decorating, he eventually returned to the stage in 1978, riding the rockabilly revival wave in England. He continued to perform and record for the next three decades, releasing several albums of blues oriented material.
Though he battled numerous health problems in recent years – including a quadruple bypass heart surgery and a trio of hip replacement operations — Riley remained a staple of the live circuit in Europe, and here at home, where he was one of the perennial acts at the annual Beale Street Music Festival. His final performance came in June, where he appeared with his old Sun labelmate Sonny Burgess during an event at downtown’s Rock and Soul Museum.
In recent weeks, after his cancer diagnosis became public, the international rockabilly community rallied around Riley and his wife as the couple struggled to pay mounting medical bills.
Riley is survived by his wife Joyce, their daughter Angela Johns, and three children from his first marriage, Erin Riley, Wendy Kennedy, and Darron Riley.
Memorial services are pending, but arrangements will be handled by the Dillinger Funeral Home in Newport, Arkansas. Those wishing to send condolences or contributions directly can contact: Joyce Riley, 723 Crest Drive, Jonesboro, Arkansas 72401.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 2, 2009
MUSIC Billy Lee Riley, RIP
POSTED BY CHRIS DAVIS ON SUN, AUG 2, 2009 AT 12:53 PM
Guitars at half mast, please. Billy Lee Riley, the Sun Studio rockabilly artist who recorded atomic age classics such as "Flying Saucers Rock and Roll" and "Red Hot" is dead. It was recently reported that Riley, who had been in poor health since taking a bad fall in 2005, was suffering from the final stages of terminal cancer.
On August 30th, there will be a memorial show in Newport, Arkansas featuring Sonny Burgess and the Pacers, WS Holland and his band, Travis Wammack, Carl Mann, Smoochy Smith, Ace Cannon and his band, Jr. Rogers, Warren Crow, J.M. VanEaton, Dale Hawkins, C.W. Gattin, and the Blues Brothers Band.
We'll have more to say about this influential and under-sung Memphis artist.
Billy Lee Riley & Tav Falco (from Tav's Myspace)
Joe Nick Patoski made a comment about your note "R.I.P. The Great Billy Lee Riley, Sun Records Pioneer":
Tosches captured him in words at a Jerry Lee Lewis recording session back in the 70s. Billy Lee came into the studio wild-eyed, and held his hands out wide, saying, 'There's this invisible pill in front of me and every time I take a bite out of it, it grows bigger and bigger."
Testify
An uplifting mix of Southern soul, latin grooves, sunny 60’s pop, funked-up soundtracks & deep- fried country
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 16, 2006
We're Gonna Rock 'n' Roll All The Way To The Stars
Billy Lee Riley and others came to London's Barbican for the 'It Came from Memphis' season in 2005.
On January 30th 1957 at Sun Studios, 706 Union Avenue, a kind of alchemy took place.
A dumb song, Flying Saucers Rock ‘n’ Roll by one Ray Scott was transformed from kitsch fluff to rockabilly gold by the sheer intensity of its performance. On piano that day, an as yet little known, Jerry Lee Lewis but at the microphone, singing with a devilish conviction that belies the songs nonsense lyrics was Billy Lee Riley!
Without Flying Saucers Rock ‘n’ Roll, with its campy lyrics, monster movie screams and insanely committed performance contemporary music would be a duller, less strange place.As no less an authority than Greil Marcus wrote of it (in the notes to the 2000 edition of Mystery Train) "Flying Saucers Rock 'n' Roll.. [was]..one of the weirdest of early rock 'n' roll records - and early rock 'n' roll records were weird"!
Together with Riley’s cover of Billy ‘The Kid’ Emerson’s Red Hot and his own composition Pearly Lee, both of which were also recorded that fateful day in Memphis, Flying Saucers Rock 'n' Roll forms the foundation of the Billy Lee Riley story. It is a story as labyrinthine and surprising as any in the history of American roots music.
Born in 1933, of Irish/Cherokee stock Riley grew up in Osceala Arkansas. The family were poor and Riley’s father, a house painter by trade, and his elder sister would pick cotton to help make ends meet. At one point things got so bad the family were reduced to living in a tent for a year.
Blues was the young Riley’s first love- as he recalled in the sleeve notes to his 1992 Blue Collar Blues album- “I was raised mainly around the old gut bucket blues. Those days we couldn't listen to blues on radio, no one played it. I used to hang around and listen to all the black guys playing blues” By the age of six he was already an accomplished harmonica player.
In 1948 a 15 year old Billy Lee Riley lied about his age and joined the US army. Discharged in 1953 he married the following year and moved to Memphis in 1955. It was here fate, in the shape of ‘Cowboy’ Jack Clement, stepped in.
Clement, together with Ronald ‘Slim’ Wallace, had built a recording studio in the latter’s garage. In March 1956 they cut their first record, with Billy Lee Riley on vocals, Trouble Bound on one side and Think Before You Go on the flip.
Clement took the tapes to Sam Phillips,founder of Sun records and forever known as the man who discovered Elvis, to have an acetate master made. Sam liked Trouble Bound enough to want to release it as a Sun record conditional on the country sounding Think Before You Go being replaced with a more rocking tune. Riley obliged by penning Rock With Me Baby.
James Van Eaton played drums, Marvin Pepper bass and Roland Janes guitar on Rock With Me Baby.Post Flying Saucers Rock ‘n’ Roll this group became known as The Little Green Men and together with multi instrumentalist Riley they became the Sun studios house band, playing on numerous pioneering rock ‘n’ roll records.
Billy Lee Riley’s blistering version of Red Hot was tipped for the top by no lesser an authority than Alan Freed and legendary Memphis DJ Dewey Phillips (a man whose footnote in history was assured when he became the first to play an Elvis record on air) played it. A lot. As Memphis music maverick Jim Dickinson recalled in Robert Gordon’s book It Came From Memphis “Red Hot by Billy Lee Riley- I didn't realize that wasn't a hit until I moved to Texas for college.”
And why wasn't it a hit? Speaking in 2001 to Brian Smith of the Phoenix New Times newspaper Riley insisted “Red Hot was going to become a national hit.... I saw the orders; there were orders for a lot of records. He (Sam Phillips) got on the ‘phone right in front of me and said ‘we’re not shipping Red Hot were shipping Great Balls Of Fire instead’”.
So in 1958 a disgruntled Riley left Sun for the first time and recorded a single on Brunswick. Produced by Owen Bradley Rockin’ On The Moon was, presumably, intended to capture again that Outer Space/ Flying Saucer magic. Despite interest from RCA he was persuaded to return to Sun for another couple of releases before leaving again in 1960.
There then followed a bewildering array of independent releases, some under his own name, others under an equally bewildering array of pseudonyms. There are many gems in Riley’s wayward discography of this time but, for me, none surpass Shimmy Shimmy Walk Parts 1 & 2. Issued in 1962 on the Dodge label and credited to The Megatons this instrumental is a steaming slab of swampy southern soul swagger that wouldn’t have disgraced Booker T and the MG’s themselves.
Talking of whom…it was after a weekend session with Billy Lee Riley at the Stax studios that Booker T and the MG’s were born. In Rob Bowman’s book Soulsville USA Steve Cropper recalled that day: “We were sitting around waiting after the last cut to find out if we were gonna do another take. Billy and Jim(Stewart-co founder of Stax) decided that was it, that was good enough for what Billy wanted and when Jim went to hit the talkback to tell us ‘Hey guys, that’s it, go home’ we were just jamming on this blues thing.” That blues thing became Green Onions. (In 1972 Stax did issue a Billy Lee Riley single, on its "white" HIP subsidiary, Family Portrait/Going Back to Memphis it was not,however, recorded at Stax famous East McLemore Avenue studios)
Sometime later in ‘62 Riley moved to the west coast and became a sought after session musician. Sessions included, amongst many others, playing bass on The Beach Boys Help Me Rhonda and bringing some proper southern harmonica blues to Ohio- born Dean Martin’s waxing of Lee Hazlewood’s Houston.
Riley moved back to the south in 1966. In 1968 Riley recorded Happy Man for Atlantic records. Covered as Otis Smith's "Down The Road",this brass heavy track was a favourite of Northern Soul DJ Guy Hennigan at Stafford allnighters.
The following year found Riley back at Sun, although by now the label was owned by Shelby Singleton, for a further two singles:Kay / Lookin' For My Baby and Pilot Town, La. / Working On The River.Both singles were recorded for Sun International in Florida and both are appealling stabs at country soul.
His 1971 version of A Thing About You Baby, produced by Chips Moman, was selling well until that most celebrated of Sun records alumni, Elvis Presley, released his version. Sick of it all Riley quit the music business in 1973. For a while.
Coaxed out of self imposed exile to play the 1979 Memphis in May festival Riley was once again seduced by the siren call of music. Arriving to a Europe in the grip of a rockabilly revival later that year, Riley was amazed to find himself revered by this new wave of old school rock ‘n’ roll fans. Still it wasn’t until 1991 that Riley returned to music full time.
And then Bob Dylan came a-calling. By this time Riley was once more living in Arkansas and as he told his local paper: “Bob said I was his favourite singer and that he had been looking for me since 1985, he’d even been to my old house in Murfreesboro, Tennessee looking for me.” When Riley opened for Dylan at Little Rock Arkansas in 1992 Dylan introduced him as “my hero” and was visibly thrilled by his set. Curiously, earlier in his career. Riley had covered three Dylan songs (Blowin’ in the Wind, Like a Rolling Stone and Mr Tambourine Man) on his 1966 Funk Harmonica album.
When Riley was inducted to the Arkansas Walk of Fame in March 2000; letters from Dylan, Sam Phillips and The Smithsonian Institute were read out, all hailing him as a pioneer and seminal influence. Some consolation, perhaps, for a career typified by missed opportunities and poor timing.
Despite having a lousy band backing him Billy Lee showed he could still “rock ‘n’ roll all the way to the stars” at The Barbican’s “It Came From Memphis” festival in April last year,from whence the picture that accompanies this article came.
Birthdate - October 5, 1933
Birthplace - Pocahontas, Arkansas
Curent Residence - Newport, Arkansas
Billy Lee Riley was born to a sharecropper family at the end of the great depression. His carear has spanned 5 decades and he has made his mark in each one of them.
1996
In the 50's he recorded Flying Saucer Rock and Roll which was his first hit record. Recording at Sun Studio's in Memphis, Tennessee, Riley ended up backing up many of the performers who came through the door to do session work at Sun. His guitar and harmonica work was called into play for any performer without a band. Joining him during these sessions were Roland James and J.M. Van Eaton. These three formed a group called the Little Green Men the name drawn from Riley first hit.
During the 60's Billy Lee moved to Las Angeles. The first year was hard but eventually he became one of the hottest session men in LA working with such greats as Herb Alpert, Sammy Davis Jr., The Beach Boys, Pearl Bailey, and many more. Riley say's that working with Sammy Davis Jr. was one of the high points of his long carear.
The 70's found Billy Lee with a new audience. Europe had discovered Rock and Roll and the original rock and rollers were hot comodities. The Europeans loved the real stuff and they wanted it in the flesh. The music that had been just rock and roll was now called Rockabilly and the Rock and Rollers from the 50's could play all they wanted if they were willing to go abroad. England, France, Sweeden, Germany, were all part of the tours. Just about everywhere on the European continent there was some kind of Rockabilly Festival. There were Sweedish Rockabilly Bands, and English Rockabilly Bands, German, Austrian, etc. all on stage playing the music and getting into the style of the early rockers.
The 80's brought more touring in Europe, with long sabitcals in Newport. Billy Lee began playing the music he grew up on. The music of the plantations, call it Gut Bucket Blues or Deep Blues, or Delta Blues it was the foundation for Rock and Roll and it was the foundation for Billy Lee Riley's new carear in the Blues. Billy Lee's choice to turn to the Blues genre was not a big step for him; the Blues were always part of his performances but now they were the major part.
In the early 90's the Smithsonian found Billy Lee and interviewed him for their archives, he released his first all Blues CD "Blue Collar Blues" in 1992, and he does a lecture concert series all over the world about the Blues and the Delta and growing up as a sharecropper. Catch his act you'll be glad you did.
Billy Lee Banned
It's 1957 and Rock and Roll is happenin'. Billy Lee receives a call from ASU to play at the old field house. Agreeing to play he shows up with his band and starts his gig. The show is cookin and the crowd's getting excited. Billy Lee climbs up on the piano and begins to dance while standing on the piano. Just a little leg jerk here and a hip shake there.
Now about this time the band really starts hopping and the piano is on wheels; so as the band is dancing around on the stage the piano begins to roll. Billy Lee is doing his dance on top of the piano, the rest of the band is boogyin' away and he begins to notice that the piano seems to be moving. When he realizes that the piano is rolling off the stage he reaches up and grabs on to one of the steel girders that runs the width of the field house. He's hanging on with one hand using the microphone with the other and trying to get someone's attention to his plight. The piano is by now tipping off the stage on one side and Billy Lee is hanging suspended from the ceiling.
When the song finally ends and the piano is moved back on stage Billy Lee finishes his set and figures that alls well that ends well. .... But, the dean is waiting for him as he packs up to leave and he say's "Boy, that was a vulgar show you just put on and you are banned from this school."
Now the next year rolls around and the students want him back so they call and say Billy Lee come and play at the dance again this year. "I can't, he says, "I've been banned from playing at ASU. The dean says I can't play there again."
They say, "The dean doesn't know your name. Change your band name to something else and come back and play." So Billy Lee changes the band's name and goes to ASU to do the gig. Once again the show is hot and everyone is having a great time. Once again the dean meets him at the end of the performance and say's "Boy, you are banned from ASU"
Billy Lee Riley
In His Own Words ...
Copyright Billy Lee Riley
My name is Billy Lee Riley, I was born October 5, 1933 in Pocohantas, Arkansas. A small rural town in northeast Arkansas in the foothills of the Ozarks. At the age of three my family moved from Pocahontas to Osceola, another small rural Arkansas town founded on the banks of the Mississippi River. Osceola was a cotton farming town and we moved onto what was once a large plantation owned by Mr. Hal Jackson. Therefore it's name was "Jacksonville." The houses on the farm was used as rental property. If a tenant wanted to live there and work on the farm his rent was free. But if a tenant preferred working jobs other than farm work the rent was one dollar per week. My father was a house painter by trade so he chose to pay the dollar a week rent. But in the fall and winter months when painting work was scarce, my dad and my older sister worked in the fields picking cotton.
I learned to play the harmonica at the age of six and my love for blues music started at that age. Some of my black friends, playmates and I would go over to the black section of town and listen to the black blues singers playing on the streets or sit by the doors of the honky tonks and listen to music from the juke boxes. Saturday afternoons for most other kids my age was a Saturday matinee western movie. I did that, too, but most of the time a Saturday matinee for me was the sound of the blues coming from the juke boxes at the beer joints.
Billy Lee Riley 1942-1946
Copyright Billy Lee Riley
My family moved from Osceola in 1942 after our house burned to the ground with all of our belongings, what little they were. This would be our first year as share-croppers. For the next four years we lived on this farm at Poplar Ridge, Arkansas. We farmed twenty-five acres of cotton expecting to receive half of the earnings, but we always wound up owing the land owner, so each year we would have to stay and try to get even. We never did.
I first worked in the fields in Osceola at the age of seven picking cotton but working for me the next four years became serious business. I did the work of an adult. Each morning at the crack of dawn I was in that barn yard harnessing up my team of mules for a long hard day's work of plowing. My dad, brother, and I did all the field work and mom took care of the house and the younger kids. I had to quit school in the third grade to help on the farm to support the family.
After four years of farming at Poplar Ridge, we moved to a plantation about twenty miles out of Forrest City, Arkansas. There was no vacant house on this farm for us to live in so dad with the help of friends and family bought an old surplus Army tent. It was twenty feet by twenty feet. This would serve as home for the next year. This turned out to be an exceptionally hard year for us, but it was where I learned to play the guitar and sing the blues. This was the kind of music that had intrigued me for the past twelve years. THE BLUES
In 1943 my dad had bought me my first guitar from a friend on the farm. It was a Silvertone from Sears. He gave five dollars for it, but I had never learned to play it until moving to this plantation. There were forty families and thirty six were black families. Almost every family had someone that played some sort of musical instrument. For the most part all of the families living on this plantation were good decent folks. You would run into a bad apple every once in a while but in general, everyone got along very well with his neighbor. Everyone was treated the same by the land owner regardless of his color. We were all there for one purpose and that was to make money for the MAN.
I had special friends living here, both black and white. These are the ones that taught me how to play the guitar and helped me to understand, love and appreciate the blues. Special names like, Willie "Snooks" Bradshaw. Willie was a great blues guitar player and he worked a lot teaching me to play. Another special friend was a white boy my age. His family was a musical family and I spent lots of time at his house he taught me a lot. His name was Tommy Hamblin.
Billy Lee Riley 1947-1952
Copyright Billy Lee Riley
Two other good friends of mine, even though they were a lot older than me were the Williams brothers, Ray and Abraham. Ray was a whiz on the harmonica. He taught me what I know on the harmonica. Ray was a great influence and a great guy. His brother, Abrham played bottle neck style guitar and was one of the beat.
But, the one man that I considered the best of the lot was an old man by the name of Jericho Leon Carter. Jericho was an excellent guitar player as well as a master on the harmonica. He had built this aparatus on his guitar that held his harmonica so he could play both at the same time. I had never seen anything like this before or since. We all loved to play music with Jericho but most of the time when old Jericho played we all just sat there and listened. He was so good and made it look so simple. He used to tell me, "You keep on son, you keep playing the Blues and some day you gonna be somebody." I never forgot those words and maybe someday I'll find out that old Jericho was right.
Everybody called Jericho, "Lightnin". The reason was, as it was told, Jericho was riding his mule in from the field one day during a thunderstorm. Just before he got ot the safety of the barn the mule he was riding was struck by lightening. Well, it killed the mule but Jericho survived with severe burns all over his body. They said he almost died before they could find a way to get him to the doctor twnety miles away in Forrest City. But he did live, and when I met him he was fifty-eight and the best blues singer and picker in the world.
After our crops were gathered that winter we moved to Tupelo, Mississippi. I learned later that my friend, Jericho "lightnin' Leon" Carter died of pneumonia in February 1948. They buried his guitar and harmonica with him. His folks said they felt like he would be needing them later.
We only lived in Tupelo from January 1948 until September. My parents and the smaller children moved back to Pocahontas and I moved back to Osceola to live with my sister and brother-in-law.
My older brother had recently enlisted in the Army so I thought I would try also. In November some friends and I hitch-hiked to Blytheville to join the Army. I got as far as the physical examination and failed. In March of the next year, 1949, I tried again. I had no birth certificate so the enlisting officer told me that if I could get my parents to sign a statement that I was seventeen he could get me in. I conned my sister into signing the papers and I was off again. This time I passed and was shipped to Camp Chaffee, Arkansas in Fort Smith for my basic training.
After basic training I was shipped to Fort Bening, Georgia for paratroop training. I found out very quickly that jumping out of air planes was not for me so I quit and was then shipped to Fort Lawton, Washington.
I was given a hardship discharge because of my father's sickness. I was hoping that I would be more able to help the family at home. I was sending fifty dollars of my seventy-five dollars a month home on a special family allotment plan but I thought I would be able to do more if I could find a job. Work for a fifteen year old was hard to find in the early fifties so I did whatever job I could find to help out.
Dad's illness improved and he was back at work painting houses and we had just gone to war with Korea. Being in the reserves, I was one of the first to re-called to active duty. Three months after I was discharged, I was back on active duty in Fort Sill, Oklahoma. I never saw Korea. I spent the next three years at Fort Sill. In April, 1953 I was honorably discharged and came home to where my parents were living, Jonesboro, Arkansas.
Billy Lee Riley 1953-1957
Copyright Billy Lee Riley
The first thing I did upon returning home was form a hillbilly band. The band played at high schools and clubs. We had three radio shows. Two of them were live broadcast and one was taped on Sundays for the following week. I was working at a local shoe manufacturing plant at the time and in order to do the live broadcasts we had to get up to be at the station to go on the air at 5:30 am, do thirty minutes, go home have breakfast and be at work at 7:00 am. Needless to say, this didn't last long.
I married my first wife in 1954 and in 1955 we moved to Memphis and opened a bar and grill restaurant with my brother-in-law. Not knowing much about Memphis, nor the restaurant business, we picked a bad section of town and were closed by the city three months later resulting from a gunfight between two of our customers. After that I worked at various jobs one being a meat cutter at a supermarket.
On Christmas morning 1955 I met the one man that would play a major roll in my life, Jack Clement. My wife and I were visiting our families for the holiday. I was leaving Jonesboro to visit my parents in Nettleton, a suburb of Jonesboro when I saw these two fellows hitch-hiking. Although I was only going the three miles to Nettleton, I decided to stop and give them a ride that far.
The fellows I had picked up were Jack Clement, a well known name in Nashville for the past thirty-five years, and his friend, Slim Wallace. Our conversation was getting so interesting by the time we got to Nettleton that I decided to drive them all the way to Memphis.
We talked a lot about music and when they found out that I was a singer, they invited me to sing in their band and play the club in Paragould, which belonged to Slim. I agreed and for the next few weeks I worked every Friday and Saturday night.
When we got to Memphis, Jack and Slim showed me the studio that they were building in Slim's garage on Fernwood Street. It was to be called "Fernwood Studios." A studio that later included Scotty Moore, of Elvis fame.
When the studio was finally finished it was equipped with a home Magnachord recorder and a patch for three mikes. But to me it was "downtown". Jack asked me if I wanted to be their first artist, of course I was flattered and jumped at the chance. the session was set up for a Sunday afternoon in March of 1956. It was supposed to have been a country session but one of the songs turned out a little more bluesy and a little like Elvis' Heartbreak Hotel. This song was called "Trouble Bound" The other song, more of a country song, was called "Think Before You Go"
After we recorded them, Jack took the tape to Sam Phillip's Sun Studio to have an acetate master made. Sam was the only one in Memphis with a lathe for mastering a record. Sam cut "Think Before You go" first and then started on the other side, "Trouble Bound." He told Jack, "Now here's a record. This is what the kids want, Rock-A-Billy. They're looking for that Elvis thing and this record has it." Before Jack left the studio he had made a deal with Sam to release my record on Sun with the understanding that we cut another Rock-A-Billy song for the other side.
Jack told me about it and asked me if I had another song that was more Rock-A-Billy. I told him no but I could write one. So, I wrote "Rock With Me Baby" and we went to a radio station and recorded it. Jack took them back over to Sam. He gave me a recording contract and Jack a production deal. I recorded for the Sun label from 1956 until 1960. I recorded several sides during that period but only had six releases, "Trouble Bound" / "Rock With me Baby" being my first release. My second release was "Flyin' Saucers Rock and roll" / "I Want You Baby." Before I recorded "Flyin Saucers," I walked in the studio at Sun one morning and saw this fellow sitting at the piano and playing like I had never heard a piano played before.
I spoke to him and he introduced himself to me. "I'm Jerry Lee Lewis," he said. "Hi, I said, "My name is Bill Riley. Man you play the piano great. You from around here?"
"Naw, I'm from Louisiana, Farriday Louisiana. I come up here to see what's goin' on," he told me.
I asked him if he was working with anyone and when he told me he wasn't I asked him if he was looking for work because I had a band and we did a few shows but mostly clubs. He said he would like to work with us so I hired him. Later I told Sam about him, about how good he played and that I had hired him to work with my band.
Sam said "Man, you don't want no piano player in a Rock-A-Billy band. It don't work in a Rock-A-Billy band. Man you need guitars, drums, and a bass, but not a piano." Well, I knew my session was coming up soon so I told him that I intended to use Jerry on my session. Sam grumbled and disagreed with me but come session time, Jerry was on board. Sam wouldn't let him take any solo's. He just wanted him to play what he termed, "pumping rhythm." That's where his PUMPING PIANO style got its name. After the session was over Sam was pleased but never had any praise for Jerry. Jerry continued working in the band until "Crazy Arms" was recorded.
During my stay at Sun I was part of the Sun package. This package included, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, Warren Smith and later on Jerry Lee Lewis. Shows were booked by Bob Neal and getting your money was sometimes a hassle. I've had to go to Bob's house at three and four in the morning after a show to get my money. We all were supposed to get paid after the show but this seldom happened with Bob. My band and I played lots of colleges dates back then also, lots of high school proms and dances, a lot of outside shows at openings for automobile companies, mobile home shows and drive in theaters as well as regular theaters. It was hectic, a lot of fun and we paid a lot of dues. We traveled in my 1957 four door Chevrolet. Five musicians plus all of our clothes and instruments including sometimes, an upright bass, inside if it happened to be raining.
Billy Lee Riley 1958-1960
Copyright Billy Lee Riley
I left Sun Records in 1958 for a one record deal on Brunswick produced by Owen Bradley at Bradley's barn because Sam had deliberately sabotaged a record of mine, that was on it's way to the national charts in favor of a Jerry Lee Lewis record that he was trying to build Jerry on, "Great Balls of Fire".
My band and I were working in Canada at the time and out of a bet with my drummer I called Allen Freed about booking us on a tour that I had read about in the trades a few days before. I called WINS radio and got through to Allen. It was then that I found out that my record, "Red Hot," was happening. I knew that it was doing pretty good in the south but no one had told me that it was looking good nationally.
Allen Freed told me that I had a hit record and back then if Allen Freed said you had a hit you could take that to the bank. He also said he wanted me on the tour for later that year. After talking with Allen, I called Sam Phillips and told him the good news. He seemed, I thought happy about the whole thing but I was wrong. He told me that I should close out in Canada and come home and start an album and cut another single before the tour.
But by the time I closed out and got back home, Sam had contacted Allen Freed's manager and cut a deal with him that got me off the tour and Jerry Lee Lewis put in my place. To rub salt in the wound, a couple of days after I returned to Memphis, and before I found about the switch, (I didn't find this out for over a month. I thought Sam and Judd Philips were handling everything with Allen Freed and I was on the tour.) I was in the front office at Sun when the mail came and Sam's secretary opened it and laid it on Sam's desk. I noticed that there were three pieces of mail that looked like Western Union Telegrams. These were night letters sent through the Western Union. Each letter was an order for ten thousand copies of my record "Red Hot". One was from a distributor in Ohio, one was from New York and the other one was from Detroit. They were asking for ten thousand on a deal. I assumed that meant Sam had some sort of deal where if you buy a certain amount you got some free copies. I asked Sally when Sam would be in and she told me she didn't know so I went next door for coffee.
I saw when Sam's car pulled up in front of the studio so I went back over to catch the reaction on Sam's face at the amount of the orders for my record. What I saw and heard wasn't what I wanted to see or hear. As soon as Sam saw the orders he got on the phone and called each of the distributors and told them that he was not shipping number 277, the number of my record, he was pushing number 281, Jerry Lee Lewis' "Great Balls of Fire." This is the time that I left Sun and went to Nashville to record with Brunswick.
I returned to Sun after the Brunswick record and recorded three more releases before leaving in 1960. They were "Baby Please Don't Go" / "Wouldn't You Know", "No Name Girl" / "Down By The Riverside", and "One More Time"/"Got The Water Boilin' Baby." Most of the records recorded on Sun from 1956 until 1960 were backed up by my band "The Little Green Men" All or part of the band was on recordings with Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Charlie Rich, Bill Justis and all of the lesser knowns.
Billy Lee Riley 1960-1966
Copyright Billy Lee Riley
After leaving Sun for the last time in 1960 my ex-guitar player and I formed the RITA record label. We had several releases but the one that the label is known for was the Harold Dorman recording of "Mountain of Love." This record sold a million and I made a thousand dollars. When the record started to show up in the charts, several record labels wanted it. We were offered some really good deals. But to humor Judd Philipps and Bill Justis, who were already doing business with Bill Lowery in Atlanta, we went with NRC Records. The company went broke before we could get any money so I sold my interest for one thousand dollars and came out ahead of my partner.
After RITA, I formed another label, MOJO Records, and produced the original Willie Cobb hit, "You Don't Love Me." This record was leased to Home of the Blues Records. After the Willie Cobb record I did a few more things on MOJO but just never got anything happening so I moved on.
I went to work for the Pepper Sound Studios writing, singing and producing radio spots and jingles.
I moved to Las Angeles in 1962 and worked as a studio musician playing the harmonica along side James Burton, Glen Campbell, Leon Russell, Hal Blaine and Barney Kessel. My first session was with Herb Alpert. I played lead guitar on "Lonely Bull." I was later featured on records with Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr. Rick Nelson, Johnny Rivers, The Beach Boys and hundred of others. I worked on several records with Billy Strange and Lee Hazlewood. I worked on stage with Eddie Fisher, Pearl Bailey, Dean Martin, Janet Leigh, and Natalie Wood. I appeared on the final Steve Allen show, was featured on an ABC Scope, and I did the Ozzie and Harriet Show. I worked the Whiskey A-Go-Go in Las Angeles and alternated with Johnny Rivers opening other Whisky's across the United States. While living in Las Angeles I recorded six albums. Three for Mercury, two for GNP, and one for The Crown Label. I left Las Angeles in 1966.
Billy Lee Riley 1966-1979
Copyright Billy Lee Riley
I left Los Angeles in 1966 settling in Atlanta and reviving my MOJO label. I released one album and one single. The single was picked up by STAX in Memphis causing me to move again to Memphis where I was producer and artist on the HIP label, a subsidiary of STAX.
In 1968 I recorded a song called "Kay". It was an R&B version of the John Wesley Ryles country record. When I finished it I played it for Sam Phillips and he suggested I play it for Shelby Singleton who had just bought all of the old Sun masters and had formed the Sun International label. Shelby bought the record and gave me a job as producer and moved me to Fort Walton Beach, Florida to produce for his studio there. After a year in Florida, I found my self again in Atlanta.
In 1971 I recorded a session for Chips Moman in Memphis for his Entrance label distributed by Columbia Records. My record, "I Got A Thing For You Baby" was ready to break nationally when Columbia and Chips had a misunderstanding and my record was pulled from the their distributors so I lost another hit. I followed Chips to Nashville hoping to record again but his record deal fell apart.
I left and came back home again after my divorce from my second wife. I remarried in 1975 and sort of retired from music for a while. then in 1979, I did the Memphis in May thing, got the bug and started touring Europe and have been doing so ever since. My shows in Europe are mostly my fifties act. I enjoy doing them and the fans are great, but I am ready to get back to my roots, The Blues.
Hear Billy Lee Riley on
"Hot Damn!" (Capricorn 314 534 765-2)
Distributed by Polygram
Released 1997
"Blue Collar Blues" (Hightone HCD 8040)
Released 1992
From the pen of Bob Dylan, circa 1963, these are the poet-singer's handwritten working lyrics to "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall". Written here are the first three stanzas of the song, with cross-outs & lines signifying repeated words. Dylan wrote these lyrics on 8.5" x 6" stationery. Although the paper bears two significant tears in two places, has a long crease and is stained, the handwritten lyrics, in black ink, are in excellent condition - strong and fully legible. This is an incredible rock & roll artifact showing the working of Dylan's mind as he worked out the lyrics to this classic song. Comes with a signed & dated letter from forensic document examiner James A. Blanco. Estimate: $30,000 - $40,000.
Shrimpenstein was on KHJ channel 9 in LA from 1966 to 1968. This is the opening theme sung by Dr. Von Schtick (Gene Moss in a bad Boris Karloff imitation and the Tijuana Bats. The hosts were Gene Moss (Dr. Von Schtick) & Jim Thurman (voices). Shrimpenstein was a miniature Frankenstein monster (a ventriloquist dummy who was “created” when jellybeans were thrown into the Monster Machine) Moss & Thurman wrote the Roger Ramjet cartoons & did advertising campaigns, mostly for radio. Moss later did voice-overs for LA’s channel 2 news and Disney/Touchstone pictures previews. Thurman also wrote & did voices for Sesame Street.
Long-lost video of John Philips' lunar-themed musical play produced by Andy Warhol (1975)
