![]() ![]() so he would push the microphones closer in (onto the instruments)," says Sun Studio's current engineer Curry Weber, "That was so unorthodox at the time, but the station's owner really loved the way the broadcast sounded on the radio." "He felt that the rhythm section (the bass and drums) needed to be enhanced. Part of Phillips' job at WREC was to record live performances for later broadcast, but rather than focusing his energies on how the music sounded live, he was most passionate about making sure the recorded product was sublime. Photograph taken during the "Million Dollar Quartet" session in 1956, featuring Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, and Carl Perkins. Six years later, still drawn to the city, Phillips moved to Memphis to become a disc jockey and engineer at the radio station WREC, broadcasting from the famed Peabody Hotel. When he arrived in the middle of the night in the pouring rain, Phillips found the streets were alive with people, excitement, and music. ![]() According to Peter Guralnick's 2015 book Sam Phillips: The Man who Invented Rock'n'Roll, this pit stop was the most influential event in the boy's life. ![]() Then, in 1939, the Phillips family took a trip to see the Baptist pastor George W. Phillips explained in a 2001 Salon interview, "When I was growing up, I wanted to be a criminal defense lawyer, because I saw so many people, especially black people, railroaded." This pit stop was the single most influential event in the young boy's life. Despite this love for music, Sam thought he was destined for something else. He played the sousaphone, trombone, and drums in high school and led his school's 72-piece marching band. Music was part of Sam's life at an early age, from the town's square dances to the summer's eve banjo to the spiritual hymns that rose from the sharecropping fields. Born in a small Florence, Alabama farm house in 1923, Phillips was a son of a tenant farmer. Sam Phillips' beginnings were about as unglamorous as those of the many artists he worked with. View full post on Youtube Doing Something Different ![]()
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