July 6th, Rock and Roll Day
While every day is really Rock and Roll Day, July 6th is worth honoring
There are a number of days that are historically important in the birth of rock and roll.
Chuck Berry was born October 26, 1926. The first song generally credited as being the first rock record, “Rocket 88” by “Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats” (which was really Ike Turner’s band with Brenston, the saxophonist, taking the lead vocal) was recorded March 3rd or (probably) 5th of 1951 at what was to become known as Sun Records in Memphis by Sam Phillips, and released sometime in April. I could go on with birthdays and early recordings.
But what if I told you that one of the first breakthrough records was recorded and one of the most important meetings in rock and roll history happened on the same day, just three years apart? That’d be a pretty good nominee for “Rock and Roll Day,” wouldn’t you agree?
July 6th is that day.
On July 6th, a weird kid given a chance in a recording studio stumbled on to the song that would ultimately cause him to “go viral” in a way previously unheard of and change the music world. And also on July 6th, a mutual friend introduced two aspiring musicians to each other and they soon paired up and eventually changed the music world as well.
The “weird kid” is Elvis Presley. The “two aspiring musicians” are John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
I’d say Elvis recording “That’s All Right (Mama)” and John and Paul meeting for the first time are pretty significant days, wouldn’t you?
Let’s start with the biggest issue here, which is the long-held belief that Elvis recorded “That’s All Right (Mama)” on July 5th and not July 6th. It’s kind of the key to my whole argument. Even the official “Elvismusic.com” says the song was recorded “on the evening of July 5-6, 1954.”
What isn’t in dispute is that Elvis goes to Sun Records Studios on the evening of July 5th, 1954, to make a proper record with Scotty Moore on electric guitar and Bill Black on stand-up bass and Sam Phillips producing the session. Scotty and Bill had just met Elvis the day before (yes, actual work on July 4th) and they were the first pro musicians he’d ever met. So the pressure is on the kid. What also isn’t in dispute is that they keep trying ballads and they keep not finding anything that clicks.
They probably try “That’s Where Your Heartaches Begin” and “My Happiness,” both songs Elvis had recorded almost a year ago at Sun for his mother’s birthday. You see, small recording studios often let the public come in and do their own recordings before tape recorders became prevalent. That’s why Sun was initially called the “Memphis Recording Service” and not “Sun Records.” It was that recording that got Sam Phillips interested in recording Elvis for real, thanks to his secretary Marion Keisker, who recorded Elvis because Sam wasn’t there and then made him listen to the tape.
They also reportedly try a new song Sam was fooling around with called “Without You,” a Bing Crosby hit called “Harbor Lights” and another country ballad, “I Love You Because.” Elvis was always nervous while performing, even when he was outrageously successful. As a 19-year-old in front of the '“adult in the room” he is undoubtedly even more so. The session drags on. Flubbed take after flubbed take. Failed song after failed song.
So now here we are. It’s late. Sam is frustrated, Scotty is frustrated, Bill is frustrated and Elvis is no doubt freaking out. They take a break and Sam has to decide if this kid is worth the trouble.
And here comes my push for July 6th- how late was it? Since the session started in “the evening” and it was summertime in non-air-conditioned 1950’s Memphis, you can imagine beginning after dark when it’s cooled off a little. So you can place the start time at 9:30 or 10 pm. So even if the first part of the session lasts two hours and change, it’s past midnight by now.
Which makes it July 6th, 1954.
Let’s imagine the situation. Sam is outside smoking a cigarette in the Memphis summer heat. Scotty and Bill are still inside. Reasonable to assume Scotty still has guitar strapped on, but he’s sitting down with his head down, kind of afraid to take it off because if he does he might signal this experiment is over for good. Bill has probably also sat down on the folding chair next to him, with his bass leaning against his shoulders. They are not looking at the kid.
And the 19-year-old truck driver is keenly aware of all this. He’s aware they’re here for him, and he’s screwing it up. He’s costing Mr. Phillips money. He’s wasting Mr. Moore’s and Mr. Black’s time. He’s beyond nervous. He’s frantic. He does not know what to do to make it better. So since they are not paying any attention to him, he does what he always does to make the nervousness and frantic thoughts inside him go away.
He starts to strum his guitar. And he starts to sing whatever those chords are telling him to sing.
And those chords are faster chords than any of those ballads they’ve been singing that night. And the song is from 1947, by a Mississippi bluesman named Arthur Crudup. Elvis probably learned the song from hanging around Beale Street and the blues clubs in Memphis. Because the original recording is kinda slow, the musicians in Memphis probably sped it up to play it live. The opening hook is simplified but still catchy. And so are the words.
Elvis plays the hook and launches into it. Bill is the first to react. He jumps up and starts playing along. Scotty’s eyes snap into focus and he starts picking. Sam tosses his cigarette into the Memphis night and comes back inside. They finish the song and no doubt Elvis finishes with a “Whoo!” The boys laugh at the moment they’ve experienced.
“What are you doing?” asks Sam.
“We don’t know, we was just fooling,” somebody answers.
By this time Sam is back in the control room, fiddling with the dials. “Well, back it up, try to find a place to start, and do it again."
Within minutes, they have a completed version. It is magic with three instruments and one voice. The moment has been captured.
It still sounds fresh today. It is hard to hear it “like new.” Although Sam is the nominal producer, Elvis’ vocals are all him. He bends his voice like a slide guitar, he scats like Louis Armstrong. He goes high, he goes low. He fits the groove and the music. None of that was planned out, it just happens. It is how Elvis sings the rest of his career, and it is how he sang that early morning. Scotty’s electric guitar both follows and leads. Bill’s bass is the key as it helps keep everything driving at that upper tempo. When he joins in for the first time just a few measures in he provides the steady 2-and-4 beats that a drummer would normally do. He takes the baseline for a walk, he comes back. It is less than two minutes long. It is life-changing.
You can hear the boys freeze as the final guitar chord from Elvis fades out. They know they have gotten it. Sam knows he has recorded something completely different. He has been searching for “a white singer who sounds black. If I find him I can make a million dollars.” He knows he has found him.
With that in the can, the tension is loosened. Either that same early morning or the next night they figure out a b-side, “Blue Moon of Kentucky.” It is similar, but more country, more rockabilly than rock. On July 7th, Sam Phillips takes a couple of copies of the completed record to some Memphis radio DJ’s who have played other Sun Records. The first one he goes to is Dewey Phillips on WHBQ, for his show “Red, Hot, and Blue,” a mixture of country, western, and blues. At the time, playing both white and black artists on the same show, much less the same radio station, is unheard of in the south. But all Memphis kids listen to Dewey’s show. He’s not much older than they are, not yet 30. And money is the same color- green. So Dewey’s bosses let him play his records. And he plays a lot of Sam’s records. Sam no doubt paid Dewey to play records, as Payola was just part of the deal back then. Despite the last name Phillips they were not related, but they knew they could help each other.
So when Sam told Dewey he has a special one for him, he plays the record without hesitation. Elvis is not one of the listeners. When Sam tells Elvis that Dewey was going to give him his first radio airplay, Elvis gets so nervous he goes to his place of refuge, the movie theater, so he won’t be near a radio when it happens.
Well, they have to come find Elvis after Dewey plays the record. With all the kids of Memphis listening to Dewey’s show, all the kids of Memphis think it’s amazing. The switchboard at WHBQ is jammed immediately, and Dewey plays “That’s All Right” and “Blue Moon of Kentucky” 14 times that night. They find Elvis and bring him to the studios, where Dewey interviews him.
Among Dewey’s questions is the seemingly innocent “Where did you go to high school?” It’s the race question, disguised. With segregation unquestioned in 1954 Memphis, Elvis’ answer of “Humes” immediately tells everyone listening that this blues/country singer with this new sound is a white man. It basically begins Elvis’ career. The single is officially released July 19th, credited to “Elvis, Scotty, and Bill” and Sam Phillips becomes his defacto manager. Elvis tours to help record sales, Sam double-dips as manager and record label, and Elvis’ career is on.
By the time July 1957 rolls around, Elvis is a world-wide phenomenon. In just three years he has gone from truck driver to regional star to being signed by Col. Tom Parker and RCA records and getting censored on national television for shaking his hips and becoming the guy he dreamed of being- a movie star. He already has two movies out and has just finished filming his third, “Jailhouse Rock.” He buys Graceland Mansion that spring.
Across the world, teenagers buy guitars and form musical groups because they hear Elvis and want to do what he did. In England, the resulting craze is “skiffle” because you don’t need electric guitars or amps or anything expensive. Great Britain is still emerging from World War II, and fancy expensive things are still tough to come by. Skiffle means acoustic guitars and bass guitars fashioned from washtubs with actual strings. The most famous skiffle song is Lonnie Donegan’s “Rock Island Line,” with those sounds all the way through.
Liverpool, England kids are influenced by all of it. One 17-year-old even forms his own band, forcing a few of his friends to join, and has seen it through enough to even get some gigs playing around the neighborhoods. The village of Woolton, a Liverpool suburb, even hired this group for their town party on July 6, 1957.
A friend of the leader of the band knew another kid who was also super interested in writing and performing music, but somehow they had never met. The mutual friend invited the one friend to come to the town party, officially the “Woolton Village Fete” with him to watch the band, and then afterwards promises to introduce the two. Another friend brings a primitive tape recorder and tries to record some of the set they play, capturing one of the Lonnie Donegan covers.
The friend is named Ivan Vaughn, whom you may have heard of. He introduces the leader of the band, John Lennon, to Paul McCartney after “The Quarrymen” are done with their set.
John is a tough guy on the outside, and needs the new guy to “prove” he’s as into music as John is. Paul borrows a guitar from someone. As the guitar iss strung for a right-hander and Paul is a lefty, he flips the guitar upside down so he can play it. He then shows the band how to tune their guitars- something nobody has any idea how to really do, and since Paul’s dad is a piano player he has the knowledge- and finishes it off by playing Eddie Cochran’s “20 Flight Rock”- and knows all the words.
This is more mind-boggling to “The Quarrymen” than anything else Paul has already done. And they are already plenty impressed. Flipping the guitar upside down in order to play it and tuning it and knowing the words??? He took the time to listen to the words and figure them out (they’re hard to understand even today) and write them down and memorize them and then play the song too??? It’s too much.
Outwardly, John is drunk (that’s the truth) and doesn’t seem impressed, at least that’s how Paul sees it. Inside, John is stunned. Paul and Ivan leave, but the conversation among the band is all about the new guy. John is impressed enough to broach the idea of having him join the band that night. But this is 1957. They can’t “follow back” or “friend” or “DM.” One guy has to see another guy who then sees another guy.
A few weeks later, Ivan Vaughn tells Paul that John is interested in having him join the band. Paul is busy the rest of the summer, but the offer still stands when school begins in the fall. Paul’s first official performance with “The Quarrymen” is October 18th, 1957. The rest is pretty well documented.
So the day Elvis recorded his first single and the day John met Paul are the same day.
July 6th should be “Rock and Roll Day.”
A strong, passionate case for commemorative recognition of one of the most important days in music history. And, a vivid illustration that we often have no idea that what we are doing will change the course of the world! Long live Rock'n'Roll Day!