美国国家公共电台 NPR--Sam Phillips, who introduced the world to Elvis and Johnny Cash, would be 100 today

Sam Phillips, who introduced the world to Elvis and Johnny Cash, would be 100 today

Transcript¹

The man who brought the world Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison and B.B. King — among others — would be turning 100 today.

Record producer Sam Phillips is best known as the founder² of legendary³ Memphis label Sun Records and a key architect of rock and roll.

He discovered Elvis, made the earliest recordings⁵ of several 20th-century music greats and helped bring the genre⁶ to prominence⁷. In turn, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll, Blues⁸, Rockabilly and Country Halls of Fame, joined the inaugural⁹ class of the Memphis Music Hall of Fame and won a Grammy Trustees lifetime achievement award.

Phillips spoke¹⁰ with longtime former Morning Edition host Bob Edwards about his career — and era-defining discoveries — in an interview in 1993, a decade before Phillips' death.

When asked, he said he was not necessarily conscious of "creating a new kind of music."

"I think I was conscious of letting out the insides, emotional insides, of people. And that was the challenge, to a great extent," Phillips added. "Oh man, I loved the music ... I dearly loved it. So this was a beautiful experience — it still is, to see the influence that it's had around the world."

Phillips grew up in Florence, Ala., and moved to Memphis by way of Nashville in 1945.

He had worked as a DJ and engineer for a local Alabama radio station that played music from both Black and white musicians.

And he saved enough money to move to Tennessee and get into the recording⁴ business — where he would go on to shape the future of rock and roll.

In 1950, Phillips opened the Memphis Recording Service, which would also serve as the studios for Sun Records when it was founded two years later.

It began as a rhythm and blues label, giving Black musicians a place to record without having to travel north to Chicago.

"People at that time, and no disrespect for any human being on this Earth, but people didn't look upon this as real artistry," Phillips told Morning Edition. "So, I just felt that knowing that these people, just based on hardships and things that I had been through as a child coming through the 1930s Depression, and I knew my life wasn't nearly as bad as theirs, and these people had something to say, something real, and I kind of liked that."

Blues legends like B.B. King and Howlin' Wolf made their early recordings at Phillips' studio.

Phillips recorded what some music historians consider the first rock and roll song, and Sun Studio went on to make more rock and roll music than any other label at the time — 226 singles during its 16-year run, according to Graceland.

But in its early days the business also had to "do a number of different things in order to keep the wolf away from the door, so to speak," as Phillips later put it.

So he also recorded events like weddings and funerals, and let customers make their own records for a fee of $1.99.

Enter young Elvis Presley.

A brief partnership¹¹ with a lasting¹² legacy¹³

In 1953, Presley was 18 years old and making $1.25 an hour as a truck driver. He was shy but passionate¹⁴ about singing.

As the story goes, he summoned the courage to go to Sun Records and make his own recording — covering the ballads¹⁶ "My Happiness" and "That's When Your Heartaches Begin" — as a birthday gift for his mother.

Their partnership is legendary, but when exactly Presley and Phillips first met is the subject of some dispute.

Phillips' secretary, Marion Keisker, said before her death that her boss was not in the studio during that fateful first visit. By her account, she made a note of Elvis for potential future opportunities, because she liked what she was hearing and Phillips had been "saying he wanted to find a white man who sounded Black."

"I wrote down on a little slip of paper, 'Elvis Presley, good ballad¹⁵ singer' and a telephone number he could reach, and I wrote 'save' on it and put it under my desk," Keisker recalled, adding that it was she who encouraged Phillips to record him again.

Phillips, however, told NPR that he remembers noticing Presley's arrival (since Crown Electric, the company Elvis drove trucks for, did a lot of business in the area but he had never seen him before), being introduced to him by Keisker, stopping what he was doing to help him make the record and seeing something special in him.

"I had no problem at all in distinguishing this man from just a good singer," he said. "He was an excellent singer, but he had that little something that none of us know what is, that I liked, and we went from there."

Months later, Phillips invited Presley back to the studio to record "That's All Right (Mama)" alongside guitarist Scotty Moore (who was "in a country band that we were kind of playing around with at that time") and bassist Bill Black. The rest is history.

That record went on to jump-start Presley's career. And his success gave Sun Records a boost, too. Hopefuls from across the region came to Memphis to record, including future superstars like Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins.

Phillips had plenty of stories about his famous acts, as NPR has reported.

When Cash came to him saying he wanted to record gospel music, Phillips said he replied, "'Johnny, go sin a little bit, (then) come back and sing me some songs." (Phillips added: "You didn't have to say that to Jerry Lee Lewis.")

Phillips also said that Presley admired his hair, which he offered to trade him in exchange for the singer's good looks.

"Elvis kind of liked my hair," Phillips said. "His hair was just a mess. "[There] was actually a lot of it, but I've never seen hair in my life growing in every different direction."

Phillips is credited with teaching Presley how to produce records, but also to value emotion over technical perfection. Those lessons stuck with Presley even after he moved away from Sun Records.

Phillips' life after Presley

Despite Sun Records' prominence in the region, it started experiencing financial difficulties in the mid-1950s. Phillips sold Presley's contract to RCA Records at the end of 1955.

That same year Phillips launched WHER, the country's first all-female radio station (reportedly with the money he made from selling Presley's contract).

"At the time, stations had at most one girl announcer. Each woman who interviewed for a job at WHER thought she would be that girl," NPR reported in 2005. "It wasn't until the day before the station went on the air that the girls themselves found out the station would be all female."

Phillips remained on the music scene — he famously orchestrated what is now known as the "Million Dollar Quartet," in which Lewis, Perkins, Presley and Cash held an impromptu¹⁷ jam session at his studio.

But over the years he focused less on recording and more on opening radio stations and pursuing other investments (he was one of the first investors¹⁸ in the Holiday Inn chain).

He ultimately sold Sun Records to producer Shelby Singleton in 1969. The label remains¹⁹ in business today, albeit²⁰ under new ownership.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

3 legendary   

adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学）

参考例句：

• Legendary stories are passed down from parents to children.传奇故事是由父母传给孩子们的。
• Odysseus was a legendary Greek hero.奥狄修斯是传说中的希腊英雄。

4 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

5 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐

6 genre   

n.(文学、艺术等的)类型，体裁，风格

参考例句：

• My favorite music genre is blues.我最喜欢的音乐种类是布鲁斯音乐。
• Superficially,this Shakespeare's work seems to fit into the same genre.从表面上看， 莎士比亚的这个剧本似乎属于同一类型。

7 prominence   

n.突出；显著；杰出；重要

参考例句：

• He came to prominence during the World Cup in Italy.他在意大利的世界杯赛中声名鹊起。
• This young fashion designer is rising to prominence.这位年轻的时装设计师的声望越来越高。

8 blues   

n.抑郁，沮丧；布鲁斯音乐

参考例句：

• She was in the back of a smoky bar singing the blues.她在烟雾弥漫的酒吧深处唱着布鲁斯歌曲。
• He was in the blues on account of his failure in business.他因事业失败而意志消沉。

9 inaugural   

adj.就职的；n.就职典礼

参考例句：

• We listened to the President's inaugural speech on the radio yesterday.昨天我们通过无线电听了总统的就职演说。
• Professor Pearson gave the inaugural lecture in the new lecture theatre.皮尔逊教授在新的阶梯讲堂发表了启用演说。

10 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

11 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。

12 lasting   

adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持

参考例句：

• The lasting war debased the value of the dollar.持久的战争使美元贬值。
• We hope for a lasting settlement of all these troubles.我们希望这些纠纷能获得永久的解决。

13 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

14 passionate   

adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的

参考例句：

• He is said to be the most passionate man.据说他是最有激情的人。
• He is very passionate about the project.他对那个项目非常热心。

15 ballad   

n.歌谣，民谣，流行爱情歌曲

参考例句：

• This poem has the distinctive flavour of a ballad.这首诗有民歌风味。
• This is a romantic ballad that is pure corn.这是一首极为伤感的浪漫小曲。

16 ballads   

民歌，民谣，特别指叙述故事的歌( ballad的名词复数 )； 讴

参考例句：

• She belted out ballads and hillbilly songs one after another all evening. 她整晚一个接一个地大唱民谣和乡村小调。
• She taught him to read and even to sing two or three little ballads,accompanying him on her old piano. 她教他读书，还教他唱两三首民谣，弹着她的旧钢琴为他伴奏。

17 impromptu   

adj.即席的，即兴的；adv.即兴的(地)，无准备的(地)

参考例句：

• The announcement was made in an impromptu press conference at the airport.这一宣布是在机场举行的临时新闻发布会上作出的。
• The children put on an impromptu concert for the visitors.孩子们为来访者即兴献上了一场音乐会。

18 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

19 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

20 albeit   

conj.即使；纵使；虽然

参考例句：

• Albeit fictional,she seemed to have resolved the problem.虽然是虚构的，但是在她看来好象是解决了问题。
• Albeit he has failed twice,he is not discouraged.虽然失败了两次，但他并没有气馁。