The session
pinpoints with unabashed accuracy where rock-n-roll got its energy. It
proves that it wasn't simply something that exploded on an unsuspecting
world one day in 1955.
The roots were clearly borne and deeply rooted in country & gospel
music. As Elvis, Perkins & Lewis mixed their unique styles; each
performer's gifts emerge with the rarest musical qualities.
Elvis Talks about
Johnny Cash - Elvis Interview: December 3, 1956
"I never had a
better time than yesterday afternoon when I dropped into Sam Phillips'
place."
"It was what you
might call a barrelhouse of fun. Carl Perkins was in a recording
session and he had one that's going to hit as hard as Blue Suede
Shoes." "Johnny Cash dropped in. Jerry Lee Lewis was there
too, and then I stopped by..."
Elvis headed for the
piano and did a Fats Domino impersonation of Blueberry Hill. The joint
was really rocking before we got through. Elvis on Jerry Lee.
"That boy can
go," he said. "I think he has a great future ahead of
him." Why does Elvis music still sell? Are his fans re-discovering
the multi-faceted singer?
Like many
fans, I did not discover Elvis' gospel music until after his death,
when I could not get enough of his music.
Why is
50's music still so popular with radio stations? In content today’s
music and lyrics is angry and aggressive whereas 50's music talks of
hope - a story we all want to hear.
Johnny
Cash
The legend -Died September 12, 2003. He was 71
He was a poor sharecropper's son from
Kingsland, Arkansas, who sang to himself while picking cotton in the
fields -- then later sang to millions through recordings, concerts and
his late-'60s TV variety show.
He became a country music statesman who
found a home with rap-rock producer Rick Rubin's American Recordings.
He was called the "Man in
Black," who once sang "I shot a man in Reno/Just to watch him
die," but opened his concerts with the friendly, modest greeting,
"Hello, I'm Johnny Cash."
Cash died of complications from
diabetes at Baptist Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, hospital
spokeswoman Nicole Bates said. He had just been released Tuesday after
entering the hospital August 28 with an undisclosed stomach ailment. He
returned to the hospital Thursday.
Cash's wife of 35 years, June Carter
Cash, died May 15.
The
Million Dollars Quartet: Elvis
Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins
& Johnny Cash.- December 4, 1956,
Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee
Lewis & Johnny Cash got together in
the Sun Records Studio in Memphis and
recorded the now called Million Dollar
Quartet - available on CD
