Episode 13: Memphis, Tennessee

This episode traces the influence of Delta blues pioneers like Charley Patton, Son House, Robert Johnson, and Howlin’ Wolf, and follows the rise of B.B. King from Beale Street radio to international blues icon. It also highlights how Sun Records and Sam Phillips helped launch the careers of artists like Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis, creating a new sound that would become rock ’n’ roll.

Mike also dives into the legacy of Stax Records, the gritty soul of Otis Redding, Booker T. & the MG’s, Rufus Thomas, and Isaac Hayes, and the vital role Memphis gospel played through figures like Bishop Charles Mason, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and Reverend Wm. Brewster. Along the way, he connects Memphis music to the civil rights movement, showing how the city’s churches, streets, studios, and stages became central to America’s cultural identity.

If you love blues, soul, gospel, and rock history, this is a deep dive into one of the most important music cities in the world.

Transcript

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Near the site of the famous pyramids of Gaza, the ancient Egyptians founded their capital city on the Nile Delta. Five thousand years later, a group of investors named their new Riverside City after that capital. Founded in 1819, the city would grow to be a major trade hub along the Mississippi River. The city grew exponentially from exporting cotton and hardwoods. However, Memphis became best known as the stage for the civil rights movement and some of the world's most soulful music. Tonight, we explore the musical legacy of the Bluff City, Memphis, Tennessee. Welcome to the music scale. However, its history goes far beyond that. Archaeological findings indicate that the area has been populated for over 12,000 years, first by migratory hunter-gatherers, then by Mississippian tribes, followed by the Chickasaw tribe. European explorers arrived from Spain and later France, who would establish two forts in the area before the land was claimed by the United States. As the city grew in the 19th century, so did its wealth and available entertainment. As a center for Western trade along both stagecoach and railroad lines, the city boasted first-class hotels such as the Gaioso, which provided newly introduced luxuries such as indoor plumbing. Under Union control, Memphis would remain a center of commerce throughout the Civil War and continued to prosper afterwards. It wouldn't be until the early 20th century that Memphis would produce the groundswell of influential musicians it has become famous for. Despite its prosperity, Memphis has always had a large disparity of wealth and has also been heavily segregated. The revenue brought in by the cotton industry perpetuated the culture of slavery. This separation of wealth in white and black cultures was ingrained in the population and continued during Reconstruction and beyond. Despite this, Memphis offered steady work compared to sharecropping in the rural delta and led to the growth and development of a strong black community in Memphis. Memphis became an established center of Southern African American culture, where its community expressed itself through its food, its worship, and music. Memphis is perhaps most associated with the blues. Blues evolved in the southern United States chiefly from the field calls of enslaved people. The call and response cadence and 12-bar structure comes directly from that era. The guitar, banjo, and harmonica were the predominant instruments in the rural south due to the relatively low cost and high accessibility. As a center of industry, the city was attractive to workers living in nearby rural areas. Many of these workers were field hands who brought their songs with them. By the turn of the century, W.C. Handy was already an established musician who had spent time as a cornetist and a trumpet player in various touring bands. He had sang first tenor in a traveling minstrel show, worked as a musical director, played at the Chicago World's Fair, and taught music at Alabama AM University. As he traveled throughout the rural South, he was influenced by the music he heard. Sly guitars played with a knife, young men playing over a repeated chord progression, and the way audiences reacted to its primal beat. In his autobiography, W.C. Handy's tone at first seems to look down on the music he heard in rural areas, while at the same time gaining inspiration from it. He writes, the strumming attained a disturbing monotony, but on and on it went, the kind of stuff associated with sugarcane rows and levee camps. I saw the beauty of primitive music. They had the stuff the people wanted, it touched the spot. Their music wanted polishing, but it contained the essence. While he initially didn't give it quite the same credence of the popular music he earned a living from, Handy shifted his viewpoint after seeing the reaction of listeners. W.C. Handy relocated to Memphis in 1909. He remembered the rural sounds that he had heard in his travels and incorporated them into a new composition for long-term politician Edward Crump's mayoral campaign. As the song was played around Memphis, it gained favorable reaction from those who heard it. In 1912, Handy renamed the song Memphis Blues and produced the first documented 12-bar blues song structure. The song featured blue notes, which are a flat third and seventh notes in a major scale. It also featured a 12-bar cadence, where the melody line is repeated twice, and then a third line gives closure or answers the first two lines. His success would take him to New York, where he would continue to prosper in the music publishing business, publishing other black songwriters as well as his own songs, such as Beale Street Blues and St. Louis Blues. WC Handy had been influenced by the music of the Mississippi Delta, the area where the lower Mississippi River begins to drain into the Gulf of Mexico. Cotton has long been a crucial source of income for the region, demanding manual labor to harvest. Long days of hard work gave exhausted workers the need to release tension. Some relied on Sunday church services to escape through song and worship. Others found their release Saturday night. Juke joints. Low-key establishments, often located in a barn, a warehouse, or even a simple shack, gave people a place to drink, dance, and have a good time, although they had a reputation for rowdiness. The music people danced to was often provided by a single guitarist or a pair of musicians playing guitar and harmonica, fiddle, or any other instrument that could be found. Delta musicians often traveled around the region, as far west as Texas and as far east as Georgia. Delta blues depends on a syncopated rhythm on the guitar and typically follows a 12-bar blues structure. While the blues can deal with a wide range of subjects, it most often deals with romantic relationships, drinking, betrayal, and sex. Often, lyrics have a double entendre, which is why it was frowned upon by church and considered an agent of sin. Charlie Patton was a well-known musical figure during this time. Around the turn of the century, he developed his own style of blues, incorporating techniques he learned from Henry Sloan. He often performed with other blues musicians, and he influenced them heavily. Sun House, Willie Brown, and Tommy Johnson all performed with Patton. He was also hugely influential on the next generation of Delta musicians, including Haling Wolfe, Robert Johnson, and Muddy Waters. In 1929, he was recorded for the first time in Richmond, Indiana. He would go on to complete seven more recording sessions over the next five years before his death in 1934. You can hear his rhythms and guttural phrasing throughout the blues for generations later, thanks in large part to his recordings and the influence on those he played with. Among the people Patton influenced the most was Sun House. Sun House found religion early in life. However, he also found a love for alcohol, which would trouble him throughout his life. As a young man, he gave up drinking to become a preacher and rejoined the Baptist Church as a deacon. At this time, he was also outspoken about his disdain for the blues and other secular music. After a failed marriage, House began drinking again, but continued to shun the blues until he heard a friend playing slide guitar. This style he had never heard before, and it completely changed his attitude towards blues music. He would eventually meet and play engagements with Charlie Patton and his musical partner Willie Brown. Sun House recorded in 1930 and again in 1941 and 42, this time by Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress. He would be rediscovered in the early 60s folk revival and end up touring Europe and playing many folk festivals. Footage of House and Helen Wolfe during one of these festivals shows Sun House acting antagonistic towards Wolfe during his set, evidently intoxicated. While finally enjoying recognition for his music, House continued to struggle with alcoholism for the rest of his life. One of Sun House's musical disciples would also be one of the most influential. Robert Johnson was in his early 20s when he met Sun House and Willie Brown in Robinsonville, Mississippi, 30 miles southwest of Memphis. Johnson followed them wherever he could and picked up whatever musical knowledge he could get from them. Later, House would recollect that Robert Johnson was not very good at the time, but was very enthusiastic. Soon after, Johnson left for Martinsville, Mississippi and met Ike Zimmerman, who took Johnson under his wing and gave Robert guitar lessons, sometimes in the graveyard at night, as not to disturb anybody. This may have contributed to the legend of Robert Johnson selling his soul to master the guitar. Certainly, when he met House and Brown again a year later, he had mastered the Delta Blues style that he would be so famous for. To become that good that quick, a rumor circulated that Robert had met the devil at a crossroads and made a deal to give away his soul in exchange for supernatural talent on the guitar. Johnson's songs, Crossroad Blues and Hellhound on My Trail, perpetuated these stories. The oral account of his early death by poisoning pushed those stories into legend. Johnson did not receive widespread acclaim during his lifetime, although he was known as a well-liked performer in Memphis and in the Delta area of North Mississippi. Although he did not receive national fame, he recorded in two sessions, one in San Antonio, Texas in 1936, and another in Dallas in 1937. He recorded multiple takes of each song, which have been preserved and give unique insight into his variations and performances. Shortly after his death, publisher and organizer John Hammond came looking for Johnson to be part of his From Spirituals to Swing concert in New York City. Even though Robert Johnson had passed, Hammond felt he was important enough to have two recordings of Johnson played during the concert. In the 1950s, Johnson's songs would be re-released and become a huge influence on English blues devotees such as Keith Richards and Eric Clapton. Many of Johnson's songs have become blues standards and covered by all sorts of artists. Crossroads by Cream is their version of Crossroad Blues, and the Rolling Stones have covered the tender ballad Love in Vain. Other well-known standards penned by Robert Johnson include Sweet Home Chicago and Dust My Broom. He received the nickname Hallen Wolf from his grandfather, who called him Wolf to tease him for being scared of stories of Little Red Riding Hood. Wolf moved several times before settling with his father's family. In 1941, he was drafted into the army. When he was discharged in 1948, he began playing music again, having rejoined his family in West Memphis. He gained exposure on KWEM out of West Memphis when they began broadcasting Wolf and his band's performances. In 1951, a young musician named Ike Turner recruited Haling Wolf to record at the Memphis Recording Service for Sam Phillips. Moaning at Midnight would become a local hit along with How Many More Years? These songs were licensed by Phillips to Chess Records for distribution. Chess would eventually convince Haling Wolf to move to Chicago and record for them, where he became a massive blue star and enjoyed a long, friendly rivalry with Muddy Waters, another Mississippi transplant. Wolf's voice was almost eerie in its raspy, powerful delivery. The authenticity in his performances came straight from his upbringing in the Delta and influenced a generation of blues players. The sound of Helen Wolf's band matched his vocal, heavier and more aggressive than contemporary blues groups. Guitars distorted and drums dragged slightly behind the beat, giving his music a heavy swing sound and acting as the blueprint for rock and roll that would come a few years later out of the same studio. Memphis's Beale Street was and continues to be a central focal point for blues musicians and performances. Since the 1860s, Beale Street has attracted musicians to play on its alcoves and corners, attracting attention, publicity, and income. This would become a place where musicians could congregate and share information and ideas. By the early 20th century, Beale Street was filled with shops, venues, and restaurants, and music seemed to be on every corner. It attracted many local and regional musicians to play for a wider population who were there to spend money on food and entertainment. Robert Johnson, Furry Lewis, Sunhouse, Charlie Patton, and Tommy Johnson all have performed there. Beale Street became a fertile proving ground for blues and jazz musicians alike, producing countless numbers of musicians. Making the pilgrimage to Memphis and Beale Street in 1946 was a 21-year-old guitarist hoping to find his fortune. After hearing blues musicians on the King Biscuit Flower Hour radio program, Riley King followed his guitar-playing cousin Booker White and settled in Memphis. King was able to get a small spot on Sonny Boy Williamson's radio program on KWEM in West Memphis. This led to King building an audience and getting regular gigs performing. Soon, he had his own 10-minute feature on Memphis's WDIA radio, which grew into a program called the Sepia Swing Club. King's popularity prompted WDIA to give King a permanent disc jockey position, and he would promote himself as the Beale Street Blues Boy, eventually shortening the nickname to Blues Boy, and then eventually simply BB. The moniker stuck, and BB King would begin his recording career in 1949. BB King was influenced by Texas guitarist T-Bone Walker, who performed with a full band, including trumpets and saxophones. This approach set him apart from many of his contemporaries, and his shows came across more of a full review rather than a simple set with a singing guitarist. BB King began expanding his reach and would travel as far as New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles while remaining headquartered in Memphis. His famous guitar, Lucille, received its name after a fire broke out during one of his performances. The fire started after two men began fighting and knocked over a container of kerosene. Initially, King ran out with the rest of the crowd, but he ran back in to save his guitar. Later on, he found out that the men were fighting over a woman named Lucille. From that point on, he called his guitar Lucille in remembrance of the occasion. He would go on to be one of the biggest blues acts in history, enjoying a career that lasted over six decades. He never stopped performing and would produce signature hits throughout his lifespan. Every Day I Have the Blues in 1955, The Thrill is Gone in 1969, When Love Comes to Town with You Two in 1988, and the album Riding with the King with Eric Clapton in 2000. B.B. King continued performing into his late 80s and was an ambassador of the blues until his death in 2015 and is considered one of the most celebrated musicians in American history. Like Howling Wolf and other blues musicians of Memphis, B.B. King made his earliest recordings at the Memphis Recording Service, more popularly known by its later moniker, Sun Studios. The studio director was Sam Phillips. Phillips grew up working side by side with Black Field Hands before taking a job at WLAY, a radio station in Mussel Shoals, Alabama. The station had an integrated format, catering to both white and black listeners. When Phillips opened his studio in Memphis, he was open to recording anything he felt was worthwhile. He had a special affection for the rootsy sounds of the blues. When Jackie Brenson and his Delta Cats came to record, Phillips made arrangements to use Branston's musical director, Ike Turner, as an agent for the studio. Turner would, for a fee, bring in talent from across the Delta and spread the word of the studio that wasn't afraid to record black artists. Through this arrangement, Delta artists got the chance to make their first recordings and gain the opportunity to be picked up by record labels in other cities, namely chess records out of Chicago. Soon, Phillips had built a name for himself and began pressing his own records under the Sun Records label. He welcomed country-tinged music as well as blues, introducing a crossover sound that would become rock and roll. The amount of talent in Memphis and the surrounding area seemed endless, with Phillips recording artists such as Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bobby Blue Bland, Helen Wolfe, Roscoe Gordon, Charlie Rich, Roy Orbison, Little Milk, Rufus Thomas, Conway Twenty, Johnny Cash, and Elvis Presley. His records featured a new technique called Slatback Echo, which engaged the recording and playheads on the tape machine at the same time, creating a short but distinctive echo which would define the sound of early rock and roll. Following Sun Records' success, another record label would help bring even more focus to the music of Memphis. Stax Records began life in 1957 as Satellite Records, a small label operating out of owner Jim Stewart's garage. Satellite produced country and rockabilly music and gained enough access for Stewart's sister Estelle Axton to buy into the company. The label changed its name to Stax after being alerted to another label named Satellite out of California. They landed on the Stax name from their last names, the ST of Stewart and the AX of Axton. After meeting and working with Rufus Thomas, the label picked up Steam, signing a distribution deal with Atlantic and moving into an old movie theater that served as Stack Studios. They built a record store by where the snack bar had been, where new music was often tested for the public's response. Fueling the Stack sound was their house band, Booker T and the MGs. Featuring pianist and organist Booker T. Jones, guitarist Steve Cropper, bassist Donald Duck Dunn, and Al Jackson Jr. on drums, songwriters such as Isaac Hayes contributed catchy hooks that were fleshed out by the band. Everybody had a say in the arrangements, which were discussed but never written down. Stax would become the Southern answer to Motown, producing a gritty loose feel that contrasted to Motown's pristine, polished arrangements. The sound and approach impressed Atlantic's Jerry Wexler so much that he sent Atlantic artists to record using Stax's studio and personnel. Wilson Pickett recorded several hits for Atlantic at Stax, including In the Midnight Hour, 634-5789, and 99 and a half won't do. Stax had its own staple of hitmakers: Bluesman Albert King, Rufus Thomas and Daughter Carla, Eddie Floyd, Percy Sledge, Soul duet Sam and Dave, and Stax's most iconic star, Otis Redding. Throughout the 60s and 70s, Stax flourished while defining the sound of Soul. After dissolving its deal with Atlantic, Stax would operate independently, putting on the successful Watt Stax concert which attracted 100,000 people. After changing hands several times, Stax eventually would be nothing more than a reissue label for decades. However, in 2006, Stax was acquired by Concord Records and would focus on producing new music once again. High Records was another Memphis-based label that competed in the Seoul and RB markets. Producer Willie Mitchell was responsible for bringing a young Al Green to the label in 1968 and would produce a number of hits for him, including Tired of Being Alone and Let's Stay Together. BB King would continue to help fellow Memphis musicians get their start and graduate onto their own careers, especially in jazz. Pianist Phineas Newborn Jr. was in BB King's band when he made his first recordings. He also toured with Jackie Brenson before signing with Atlantic Records, who spotted him in New York City. Phineas Newborn had a fast Technical approach to playing with precise movements and clarity. Newborn would be a key influence on fellow pianist Harold Mayburn, who is regarded as one of the greatest post-bop jazz pianists. After high school, he studied jazz in Chicago, then moved to New York, where he discovered Birdland and ended up meeting and gigging with Cannonball Adderley. Mayburn would also play with Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, and Lee Morgan. Mayburn attended Manassas High School with other future greats Booker Little, Frank Strozier, Charles Lloyd, George Coleman, and Hank Crawford. Coleman and Crawford were both saxophonists who would play with B.B. King and Ray Charles. Crawford would become Ray Charles's musical director, while Coleman would go on to Chicago and play with Max Roach. Trumpeter Booker Little also moved to Chicago to study at the Chicago Conservatory. There he met Sonny Rollins and would be introduced to Max Roach as well. Booker performed with Max Roach as well as freelance sessions with John Coltrane and Bill Henderson before reteaming with Max in the late 1950s. Around 1960, Little crossed paths with Eric Dolphy, which resulted in several albums and a residency at the Five Spot in New York City. Little continued to record with Max Roach, but in October of 1961, he died at only 23 years old from complications of uremia. Booker Little's best friend in school was saxophonist Charles Lloyd. Lloyd studied under Phineas Newborn and played for Bobby Blue Bland, Helen Wolfe, B.B. King, and Johnny Ace. Moving to California in the late 50s, Lloyd developed a style that would explore various cultural influences and flirt with the counterculture audience. The five high school friends had an influence on Hardbob and beyond, all carrying influence from their formative years in Memphis. Gospel music has long had a home in Memphis, Tennessee. In the late 19th century, evolving along the timeline of blues and jazz, gospel began in black churches in the South. The hymnal songs of the mid-1800s began to change at the turn of the century, with added words and new songs, as well as emphasizing similar syncopated rhythms and accents like the blues. As the word began to spread, evangelical churches throughout the South, particularly in Memphis, gave gospel its soul. Bishop Charles Harrison Mason founded the Church of God in Christ in Memphis. It differed from many other churches at the time in the way it encouraged joyful, emotion-filled services, driven by the Holy Spirit. While other churches continued to sing hymns in a disciplined, stark manner, Mason services encouraged the music to be jubilant and loud, with the congregation clapping hands, stomping feet, and letting the Holy Spirit take them where it led them. Mason Temple in Memphis was and still is ground zero for the explosion of those who spread this new take on worship. Planters were musicians that were tasked with establishing new congregations and continuing the growth of this new form of praise. Two in particular would come out of the church and influence the growth and development of gospel music as we know it. Arizona Drains incorporated aspects of boogie-woogie and ragtime piano playing in her congregation in Texas. Sister Rosetta Tharp brought a revved-up blues feel to gospel through her over-driven electric guitar and inspired many who would go on to use the same techniques to create rock and roll a decade later. The vocal group The Spirit of Memphis released Lord Jesus in 1952. It was recorded live at Mason Temple and captures the power of those performances perfectly. The crowd's interaction is heard and there are shrieks of joy throughout. The harmonies and rhythms of the vocals can be heard throughout DuWop and early soul music. Listen to Lord Jesus and then listen to a song like Shop Around by the Miracles or Shout by the Icy Brothers. You can hear the influence directly. Not far from Mason Temple, East Trig Avenue Baptist Church is where some of Early Gospel's most popular songs were written and first performed. Reverend William Brewster wrote songs for his congregation to perform and would go on to publish over 200 of them in his lifetime. He wrote Move On Up a Little Higher, which is Mahalia Jackson's first hit, and Surely God is able for the Ward Singers. Brewster's influence on gospel music and songwriting also carried through the radio. His sermons were well known in Memphis, playing on WHBQ on Sunday nights. He invited everyone to his church, black and white, and his sermons would influence Elvis Presley, who would return to his favorite gospel songs later in his career. Brewster was also key in introducing The Vamp, a closing, repeated refrain that builds and can often become as powerful, if not more so, than the main composition. Musicians and singers let loose and become a conduit for the Holy Spirit, in which the song transcends just music and becomes an experience in and of itself. Memphis's churches and gospel music also had a profound impact on the civil rights movement. The message of There are better days ahead that came from the church helped motivate activists to use nonviolent forms of protest and see equality not only as possible, but inevitable. Memphis's gospel style was adopted by many, and Martin Luther King himself made several trips to Memphis, with his last speech given at the Mason Temple on April 3rd, 1968. Memphis continues to be a haven for soul, gospel, and blues music. It has also fostered other genres of music, like hip-hop's 3-6 mafia and punk and underground music centered around the Antenna Club in the 80s and 90s. For all of its genre and American music-defining contributions, Memphis remains a vibrant city full of soul. I hope you've enjoyed exploring the musical history of Memphis, Tennessee. If you're in town, there's a wealth of museums to visit. The Memphis Music Hall of Fame, Blues Hall of Fame, the Rock and Soul Museum, and of course Stax and Sun Studios. Join us next time when we swing through the live music capital of the world, Austin, Texas. Thanks for listening to The Music Scope. I'm Mike Grubb.