Howlin' Wolf, Roscoe Gordon, Rufus Jones and an assortment of black blues notables in the early days. Elvis, Carl Perkins, Johnnie Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis and an assortment of white rockabilly notables in the mid to late 1950's. What do they have in common? Well, one thing, and make that an important one thing, is that they passed through Mr. Sam Phillips' Sun Records recording studio in Memphis, Tennessee on the way to some kind of career. Amazing. With the possible exception of Chess Records in Chicago that moreover concentrated on the blues no other studio can claim so much as the catalyst for what became rock and roll in the mid- 1950's, the youth of the present writer and of his Generation of `68.The format here, as in most of the Public Broadcasting Station's American Masters series, is to have a generous round of ` talking heads' interspersed with some performances, in this case, to honor the 50th Anniversary of the founding of the Sun Records (1950). An added touch here is that some of the performances by the old Sun recording artists are covered by more recent performers like Paul McCartney and Kid Rock. The `talking heads' here also include many of the old Sun artists who did not attain the stardom of those mentioned in the first paragraph yet who nevertheless had some interesting things to say about the meaning of the Sun Record experience. A recurring theme is that mainly it got them the hell off the farms and out of the fields, especially those damn cotton fields. And they had fun and got paid for it. How can you beat that? My take on this is that they were good old boys who got more out of the Sun, if not financially then musically, than they had originally bargained for. And all of this trip down memory lane is presided over by the impresario himself, the late Sam Phillips.Along the way there are discussions, sometimes heated, about the roots of rock and roll- black blues or white country. That will never, ultimately, get resolved although I think the case for the blues gets stronger the more I see and read about the early 1950's and the shift of the blues from a country sound to a city sound. But that can be argued another day. What we have here is recollections, funny and bittersweet, by those who were either one-shot johnnies or were `put on the shelf' by one Sam Phillips. That is the kind of influence that he had for that one golden decade of the 1950's. Another nice touch here is that the one- shot johnnies not only get their `hit' covered by currently popular musicians but they get one last 15 minutes of fame by belting out their own classics. Who can forget Lonely Weekend or Rock and Roll Ruby after this retrospective to speak nothing of Good Rockin', Tonight.A note on sound- no, not of this American Masters production which like virtually all PBS productions is technically of high quality. No, I am referring here to the sound in Sun Studio. I do not believe in ghosts or other such things but tell me this. Why, for example, does Johnny Cash in his Sun Records days sound like god's own creation when on work from other recordings I can take him or leave him? And that goes for Elvis, Carl, Jerry Lee and the others as well. The gods and goddesses of rock and roll were smiling on that joint- thanks. This DVD is a documentary with interviews and the videos of the CD's songs.Very interesting, I suggest it to the Sun Records's fans.Excellent DVD with a collection of vintage performerstalking and perfoming the hits that made them famous. Billy Lee Riley showed he was still annoyed with Sam Phillips to this day for not pushing his record "Red Hot". Although a lot of the artists were grateful to Sam Philllips there was an undertone of annoyance at him for concentratingon Elvis too much and letting a lot of their work slide.A few really raw moments emerge so that this is just not a nother greatest hits type of deal.Jerry Lee Lewis does a few numbers showingthat he can literally play anything. His section is a revelation in itself. One of the true greatswithin this compilation. Sam Phillips is still a proslytizer for the music he helped created but abit of a blowhard as well. A worthwile look at theera that influenced so much that cam aferward.Carl Perkins also a standout performer demonstrateshis musical chops which looked like a magic trick.Such a great musician. I highly reccomend this DVDThe DVD: $9.99. Shipping: $3.00 Seeing Sam Phillips: Priceless! Viewers will have mixed feelings seeing contemporary rockers covering Sun Records classics but I think the effort helps bridge the generation gap. But watching Sam Phillips will appeal to everyone -- what a hoot! When he says that the Lord himself was unable to do what Sam Phillips was able to do -- conjoin black music with white music -- you won't be able to stop laughing. With him, not at him. He is as big a legend as the stars he discovered. Not necessarily a "must-have" DVD, but for those who like these kind of documentaries, I think you will enjoy it. I have the Sun hits CDs so the music in this documentary was always recognizable to me, but if one isn't familiar with these songs then the movie is even better. There's also a substantial amount of information in the film that may not be known to fans. I've loved Sun music for many years but I did not know, until I saw it, that the label began as one that featured the blues. Later, when country was the speciality, the background of the artists matched its stereotype as one of the guys said "There wasn't a one of us who didn't pick cotton before playing music." There's some great lines in this one like when Perkins says about Elvis, "That's the prettiest man I've ever seen." The documentary, with guest appearances from Mark Knopfler, Led Zeppelin, and Paul McCartney, lets you know just how important Sun Records was to the world's musicians. We see here as well that many modern "artists" can't hold up to the legends of Sun as when the band, Live, performs a cover of "I Walk the Line." You will have great difficulty refraining from laughing out loud. Some songs don't need to be redone and Cash had more gravitas at age 10 then most performers today. Sam Phillips is interviewed extensively which is great because he's an important historical artifact...but he's also a little cracked. How old is Phillips anyway? He's got more dark hairs than a college freshman but had to be at least 70 when they filmed him. Regardless of his idiocyncries, it was worthwhile having him on the screen. In the end, Perkins was right, Sun was "feel good music" and you'll feel good after watching this one.
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