- Hardcover: 336 pages
- Publisher: University of Illinois Press (8 Aug 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 025202981X
- ISBN-13: 978-0252029813
- Product Dimensions: 23.2 x 15.8 x 3.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,927,445 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
It all started in 1949 when Memphis' own WDIA became the first radio station in the country to switch to all-black programming. After WDIA went off the air, WHBQ decided to capture some of their newly discovered black audience by putting 'Daddy-O-Dewey' Phillips - the most popular white deejay in the mid-South - on a new show, "Red, Hot and Blue". Although the show originally aired for just fifteen minutes a night, its impact was immeasurable. While Elvis and Sun Records were still virtually unknown - and two full years before Alan Freed famously 'discovered' rock and roll - Dewey Phillips was playing Howlin' Wolf, B. B. King, and Muddy Waters.Phillips is part of rock 'n' roll history for being the first major disc jockey to play Elvis Presley (and subsequently to conduct the first live, on-air interview with Elvis). Louis Cantor argues, however, for an expanded understanding of Phillips' role in turning a huge white audience on to previously forbidden race music. Phillips zeal for rhythm and blues legitimized the sound and set the stage for both Elvis' subsequent success and the rock 'n' roll revolution of the 1950s. Using personal interviews, documentary sources, and the oral history collections at the Center for Southern Folklore and the University of Memphis, Cantor presents a very personal view of the disc jockey while arguing for his place as an essential part of rock 'n' roll history.Loaded with anecdotes and insights about key figures, including Elvis' close friend George Klein and Sun Records' Sam Phillips, Dewey and Elvis will be irresistible to anyone interested in Elvis, the Memphis music scene, or the history of rock 'n' roll. Louis Cantor is professor emeritus of history at Indiana University. He now lives in Memphis, Tennessee, and is the author of "Wheelin' on Beale: How WDIA-Memphis Became the Nation's First All-Black Radio Station and Created the Sound That Changed America", and "A Prologue to the Protest Movement: The Missouri Sharecropper Roadside Demonstration of 1939", which was made into an award-winning documentary film. Cantor, who grew up in Memphis, went to Humes High School there with Elvis Presley. This is a volume in the series "Music in American Life".
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
On the air, the real Dewey Phillips was always a bit stranger than any fictional radio character ever invented. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
On the air, the real Dewey Phillips was always a bit stranger than any fictional radio character ever invented. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Hardcover
Dewey Phillips, no relation to Sun Records Sam Phillips was the first DJ anywhere to play Elvis' first Sun release, "That's alright Mama" on his Red Hot and Blue show on Memphis radio station WHBQ,based on the mezzanine floor of the Chiska Hotel in Memphis. Dewey worked hard to become a DJ, starting off in a departments stores record department, where he rewired the the internal PA system speakers in order to blast the latest hits out into the street, increasing the stores record sales ten fold.
Dewey made out own Jimmy Saville look normal, setting a trend Jimmy and other DY's were inspired by. The book itself covers his close relationship with Elvis, Elvis often dropping in when in town to watch Dewey at work.
Dewey was so hard on the equipment at WHBQ other DJ's refused to share with him, so Dewey had his own studio, which required an almost total rebuild every few months.
Dewey's life eventually, through clashes with the studio owners spiraled out of control, and he eventually ended up on the streets, telling anyone who showed concern for him sat at the side of the road, that he was alright, and Elvis was on his way to pick him up. Which he never was,although Elvis took care of Dewey whenever he could.
If you want to read about another legend out of Memphis, this is a must read, and won't disappoint.
Read and enjoy.
Dewey made out own Jimmy Saville look normal, setting a trend Jimmy and other DY's were inspired by. The book itself covers his close relationship with Elvis, Elvis often dropping in when in town to watch Dewey at work.
Dewey was so hard on the equipment at WHBQ other DJ's refused to share with him, so Dewey had his own studio, which required an almost total rebuild every few months.
Dewey's life eventually, through clashes with the studio owners spiraled out of control, and he eventually ended up on the streets, telling anyone who showed concern for him sat at the side of the road, that he was alright, and Elvis was on his way to pick him up. Which he never was,although Elvis took care of Dewey whenever he could.
If you want to read about another legend out of Memphis, this is a must read, and won't disappoint.
Read and enjoy.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
A fascinating, smoothly flowing examination of one man's life and contributions to popular music
5 Sep 2005
Format:Hardcover
Dewey And Elvis: The Life And Times Of A Rock 'n' Roll Deejay is a biography drawn from personal interviews, documentary sources, and oral history collections to give a personal, no-holds-barred view of celebrated disc jockey Dewey Phillips. Indiana University professor emeritus of history Louis Cantor suggests that Phillips zeal for and promotion of rhythm and blues music set the stage for a 1950's transformation in rock-'n'-roll, not to mention Elvis' legendary success. A fascinating, smoothly flowing examination of one man's life and contributions to popular music in the mid-twentieth century.
Pleasantly Surprised
22 July 2010
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I have to admit that I approached this book with some hesitation. I was not sure I wanted to spend the money and time finding out about a "Rock 'n' Roll Deejay." (The title did not reassure me.) Yet I was curious about Phillips, a much-mentioned but distant figure in the Sun Records and Presley story. Turns out, it is a very good book about both, but even more so about Dewey Phillips himself and the role of DJs in promoting the music. The author shows Phillips as the comic and tragic character that he was, with sympathy but without the uncritical or "gotcha" attitudes that mar much writing about this music. I learned a lot about the origins of R and R and the music industry in the South in the 1940s and 1950s, as well as how the Presley phenom came into being. Phillips' relationship with Elvis both made him and destroyed him. He ended up an alcoholic and drug addict in lonely isolation. Sun Records owner Sam Phillips (no relation) and Presley more or less had to support his estranged family as he descended into his personal hell. I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in those subjects. A good and informative read, and a very interesting story.
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