School of Rock

                On October 8, 1957 Jerry Lee Lewis and top-notch producer Sam Phillips cranked out the single “Great Balls of Fire” in the immortal recording room at Sun Studios.   This man marked the completion of Sun’s “Fab Four”— Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Elvis Presley.  This event, in itself, propelled the rock and roll forward with the introduction of Jerry Lee’s knee-slapping, rabble-rousing, emotional piano playing.  Try to listen to this song without dancing.  I cannot (and dancing certainly slows down the writing process). 

                Jerry Lee dropped out of Bible school and could never quite find a solid landing place in the professedly devilish realm of the emerging rock and roll.  Funny thing he went to Sun Studios in Memphis to record: Sam Phillips literally INVENTED rock and roll!  In 1951, Jackie Brenston and the Delta Cats came into the studio to record “Rocket 88,” originally an R&B song.  However, when they got there, the amp broke, seriously impairing the session!  Sam Phillips, a self-starter on the verge of bankruptcy, decided that the two parties had paid far too much to dream of turning back without a record to show for it, so he took some paper, rolled it up, and stuffed it in the amp to close the circuit.  This fuzzy sound with a too-loud, half-broken amp forms the birthday of rock and roll. 

                This day in history speaks to me personally not just because of Jerry Lee’s invigorating and freeing music but also because our group visited Sun Studios in Memphis during the Y-Corps STTS trip in July.  Our awesome tour guide let us stand in the exact place where Jerry Lee, Elvis, and the other big names of rock stood to record their numbers. 

                So cheers to Sam, to Jerry Lee, and to the invention of rock music!