Thomas was a voluble critic of this change of direction, and countered it by helping to establish a Memphis label devoted to black music, Stax Records. By an odd twist, Hound Dog was later recorded by Sun's most famous discovery, Elvis Presley, whose success distracted Phillips from recording black artists. Actually, Bear Cat was less a reply than a near-copy, too lightly disguised to prevent Sun from becoming embroiled in a lawsuit.
Two years after Sam Phillips founded Sun Records in Memphis in 1951 and began recording local black talent, Thomas gave the label an early success with an answer to Big Mama Thornton's recent hit, Hound Dog. According to Robert Gordon's book It Came From Memphis, he was among the pioneer disc jockeys - like Dewey Phillips, John Richbourg and Wolfman Jack - who had an incalculable influence on musicians growing up in the 1950s and 60s. Thomas followed him there as a disc jockey, and, with his shows House Of Happiness and Special Delivery, became a familiar broadcasting voice. Williams was also involved in WDIA, the first southern radio station that not only carried programmes for African-Americans, but was entirely staffed by them. While in high school, he had met Nat D Williams, a history teacher who staged variety shows on Beale Street, and, following his example, Thomas presented an amateur show at the Palace Theatre, exposing the nascent talents of such artists as BB King and Bobby "Blue" Bland. Album DescriptionAlthough perhaps best remembered for his 1960s novelty dance hit Walking The Dog, Rufus Thomas, who has died aged 84, was for many years a central figure on the Memphis music scene, as singer, writer, eccentric dancer and, above all, radio personality.īorn in Cayce, Mississippi, he grew up in Memphis, serving a teenage apprenticeship in vaudeville with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, tapdancing and doing comedy routines. See More Your browser does not support the audio element. Reissued on CD in the early 1990s, Walking the Dog is an album Memphis soul aficionados shouldn't overlook. In contrast to the sleeker, more elaborate production style favored by the Northern soulsters of Motown, Thomas rejects pop elements altogether and thrives on rawness on his hits "Walking the Dog" and "The Dog," as well as inspired versions of "Land of 1000 Dances" (which became a major hit for Wilson Pickett), Lee Dorsey's "Ya Ya," and John Lee Hooker's "Boom Boom." Thomas was in his mid-forties when these fun, infectious recordings were made, and he definitely lives up to his title "The World's Oldest Teenager" (a title later given to Dick Clark as well). That approach served him impressively well on his debut album Walking the Dog. One of the artists who defined Memphis soul and put Stax Records on the map, Rufus Thomas is known for liking his R&B hard-edged, gritty, and earthy.
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