Scotty and Elvis
Scotty and Elvis
Aboard the Mystery Train
When Elvis Presley first showed up at Sam Phillips’s Memphis-based Sun Records studio, he was a shy teenager in search of a sound. Phillips invited a local guitarist named Scotty Moore to stand in. Scotty listened carefully to the young singer and immediately realized that Elvis had something special. Along with bass player Bill Black, the trio recorded an old blues number called “That’s All Right, Mama.” It turned out to be Elvis’s first single and the defining record of his early style, with a trilling guitar hook that swirled country and blues together and minted a sound with unforgettable appeal. Its success launched a whirlwind of touring, radio appearances, and Elvis’s first break into movies. Scotty was there every step of the way as both guitarist and manager, until Elvis’s new manager, Colonel Tom Parker, pushed him out. Scotty and Elvis would not perform together again until the classic 1968 “comeback” television special. Scotty never saw Elvis after that.
With both Bill Black and Elvis gone, Scotty Moore is the only one left to tell the story of how Elvis and Scotty transformed popular music and how Scotty created the sound that became a prototype for so many rock guitarists to follow. Thoroughly updated, this edition delivers guitarist Scotty Moore’s story as never before.
Scotty was the rock, sort of like the pope is the rock of the church. Knowing Elvis and Scotty the way I do, I can see why Elvis depended on him.
Everyone else wanted to be Elvis—I wanted to be Scotty.
Scotty was there from before the beginning. I learned so much that I never knew . . . great insight to the early years. One of the best books on Elvis I ever read.
Scotty Moore (1931-2016) was a participant in the Sun Records sessions of July 1954 during which he, Elvis Presley, and Bill Black, with Sam Phillips at the engineering sound board, blended country and blues into a new art form that would shake up American culture for decades to come. James L. Dickerson is a freelance author and journalist who has published dozens of books.
