- THE FIRST AND THE LAST -
SUN 174 / 407
© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©
END 1967
The Sun record, issued with little fanfare in January 1968, was by a group dubbed Load of Mischief. One side featured riffs copped from the Stax catalog and the other from Motown. It was a lamentable finale.
Sam Phillips has admitted that Sun Records perished because of his diminishing commitment to the record business. ''The basic reason that Sun did not become a major label'', Sam Phillips said, ''was that I preferred to invest my time in other things. I didn't want to hook up with a major corporation because I knew I couldn't do the job the way I wanted to do it as part of a big company, even though I had several offers''. ''In the 1960s, things were changing rapidly and drastically as far as distribution was concerned. Most top-selling artists were lured away from the small companies during the latter part of the 1950s, and a number of the indie labels themselves were bought out. I could see what was coming and I wanted no part of it. It is not my way to work for somebody''.
Sam Phillips also saw that the days when you could get some cuts on tape, mastered, pressed, and promoted for a few hundred dollars were long gone. Modern sessions called for more musicians, most of whom demanded union scale. In fact, every facet of the industry, from the technical to the promotional, was becoming more expensive.
In the changing climate, albums were a necessity, and singles were increasingly seen as trailers or loss leaders for LPs. Phillips never truly believed in the album market; in fact, Shelby Singleton issued more albums of Sun product in the first year after he bought the catalog than Phillips had issued in fifteen years. Some have seen Phillips' lack of interest in the album market as evidence of his parsimony, but for him it was a much more complex issue: ''Albums weren't selling that much, but beyond that, I was always very cautious about not putting out a lot of product on my artists simply to ensure a certain level of income. I think that opportunity has always been abused by the major record companies. You only have to look at some of the crap they put out on Elvis Presley, with no regard for the man's great abilities''.
If the record business is a lottery, Sam Phillips accomplished one of the most difficult feats a gambler can: he had the good fortune to win the big money, and the good sense to reinvest his winnings broadly, instead of risking them all on the chance of an bigger payback. As Sun Records wound down, he bought radio stations, Holiday Inn stock (he was one of the first investors in the chain), properties with mineral rights, and so on. Though it's easy to lament his eventual departure from the recording industry, it's clear that financially he made the right choice. Knox Phillips explains his father's thinking: ''Sam wasn't going to gamble his money promoting records any more. He had seen some of his friends go broke, such as the people who ran Vee-Jay, and he became very conservative. We still had some records that sold well on a regional level, but there wasn't a commitment of spirit''.
© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©
A milestone of sorts. The last Sun record. The label that began by recording backporch music, primitive rhythm and blues, heartrending hillbilly, and then gave birth to rockabilly and a string of cultural icons, finally ended in January 1968 with Load Of Mischief. The 230 or so releases in the Sun catalog neatly encapsulate one of the great cultural upheavals in the 20th century. Sun started with black music and told the story of its assimilation over a 15 year period. That makes it fitting in a way that the last Sun record should be by a white band working in a style that owned much to then-current black music.
STUDIO SESSION FOR LOAD OF MISCHIEF
FOR SUN RECORDS 1967
SAM PHILLIPS RECORDING STUDIO
639 MADISON AVENUE, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
SUN
SESSION: UNKNOWN DATE LATE 1967
SESSION HOURS: UNKNOWN
PRODUCER AND RECORDING ENGINEER – SAM PHILLIPS
AND/OR KNOX PHILLIPS
01 - "I'M A LOVER" - B.M.I. - 2:24
Composer: - Mike Houseal
Publisher:
- Knox Music Incorporated
Matrix number: - U 377 Master - > Sun 401-407 Series <
Recorded: - Unknown Date Late 1967
Released: - January 1968
First appearance: - Sun Records (S) 45rpm
standard single SUN 407-B mono
I'M A LOVER / BACK IN MY ARMS AGAIN
Reissued: - 1997 Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 15805-2-25 mono
THE SUN SINGLES COLLECTION - VOLUME 5
Lead singer Davis Mayo was born in Memphis, and in 1965 he was leading a band called the Coachmen in Little Rock, Arkansas. He made his first recordings at Roland Janes' Sonic Studios on Madison Avenue. ''I met all the other guys in different bands'', says Mayo. ''Ken Woodley played keyboards, Ray Sanders was in a band called the Jokers, Mike Houseal played guitar, but the star was Larry Wall who played bass 'cause he'd come over from the Gentrys.
I knew the Coachmen were going to stay in Little Rock so I talked to all these guys and we rehearsed at Ken Woodley's house, and it clicked. I knew Knox and he signed us to Sun''.
The record hadn't been out long when Sam Phillips folded Sun to become president of Holiday Inn Records. He transferred the Load Of Mischief master to Holiday Inn, remixing it for its re-release, adding Charlie Chalmers' horn section. ''We weren't happy about that'', notes Mayo.
''I remember arguing with Sam about it. I told him that Columbia Records wasn't in the hotel business, so what was Holiday Inn doing in the record business? I took the unissued Sun masters over to Estelle Axton at Stax, and she signed us to their Hip label. We recorded as ''Paris Pilot'' for Hip. Don Nix was our producer''.
Mayo went on to work with Steve Cropper at his TMI Records, and then recorded with a band called Zuider Zee for Columbia (who were not in the motel business). By then he was under the aegis of British producer Gordon Mills (Tom Jones, Gilbert O'Sullivan, etc.) Ken Woodley and Mike Gardner hung around Don Nix's camp during the booze and pill-fueled 1970s and, until recently (1998), Ray Sanders was the house bass player at the restored Sun Studio on 706 Union Avenue.
02 – "BACK IN MY ARMS AGAIN'' - B.M.I. - 2:38
Composer: - Brian Holland-Lamont Dozier-Edward Holland
Publisher: - Jobete Music Publishing
Matrix number: - U 376 Master - > Sun 401-407 Series <
Recorded: - Unknown Date Late 1967
Released: - January
1968
First appearance: - Sun Records (S) 45rpm standard single SUN 407-A mono
BACK IN MY ARMS AGAIN / I'M A LOVER
Reissued: - 1997 Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 15805-2-26 mono
THE SUN SINGLES COLLECTION - VOLUME 5
03 – "BABY, YOU'VE GOT IT'' - B.M.I.
Composer: - Unknown
Publisher: - Copyright Control
Matrix number: - None - Not Originally Issued
Recorded: - Unknown Date Late 1967
Released: - 1987
First appearance: - P-Vine Records (LP) 33rpm PLP-343-A-7 mono
EARLY MEMPHIS SOUNDS - DEEP SOUL CLASSICS VOLUME 6
04 – "NOWHERE TO RUN''
Composer: - Unknown
Publisher: - Copyright Control
Matrix number: - None - Sun Unissued
Recorded: - Unknown Date Late 1967
Name
(Or. No. Of Instruments)
Load Of Mischief consisting of
David Mayo – Vocal
Mike
Houseal – Guitar
Ken Woodley – Organ
Ray Sanders – Bass
Larry
Wall - Drums
© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©