Death Day...August 16 1977

Ok..33 years ago, Jill and I are living at 100 North Main in Memphis... Lowenstein Towers 20th floor over looking the Mighty Mississippi.

The previous night we had played and engagement with MudBoy at an old porn theatre on Madison that had been converted into a Rock and Roll Joint.. I believe it was called the Ritz... A couple of years earlier, I had seen "Behind the Green Door" there.


Knox Phillips on death day

Following the performance, Dickinson and I were talking to Herbie O'Mell. Herbie said that he had earlier heard from Joe Espsito at Graceland and Elvis had not come down from upstairs in 2 days or so and everyone was getting worried. We collect our fifty bucks or whatever and go on home. The following day is my birthday.. Jill and I are lounging around the apt.. I actually was on some pretty heavy pain meds at the time as Pat Rainer and I had been in a pretty serious auto accident over by the Pink Palace just a few days earlier.. so I had a big patch on my face where some glass had cut me during the accident.

Dickinson call up about 1:30pm and asks if we had heard the news. About 30 minutes later, while still on the phone the news flash came across the TV. Dickinson said he was headed into town. We all meet up at Phillips Recording... where the phone is ringing off the hook. Knox and Ricky were there. Robert Palmer calls at some point and says he'll be in Memphis in 3 hours. Robert, from the "Insect Trust" band had become a senior music writer at the NY Times
Robert Palmer and Randall Lyon Death Day 1977

Palmer arrives a few hours later via taxi (which cost him a fortune as there were few taxis available and hotel rooms were really hard to get). I end up driving Robert to Graceland. It was a madhouse. The picture below is Palmer outside the gates of Graceland on this day 33 years ago. I also took photos at the funeral a few days later. If you'll remember, there were at least two Elvis fans hanging outside the gate that were killed by passing motorists.

I thought it might be appropriate to publish these pictures, or let them escape on this day in 2010..
almost to the minute of when this saga began.

Other folks who showed up at Phillips during this 3 day period were Tav Falco, Charles Rateri, Randall Lyon, Pat Rainer and several of the Sun artists who had recorded concentrically with Elvis..



Robert Palmer NY Times at Graceland on Death Day

Turquoise and Leather

I was born in Memphis
Youngest brother out of three
raised down in Dixie
in the south of Tennessee
My Daddy was a hustler
Momma worked most every night
In the streets I learned to do the boogie
In the joints I learned to fight

Call Me Hootchie Cootchie Man
Jerry McGill



For those reading this soap opera who may not be familiar with McGill.. there are some things you should be made aware of. Jerry was friends with Waylon early.. long before the bigger records when Waylon was playing shows at the roadhouses in the American southwest. They were all buds with Duane Eddy who was Jessi Colter's first husband. In the mid 60's Waylon was just assembling the band that would eventually play on the "Honky Tonk Heroes and Me" album, which would be the first real breakaway album from the traditional Nashville method. On trips from the west coast to Nashville, McGill started bringing back turquoise and silver jewelry that he had acquired from his native American friends. Within a very short time every country music star in Nashville was wearing this type jewelry. Turquoise became a rage for a few years. McGill was singlehandedly responsible for this.

Jerry also acquired and was wearing leather clothes from the Indians before anyone else in Nashville. Country music didn't want leather clothes.. It didn't fit the mold in 1970. When Waylon put on leather clothes the "outlaw" movement became a reality.. or at least one that Nashville execs figured they had better package and promote like Wheaties. There were country music outlaws before the movement.. always had been.. just nobody called their names.

Now I can tell you this first hand... McGill has never compromised.. It's all or nothing, always has been. If you were to hang around Jerry.. you'll do more living in three hours than you would in your normal life in 3 years. Even now at 70 years old with diabetes and half a lung he can get more out of life than you can imagine.. It would make Keith Richards' eyes spin.





This is Jerry in May 2010 at Playground

Steve Fisher "Nothing But Hope"

As the New Year has turned over.. we can hardly say 2010 much less write it down.. however studios are like casinos.. no natural light and no clocks.. after a three year project, Steve Fisher's "Nothing But Hope" is finally on the forecast to be released. Masters have been sent to the manufacturer and art is on the way.. so we are about a month out for retail copies. Steve has crafted some fine songs into an Americana Symphony.. actually we like to call it the "Boggy Bayou Hobo Orchestra". To accompany these quatrains, some fine musicians are featured on this disk. Clayton's guitar work exceeds Nashville twang. This is what a telecaster is supposed to sound like. Fred Dumalot overdubbed drums on the entire project (a feat in itself) and Doug plays some memorable mandolin on these American poems. There will be a limited amount available on the Playground website www.playgroundrecordingstudio.com. The cover photo is by Shelley Swanger and graphic art by Willie Warren Meigs

News from PRS

News from Playground

Our good buddy, Larry Tenor, formerly keyboard man with "Little Feat" has found true love and is leaving the panhandle for Tennessee and has graciously left us his 1966 Hammond B3. We have been putting the B3 on everything.

Special product "Georgia Pines" has officially escaped and is available at www.playgroundrecordingstudio.com. "Georgia Pines" was written by Buddy Buie and John Rainey Adkins.. originally made famous by Wilbur Walton Jr. and The James Gang, this Cd/EP is a track by Beaverteeth, sung by Charlie Silva, Jimmy "Orion" Ellis and Jimmy Louis PLUS has an instrumental track. Dothan's Jimmy Dean is playing on the tracks.


Muscle Shoals super group "The Decoys" were in the panhandle last week with Alabama Leaning Man Donnie Fritz. Scott Boyer (from the group "Cowboy") also with "The Decoys" was in the studio to assist with a Rip Wright session.

"Lost Soul" The Playground Series Vol. 2 has been compiled and will be available for single song download from CD Baby in a couple of weeks. "Lost Soul", the follow-up to "Soul Resurrection" has tracks by Count Willie, Connor Cagle, Johnny Dynamite, Len Wade, John Hamilton and Doris Allen, The Truths Inc., Reuben Howell and many more. Most all of these tracks are backed by the original PLayground Rhythm Section, which include Dothan Musicians, David Adkins, John Rainey Adkins, and Jimmy Dean. We'll post the CDBaby link as soon as it is available.

WE have also begun work on the compilation of a Wilbur Walton Jr. project (Unreleased) that was recorded in 1973. These are some tremendous WW Jr. performances and some great songs. Songs like "Eternity", "Are You Hiding" and "Simple People" anchor this project.. and Wilbur is rockin'!



"BigWater", the Boggy Bayou Band has been performing live in the panhandle quite a bit lately.. and has begun a recording project. The first 3 songs are Dan Penn's "Tiny Hiney's and Hogs", Reuben Howell's "Mr. Important Person" and Mason Arnold's "Clever Devils". www.myspace.com/bigwater1

We have recently begun studio projects on singer/songwriters Amy Hart and Duane Mays.

BigWater

BigWater pix... more below
Jack Jernigan Clayton Lancaster

Photos by Lily
More BigWater at www.playgroundrecordingstudio.com
www.myspace.com/bigwater1
and www.myspace.com/playgroundrecordingstudio

BigWater Rocks Niceville

BigWater is Jim, Jill, Clayton Lancaster, Warren Meigs and Ed Kollis. Dubbed the "Boggy Bayou Band" are all members of the Playground team. We all live around the bayous that surround the twin cities of Valparaiso and Niceville in the Florida panhandle. You can find us playing fairly regularly around the Twin Cities at either Bayou Blues or Woody's Hog Heaven. Playing a mixture of swamp funk, R&B and Americana, BigWater concentrates on unique material and song choices. We have gone into the Playground archives and retrieved some material recorded at the studio by artists like Reuben Howell, Doris Allen and Big John Hamilton. We also pull material from folks we have worked with in the past including Dan Penn, Jim Dickinson, Willie Mitchell, Chips Moman, and Buddy Buie. These include some great songs that may have never even been released or in some cases even recorded. A good array of original material is also included in our set list.
BigWater will also include special guests like Amy Hart,Bobby Elmore, Jack Jernigan and many more depending on who is in the audience. This Friday, BigWater is backing Kathy Lyon from Pensacola at Woody's Hog Heaven in Niceville. We would be pleased to have you attend and enjoy a blend of Americana roots and Jazz tunes provided by Kathy.
Bobby "Blues" Elmo sitting in with the BigWater Band
Pix by Lilley