From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Fri Dec 27, 2002  7:19 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Scotty Moore

SCOTTY MOORE (By Colin Kilgour) [very long piece !]

Born Winfield Scott Moore III, 27 December 1931, Gadsden, Tennessee

Moore's frenetic rockabilly riffing powered many Presley hits. With Elvis
Aron right from the earliest 'off' at Sun, he reunited with the King after
Presley's stint in the Army, stayed with him through the early Hollywood
days but left after the '68 comeback special, to watch as the man and his
music declined.

Scotty spent a 14-year career as Elvis Presley's guitarist and his total
take was only some $30,000. He was only 3 years older than Elvis (and
almost identical in age to Carl Perkins).

In his advancing years Scotty is quite rightly being championed by several
of the musicians who followed him a decade or more later. Before recording
with him, Stones' lead guitar man Keith Richards (one of the legendary
'Reptiles of Rock') revisited Scotty's early work with Elvis. "Such tasteful
licks and so ominous.. such delicate finger picking. It was just a guitar,
an upright bass and an acoustic. The use of space ... silence is our
canvass, which a lot of cats don't realise but Scotty certainly does".

Another Richards' quote:
"When I heard Heartbreak Hotel, I knew what I wanted to do in life. It was
as plain as day. All I wanted to do in the world was to be able to play and
sound like that. Everyone else wanted to be Elvis, I wanted to be Scotty".

The majority of detail in this piece comes from my adaptation of extracts
out of 'That's Alright, Elvis' - Scotty Moore as told to James Dickerson ©
1997. I also referred to other Sun-abilia and have interpolated my own
comments as I felt it would help clarify or enhance the flow.

Finally, I've built in some info off the web and time hasn't allowed me to
cross check all statements. Hopefully it's about right give or take some -
but I do intend to revisit the piece, to expand my research and publish a
'follow up' in a few months time.

Scotty's Dad wooed his Mother by postcard, commencing his campaign early
in 1908. Winfield Scott Moore, a strapping 18-year-old six-footer had met
Mattie (16) the year before and back then couples didn't conduct their
courting by phone or car (there were none). The pair were married Aug. 7,
1910 and set up home some 80 miles n/e of Memphis, 120 s/w of Nashville

A year later they had the first of their 4 sons. Their only daughter died
aged 14 (from pneumonia) in 1928. To assuage her grief, Mattie (even at ages
38/40) wanted another daughter but with sons aged 14,17 and 20, on Dec. 27,
1931 Winfield Scott Moore III was born, at home, as was the custom in those
days. Home was a farm 5 miles from Gadsden and 5 miles from Humbolt
Tennessee.

"I was a mistake," says Scotty with characteristic good humour, "Boy did I
fool them". They called him Winfield, he didn't become Scotty until after he
left home and because of the age differences, he grew up in relative
isolation from his brothers.

Ralph (b. 1917) joined the Navy around 1936 and left his 'next in line'
5-year-old brother, his guitar, a combined farewell/school starting gift.
Before leaving, Ralph also showed the young fellow some guitar chords.

Scotty also picked up tips from his friends and neighbours. Aged 8, coming
home from school he misjudged a stunt and fell to the ground, bumping his
head against a concrete pavement. This resulted in a knot on his head and a
swollen right eye. Staying off school, nursing his wounds, he fooled with a
BB gun and took a bearing ricochet off a rusted barrel into his left eye. He
was thereafter legally blind in that one eye.

Mr. Boll Weevil, then the Great Depression made life hard for the Moores and
many others in those times. Daddy supplemented the income hauling logs
(horse and mule teams) and performing at square dances and parties. Scotty's
father was a natural born musician, self-taught on banjo and fiddle also
possessing a great bass voice. In turn he taught his sons to play the guitar.
Evenings after work and on Sunday afternoons, they sat on the porch
and performed for each other. Effectively, a family band of fiddle, banjo
and guitars, when they assembled they'd also entertain neighbours.

As a young guitar player, Scotty always wanted to play 'music you could
dance to' - as if there was some inner rhythm simmering inside him.

Leaving school, he worked on the family farm and used his earnings to buy
his first professional guitar, a big, Jumbo Gibson. It was black with
prophetically, a sunburst pattern on the front.

Tiring of farm work, he went back to school but felt restricted by all the
rules. By January 1948 he'd decided to follow two of his brothers into the
Navy and see the world. But the minimum age was 18, or 17 with a parent's
permission. Scotty was only 16 so he lied. Uncharacteristically his father
joined with him in the conspiracy, as verifier. (Don't ask me about that
'blind eye'!)

Before long, courtesy of the US Navy, the boy from West Tennessee away from
home for the first time, soon experienced Chicago, a train ride across the
Rockies to San Francisco, then south to San Diego. Before being assigned
to a ship he was given leave to go home.

En route, Scotty was involved in a bus accident in Texas. Had he not
decided to move from the back seat up to the front, a few minutes before
the crash, Elvis would have needed another guitarist for all those seminal
recording sessions.

The Cold War had begun in Europe. Scotty was sent to Hawaii then onto
Guam and China. His rank was Fireman III, one grade under third-class petty
officer. Below deck he monitored the ballast tanks, electric pumps and
generators.

He played his guitar on board, again favouring energetic renditions. "I was
never an instrumentalist - there's not a song I could play the melody all
the way through". He did things his own way, capturing the feel. When
asked how he came up with his licks, he replied that he was stretching, out
on a limb and that's what came out.

The quiet boy had a White Russian girlfriend in Shanghai but he married Mary
Durkee on March 12, 1950. Just like Elvis later, the newly-wed couple's
reproductive chemistry clicked on the first night or two, Mary immediately
becoming pregnant. Scotty soon sailed away on the USS Valley Forge, a
huge aircraft carrier, one of the most impressive vessels in the Navy's
fleet .... adding Japan and Hong Kong to his CV.

The Valley Forge launched the first carrier air strike of the Korean War
conflict early in July 1950. On Dec. 16, shortly before his 19th birthday,
Scotty became a father to a daughter, Linda. He was discharged from the
Navy Jan 4 '52 and headed Memphis way. He had sailed the Pacific for four
years, serving with honour in the China & Korean campaigns.

Ending up working at his brother Carney's dry-cleaning establishment, Scotty
had married a Yankee and life in the south didn't really suit her. The marriage

disintegrated and Mary headed back north. Scotty sued for divorce and she
had their son in the December of 1952.

His spell in the Navy meant experiences which widened both geographical and
musical horizons. He was exposed to jazz stylists like Tal Farlow and Django
Reinhardt and played in pickup combos whose styles changed from week to week.

WSM formed bands and got to know, play with and become close friends with
Bill Black. Once when Scotty was two players short for a booking, he asked
the Burnette brothers to perform with him. In those days Johnny played bass
and Dorsey steel guitar. Rehearsals went well enough but at the roadhouse
gig all hell broke loose and the Burnettes ended up fighting half the hall.
Dorsey got stuck in his thigh with a knife and Scotty decided not to use the
boys again

In June of 1953, Scotty married Bobbie Walls a born and bred southerner who
encouraged him in his dream of becoming a professional musician. He formed
(and managed) The Starlite Wranglers with Doug Poindexter on lead vocals,
Bill on bass.

Late in May of 1954, at Sun Studios they recorded 2 sides written by Scotty
although brother Carney and Poindexter were allocated some of the writing
credits for differing reasons. Scotty had chosen to approach Sun over the
alternative option of the Memphis Modern/RPM branch (operated by the Bihari
brothers).

The tracks were 'My Kind Of Carryin' On' and 'Now She Cares No More For Me'.
The disc, Sun 202, was released in the June, credited to Doug Poindexter's
Starlite Wranglers. Although it didn't sell too many, it did help cement a
good relationship between the very professional Scotty and Sam Phillips.

The historic Scotty/Elvis session came about as follows. Although
discouraged by his record's failure, Scotty was nonetheless encouraged that
he had broken the recording barrier. He stopped by 706 Union every day
after work to talk with Sam, hoping for more music business opportunities.
They both sensed something big was about to happen to music, though neither
had any idea what. Scotty is quoted in 1973 recalling "We started looking
for new talent together. From '52 until '54 I probably saw Sam about every day".

On his visit on Saturday July 3, 1954, Scotty, Sam and Marion Keisker (Sam's
secretary & office manager ... in the early days she had fallen in love with
Sam)
went next door to Taylor's Café for coffee. Scotty pressed Sam as to whether
he'd called the possibly promising Presley boy for a further try-out. Sam
finally
gave in and told Marion to go fetch the phone number .. this resulted in Scotty
being instructed to get Elvis over to his home for a run through (and verdict).

Rock-and-roll history does get a little muddy. If the Memphis Recording
Service session is the site of rock's Big Bang, then the fuse was lit the
day before -- at high noon on Independence Day -- a few blocks away at 983
Belz St.

Dateline Sunday 4 July, 1954. Although Scotty and Bill (who lived 3 doors
down from Scotty) weren't overly impressed with what Presley put out, Scotty
told Sam the boy potentially had something. "I told him: 'The kid's got a
good voice, knows all the songs in the world, but just like you told us, he
needs material.' " Sam decided to see how he sounded in the studio and
arranged a session for just the 3 performers (i.e. no other 'Wranglers'),
the following evening.

The story of how things eventually kicked into gear after an uninspiring
start has oft been told but in case you're unaware ......... There's a
little time left before the session ends. Presley suddenly chops an animated
rhythm on his guitar, vamping with a little country flavour on Arthur "Big
Boy" Crudup's blues hit "That's All Right." Ears perk up. Black picks up his
upright acoustic bass and falls in with a sly, propulsive slap-beat. Moore
comes in on his electric guitar with a heavier rhythm and some stabbing
single-note fills. Presley cuts loose. Sam Phillips sticks his head back
into the studio and asks, "What are you all doing?" We don't know!" "Well,"
Phillips suggests, "back up and do it again, let's get to recordin' that."

Many music 'bibles' give the renowned Sun session dates as the evening, then
small hours of July 4th/5th resp. Scotty's fairly recent biography however
has 'That's All Right' being cut some time between 7 p.m. and 2 a.m. across
July 5 and 6 with 'Blue Moon of Kentucky' being cut at some indeterminate
time between Friday 9th and Sunday 11th July.

Ernst Jorgensen in his 1999 book 'Elvis - Day by Day' written with Guralnick,
confirms that the exact date of the session which produced the B-side for
Elvis' first record is not known .. "Published dates are estimates, based on
anecdotal evidence and the most likely juxtaposition of events. There is no
verifiable certainty as to when 'Blue Moon of Kentucky' was actually recorded
or when Dewey Phillips first played Elvis on the air". Regarding the former,
this was representative of Sam's poor record keeping ... but hey, thank you
for the music Sam, we forgive you your lapses in penmanship!

The misleadingly quiet Scotty was clearly something of a 'swordsman'. The
very night (July 5th) of the session which launched a revolution in American
music, Scotty became a father again. His daughter Vicki was born to Frankie
Tucker, an aspiring nightclub singer Scotty had met in West Memphis, three
months into his marriage with Bobbie. It was six years before he learned the
news.

The exact release date of the new disc is also unknown but it is decreed Sun
209 and was released around mid-July.

One extra thing the B-side does do is provide a name: The Blue Moon Boys.
"That's All Right" (Sun 209) is credited to "Elvis Presley, Scotty and
Bill." Certainly the first five Sun singles were billed the same way. In
1955, the billing changed briefly to "Elvis Presley and the Blue Moon Boys"
an apparent outgrowth of Scotty's Navy band, The Happy Valley Boys.

The three of them soon had to join the musicians' union and Scotty became
Elvis' first personal manager for a 12 month period, on 10% terms.

In his book, Scotty gently questions some of Sam Phillips' recollections and
claims about the Presley 'discovery' e.g. that Sam had worked with Elvis
prior to the landmark July 1954 session but perhaps this is a question of
interpretation? Sam was on site when Elvis cut at least one if not both of
his two-sided acetates and more to the point did work for several hours with
Elvis with Elvis on 26 June '54 trying out on 'Without You'. Reference is also
made in Scotty's autobiog. to Sam perhaps diminishing Marion Keisker's
part in Elvis' genesis, thus enhancing his own 'credit' in the matter but this
may be a separate SAO project for another time.

Of Les Paul, Scotty says "he invented the electric guitar. Every guitar
player there is should bow down at his feet". Sam weaned Scotty away
from imitating his heroes like Paul, Chet Atkins and Merle Travis, towards
a different guitar style. "I tried to play around the singer. Rather than
trying to top the vocal, the idea was to play the other way - a counterpoint."

"I tried to keep it simple -- and simplicity, you know, that's something you
have to work at. I listen to some of the things now and I think, I could
have played a lot more stuff there. But I'm glad I didn't. Like on 'Don't Be
Cruel': I played the little intro on that and played a chord on the very end,
and that's all I played during the whole song. But it didn't need anything
else. That little rhythm thing Elvis was doing on his guitar and D.J. and the
Jordanaires [a vocal quartet often used by Presley] doing that little doo-wop
thing...Well, it just fell right in a groove, and I figured, maybe we'd better
leave well enough alone.

I was grateful for help in translation, within the book, to Sam's
encouragement to the Boys after the short/breakdown take of 'BM of K' ".
Fine man, hell that's different, that's a pop song now, nearly about .... "

As an aside, Keisker is cited as having hurriedly composed one of the verses
to 'I Don't Care If The Sun Don't Shine' in the Sunrush to get it recorded.
The song's originator agreed, on the strict understanding she wouldn't get
no remuneration for her trouble!

Which lines did she contribute I wonder? ...... maybe " .... It don't matter
if it's sleet or snow, a Drive In's cosy when the lights are low ...."

Now at RCA, Steve Sholes complained to Presley's Manager that Scotty and
Bill held up recording sessions and that faster and better records could be
made without them. It wasn't long before Col. Parker began gradually
disassociating the musicians from Presley, the rising star. Parker killed a
long-planned instrumental album and sought to further move Moore and Black
from being partners to salaried sidemen, paying them piecemeal for recording
sessions and tours, and badly at that. At one point, they were told not to
talk to Elvis -- except onstage. Finally, in 1957, Moore and Black quit,
telling reporters they were flat broke and couldn't afford to continue in
the King's court.

Though that schism healed, things were never the same. Presley sank further
under the sway of Parker and eventually incarcerated himself in Fortress
Graceland. Moore, Ace drummer D.J. Fontana (who some time back had
become their 'Third Man') and Black (who would die of a brain tumour in 1965)
continued to record with Presley and also appeared in the films "Loving You,"
"Jailhouse Rock" and "King Creole."

Things got worse in 1958, when Presley was drafted into the Army for two
years. The band was stuck. Scotty and Bill left in a dispute over money and
Moore went into a partnership in a garage studio (record label) named
Fernwood with the guy who built it, originally in harness with Jack Clement.

"From there - two years - I actually went working for Sam as the head of
production and engineering which would be about 1960, and I worked for
Sam four years before I moved out here to Nashville in '64."

In addition to working as an engineer and session musician, he played on
many of Presley's Nashville sessions at RCA's Studio B. Moore set up his
own Nashville studio, Music City Recorders, in 1966.

With Sam then, I worked with people like Jerry Lee Lewis, Charlie Rich,
Barbara Pittman... oh gosh there just was so many, at that period, that he
was recording. Sometimes I might play guitar, sometimes I might be
engineering, sometimes Sam might be engineering just depending on who
what and the time you know.

Things didn't get much better after Presley got out of the service. After a
brief flurry of concerts, he stopped touring to concentrate on his awful
movie career.

Then, in December 1968, Presley made his famous NBC "comeback special."
He turned to Moore and Fontana for the show's most famous segment, an
informal round-table jam in which the lithe, leather-clad singer revisited his
'50s
musical roots. He even commandeered Moore's Gibson Super 400 for one number.
The special gave Presley's moribund career a second wind, but was the last
time he worked with Scotty Moore.

"Afterwards, we went out to his house for dinner, and he called D.J. and me
into another room and asked if we'd like to do a European tour, something he
really wanted to do," Moore says. Presley said he wanted to book a big block
of studio time, too, to record with Moore in Memphis.

In fact, they never even talked again. "People asked why not, and I said he
could call me a lot easier than I could call him," Moore explains
diplomatically.
In early 1969, the final break occurred when Parker offered Moore, Fontana,
the Jordanaires and other long-time Presley backups insulting wages to drop
what they were doing and back Elvis at a Las Vegas concert. When they all
balked, Parker put together a new band. Moore put his guitar away for almost
a quarter of a century.

"When Elvis went to Vegas I figured that's it, he's got a whole new thing
happening there. When I saw that, I said the heck with it, I've got a studio
here in Nashville, I got plenty of work to do. I didn't officially say,
'Today I'm through.' I just didn't do anything. Sold all my equipment, the
guitars I had left, and just went about my business."

Over the next two decades, Moore focused on studio production and
engineering. Later he owned a tape duplication and print shop. He avoided
the limelight, living in a log house in the country outside Nashville, turning
down recording offers and interviews alike. Many of the people Moore worked
with had no idea he even played guitar, much less whom he'd played with.

In 1992, he finally picked up a guitar again, recording a pair of
limited-edition albums (now collectors' items) with his old pal Carl
Perkins, who had been battling throat cancer. "I felt like I was trying to
jack him up to get back going and at the same time he was doing that for
me," Scotty says.

'Moore' Lifelines:
March 1958
Scotty Moore and Bill Black leave Presley in a dispute over money.
Moore releases a single called "Rest" - credited to the Scotty Moore
Trio -on Fernwood and on the B-side was "Have Guitar Will Travel"
named after the TV series.

1958 on Fernwood records, Moore produced a hit record, "Tragedy",
for Thomas Wayne Perkins, brother of Johnny Cash guitarist, Luther
Perkins. Scotty is featured on guitar and production. Thomas Wayne's
"Tragedy," becomes a million-seller. Moore is also featured on guitar.

Another Fernwood connection was the only song Scotty ever pitched to Elvis.
" 'Girl Next Door Went A' Walking'. I produced the Thomas Wayne version.
Thomas wrote it."

1960 commenced recording sessions with Elvis at RCA and also served as
production manager at Sam Phillips Recording Service, which involved
supervising all aspects of studio operation.

1964/5
Scotty Moore releases his only solo album, The Guitar That Changed The
World, on Epic Records. He comments "Yes, and that one of course was
strictly of Elvis-tunes. We had basically the same personnel on the
recordings as we did with him. So really what it sounds like is like we took
his voice out. We had Boots Randolph on saxophone, The Jordanaires, D.J.
Fontana and Buddy Harman on drums, Bob Moore on bass and myself and
Jerry Kennedy on guitar, and the only one on there who hadn't worked with
Elvis on his sessions was Bill Pursell who played piano. Just for the reason
that Floyd Cramer was out of town and we couldn't get him to play when we
started cutting.

Album supervision was by Nashville super-producer Billy Sherrill.
"It was supposed to be one of a series," Moore remembers. "Billy sold CBS
[Epic's owner] on the idea that we could do a lot of the Elvis stuff- volume
one, volume two-and put them in chronological order. And CBS said, 'That's a
good idea.' But when it got down to doing the session, they said, 'Maybe you
ought to just do some of the bigger hits today, and we'll kind of test it.'
And when they did, that was the end of that project.
"I know they must have sold quite a few of them, because D.J. and I play
Europe every once in a while, and nearly every show, somebody comes up
with a copy and wants us to sign it. But the funny thing is, Sony owns Epic
and CBS and all that now, and every so often, I still get statements in the
mail from them telling me I still owe about $2,500 in production costs on that."
Light-heartedly, he adds, "When it's about money, they never forget."

Scotty relocates to Nashville to start Music City Recorders, a studio on
19th Avenue just off Music Row, and started Belle Meade Records.
Again this is a partnership venture (Bill Conner).

June 27, 1968
For the NBC "68 comeback" special at NBC's Burbank studios in California,
Moore and drummer D.J. Fontana reunite onstage with Elvis Presley for the
informal sit-down jam session that was a highlight of Presley's celebrated
special. This will be the final appearance and recording with Elvis for the
duo.

1970 engineered Ringo Starr's album "Beaucoups of Blues" at Music City
Recorders becoming the only person to work for the two most influential
independent labels in record history: Sun Records and Apple Records.

About the Beatles, SM said "When their first records were released over here
and people were saying well peep up today and gone tomorrow", I said "Well
you'd better stop and listen again, you know, because it's definitely good
music". It might be a bunch of noise to some folks but if you really listened
deep to it they had their own feeling, but to me they had the same type of
feeling that we had when we started. There was a certain spontaneous
quality about it.

1973 sold Memphis City Recorders and began freelance engineering
primarily out of Monument Studios.

1975 played and recorded with long-time friend Carl Perkins for the first
time on Carl's "EP Express" for Mercury Records.

1976 bought the building where Monument studios was housed and
opened Independent Producers Corporation, a tape-duplication business,
but continued to do freelance engineering.

From the mid 70's to early 80's engineered many television shows for
Opryland Productions with and for entertainers such as Dolly Parton, Carol
Burnett, Ann-Margret, Bob Hope, Perry Como, Minnie Pearl, Johnny Cash,
Jerry Lee Lewis, Joey Heatherton and others.

1989 served as a consultant for a weekly ABC-TV series titled "Elvis"
focusing on the early years.

1992 returned to Sun Studio in Memphis to begin an album with Carl
Perkins titled "706 ReUnion: A sentimental Journey" released on Belle
Meade Records (separate post follows). In August performed live again
for the first time since the 68 Comeback special with Carl at Ellis
Auditorium as part of the "Good Rockin' Tonight" show featuring the Sun
Rhythm section, James Burton, D.J. Fontana, Ronnie McDowell and the
Jordanaires followed by a small tour in England.

1993 with D.J. appeared in a Telethon in Jackson Tennessee with and for
Carl Perkins. Later that year in response to a letter from Mike Eldred,
guitarist for Lee Rocker's band Big Blue, travelled to Memphis to meet and
record with them.

1994 played on a session at the request of and produced by Gary Tallent,
bass player for Bruce Springsteen's E St. Band with Sonny Burgess.

1997 reunited with D.J. Fontana to record the tribute album "All the
King's Men" which featured all-star backing by acolytes of the two Presley
sidemen, including his champion, Keith Richards. In September SM is
inducted into Guitar Centre's Rockwalk in Hollywood and Nashville with
Chet Atkins and Duane Eddy.

July 1, 1997
'706 ReUnion: A Sentimental Journey', a collaboration between Scotty Moore
and Carl Perkins, is released on Belle Meade Records.

Thursday July 29th, 1999
Beatles producer Sir George Martin recently opened his North London
Air Studios. Music personalities came to honour their legendary inspiration
and guitar hero-Scotty Moore. This exclusive event commemorated the
launch of the latest Gibson signature guitar - the Scotty Moore model -
based on the original ES-295. This was the guitar Scotty played on those
early recordings.

The first of the new 'Scotty Moore' instruments was presented to the
guitarist himself at the party by the Gibson CEO. Yet another Richards
quote .. "Scotty Moore was the mid-wife at the birth of rock 'n' roll."

With his usual self-deprecation and humility, Scotty said "I hadn't realised
I was so important to so many people."

Gibson Guitars, in their 105th year, remain an American icon. Their new
office at 21 Denmark Street, London, displays a large quantity of their
finest instruments for use by Gibson artists in recording sessions, video
shoots and live performances.

March 6, 2000
Scotty Moore is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the
fifteenth annual induction dinner. Mike Leiber and Jerry Stoller are his
presenters.

March 6, 2000
'All the King's Men' is released on Sweetfish Records. It features Scotty
Moore and D.J. Fontana joined by an array of guests including Keith
Richards, the Band, Cheap Trick, Ron Wood and Jeff Beck. I'm sorry
but this is a poor record.

Recently still busy recording and engineering at Belle Meade Records and
periodically touring and performing with Lee Rocker, Ronnie McDowell and
The Mike Eldred Trio among others.

Reminiscing on the old days "There were no stage monitors back then to
hear yourselves play. D.J. would watch Elvis like a hawk. Elvis loved for
him to accent stuff just like you would... Well, DJ did play for strippers
back in his younger days. And I told this guy, Well, we're probably the only
group in the world led by an ass! I was talkin' about Elvis' movements,"
he laughed loudly.

Jorgensen (p.104) describes Scotty's 'salvation' job on the title track of
'King Creole'. "Scotty came up with a finger-bleeding guitar solo, which
completed the song's transformation into straight rock 'n' roll."

This writer always wonders how Scotty emerges from the solo on "Too Much"
where he freely admits even he may have gone to a place of no return. But
emerge, with honours, he does as always.

Another solo which drew comment was the second guitar break on 'Hound Dog'
Richards again " It sounded like you just took off your guitar, dropped it on
the
floor and it got the perfect sound." SM laughed "I don't know how I got it
either.
I was actually pissed off to tell' ya the truth."

"It was just... Sometimes in the studio you do it too many times and you go
past that peak. Like three takes before was really the one you should use.
That was it. We had done the thing, ("Hound Dog"). I think it was printed
somewhere that we did it about forty. But if someone was counting it off,
just a couple notes and we stop, that's a take. You know? 'Take Two.'
But I was frustrated for some reason and in the second solo I just went,
BLAH," he laughed.

The Autobiog. has Scotty still living in a rural area northwest of Nashville,
where (surprise) he has converted rooms to create a studio and sound booth.

"My only problem now is a little arthritis in my left thumb that slows me
down a little bit once in a while."

He does not surprisingly have his gripes about remuneration. He doesn't mind
that he makes no money from the continued sales of Presley's familiar songs;
he was paid for playing on them, and that's that, as far as he's concerned.
But he feels differently about the issuing of previously unheard takes on
platters
such as Sunrise, put out by RCA, Presley's long-time label, in 1999.

Thanks to a complicated set of accounting gyrations, RCA has been able to
shrink what it owes Moore to practically nothing. For Sunrise, he says, he's
received a single check for $42.25. Nonetheless, he has no plans to initiate
any lawsuits over such practices. "Things'd get too nasty. It'd be too big a
fight. But there'd be some fur flying if Elvis was still alive."
Moore, who last played with Elvis around the time of the '68 TV special,
watched Presley's demise from a distance, saddened by his deteriorating
physical condition and unimpressed by much of the music. "I think the stuff
in the '70s was a little overproduced," he says, "and I don't know if it was
as good as his first things. You know, when D.J. and I play, we never get a
request for anything pretty much out of the '50s. But when Elvis would do
those songs later, he'd just throw them away in medleys-do them really fast,
like, 'I hate to have to do this.' And that would always bug me."

Me too, Scotty.

Today, Scotty Moore, like the American public that voted for the Young Elvis
postage stamp over the Las Vegas Elvis, prefers to remember the Elvis he
worked with rather than the one who abandoned him.

It's possible that Presley might never have found his voice, his identity,
his destiny without Moore's electric prod. Scotty was never a man to seek
attention. He was introspective and happiest when he could avoid being the
centre of attention.

I saw Scotty and D.J. play in Spring 1999 (posted up in SAO) and it was just
fantastic.

Of Bill, 'the most affable man in the world', Scotty said "He never met a
stranger."

The simple 'dedication' in the book is .... To Bill Black (1926 - 1965).
Good man yourself, Bill.

Hopefully it will be many a Blue Moon before the Blue Moon Boys are fully
reunited.

Happy Birthday, Scotty ..... play us a lick.

Websites:
http://www.scottymoore.net/
go onto http://www.scottymoore.net/scotty_moore_discography.html
and clicking further gives useful info on who's done what, alternate
versions etc.
and don't miss http://www.scottymoore.net/links.html
http://www.geocities.com/ronmcdfan/scottymoore/>

Recommended Reading:
A Life In Music : The Complete Recording Sessions. Ernst Jorgensen.
Scotty Moore: The Guitar That Changed the World." By Escott, Colin. Goldmine
(August 23, 1991): 8-12.
That's Alright, Elvis: The Untold Story of Elvis's First Guitarist and Manager,
Scotty Moore. By Moore, Scotty and James Dickerson. New York: Schirmer
Books, 1997. (Paperback 2000.)
"The Return of the King's Men."
By Sylvester, Bruce. Goldmine (January 2, 1998): 38-50

Recommended Recordings:
A Presley compilation of the Complete Sun Sessions.
A Presley compilation of the later 1950s recordings.
A Presley compilation of the early - mid 60s recordings (+ as final item).
The Guitar That Changed The World

Recommended Video/DVD:
"Elvis '68 Comeback Special"