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I have been re-reading a five-year series of emails I received from Billy Lee Riley, one of the rockabilly heroes from the great period of the Sun Studios in Memphis. Apart from his early rockabilly hits (some with Jerry Lee Lewis on piano), he made many outstanding albums of blues, country and rock 'n' roll throughout his career. He played a mean blues harmonica, but he styled himself "The Hillbilly Rocking Man".
Billy sadly passed away on 2 August, 2009. Almost six months before he died, he had emailed me and others (his friends like Mac Curtis and J. M. Van Eaton) the following message containing a (forwarded) modern parable called The Pastor and his son.
Having just returned from the USA, Washington DC and Virginia, where there seem to be churches on almost every block, I think that this email and parable reflect and reveal just how deeply religious many Americans really are, especially the Southern rock 'n' roll artists and many of the bluesmen.
First, listen to Billy Lee Riley, from different periods of his career:
Red Hot
Flying Saucers Rock 'n' Roll
Pearly Lee
Rock 'n' Roll Money
I hear you knockin'
Billy Lee with Slim Harpo's Band
More of Billy Lee
His last email to me:
From: billyleeriley@*******
Subject: FW: The Pastor and his son
Date: Sat, 14 Feb 2009 14:43:29 -0600
I hope if it needs changing this will help change your life. Because JESUS does love you
Billy Lee Riley
Subject: Fw: The Pastor and his son
The Pastor and his son -
"Every Sunday afternoon, after
the morning service at the church, the
Pastor and his eleven year old
son would go out into their town and hand out Gospel Tracts. This particular Sunday afternoon, as it came
time for the Pastor and his son to go to the streets with their tracts, it
was very cold outside, as well as pouring down rain.
The boy bundled up in his
warmest and driest clothes and said, 'OK, dad, I'm ready.' His Pastor dad asked, 'Ready
for what?'
'Dad, it's time we gather our tracts
together and go out.'
Dad responds, 'Son, it's very cold outside
and it's pouring down rain.'
The boy gives his dad a surprised look,
asking, 'But Dad, aren't people still going to Hell, even though it's
raining?'
Dad answers, 'Son, I am not
going out in this weather.'
Despondently, the boy asks,
'Dad, can I go? Please?'
His father hesitated for a
moment then said, 'Son, you can go. Here are the tracts, be careful son.'
'Thanks Dad!'
And with that, he was off and
out into the rain. This eleven year old boy walked the streets of the town
going door to door and handing everybody he
met in the street a Gospel Tract.
After two hours of walking in
the rain, he was soaking, bone-chilled wet and down to his VERY LAST TRACT. He stopped
on a corner and looked for someone to
hand a tract to, but the streets were totally deserted.
Then he turned toward the
first home he saw and started up the sidewalk to the front door and rang the
door bell. He rang the bell, but nobody answered.
He rang it again and again,
but still no one answered.. He waited but still no answer.
Finally, this eleven year old
trooper turned to leave, but something stopped him. Again, he turned to the door and rang
the bell and knocked loudly on the door with his fist. He waited, something
holding him there on the front porch!
He rang again and this time
the door slowly opened.
Standing in the doorway was a
very sad-looking elderly lady. She softly asked, 'What can I do for you,
son?' With radiant eyes and a smile that lit up her world, this little boy
said, 'Ma'am, I'm sorry if I disturbed
you, but I just want to tell you that *JESUS REALLY DOES LOVE YOU* and I came to
give you my very last Gospel Tract which will tell you all about JESUS and
His great LOVE.'
With that, he handed her his
last tract and turned to leave.
She called to him as he
departed. 'Thank you, son! And God Bless You!'
Well, the following Sunday
morning in church Pastor Dad was in the pulpit.
As the service began, he
asked, 'Does anybody have testimony or want to say anything?'
Slowly, in the back row of the
church, an elderly lady stood to her feet.
As she began to speak, a look
of glorious radiance came from her face,
'No one in this church knows me. I've never
been here before.
You see, before last Sunday I
was not a Christian. My husband passed on some
time ago, leaving me totally
alone in this world. Last Sunday, being a particularly cold and rainy day, it
was even more so in my heart that I came to the end of the line where I no longer had
any hope or will to live. So I took a rope and a chair and ascended the
stairway into the attic of my home. I
fastened the rope securely to a rafter in the roof, then stood on the chair
and fastened the other end of the rope around my neck. Standing on that
chair, so lonely and brokenhearted I was about to leap off, when suddenly the
loud ringing of my doorbell downstairs startled me. I thought,
'I'll wait a minute, and
whoever it is will go away.'
I waited and waited, but the
ringing doorbell seemed to get louder and more insistent, and then the person ringing also
started knocking loudly.
I thought to myself again,
'Who on earth could this be? Nobody ever rings my bell or comes to see me.' I
loosened the rope from my neck and started for the front door, all the while
the bell rang louder and louder.
When I opened the door and
looked I could hardly believe my eyes, for there on my front porch was the most radiant
and angelic little boy I had ever seen
in my life. His SMILE, oh, I could never describe it to you! The words that
came from his mouth caused my heart that had long been dead, TO LEAP TO LIFE
as he exclaimed with a cherub-like voice, 'Ma'am, I just came to tell you
that JESUS REALLY DOES LOVE YOU.' Then he gave me this Gospel Tract that I now hold in my hand.
As the little angel
disappeared back out into the cold and rain, I closed my door and read slowly every word of this
Gospel Tract. Then I went up to my attic to get my rope and chair. I wouldn't
be needing them any more.
You see-- -I am now a Happy
Child of the KING. Since the address of your church was on the back of this
Gospel Tract, I have come here to personally say THANK YOU to God's little
angel who came just in the nick of time and by so doing, spared my soul from
an eternity in hell.'
There was not a dry eye in the
church. And as shouts of praise and honor to
THE KING resounded off the
very rafters of the building, Pastor Dad descended from the pulpit to the
front pew where the little angel was seated.
He took his son in his arms
and sobbed uncontrollably.. Probably no church has had a more glorious
moment, and probably this universe has never seen a Papa that was more filled
with love & honor for his son... Except for One.
Our Father also allowed His
Son to go out into a cold and dark world. He received His Son back with joy
unspeakable, and as all of heaven shouted praises and honor to The King, the
Father sat His beloved Son on a throne far above all principality and power
and every name that is named.
Matthew 10:32 says:
'Whoever acknowledges Me
before men, I will acknowledge him before My Father
in heaven. But whoever disowns
Me before men, I will disown him before My Father in heaven'
Live Well - Laugh Often - Love
Much"
As a postscript, what Billy Lee and others wrote about a CD I once recorded at Sun, Memphis!
"I listened to your CD and was very impressed", Billy Lee Riley, 24 March 2005 "Perfect command of the genre...a magnificent job", Rockin' Fifties magazine, December 2004. "A hell of a feeling for the blues....delightfully authentic album....I look forward to hearing much more from a genuinely gifted performer", Bryan Chalker, Music Maker magazine, June/July 2005. "I really liked the CD. Your love for blues and rock and roll music really shines through.... Listening to your CD actually made me feel like I was listening to the soundtrack from a TV-show. I even saw the pictures in my head, of you taking us on a trip around Memphis (and the rest of the south) talking about blues and rock & roll and taking us to the important/historic places in blues/rock and roll history!" Arild Rønes, Rockboard. "Music to listen to at home, late at night with a bottle of whisky", The BlackCat (Marijn Raaimakers) And a great review from Bosnia/Herzegovina/Serbia |
"On The Memphis Road!" predstavlja Jimov hommage zlatnim godinama "Sun" istorije. Na izdanju se naslo 10 numera, od kojih je samo poslednja, "It Took Fifty Years In The Making, That Rock 'n' Roll", njegov autorski rad, dok ostatak materijala cine klasici, kao sto su "Mystery Train", "That's All Right Mama", "No More Doggin", "Movie Magg", "I Can't Be Satisfied"...
Materijal je snimljen 7. jula 2004. godine, snimatelj je bio James Lott, a Jim je sve otpevao sam uz pratnju gitare i na nekim mestima harmonike. Na svoj nacin ovaj 60-to godisnjak pun zivotne energije ispituje prvu dekadu "Sun" istorije uspevsi da postigne autenticnost ondasnjeg vremena i ubedljivost emotivnog i izvodjackog pristupa. Dok preslusavate materijal ne mozete se oteti utisku da Jim zapravo nije savremenik Perkinsa, Hookera ili Burneta. "On The Memphis Road!" jos jednom podseca na period kada se u proslom veku stvarala muzicka istorija, a Jim Potts je pokazao da njegovo "vidjenje" ume da bude blisko autenticnom izvodjenju njegovih uzora.
Rough Translation:
"On The Memphis Road!" presents Jim's homage to the golden years of "Sun" history. The release includes 10 tracks, of which only the last, "It Took Fifty Years In The Making, That Rock 'n' Roll", is the author's composition, while the rest of the material consists of classics, such as "Mystery Train", "That's All Right Mom "," No More Doggin "," Movie Magg "," I Can't Be Satisfied "..
The material was recorded on July 7, 2004, the producer was James Lott, and Jim sang everything to his own guitar accompaniment and in some places with mouth-organ. In his own way, this 60 year-old, full of life and energy, examines the first decade of Sun's history, succeeding in capturing the authenticity of the time and the conviction of an emotional and accessible performance. While listening to the material, you get the the impression that Jim is actually a contemporary of a Perkins, a Hooker, or a Burnett. Once again, "On The Memphis Road!" recalls the period when musical history was being created in the past century, and Jim Potts has shown that his "vision" can be a closely authentic performance of his models.
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