| ||||
|
Arts & Entertainment Books Comics Health & Body Media Mothers Who Think News  PeoplePolitics2000 Technology - Free Software Project Travel & Food  Columnists
Current Click here to read the latest stories from the wires. - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - Also Today For a full list of today's Salon People stories, go to the
People home page. - - - - - - - - - - - - Search Salon - - - - - - - - - - - - Recently in Salon People Nothing Personal People Feature Nothing Personal Rogues' Gallery Nothing Personal - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |
Sam the Sham | page 1, 2
Soon, though, leader Andy Anderson fell in love and went home to Louisiana. Band member David Martin told Samudio he was the man –- the new leader of the newly rechristened group. Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs were ready to make history. But history gave them the brush-off at first. "Haunted House," their 1964 shot at stardom, was not a hit. Prospects for the next single were judged in some quarters to be equally bleak. "Some jerk here in Memphis told me my chances of getting a gold record [with 'Wooly Bully'] were 9,000 to 1," says a still-indignant Sam, "and he sat down with a pencil and showed me." And that's why people play the lotteries. "Wooly Bully's" famous countdown intro was another bit of chance, a happy accident to go along with George Harrison's opening feedback on "I Feel Fine" and Roger Daltrey's stuttering vocal on "My Generation." But while the latter two examples apparently started as mistakes but were then carefully re-created on the final recordings, Samudio's Tex-Mex countdown was truly spontaneous -- a bit of studio goofing that producer Stan Kessler decided to keep. "I said 'Naw, man, don't leave that in there,'" Samudio once admitted in an interview with Jeff Jarema in Here 'Tis magazine. "We argued and he won the argument. I'm kinda glad he did." "Wooly Bully" was a worldwide sensation and sold millions, reaching No. 2 on the Billboard charts in the summer of '65. Some minor hits followed -- "Ju Ju Hand," "Ring Dang Do," as well as overlooked albums like 1966's "On Tour." This was not novelty music, but serious R&B. However, Sam's next big smash, charting later that year, would be another fun number. "L'il Red Riding Hood" may not be a Hall of Fame classic, but it does manage to convey leering sexual menace in a surprisingly breezy and light-hearted way. Like its hit predecessor, it got all the way to No. 2. In the '60s, Sam the Sham cut quite a figure. "The guy was so glamorous," Booth says. "He had that olive skin, well-built, dark curly hair ..." Not to mention the hearse. Samudio's favorite mode of transportation during his heyday places him in yet another rock trivia category (alongside Neil Young). The funeral wagon went well with a concert repertoire that included songs like "Witchcraft" and "Hoochie Coochie Man." By the time of "L'il Red Riding Hood," the "Wooly Bully"-era Pharaohs had been deposed in favor of new players. Follow-up albums like 1968's "Ten of Pentacles" were not critical or commercial successes, and by 1970 Sam the Sham was ready to try something new. His "Sam Hard and Heavy" LP, credited to Sam Samudio, featured Duane Allman on guitar, the Dixie Flyers and the Memphis Horns. "I'll never understand why that album didn't do better," his friend Booth complains. It did win a Grammy-for best liner notes (a little like winning the Nobel Prize for origami. Still, it confirmed once and for all that the man has a way with words). The '70s were spent in a variety of ways -- sometimes gigging, sometimes working as a deckhand. Samudio became a preacher. During occasional appearances at oldies shows he played mostly gospel music, and could even be found holding forth to passers-by in Memphis' Court Square. Not that the occasional promoter wouldn't try to bring back the old days. "Once I tried to discourage an individual who called me," Samudio recalls. "He'd called from Vegas, I believe. I said, 'The only way I'd ever go out on the stage in Vegas is if I had 16 dancing girls in veils; two live camels onstage; I'd like to be brought in on a sedan chair with four eunuchs, and the whole procession led by a dwarf.' There was a silence on the other end," Samudio says. "And then the promoter said, 'Sounds great. We'll book it.'" Samudio no longer needs that sort of coaxing. He and guitarist Mark Newman will do an eight-date tour in the fall, starting Sept. 25 in Glens Falls, N.Y., then moving on to Sarasota, Fla., Omaha, Neb., Pueblo, Colo., and Utica, N.Y., among others. The former Pharaoh now appears to have reconciled his earthly hits with his still-strong spiritual beliefs. "If you go out there with a 10-pound Bible and a baseball bat, you won't help anybody," he muses. "We play one gospel number, 'It Ain't Easy.' It's not in-your-face gospel. And we do 'Wooly Bully,' 'L'il Red Riding Hood,' 'Ring Dang Do' -- we do Crossroads à la Delta." "You know, it's not how many notes you play. It's when, and with what intensity. I've seen it so many times -- people come in with a stack of amps that'd blow the trees over in Lower Slobovia. And after all the notes and all the noise, somebody'll get up with a beat-up old gut-bucket guitar and hit one note, and stand the trees back up." Samudio has another motive for returning to the concert trail. Call it a mission. "My name's been getting a lot of bad promo lately." Really? Why? "Washington. Every time you turn around someone's tossing my name around: 'This bill is a sham; this whole agenda is a sham.' Will the real Sham please stand up?" Amen to that.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
About the writer Sound off - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Search Salon | |||
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
