METEOR ROCKABILLY

Description

Housed in a former grocery store in a remote industrial district, Meteor Records lived in the shadow of the Sun label in the 1950s in Memphis. It was run by Lester Bihari, the affable brother of Joe, Jules and Lester Bihari, as an outpost of their thriving Modern/RPM label in Los Angeles. Hoping to rival Sun, Meteor got off to a promising start in 1952 with Elmore James’ R&B hit “I Believe” recorded in Chicago. Although commendable, subsequent R&B releases proved less successful. However, a second hit, this time in the country realm, Bud Deckelman’s “Daydreamin’” in late 1954, breathed new life into Meteor and piqued Lester’s interest in recording rockabilly artists, especially now that newcomer Elvis Presley was breaking through on Sun. Soon, they came to visit: local honky-tonk shouters like Bill Bowen and Brad Suggs, out-of-state rockabillies (Junior Thompson, Steve Carl), determined amateurs (Jess Hooper and Wayne McGuiness) and a handful of Sun renegades (Charlie Feathers and Malcolm Yelvington). Each had something cool to say and left it for posterity at Meteor, one of the most collectible post-war labels since few records were distributed beyond Memphis and its environs. The sign on the canopy out front boasted of "The Supreme Achievement of Recorded Sound," but in reality the sound was quite the opposite - blurry, dark, and mysterious, governed by whoever was closest to the microphone in Meteor's poorly equipped studio, located in a back room with poor acoustics. Meteor's studio was made to keep its secrets, and that's where the magic lay. No one was ever paid, and no one was invited back for a second session. At some point during the summer of 1957, Lester Bihari turned off the lights, closed Meteor’s shop for the last time, and left without bothering to take the masters and all documentation, mythifying the label with this last turn of the key. The unconscious truth of Meteor Rockabilly is our truth: it let the music speak for itself, unadorned and free from commercial imperatives.