Friday 19 April 2013

Flying Saucers Baby!


RAY SCOTT - Born on March 26, 1929 in Bicknell, Indiana. Died 1999.
Ray Scott's place in rock and roll history was assured when he penned the song 'Flying Saucer Rock And Roll'. He wrote the song in 1956 and the following year it was recorded by Billy Lee Riley for Sun records. It is believed that Ray recorded a demo of the song for Sun records but as yet it still remains undiscovered.  Apparently Ray wrote the song after seeing something odd flying in the sky while driving one day. Inspiration for great songs come in strange ways.  
Ray settled in Memphis in the mid 1950's and sent several demo recordings to Sam Phillips. One of his songs, 'Tonight Will Be The Last Night', was recorded by Warren Smith in 1956, although it was not released until the mid 1970's. He also wrote 'You're The One That Done It' for Thomas Wayne, his (Wayne's) first record for the Fernwood Record label in 1958. In 1957 he made his first recording as a singer; 'Bopping Wig Wam Willie' came out on the Erwin label in August of that year. The backing was supplied by Roland Janes (guitar), Marvin Pepper (bass), Jimmy Wilson (piano), Jimmy Van Eaton (drums) and Ray on rhythm guitar.  It sounds like the same session musicians accompanied him on his Satellite 104 release  'You Drive Me Crazy', an excellent fast moving rocker, released in late 1958.  Satellite was then a tiny label that would later develop into Stax Records. Ray's next release was on the Stomper Time label which was 'Tonite Will Be The Last Time' which is a reworking of the song Warren Smith recorded for Sun. The flip side was 'Boy Meets Girl', also recorded by Dale Hawkins.  A second record was released in 1960, 'The Train's Done Gone', but that was more or less Ray Scott's last attempt at a rock 'n' roll styled record. He founded his own record company, RCT Records, for which he recorded country songs, but this only ran for a few years. Disillusioned, Ray retired from the music business in 1971 and started running his own taxi company.

About the recordings posted here
Tracks 1-5 all the information below was taken from 209Memphis excellent youtube channel

RAY SCOTT - MEMPHIS RECORDINGS INCLUDING SUN UNISSUED ALT TAKES?

RAY RECORDED FOR 4 MEMPHIS LABELS
ERWIN 
SATELLITE
STOMPER TIME
RCT

ON HIS EARLIER RECORDS RAY USED THE BACKING OF 'THE FOUR RECORDERS' THE SAME BAND HOYT JOHNSON USED ON ERWIN. 
THE FOUR RECORDERS WERE IN FACT A VERSION OF SUN RECORDS HOUSE BAND

1 - BOY MEETS GIRL
2 - TONIGHT WILL BE THE LAST TIME
3 - I JUST DONT FIGURE
4 - SO LONG I'M GONE
5 - WHISPERING WIND

TRACKS 1 & 2 MAKE UP THE STOMPER TIME ISSUE S1161 RELEASED SEPT.1959
THE OTHER TRACKS ARE ALTERNATIVE TAKES SUN UN ISSUED (ACCORDING TO AN ON-LINE DISCOGRAPHY?)

6 - YOU DRIVE ME CRAZY
7 - BOPPIN' WIG WAM WILLY
8 - I'LL NEVER BE A DREAMER
9 - THE TRAIN'S DONE GONE
Above tracks in MP3 format

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