I always forget about Rufus Thomas. But he and his daughter were the one two punch that put Stax / Volt on the map. Rufus was one in one billion. He pulled off something few corny old Dad’s have ever done. He stayed stayed FRESH dressing like this. Super Fresh.
He gave James Brown a run for his money, and he may have had even more charisma.
Watch James Brown use his Soul Brother #1 superpowers to stop Boston from burning the night of the day MLK got shot. But also watch Rufus go bad ass Black Dad as he settled down tens of thousands of excited kids at LA Coliseum at Wattstaxx.
Rufus was older than just about everybody in the R & B game. He wasn’t even in the national spotlight as a Viceroy of Funk until he was the ripe age of 50.
Rufus Thomas Jr. was born in 1917. Poppa Staples was born in 1914. The Soviet Union didn’t form until 1922. Rufus died when the Berlin Wall fell, and Poppa Stapes died the year Putin took office as President.
We’re talking about a generation of performers that knew former Slaves. Heard the songs of slavery. You want to talk about old school.
Good music never gets old fool. It just recycled and we act like there’s new rules. Yet Hip Hop was built on ashes.
Rufus Thomas. That’s a man that was cutting them funky breaks that Hip Hop lifted straight from the crate off the Hot 100; yet here is a man that stood eye to eye with veterans of the Civil War. How many generations and incarnations did he see of the Klu Klux Klan?
Ancestors man.
Rufus got his chops in the Vaudevillle circuit & Tent Shows. In 1953 he gave Sun Records their first hit with ‘Bear Cat’, his answer to Big Momma Thornton’s Hound Dog.
Maybe he didn’t come up with the recipe for Rock & Roll, but he was sure at the table enjoying the supper. He got up to leave and Elvis slid in his seat and sat down hungry happy to have some place to eat.
Ancestors.
Rufus had a taste of wider fame. But instead of chasing hits on the Chitlin Circuit, he raised a family, while still staying relevant and involved in the local music scene. He was MCing talent shows. He was breaking black stars on the radio. A local legend. A Godfather.
Yet fate led this grown ass man to lead a Funk Revolution. It was like every ten years music came rapping at his door.
Rufus carried that freak Dad flag of Stax from its humble rise to its legendary fall.
From the back of the trunk selling 7 inch records to the remarkable concert film known at Wattstaxx, which is remembered correctly as Black Woodstock. Rufus was there till the final days when the corrupt Southern Planters Bank locked the doors on the movie theater this man and his friends, Black & White & Beige, turned into one of the hottest recording studios of all time.
This man is Memphis. If Memphis could bleed it would bleed Rufus Porter.
Some of the greatest American Recordings of all time exist because this man had more hustle and funk and corny dad power in one the last hairs on his head, than entire urban corridors.
He even put his stamp on the British invasion. The Rolling Stones cut his 1963 proto funk Stax hit ‘Walk The Dog’ on their debut album. Ten years after taking Sun Records nationwide. Swag.
Ten years after he ‘Walked The Dog’ all the way into the repetoire, he was on stage doing the funky chicken, singing that he was ‘The Funniest Man Alive.’ He wasn’t alive.
It doesn’t get much deeper than your Grandaddy’s funk. And Rufus Thomas was the Grand Daddy of them all. Show me how many nearly 60 year old men ever had the steps and the swag and the songs, to continue to mint new dances to the arbiters of cool, America’s Black Youth.
I will stop forgetting Rufus Thomas. That’s a promise. He put his daughter Carla Thomas through college, and she didn’t drop out just because she had a hit record. He was a family man. He had Dad Power. And priorities.
For a great introduction to his Daughter Carla, listen to her duet album with Otis Redding, called King & Queen. That’s the album the hit song ‘Tramp’ was drawn from.
I am listening to the evolution of popular music in his hands:
Rufus Thomas – Tiger Man (1950-57)
Rufus Thomas – The Funkiest Man Alive / The Stax Funk Sessions 1967 to 1975
When your career spans from the jazz age of 1936 to 808 blasts of 1989, you deserve your name on a star. Scratch that. You get to be your own galaxy.
Davin’s new song has been released and is fast becoming a dancehall hit. Listen here on Reggaeville: DAVIN MICHAEL STEDMAN & ANTHONY RED ROSE – FREE YOUR MIND FEAT. SLY & ROBBIE WITH LENKY MARSDEN
– Musician and writer Davin Michael Stedman has many ventures, such as the AMAZING blog, 100milesofmusic.com, and is one of the driving forces behind the Staxx Brothers. He has just returned from weeks of networking and reporting from Kingston, Jamaica. Next stop, Lagos, Nigeria.
