MLK Jr. and the Music Business

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the United States.

MLK had a dream.  He wanted people to live together as equals, without being judged by their color of skin.  While we're getting closer to that, it hasn't happened yet...but here's a funny story about how it did happen once.

I have a friend, Bob Tucker, who was in a Memphis-based band in the 1950s called The Tarantulas.  Like a lot of bands from the area, they played soul music.

This was during a time when it was common for "record deals" to be for single songs.  And people had that authority to sign upcoming acts without having to run everything past a committee, Board of Directors, etc...  Things were much more simple.

So, Atlantic Records heard about the band and signed a deal with them...through the mail.

When they showed up at the studio, you can imagine the surprise on Bob's face when people exclaimed, "You're white!!"

Like Wolfman Jack, Bob was so funky, people thought he was black.

Hard to believe there was a time when the music actually spoke for itself, isn't it?

And that's the story of the first white band on Atlantic Records. :)

Comments

[Greg]

Thanks for that! The current music business is so concerned with image and back stories that they have forgotten about why they work in the first place, the music!

[Martin]

Nice post!

[Jam]

People used to say the same thing about this band from North Carolina called Dag. There were so great. The lead signer was the bass player. I remember reading something about Vibe coming to interview them and couldn't believe they were all white.