Rufus Thomas may not be a household name, but he is widely regarded
as the patriarch of Memphis R&B, and his music influenced three
generations. His first singles in the early 1950s were recorded as
blues transitioned into R&B, and he was arguably one of the
founding fathers of early rock ’n’ roll. In the early 1960s,
his songs "The Dog" and "Walking the Dog" made a huge impact on the
emerging British "mod" scene, influencing the likes of the Georgie
Fame, the Rolling Stones, and the Who. And in the early 1970s,
Thomas rebranded himself as the "funkiest man alive" and recorded
funk classics that were later sampled by the likes of Public Enemy,
Missy Elliot, and the Wu-Tang Clan. In Funkiest Man Alive: Rufus
Thomas and Memphis Soul, Matthew Ruddick reveals the amazing life
and career of Thomas, who started as a dancer in the minstrel shows
that toured the South before becoming one of the nation’s early
African American disc jockeys, and then going on to record the
first hit singles for both Chess Records and Stax Records. Ruddick
also examines the social fabric of the city of Memphis, analyzing
the factors behind the vast array of talent that appeared in the
late 1950s, with singers like Isaac Hayes, William Bell, Maurice
White (Earth, Wind & Fire), and Thomas’s older daughter,
Carla Thomas, all emerging from the tightly knit African American
community. He also tells the story of Memphis-based Stax Records,
one of the nation’s leading R&B record labels. From the
earliest blues, the segregated minstrel shows, and the birth of
rock ’n’ roll through to the emergence of R&B and funk,
Rufus Thomas saw it all.
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