Dan MacIntosh (Songfacts): I wanted to ask you, since you've been doing some music for TV shows, how is it different for a songwriter to write for a TV show, than it is writing songs for yourself?
Sam Phillips: It's shorter. It's little mini songs, which I like because I've always written short songs. It's not all that different.
I've only worked with one person in television, Amy Sherman-Palladino, who I love – and she writes wonderful dialogue at a very fast pace, so my challenge for writing for Amy and her shows is to simplify my melodies or to make space for the dialogue. That's one of the biggest challenges, which is really fun.
Songfacts: Is it easier or harder? I'm guessing it's easier to write these kinds of songs than it is for your own albums.
Phillips: It's faster because I'm not dealing with lyrics. My songs are slower because lyrics take more time for me. But it's not easier all the time because I think music for picture is one of the most wonderful things one can do. When it works, it's very powerful, but it's not that easy to get the music to speak with the pictures. It's constantly challenging and there are always different kinds of music that is needed, so I really like it. It keeps me on my toes and I feel like it's helped me as a songwriter.
Songfacts:I read that your new album, Push Any Button, is one where you wanted to put yourself in the '50s and '60s musical period. Were there particular artists that you hand in mind when you were trying to place yourself in that era?
Phillips: No. That was really part of what I was doing, too. I was just pulling sort of impressionistically; sort of my impression of that era. Nobody specific. And not even trying to cop all the sounds because I have a lot of friends who are very technically oriented in terms of using this amp, and this microphone; using this tape machine, this board. You know, people who are very gear specific. It wasn't even that. It wasn't necessarily about the sounds and about getting that retro. It was more creating a feeling of a melody. It was more in the writing and the performance than it was in the technical recording. It was really trying to immerse myself in a dream world.
Songfacts: There's one song, "You Know I Won't," that sounds to me like a Sun Records recording and sort of pseudo-rockabilly. Here you've taken on the name Sam Phillips, which I'm sure has gotten you confused with another Sam Phillips, and now it sounds like you could have actually recorded it for the Sam Phillips. Did that ever cross your mind?
Phillips: I've been to Sun Records and I've met Sam Phillips' son, but not the late great Sam Philips. But no, that never crossed my mind. One of the first records I heard when I was three years old was "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party" by The Beatles, which was skiffle and their version of rockabilly. That has always inspired me, so it was really just my take on something in that era.
Songfacts: Did T Bone Burnett introduce you to any music that you had not been exposed to from that era?
Phillips: Oh, yes, a lot. A lot of country and blues because I grew up listening to more jazz. My parents' era of jazz and Broadway musicals. You know, show tunes and then pop music. When I met T Bone, he definitely became a great influence and a great inspiration by exposing me to a lot of the things that he grew up with.
He saw James Brown live back in the day and wonderful country and blues artists, in particular, Jimmy Reed, who I love so much. But a lot of the country artists as well. So yeah, it was a huge influence.
Songfacts: There are a few songs I wanted to get your thoughts about. One of the songs that's been going through my mind a lot is "Baby I Can't Please You," which I think was directed at Rush Limbaugh. Is that right?
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Phillips: T Bone produced that record and he had some input on that song as well. When we went to make a video, he wanted to make it sort of a right wing spy concept. So, there is that, but I always try to write on a lot of different levels.
It's not specifically about Rush Limbaugh, but it might be about what's wrong with Rush Limbaugh. But that might also be what's wrong with somebody else who's liberal. I try to make them a little bit more human than specific in that sense, so that "Baby I Can't Please You" is a broader concept. It could be in a love relationship. It could be in a political relationship. Hopefully there are many levels you can take any of my songs on. That is always my aim.
From: https://www.songfacts.com/blog/interviews/sam-phillips
