re: Endless Sleep - The Obituary Thread

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Musician, songwriter and producer Stan Kesler, a pivotal figure in the Memphis birth of rock 'n' roll whose keen ear, innovative playing and studio smarts enhanced the careers of such rock and soul legends as Jerry Lee Lewis, James Carr, Sam the Sham and Elvis Presley, has died.

Kesler, who had suffered from deteriorating health for some time, passed away Monday in a hospice facility in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, according to family members. He was 92, and the cause of death was bone cancer.

Although hardly a household name, Kesler made essential contributions to dozens of records that found their ways into the homes of music lovers around the world. He was a Zelig-like figure in Memphis music during the key decades when the city was a lodestone of rock-and-roll and rhythm-and-blues innovation: He wrote songs for Elvis, played bass on "Great Balls of Fire," produced "Wooly Bully," and engineered recordings at Goldwax, a label that never achieved the fame of Stax or Hi even as it produced music of comparable greatness.

"Guys like him were a big influence on me, because he was a bass player, a steel guitar player, an engineer, a producer, a songwriter — and that's the same way I've been able to make a living in music, that same model," said Memphis musician, composer, bandleader and Electraphonic Recording studio chief Scott Bomar. "He had success in all of it."

"He was such a big part of Memphis, most people don't even realize," said Grammy-winning Memphis producer and engineer Matt Ross-Spang, who has worked with Jason Isbell and John Prine. "I definitely looked up to him a lot. He was one of those guys who could do it all."

One of 10 children, Stanley Augustus Kesler was born in Abbeville, Mississippi, where music was a family affair.

As a boy, he learned to play guitar, mandolin and dobro while harmonizing with various family members. "When company would come," he told The Commercial Appeal in 2014, "my mother would say, ‘OK, boys, get your instruments now and sing some songs for Aunt Hattie and Uncle Dick.

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At Sun, Kesler began working as an engineer, and soon established his bona fides as a musical jack-of-all-trades.

During the famous "Sun sessions" that launched Elvis Presley's career and ignited the Big Bang of modern rock 'n' roll, Elvis recorded two songs co-written by Kesler, "I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone," and "I Forgot to Remember to Forget." A 1964 Beatles performance of the latter song, with George Harrison on lead vocals, appears on the compilation recording "Live at the BBC."

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The Kesler-Elvis connection remained strong throughout the singer's career. In 1957, after Presley moved from Sun to RCA, Elvis recorded Kesler's composition, "Playing for Keeps." Another Kesler song, "Thrill of Your Love," appeared on the 1960 album "Elvis Is Back!," which was Presley's first post-Army LP.

Finally, during the 1969 sessions at Chips Moman's American Sound Studio in Memphis that revitalized the singer's career, Elvis recorded Kesler's "If I'm a Fool (for Loving You)."

"Most of my songs are the love songs, the hurting tear-jerkers," Kesler said in 2014.

During the heyday of Sun, Kesler played on records by Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis, including Lewis' epochal 1957 hit, "Great Balls of Fire." "He was one of the first two or three people to own an electric bass in Memphis, and play it on a record," said Bomar, also a bass player.

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Some others who recorded Kesler songs include Marty Robbins, Johnny Cash, Wanda Jackson and John Prine.

Beyond country, rockabilly and rock, Kesler played a significant role in Memphis soul. One of Kesler's Sun colleagues, Quinton Claunch, later was a co-founder of the Hi and Goldwax record labels. Kesler joined Claunch at Goldwax, engineering many records that remain especially prized by soul connoisseurs, including 1967's "The Dark End of the Street" by James Carr.

At Goldwax, Kesler provided a direct although largely overlooked contribution to one of Memphis' greatest contributions to the music of the era: He organized the band of ace session musicians that became famous as the "Memphis Boys" after Moman lured them to his American studio, where they provided backing for Elvis, Neil Diamond, Dusty Springfield and many others.

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