The Rock Trenches

of The Rock Trenches: Journal of a Music Industry Executive by Phillip Rauls, the memoir of a Memphis-born music promoter who worked with some of the top rock 'n' roll recording artists of the 1960s-1990s, including the Gentrys, Robert Palmer, Yes, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Emerson, Lake & Palmer , the Eagles, and Led Zeppelin, to name a few.Practically everyone, at one time or another, has dreamed of being in the music business. The Rock Trenches begins with an ambitious young...
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of The Rock Trenches: Journal of a Music Industry Executive by Phillip Rauls, the memoir of a Memphis-born music promoter who worked with some of the top rock 'n' roll recording artists of the 1960s-1990s, including the Gentrys, Robert Palmer, Yes, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Emerson, Lake & Palmer , the Eagles, and Led Zeppelin, to name a few.Practically everyone, at one time or another, has dreamed of being in the music business. The Rock Trenches begins with an ambitious young visionary named Phillip Rauls as he gains entry into the music business by becoming a road manager to a local band just out of high school, The Gentrys. The Memphis band scored a million selling record in 1965 titled "Keep On Dancing' and Rauls was in the right place at the right time to go along for the ride.Before long he was hired as the local promotion manager for Stax Records, the soul music label that recorded some of the biggest hits of the 1960s with Otis Redding, Booker T. & the MGs, and Isaac Hayes. With a successful background in R&B, Atlantic Records then lured Phillip into their fold and hired him to be their Southern Region Artists Relations & Promotion Manager. In 1970, while riding the success of a global leader in rock music, Phillip's career with Atlantic Records soared. During that time Phillip toured with groups such as Led Zeppelin, YES, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Bette Midler, Vinegar Joe, Jackson Browne and The Eagles.He quickly learned that promoting records is not a one-dimensional undertaking. An important element of promotion, he discovered, was to go out on the road with recording artists so that he would be available to arrange radio, television, and print media interviews--and to solve problems on the spot, whether they were professional or personal.