Spaw, I agree with you. The transcendent moment is crucial, in my opinion, and sometimes it has actually been captured on tape. It was in Memphis when Elvis and Sam Phillips worked their magic on a fairly obscure Arthur Crudup tune, and in Chicago when Muddy Waters recorded Hoochie Coochie Man (the definitive modern blues record, in my opinion). It happened in 1963 when the Beatles recorded the gloriously imperfect Please Please Me, and in '65 when Dylan teamed up with Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield to record Like A Rolling Stone.

I didn't catch the whole program on Sam Phillips the other night, but what I saw was well done. If anyone's interested, Peter Guralnick has written a two-volume biography of Elvis which puts his life, times and achievements in clear perspective. I've only read the first volume, Mystery Train, which ends around the time of Elvis' induction into the Army in 1958. The second volume, Careless Love, is also out in paperpback, and I expect it is as well-done as the first (although I'm more interested in the early days). If these aren't on the shelf, anything by Guralnick is worth reading.