Our last full day in Memphis & still so much to see & do. Definitely on the list is Sun studios & we set off after breakfast to walk there. We arrived in time for the 11h30 tour & paid our $12 dollars (plus tax) to get in. They don’t have a concessionary price for seniors, in my opinion ‘cos the majority of the customers are seniors & it would lose them money! I asked what they would do when our generation died out & was told ‘keep on rocking’.
Again it was a great tour & the guide was very enthusiastic. You do get the impression that they really enjoy being there & showing people around despite the fact that they must say & do the same thing day after day. They had some great memorabilia but more importantly great music. Doug found a jukebox disc of Roy Orbison that is not in his collection but wisely decided that $70 was too much To pay for an original copy & settled on a repro for a bargain $7. Sun studios run a courtesy bus to the Rock & Soul Museum & Graceland & luck was on our side–the first stop was the Museum so we were spared the Graceland experience a second time. I really should say at this point that I never wanted to go to Graceland & having now been I know that I was right! Idem The Grand Ole Opry but I did find that very funny.
Back to today, the Museum was excellent & really put into perspective the evolution of music through American society & the powerful effect that it had. It explained how musical styles had originated in both the Black & White cultures (often where there was extreme poverty) & had been promulgated by radio (battery operated) & gramophones (wind up) but that there had been a fusion which culminated in Rock & Roll. R & R appealed to the youth of America in the 50s & was equally abhorred by their parents, thus making it a huge success!! Juke boxes helped the whole process together with an abundance of talented musicians around the Memphis area. We have been told several times & in different places that racial harmony was beginning in Memphis because of the integrated music scene. It all went to worms later on of course & whilst not as bad as before, segregation still exists today but in a much more subtle form. E.g. Most of the hotel staff are black & the clientele is predominantly white.
From one Museum we made our way to another, this time the National Civil Rights Museum. On the way, however we stopped off for a bite to eat & a glass of wine. Before we could have our wine we had to show ID to prove that we were old enough!! When I had stopped laughing I asked the server whether my grey/white hair wasn’t proof enough. She insisted that ID was needed or she, herself, would get into trouble for not asking. There are some things about America that I will never fathom. Anyway, the wine was good along with the accompanying duck burger.
The Civil Rights story was sobering & whilst I remember some of the events from my youth, I have to say that the whole thing almost passed me by. I knew some of what had happened, of course, but hadn’t appreciated the momentous effect that it had on American society & culture. The Museum is very well done & it tells a very powerful story. Things being so relatively recent, there is is a lot of media footage to see & info to read. We were there so long that they were waiting to close & we didn’t have time to see the last part which detailed the investigation into Martin Luther King’s murder & the ongoing legacy of the Civil Rights movement. In some ways it was quite a sad end to 3 days in Memphis but back in the hotel we are being serenaded by the weekly Thursday roof party. We had every intention of going but today has been dull & cold but dry. I broke out the trainers, socks, scarf & cashmere cardigan & haven’t been over warm outside. Tomorrow’s forecast is better thankfully.