Author: Louise Riley

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.

We still didn’t make BB King’s bar but ended up in an ‘Irish’bar with an indoor &  an outdoor space both of which had live music. In the end we stayed there to eat as well. The bikers were certainly in town & the bikes were beautiful. We were talking to one guy who had just arrived from Texas. There was a great atmosphere in town although we could have done with a few more degrees.  

         

                        

We got up reasonably early this morning as we had a bus coming for us to transport us to Graceland. After a hasty breakfast (still awful coffee) off we went. Our driver was very entertaining & gave us a bit of a guided tour en route. On arrival we had to redeem our voucher  for tickets & then be transported across the road into the grounds & up to the house itself. We were equipped with a tablet & headphones whilst waiting for the shuttle bus but by this time it had started to rain, seriously rain. We were under cover most of the time & were serenaded by non stop Elvis music. The staff were pretty cheerful considering they must spend their day ushering/guiding thousands of tourists through the place. We had to have our photo taken—–for security they said—but guess what, on leaving the tour we had the opportunity to buy our photo as a momento!!!!

The house itself is not that big & is, of course,  a time warp. Shag pile carpet in the walls no less & some very doubtful tastes elsewhere. After the house there is loads of memorabilia to see, clothes he wore, record sleeves, gold & platinum discs etc etc.  There is another area with more personal stuff & it is obvious that they have lots of things in storage too. At this point we were ushered into a cinema & subject to about 15 mins of Elvis performing at various venues. We also saw his car collection but by the time we got to the section Elvis in Hawaii I had had enough. There is only so much that a Cliff fan can take. Thankfully by this time the rain had stopped & it was time to take our transport back. It seems that he did do good deeds throughout his life but his legacy is enormous. You have to wonder how many more years they can go on milking it. His daughter is a very wealthy woman. 

Instead of coming straight back downtown, we got dropped off at the Stax studio museum. This was a very interesting tour, highlighting the birth & subsequent demise of Stax records. Stax was the home to some very famous names, Elvis, B B King, Aretha Franklin, Booker T & Otis Reading to name but a few. It really was a initially a studio that discovered local names & was completely non- segregated, very unusual for it’s time. We whiled away a couple of hours there & then came back downtown in a taxi via local roads & housing areas. Downtown Memphis is a strange place. Beale St at night is its hub but during the day everything is quiet & again like Louisville there are redevelopment prospects abounding. Tonight is bikers night & already this afternoon they had started to arrive. Seeing as we didn’t make B B King’s bar last night, we’ll probably aim for there tonight.

We left Nashville this morning & decided to come straight along the Interstate 40 to Memphis. We could have come the longer scenic route but decided on the direct approach. I’m glad that we did ‘cos the route was busy enough & there were several delays due to roadworks. It was a busy road but seemed to be even busier going in the opposite direction. I drove to get us out of town & then for about an hour more. Doug took over & then I took the wheel again with about 20 miles to go. We were doing quite well until Doug ‘lost’ the Google map on his Ipad. This then involved a pit stop somewhere with wifi & I chose an eatery called Hooters. At first I wasn’t sure that we hadn’t picked on a boy’s only establishment ‘cos I was the only female in it apart from the serving staff. The big difference between me & the waitresses was a) age, b) body size & c) they were wearing shorts soooo short that their bums were hanging out, pert though they were!  However, despite our reservations the staff were friendly, the salads that we ordered were fine & the coffee was horrible as usual!! They did however have wifi & Doug was able to find his map again.

This time our sat nav lady seemed to want to go to the same place as we did & we entered downtown Memphis to find empty streets & our hotel without any difficulty. En route we had had a message in the car telling us that it was due an oil change soon. According to the handbook soon equals 600 miles—just about what we have left to do. On arrival we rang the car hire company who a) assured us that we would be ok to continue & b) logged the call & gave us a reference no. 

We are staying in a hotel called The Peabody which seems to be a bit of a Memphis institution. It has a lovely but huge foyer with a fountain in the middle of it. Since the 1930’s this fountain has been home to generations of ducks who twice a day march in at 11am & out at 17h, using an elevator to & from the roof. This being America there is a story attached but the twice daily march has become a tourist attraction. We went down for some refreshment & to sort out things with the concierge & ended up with ringside seats for the duck march.  What we didn’t have was a phone with us so no pictures this time but I will get some before we leave.

The weather is warm & sunny (77*F) & very conducive to wandering. We have Gracelands for certain tomorrow but will go into town tonight to find music/food. It seems that BB King also has/had an establishment here in Memphis so that is probably were we will head tonight.