Memphis Day 4

Another attraction only a block away from our hotel was Autozone Park, the baseball park for the Memphis Redbirds ("The losingest team in the league this year," our tour guide informed us.)  I'm pretty sure that they probably had batting cages, baseball bats and our course, games every night there for just a few dollars.  Poor old Luke.  He never did get to see a game in New York or Washington.  (Still, who would've wanted to see the losingest team in the league?)
 
But these were not the things we were interested in anyway.  What Caro and I had come to do was to continue our Haj to the most revered places of the Church of Elvis Presley.  Our first stop was Sun Studios where, back in 1954 Elvis had cut his very first record and actually paid the record studio $4 for the privilege.
 
You don't have to worry about getting tired taking the tour of Sun Studios.  It consists of two small rooms, a gift shop and a cafe.  Some might say that for $8.50, this is a bit of a rip-off but not so.  For you see, this is Hallowed Ground.  Bob Dylan actually did a Pope impression when he visited Sun Studios, knelt on the ground and kissed the floor.  He either did this to show his devotion, or he was off his head again - with Bob, it's hard to say.  But the point is this, even if Elvis hadn't started our there, this would still be an incredibly groovy place.  Some say that the first rock 'n' roll record EVER was recorded there in 1951 when a young chap named Ike Turner wrote and played piano on a song called "Rocket '88".  So there you go.  Ike Turner invented rock and roll.
 
Well, maybe.  Look, lots of people are always claiming to have invented rock and roll.  Chuck Berry says HE invented it.  Little Richard says the same.  Heck, even I invented rock and roll one rainy afternoon when there was nothing on telly.  Somehow it doesn't really matter, but what seems to have happened in Memphis is that all those Hillbilly types with their country/cajun/bluegrass and all those po' boy sharecroppers with their gospel/blues/jazz seem to have met up together at Sam Philip's little studio and just mixed it all up together.
 
Elvis was actually discovered by Sam Philip's secretary after he recorded "My Happiness" (purportedly for his mother).  The surprising and little-known fact being that Sam didn't like Elvis' ballad singing very much, and it took another year when Elvis was just farting about singing an Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup song called “That’s All Right (Mama)” that Sam realised he'd struck gold.  I couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened if Elvis had never sung that song.  Then I couldn’t help but wonder how I could get myself a nickname like, “Big Boy”.  These are the important issues, people.
 
I love those early Elvis recordings.  Not that I'm a snob - I mean - I also love Over The Top Fat Elvis too - but there's still something very appealing about "Mystery Train" and those other records he made before he became
 
ELVIS!!
 
After those first few records, it became clear that young Elvis was a bit of a sensation and Sam sold his contract to RCA for around $30,000 - a paltry sum due to the fact that Sam was heavily in debt at the time and needed the money.  Nevertheless, that was ok with Sam because that money got him out of trouble and he went on to put records out for Howlin' Wolf, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison and Jerry Lee Lewis.  Jerry Lee lives about 15 minutes out of Memphis, and still frequents Sun Studios to catch up on old times with Sam Philips.  On one recent occasion, he was invited out there by the group Matchbox  20 who were at Sun Studios in an attempt to get an injection of their roots.  (And god  knows they need an injection of SOMETHING.  Preferably something lethal.)
 
Anyway, Jerry got their invitation and turned up, "a-whoopin' and a-hollerin' as usual," recalled our tour guide.  "And he had jest got hisself outta hospital too, but he was bangin' on that ole piana with his foot jest like the ole days.  I took one look at him and I said, 'Lookin' good Jerry Lee' and he turned to me and said, 'Thanks Killer'."  
 
So there you go.  The Horny Old B&stard's still got it.
 
Anyway, I was talking about Sun Studios Tour which takes about half and hour most of which consists of listening to the guide while they plays that great old music and going around looking at all the old pictures, guitars, drums and most notably the very microphone on which Elvis did his first recordings.  Some people actually kiss it.  We just took a picture.  I'm no micropohone slut.  On our way out, they played U2's "When Love Comes to Town" which was also recorded at Sun, with B.B. King - that other famous Son of Memphis.
 
What I'm trying to get across to you here is that Memphis is all about music.  And if you don't get that, you're not going to get Memphis.  Just walking the streets (just be sure you take a taxi to those streets and don't deviate from the tourist routes) you get blues, gospel, rockabilly, country and jazz from all sides.  We visited the Rock 'n' Soul Museum, where an attempt was made to explain why Memphis became so important musically.  It appears it was to do with the fact that Memphis was essentially an African-American city for freed slaves, which got invaded during the 20th century by the hillbilly farmers with their folk music.  The two musical styles were completely segregated at first - this is the South we're talking about after all - but thanks to people like Sam Philips who had black and white performers in his studio, they eventually merged and became world famous thanks to Elvis whose biggest talent - let's face it - was being Not Black.
 
Not that I’m putting The King down here, but that was pretty much what Sam Philips said in a video at the museum.  The Rock 'n' Soul Museum, incidentally, was well worth a visit and Caro had a Country Heartache Moment when she found a special Patsy Cline exhibit.