25.6.2012 – 25.6.2012  37 °C

Another HOT, HOT day today so we actually decided to by-pass Gracelands and spend the day doing two museums and stay in the air-cond! (We’ll do Gracelands tomorrow so no need to stress!!) Ok so first stop this morning was out to Sun Studios. Home of Sam Philips (recording dude extraordinaire) and some very famous recording artists!

The Studio is still used as recording studio but primarily is a museum dedicated to some very excellent and famous singers and musicians. The tour begins by taking you up stairs to hear the early days of Sam Philips. He started out as a disc jockey for one of the Memphis radio stations. He loved to hear and play Blues music and soon got quite a name for playing this “devilish” style of music. He knew that not enough of the great Blues players were being played on air so he decided to set up his own recording studio to record these sorts of sounds. At first he worked on the proviso that he would record anything, anywhere and so did a lot of recordings for amateurs and even did weddings etc.

Gradually his company grew until he started to record actual artists. One of his early hit artists was a Blues musician called Howlin’ Wolf (apparently he’s a famous Blues guy.. I saw him mentioned in Clarkesdale but don’t ask me what song’s he sang) but of course his most famous talent was none other than Elvis Presley. Elvis first walked into the studio to record an album for his mother (apparently.. the Sun tour guide said that they now think he probably recorded the album hoping to be discovered and was too shy to say so!). He didn’t get a gig from this album but gradually he hung around the studio more and more until eventually Sam agreed to cut a professional album for Presley. His first song recorded was “That’s all right” and I guess the rest is history! After 17 months Sam eventually sold Elvis’ contract over to RCA. Sam justified this move because he knew that he didn’t have the horsepower or time to promote/ manage a talent like Elvis, so used the profits from this sale to sign up other recording artists.

Many of those “other” artists went on to be almost as big as the ‘king’. Do the names, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins ring any bells?? So yep, Sun Studios has seen some big names! Eventually, Sam Philips moved his recording studios up the road to a new venue and the old studio was turned into a museum. Today it is still used as a recording studio (you can come here at night and record your very own hit!) and some big names have come here to record a song or two.. U2 is probably the biggest group, who recorded some of their hits from Rattle and Hum at this studio. Probably the most notable song that they recorded here was with BB King, When love comes to town.

After sun we headed back into town for a bite to eat and then headed out after lunch to see the Civil Rights Museum. To get to the museum we decided to take the tram. The trams here in Memphis are still the old school style, made of wood, beautifully painted with polished timber seats.. lovely but pretty hot when its mid to high 30s!

The civil rights museum is built on the location where Dr Martin Luther King Jr (MLK) was assassinated. It is a huge museum and really does a good job of portraying the struggle of African Americans to receive parity with Anglo-Saxon citizens in the deep south. The museum starts by showing you a video of Dr MLK and his personal impact on the civil rights movt. I have seen the Washington Monument Dr MLK speech (I have a dream) and was really impressed by his oratory skills. Today I saw him do his “coming to the mountain” speech (it was given the night before he died) and I was just blown away. He was such a great speaker. Totally convincing, passionate and moving—to the point where I almost wanted to jump up and shout “yes”… There aren’t many people like him who can really move me when they speak! His speech could be considered prophetic. Firstly it sounded like he knew that his time was up (he said that he might not be able to see the end of the strife with his fellow AA). His discussion around poverty and African American peoples really resonated with me (particularly after spending yesterday driving from Clarkesdale to Memphis). The whole time I was watching this speech, all I could think about was the fact that the Black communities in Mississippi (and this part of Tennessee) haven’t really come that far since his speech… The movt was all about achieving equality in all manner of daily activities. On the surface, equality has been achieved—black people can sit anywhere they like on a bus, they don’t have to drink at a separate water fountain, they can walk in the front door etc but economically they are still stuck in poverty. Maybe even worse off than they were fifty years ago… Most of the industry has closed down or become mechanised so that the people living in these towns no longer have any work prospects…. Gosh it’s sad to see this part of the US. (Don’t for a minute think that I don’t realise that the same situation is happening in Australia, because I know in some parts it is…)

Off my soap box and back to the museum…. Dr MLK came to Memphis to support 1300 garbage collectors (called sanitation workers here in the US.. I’ll stick to garbos) who were all on strike because they didn’t want a pay rise they just wanted to be treated like men. This was actually their slogan “I am a man and I want to be treated as a man!” It must have been courageous for these men to go on strike, they were the poorest paid people in Memphis.. they had nothing (probably had families who had no food to eat) and they gave up the little money they earned to strike on a principle.. Courageous!

Meanwhile, other demonstrations were occurring in multiple places throughout the South. President Kennedy had mandated that African Americans were to be allowed to attend all public places in any state. The Southern States (Alabama, Mississippi as two prominent states) were outraged that the federal govt could mandate in their state… this went on and on, eventually the federal govt sent in the National guard, FBI and others to keep the peace and enforce the anti-segregation laws. I can only imagine how tough it must have been for the AA people who were scape goated (often they chose to) as the guinea pigs to break the segregation cycle.

For Dr MLK it culminated in him coming to Memphis to support the striking garbos, he met his end on the balcony of the Lorraine motel (which has been preserved as a part of the museum) by a lone gun man. Apparently, Dr MLK had , had multiple death threats in the previous few months so he knew that his days were numbered, yet he continued to fight for the impoverished and underprivileged Southern AA.

All in all a great afternoon, even if a bit depressing! Our day finished with us chowing down on some ok Thai food and me doing some blogging (D and M down at the bar J)… Gracelands day tomorrow!!!

Song of the Day– Jerry Lee Lewis, Great Balls of Fire