We decided to start the day with a visit to Sun Records which was a good plan as today is the start of Elvis week in Memphis and although it was busy when we got there I think it would be packed later on in the day. It is actually quite a way out of town but once we heard the story of Sam Phillips I think that the location was more to do with affordability than anything else. To visit the studio you have to join a tour which was actually very informative, you learn about Sam Phillips and although the majority of the information is about Elvis you do find out about some of the other recording artists that he signed. Phillips started out recording events such as birthday parties, beauty pageants and even a funeral on his mobile recorder and eventually managed to get together enough money to open the studio which was originally called the Memphis Recording Service in 1950. Phillips actually didn’t like Elvis the first few times he came in to audition and it was only the persistence of his office manager Marion Keisker who really liked him that meant that he kept getting chances. Phillips decided to give him one last chance as he had two session musicians who wanted to form a band and needed a singer, they spent a couple of hours in the studio and Phillips still wasn’t impressed and it was only when they were mucking around at the end that Elvis sang That’s all Right Momma he finally heard something he liked and recorded it. Interestingly Elvis signed his contract with Sun Records in the Peabody hotel and they actually used Peabody headed paper to type it up! I don’t think I realised quite the breath of people that recorded at Sun records, Roy Orbison, Jonny Cash, Ike Turner, B.B.King and Jerry Lee Lewis were among many who were signed to the record label. In 1960 the studio was moved to Madison Avenue and renamed Phillips Recording. The building was rented by a number of companies but as the guide said lack of enthusiasm and money meant that virtually nothing was changed so in 1987 when the studio was brought to be restored a lot of the original sound studio and recording booths were still in place. This is now a tourist attraction as well as a working studio, during the day tours are run and in the evening artists can rent the studio to potentially record a world wide hit! Once we finished walking round we walked back along Beale Street which is the Home to the Blues according to the signs on the street. Just before we got to the main part of Beale Street we passed the Hunt-Phelan House which seemed to be up for sale. This is a remnant of the affluent antebellum neighbourhood and was used by Ulysses S Grant as a headquarters when the Union Army gained control of Memphis in 1862. Further down the road and just before the main part of Beale Street we passed the First Baptist Beale Street Church which is the first and largest black church in Memphis. It is one of the first churches built by black people. It came about when parishioners left their former church because they were unhappy with its doctrines. In 1865, the first church was built, later in 1871, after receiving a donation of land from the American Baptist home Mission Society of New York the corner stone was laid for the current church which was finally completed in 1877. This is across the street from the first African American bank in the city, the bank paid off the church’s debts which saved it from being sold. Further down the street is the Old Daisy Theatre which is known as the number 1 tourist attraction in the state of Tennessee, although I am not quite sure why! It was built in 1902 and in the 1930s until the 1960s was a major stop on the “Chittin’ Circuit” which was the only safe way for Rhythm and Blues artists to perform in the still segregated south. Ike and Tina Turner, Duke Ellington, Wilson Pickett, the Jackson Five and Aretha Franklin all toured the south on this circuit. It is now a blues museum but we didn’t go in, we continued our walk along Beale Street to the Beale Street Landing where we purchased our tickets for this afternoons Riverboat journey, then we walked back up the road to get something to eat. We decided to go into B.B. Kings which was a good choice as they have live music and the band that played were really good, four guys just playing the blues over lunch, the food wasn’t the best we have had but the atmosphere was one of the best. There was even a guy from Dallas that asked if he could join them on stage and he was really good as well! By the time we had finished lunch it was time to walk down to the boat. The river boat just takes you down a little bit of the Mississippi River then back up again, all the while receiving a commentary from a very entertaining guy, the river actually seemed quite busy and he explained that it is gaining in popularity again as a tug can push barges that carry the same load as 400 large railroad cars or 700 trucks so bearing in mind they only have a crew of 12 it is actually a very cost effective way of moving goods, the only down side is the speed of the tide and brining things up river takes on average twice as long as taking it down. We got back to the dock about 4pm so walked back to the hotel and arrived just in time for the marching of the ducks. Basically this hotel is famous for its ducks that come down from the roof at 11:00 in the morning, spend the day in the fountain then go back up to the roof again at 17:00. This started as a joke but has now become an institution, there is a duck master, a red carpet and five what seem to be very well looked after ducks! By the time we had done all this all there was left to do was to have a drink and a relax and prepare for tomorrow.
