Graceland (Throwback post)

Graceland, Memphis

My mum is an Elvis fan, which meant that I grew up hearing quite a lot of his music and watching his films.  So when we got to Memphis, we had to go to see Graceland.

Graceland, Memphis

We took the free shuttle bus from Sun Studios to Elvis Presley Boulevard and the visitors' centre opposite the gates to Graceland itself.  There were a couple of ticket options, but we went for the mid level platinum tour ticket, which gave us access to his private plane and the car collection as well as the house itself.

Graceland, Memphis

Being there on a weekday morning outside of peak holiday season, there wasn't much of a queue, and we were soon issued with our headsets for the audio tour and ushered onto the buses for the short trip to the house.

Graceland, Memphis

Once inside, you could take the tour at your own speed.  It doesn't take you upstairs to Elvis' private rooms; apparently he never had general visitors upstairs when he was alive, so they keep them private now.



Graceland, Memphis

I suspect though that they simply want to prevent people focussing on his death rather than his life, and in particular to avoid the question of whether or not he actually did die on the toilet.  Of course it also allows some conspiracy theorists to believe that he really is still alive and living upstairs!

Graceland, Memphis

In fact the most widely circulating 'Elvis lives' story seems to suggest he is living under the name Jessie - which was the name of his twin brother, who died at birth.  The story links to a woman's claim to be Elvis' half sister.

Graceland, Memphis

She says that when her mother lived close to Graceland she had an affair with Elvis' father.  The mother has never confirmed this, but it is alleged that a DNA test says that this woman is a good match to be Jessie's half sibling.  It's all on the internet so of course it must be true!



Graceland, Memphis

Back to the house, which has been kept as it was during Elvis' life.  The main rooms on the ground floor are decorated quite formally, albeit it looks a bit dated now.  The kitchen has all of the mod cons of the day, including fancy oven and a TV.





Graceland, Memphis

But it is the less formal rooms where the real seventies extravagances are evident.  The games room downstairs has a garishly bold design and a bright yellow bar area.

 

Graceland, Memphis

The real high point though, (or low point depending on your perspective,) is the jungle room.  It is a relaxed TV lounge that is decorated with dark green shagpile on the walls and floors, with dark wood furniture and accessories adding vines and wild animals to complete the theme.






Graceland, Memphis

Graceland, Memphis

Graceland, Memphis

The tour also takes you through the various outbuildings some of which now house his extensive collection of trophies.



Graceland, Memphis

The walls are covered with silver, gold and platinum discs, awards and other memorabilia.



Graceland, Memphis

 

 

 

 

 

 

Graceland, Memphis

 

Graceland, Memphis

 



Graceland, Memphis

There are collections of his outfits, his and Priscilla's wedding outfits, film posters and even a selection of the charitable donations that he made.  Elvis is known to have had his faults, but he was clearly a generous man to his friends and to others.

 



Graceland, Memphis

The last stop on  the tour is the small garden where Elvis, his parents and his grandmother are buried, and where there is a small memorial to his twin brother, who died at birth.





Graceland, Memphis

Back at the visitors centre, you can look around Elvis' vehicle collection, with motorbikes, a jeep and a selection of motorised 'toys' alongside some of his Cadillacs and other cars.
 



Graceland, Memphis

Graceland, Memphis



Graceland, Memphis

Graceland, Memphis

Graceland, Memphis



Graceland, Memphis

We also took a look around Elvis' private plane, the Lisa-Marie, named after his daughter.  Decorated throughout in a dark green velvet upholstery, it is certainly much more plush than our usual standard of aeroplane.  The 'lounge' is spacious and comfortable.

Graceland, Memphis

Elvis rarely drank alcohol himself, so the drinks cabinet was more for the benefit of his guests than for himself.  He also had his own en suite bedroom room with a double bed - complete with a seatbelt to hold him in if it got a bit rough.

Graceland, Memphis

 






Graceland, Memphis

Graceland, Memphis

If you want to eat during your visit, there are a number of options, including at least one where you can have an Elvis favourite - the fried peanut butter and banana sandwich.

Graceland, Memphis

And of course there are numerous shops where you can buy your souvenirs.  They have themed the shops around his career and films, which means that there is a lot of duplication between them, but there are a few bits individual to each shop.  Sadly I was very disappointed with the quality of what was available.  There was no shortage of pens, cups, badges, and other such stuff, but there was a real lack of anything a bit more interesting, and very little in the way of any of his music.



Graceland, Memphis

If you just want something with his picture on it, then you are well away, but for my mum, I would have liked to be able to buy something like a CD of his first recordings or something that was about his music, but there was nothing like that available.

It seems a little sad to me that in the shops at least they seem to have forgotten that, underneath the pelvis and the hysteria, the thing that made him so great was his voice and his music.



Graceland, Memphis

But souvenirs aside, I thought that Graceland was a visit worth making.  It is an interesting insight to the man that he was, a good reminder of just how big he was in the music industry, and a great example of flambouyant seventies interior design.









Sun Studios, Memphis Tennessee (Throwback post)

Sun Studios, Memphis

We only had one day in Memphis, so we didn't have time to do all of the things available.  We picked out our top two, which were Sun Studios and Graceland.  There are other places that seem well worth a visit if you have the time though. We didn't, for example, make it to The Stax Museum of American Soul Music, to Beale Street, or to the Peabody Hotel to watch the ducks parading through the lobby.  Neither did we have time to go to the National Civil Rights Museum, housed in the motel where James Earl Ray assassinated Dr Martin Luther King Jr on 4 April 1968.


Sun Studios, Memphis

Sun Studios calls itself the birthplace of Rock'n'Roll, and it has good reason to.  This is where a multitude of famous names started out on their careers with the help of studio owner Sam Phillips.  The most famous is probably Elvis Presley, but add in the likes of Johnny Cash, Howlin' Wolf, Ike Turner, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Conway Twitty and Roy Orbison, and you have a real roll call of musical legends - even if you hadn't already heard of all of them.

Sun Studios, Memphis

They started out in January 1950 as the Memphis Recording Service, sending the recordings to other labels for release.  'Rocket 88' by Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats, was recorded here on 5 March 1951 , with Ike Turner on keyboards; it is generally considered to be the first Rock'n'Roll single. 

 



Sun Studios, Memphis

And when some records weren't accepted by other labels, Sam started up the Sun Records label and released them himself. The first release was 'Driving' Slow' by Johnny London in April 1952.





Sun Studios, Memphis

The studios are only small, but are packed with music history and offer a great little tour despite still being a working studio.  Upstairs they have a good display of memorabilia, including Elvis Presley's contract.  



The story goes that Elvis walked into Sun Studios to record a song for his mother's birthday, but as it was some time after her birthday, really he was just hoping to get noticed and signed up.  He recorded two tracks 'My Happiness' and 'That's When Your Heartaches Begin'.

 

Sun Studios, Memphis

Sam Phillips wasn't in that day in the summer of 1953 but his assistant Marion Keisker thought he had something, and persuaded him to see Elvis.  Sam liked him enough to team him up with a band and try them out.  They did an evening session on 5 July 1954 but Sam was unimpressed until the very end, when Elvis broke into what was to become his own style with 'That's All Right, Mama'.

Sun Studios, Memphis

That song, with another called 'Blue Kentucky' on the B side, became his first single, released on 19 July 1954.  A few years later, knowing his little label was too small to handle the success he expected Elvis to have, Sam Phillips sold Elvis' contract on to RCA Records for the then unheard of sum of $35,000, and the rest is history.





Sun Studios, Memphis

But Elvis still popped into Sun Studios from time to time and on 4 December 1956 he arrived during a session where Carl Perkins was recording with Jerry Lee Lewis on the piano.  Johnny Cash turned up too, and the four of them started chatting, playing and singing.



Sun Studios, Memphis

The press got wind of it and took their photo, calling them the Million Dollar Quartet, because that was about what their total contracts were worth at the time.  Sam Phillips recorded this impromptu session, and years later it was released.

 



Sun Studios, Memphis

Sam Phillips moved to bigger premises in 1960, and sold the Sun Records label in 1969, so the premises here dropped out of use.  But after Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison recorded a 'Class of 55' session in 1985, the premises were reopened as recording studios in 1987 by Gary Hardy.  They have since been used by the likes of Ringo Star, Def Leppard and U2.



 

Sun Studios, Memphis

 

The tour finishes in that same small studio that all those famous names have recorded in, and you can pose with the microphone that Elvis used to start his career.

Sun Studios, Memphis

 

The Bishop Arts District and a good samaritan (Throwback post)

 One of our favourite parts of Dallas had to be the Bishop Arts District.  It was a bit of a haul out there, and the good bit are a few up and coming streets in what has been a relatively run down area, but it is worth the visit.

There are some lovely little independent stores, including Dudes Sweet Chocolates, which were very tasty.  We also found a great cafe called Oddfellows.

Now Oddfellows turned out to be even better that we had thought it was on our second visit, and not just for the food.  Our overnight Megabus out of Dallas had been booked when the downtown stop wasn't available, so we had to go to Fort Worth to pick it up.  With a distinct lack of buses to get there, we had decided to go back to the Bishop Arts District, which is part way, have something to eat at the cafe, and then get a taxi the rest of the way.

Our server had called the taxi company and they had said they didn't take prebookings but to call back when we needed the cab.  So we enjoyed our meal and a good chat with our server and then she phoned again.  And then they told her they don't go out that far.  We're only talking about a ten minute drive!  We couldn't believe it.  She couldn't believe it.  But we couldn't get a cab, and we had no other way of getting there.

As we were thinking about how we could get ourselves onto this bus, our server came back to us and provided us with the solution.  She had already spoken to one of the guys she worked with and arranged for him to drive us there in her own car. Needless to say, we were very grateful to her and gave her an excellent tip.

So he drove us to the bus stop and we made it in good time, very relieved to be on our way to Memphis.

How lovely - and lucky - to meet people who are kind enough to put themselves out to help a couple of complete strangers.

St Patrick's Day, Dallas style (Throwback post)

I don't know whether it is the leprechauns, but people across the globe, especially but not only the english speaking areas, seem to want to claim a bit of Irish ancestry.  Sadly I suspect the real reason people like the idea of being Irish is that they associate the nationality with Guinness, Craic and a whole lot  of drinking.

There are of course a lot of people with some Irish ancestry in other countries, particularly the States as so many emigrated there in the 1840s when they were hit by the potato famine.  But whilst there may be a bit of Irish blood there somewhere, it is pretty well diluted by now, and most of the descendants have never even been to Ireland, so I do find all of this claiming to be Irish just a bit ridiculous.

I'm not saying that people shouldn't recognise their ancestry, but really, when you were born in the States, your parents, grandparents and great-grandparents were born in the States, you've lived your whole life in the States, have a US accent, never even leave the States for a holiday, and obsess about the right to carry a gun, then face it, you're not Irish.

Mind you, it appears that being Irish may not matter anyway, as St Patrick was not Irish himself!  He was from Great Britain and was taken to Ireland as a child worker.  It is not clear where in Britain he was from; Scotland and Wales are both possibilities, but it is suggested he was from the north of England.

But whether people are truly Irish or not, there are Irish Bars everywhere.  Some are more "authentic" than others; for example I remain entirely unconvinced by the 'traditional Irish curry' being advertised in an Irish bar in Skopje, Macedonia.  And half the world seems to celebrates St Patrick's Day.

We were in Dallas for St Patrick's Day this year, and we joined our Couchsurfing hosts at the parade.  There were certainly great swathes of emerald green being worn, a lot of Guinness hats and 'kiss me I'm Irish' t-shirts.  And there was a lot of alcohol being consumed.

But aside from the green shamrock festooned decor, the parade itself could have been any other parade.  There was one pipes and drums band at the start, but beyond that there was not a hint of Irish music, traditional or otherwise.  There was no celebration of Irish ancestry or heritage here, unless of course your understanding of Irish culture is simply that a lot of drinking is done.

I'm not for a second suggesting that the Irish don't drink on St Patrick's Day, or a lot more often than that, but it is quite sad when that is the full extent of their attempt at embracing the culture.  And by the way, calling it St Paddy's Day may be OK, but St Patty's Day is just wrong!

And on the subject of drinking, where on earth do Budweiser get the idea that they can, with any seriousness, take a holiday that is famed for the consumption of Guinness, and use it to advertise Bud light!

So am I just being a miserable killjoy?  Well maybe, but I don't think so.  I like to see people celebrating their own culture and that of other people.  I like a good drink.  I just find it laughable that people pretend so hard to be something that they very clearly are not, just so they have an excuse to drink.  After all - who needs an excuse!