Sunday 27th November – Walking in Memphis

With a full day’s tourism ahead we got up in good time to get started…. But sadly Harvey didn’t want to.  It had been cold but again, the flat battery was a surprise – not as much of a surprise as when even the power pack we’d purchased failed to get things started.  I walked up to the campsite office to summon the owner who thankfully gave me a lift back with his ancient truck that had done about 200,000 miles… but was still running on a cold morning.  I was concerned that it was something more serious than the battery but no, glad to be wrong, the engine kicked into action and we set off.

We went to the secret location (another VC) to buy our cheap deal $64 multi-ticket before returning to the main VC to take advantage of their free parking.  From there we got our first experience of ‘walking in Memphis’.  Finally, parts of that song make sense!  We walked to Beale Street which is legendary for live music – credited for helping Elvis and BB King start out.  Almost every single bar or restaurant had live blues or rock music emanating from it as we strolled past, making a mental note of where we would be returning to later....  

The first ticket in our bundle got us in to the Gibson Guitar Factory, just round the corner from Beale. 

Now that's a reception desk!

Having drooled over all of the models in the Gibson store, we embarked on a 45 minute guided tour of the acoustic and semi-acoustic factory (sadly the solid body electric guitars are manufactured in Nashville).  It was intriguing to see how much of the process is still done by hand compared to the roles that have been taken over by machinery.

Gibson Lucille guitars - BB King's chosen model

From Gibson, the Rock ‘n Soul museum is just across the road.  This was another all-immersive audio tour where you entered the number from the exhibit in front of you onto a device to hear all about it.  The museum gave the fascinating history of music around Memphis, the natural progression from church gospel to people listening to radio shows like the Grand Ole Opry in their home. Then on to the first juke boxes and exhibits from the ground-breaking Tennessee musicians such as Jerry Lee Lewis, BB King, Elvis and Johnny Cash.  But my favourite exhibits were the Hammond organ, Fender guitar and hand-written lyrics of Mark James, used when he composed and recorded ‘Suspicious Minds’ in 1968:

Only a year later James had a premonition that the song was right for Elvis who went on to record it, the track becoming one of his most popular tracks and making it into the top forty songs of the twentieth century in relation to number of times it has been performed.  What an epic song!

The Isana guitar that Elvis had with him whilst serving in the army in Germany

With musical history ringing in our ears we had worked up an appetite not only for some live music but also USA sandwich number three, the pulled pork variety!  Back to Beale Street and BB Kings Blues Club.  We were seated upstairs with a balcony view of the stage to be serenaded by some seriously talented blues musicians.  The food?  I went 7/10 for the sandwich. Plus points for atmosphere and flavour (lots of Barbecue sauce and coleslaw) but minus points for the fact that it was brought to me mid-way through our hot starter when we were certainly not in any rush and therefore had disintegrated and cooled down by the time I got to enjoy it. 

The music was amazing and if money was no object we would have gladly stayed for the whole evening.  But I was designated driver and we also wanted to avoid the walk back through Downtown Memphis too late at night, so we drew a line after dinner and headed back to the RV.  Beale Street was buzzing on a Sunday night but as soon as we walked elsewhere in the city there was hardly a person about.  Maybe it’s just the time of year but it seemed like the ‘Soul’ of Memphis was only apparent in the tourist areas and there are some very poor areas, where businesses and residents aren’t getting on so well.