Day 4/5 - #roadtrip 2013 - Memphis baby, Memphis

Oh man, so the trip truly was building up to these next two cities starting with Memphis, TN, the birthplace of Rock n' Roll.  And I mean really, how can you go wrong in a city when you start off with amazing BBQ??

Tuesday, March 5th we pull into Memphis around 9:30pm, drop our stuff off at our Airbnb host's house, and head straight out to Rendevous, which we heard closes promptly at 10:30pm and was officially the most highly recommended place by our friends on Facebook.  Not gonna miss it.  We made it over there around 10:15pm, limp into the restaurant as the wearied and worn travelers that we are, and they let us know that they are happy to serve us.  They are super friendly, welcoming, AND THEN...the food.  YES.  TWEET: BBQ at Rendevous in Memphis.  Yum.  #roadtrip mission accomplished.  (And no, we didn't stuff ourselves with ribs at 11pm.  We split them responsibly. :)


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On Wed., March 6 we woke up in Memphis in the lovely cottage provided by our Memphis airbnb host.  We were excited for this day as we were to get some historic sightseeing in.  Me especially, since Memphis marked the beginning of our music tour of the Southeast. 

Our first stop was the Lorraine Motel where Dr. Martin Luther King was shot in 1963.  A true place of reverence, we had to pause and take in the well-preserved landmark, complete with authentic cars of the period parked outside the window.

Next we went on to Sun Studios, the landmark Memphis has deemed the birthplace of Rock n’ Roll (so legend has it anyway).  I was a kid in a candy store.  I still light up telling the story afterwards.  As soon as I walked in I knew this was a place to behold.  I wanted anything I could get my hands on (that was cheap!) – stickers, mugs, t-shirts, posters, give it to me!  And that was just the gift shop.  We went upstairs to begin the tour and our guide was fantastic.  A musician himself he really poured on the passion for the stories of the old days of Sun Studios.  He told us that Sam Phillips began Sun Studios as just a place to record.  He would bring mostly blues artists to record in the space – most notably, Muddy Waters & Howlin’ Wolf.  Those artists would cut records at Sun, but then Sun would send them on to places like Chess Records in Chicago, quickly realizing that he needed to create his own label and remove the middle man.  That he did.

The first rock ‘n roll record ever made (so legend has it anyway, perhaps Sun is a bit biased, but I didn’t care!) was called “Rocket 88” by Jackie Brenston (I know, I had never heard of him either).  Our guide told us that Ike Turner was one of the session players in the band that recorded “Rocket 88,” and that band had traveled some distance to get to Sun.  During their travels one of the amps broke.  When the band arrived at Sun the guitar player played a distorted sound out of the damaged amp – a sound that the players began to like.  Music would never sound the same again.  Of course I was all eyes and ears for this story.

I learned that Sun was also the place Elvis recorded for the first time.  At Sun anyone could come down and record an amateur record for $4 (a fact highlighted in “Walk the Line” which we of course had to watch).  Elvis asked the secretary Marion if he could record a song for his mother’s birthday and to this day she is the first person in history to have ever pressed the record button for the documented king of rock ‘n roll.  Christina and I agreed – we maybe slept a little on Elvis before. He was quite the looker.  Quite dreamy.  And his voice sounded pretty nice.  Ok, I guess I get the hype now.   (The image in this paragraph shows Elvis' high school diploma and a school program where he is featured as the guitarist.)

And of course Sun was home to Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and a host of others (those 3 along with Elvis making up the million dollar quartet featured prominently in the picture on the left).  The tour guide showed us the X’s on the ground that marked where these legends stood and made history.  He also gave us the chance to take a picture with the old microphone that recorded them all.  I’m sure you could guess who was first in line for that photo opp. ; )  TWEET: “I stood where Elvis stood.  I sang where Elvis sang.  This is living.  #roadtrip.

And of course we had to eat before getting on the road.  Eating was a crucial component of the #roadtrip. : )