Day 09 - Memphis

The rain continued so exploring Memphis on foot was out of the question (unless I’d had full rain gear and an umbrella) so I first visited the Stax Museum of American Soul. It stands on the site of the former Stax studio where such Soul greats as Otis Redding and Booker T and the MGs recorded their hits. The museum tells the history of the label and its artists with photographs, film/video footage, sound bites and props like original instruments (I so want Duck Dunn’s Fender Precision Bass), costumes and other gear and memorabilia, gold records and the like.
It’s very informative but less technologically advanced than the Country Music Hall of Fame. While in the HoF the music you heard was limited to the exhibit you were looking at, a lot of tunes overlapped at Stax but it was still good and very interesting indeed.
Sorry Elvis, but in terms of custom Cadillacs, Issac Hayes wins. Peacock blue, gold trim, plush fur interior, TV and so on. This was the true and original pimped ride. ;o) Incidentally, I drove through Hayes' hometown, Covington, the day before, completely randomly.
Interestingly enough, Martin Luther King's assassination (in Memphis, no less) was the cause of Stax' demise as after the event, there was so much discontent and distrust towards white people that Stax (white owned but a place where there was no racial prejudice whatsoever) couldn't continue to operate and had to shut down... The artist roster moved to Atlantic Records.

When I came out, it was raining hard so I decided to go to Graceland after all. $6 for parking later, I bought a ticket for the mansion tour, was photographed, grabbed a headset and boarded the shuttle bus that would take us through the hallowed gates.
The first room was a living and dining area, followed by his parents’ bedroom. Then the kitchen, which is actually quite a bit smaller than I expected, considering the size of the mansion but obviously state of the art then. It still has original appliances from the early 70s when it was last refurbished. Only to think how many fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches were prepared there…
The section I absolutely loved was the “TV room” a huge sitting area, all in yellow and blue, leather corner sofas and a wall with three huge (for the time and even now) TVs. There’s a little bar, too. I could live in that.
The Pool Room with the fabric clad walls and ceiling was weird but not too overwrought, either, strangely enough.
The “trophy building” with its Grammies, Gold/Platinum records and other rewards is very impressive indeed.
The final section has costumes through his history, both film and stage and the last bit you see is the memorial garden with his and his family’s graves. It was absolutely pouring it down then so I didn’t stay long.
In the hope the rain would abate later, I had a late lunch at the diner (meatloaf) but it wasn’t to be so I left without being able to get across the road to take a photo of the gates. It was still worth it, though.

The evening was kind of a letdown as getting to Beale Street would have involved walking (or talking a taxi) again and as I had an early start in the morning, I stayed at the hotel after driving to midtown for dinner (a nice little place called Soul Fish Café). I wrote some postcards, packed and worked out a route for the next day.