The King is Dead

Memphis is a 7 hour drive north of New Orleans. The city itself isn't much to look at. It seems like a boring place to be but surprisingly enough, lots has happened here.

One day spent here and we managed to see Graceland, the Lorraine Motel where Dr Martin Luther King was shot and the Sun Studios.

Graceland was sort of a Disneyland for grown ups. The ride to the mansion is along a road of fast food joints and all sorts of motels named Elvis this or Heartbreak that. 27 bucks gets you on a tour bus across the street to the mansion with an audio guide dangling from your neck. It's hard not to feel like herded cattle for most of it as the entire thing is filled with tourist in one long queue walking through the various rooms. Elvis had some bad taste. I did like the 15 foot white couch in his living room but the rooshed fabric walls in the poolroom and the shag carpet on the ceiling of the jungle room where a bit much.

There was also that creepy monkey in the TV room with the mirrored ceiling. The house wasn't as big as I expected and I was absolutely shocked that they kept the upstairs closed off. In his lifetime the King never let anyone upstairs as those were his private quarters and for some reason Lisa Marie and the corporation that run Graceland kept it that way.

His shooting range and many platinum albums were impressive. Especially when you consider that he never toured outside North America in his life.

I knew this somewhere in the back of my mind but the King had a twin brother that died at birth. He also didn't name Graceland. It was named after the middle name of the first owner's wife (some wealthy couple).

We hopped in a car and headed for Sun Studios, by far my favorite of the sights. It is basically one small room with a drum set, 2 pianos and a bunch of guitars. The tour was great. Worth every penny of that 10 bucks. It's amazing to consider that so much great music came out of that tiny little room on Union Avenue. Plus, who woulda thunk that Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins all hung out together jamming....

Sam Philips, the man behind Sun Studios, made most of his fortune investing in a little hotel chain called the Holiday Inn after selling Sun Studios.

The Lorraine Motel in Memphis stands as a reminder of the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights movement of the sixties.

The museum was interesting but the film they showed was...well, bad. Everyone was confused as to why Clinton appeared in it. The displays were really wordy and, although informative, eventually became tedious to read. There was a bus you could get on to read about Rosa Parks and the museum continued across the street from the building where the sniper shot Dr King. The man-hunt and accounts of the shooting from across the street were almost better laid out than the many displays in the motel section of the museum.

The tour guide at Sun Studios recommended a place called the Barbecue Shop on Madison Ave and Cooper. It was by far the best barbecue ever. The meat melted in your mouth and the place was filled with nothing but locals (it wasn't downtown but rather near a record shop we visited called Shangrila).

Beale street where you can get a five dollar spray on Elvis tattoo was next. The street, like Bourbon in New Orleans, was pedestrian traffic only with loud bars. We managed to find a place with a great blues band and an extensive harmonica collection. They played some great music in an old school bar atmosphere but by the third time the Dr Feelgood Potts played the "tip song" we had to leave. The night was just revving up for the guy in front of us. His wife took off on him and partied in the bar next to us and brought back an entourage. She also commanded him to pay 20 dollars for a CD by the band. My prediction is that this 60-something year old couple is definitely on the outs. At this point they're sticking around for the insurance money.

We left Memphis early the next day. 9am we drove through some heavy rains and by 5 we were looking for an Indian restaurant in Louisville. We got back to Toronto at 7am the following day.