Sun Studios, Rock N Soul Museum and National Civil Rights Museum

Sun Studios is where Elvis first recorded a song he wrote for his mother. Elvis continued to record there and on the brink of becoming famous, the owner of Sun Studios at the time sold Elvis' contract to another recording studio to save the studio from going bankrupt. Little did the owner know how much money he was going to loose selling the Presley contact! However the sale saved the studio and it has seen many greats record there such as Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Roy Orbison. Today it is still used as a recording studio and in fact while we were there in Memphis, Jon Bon Jovi had visited the day before to record.

Parked out the front was this beautiful original convertible 55 T-Bird that belonged to one of the staff.

There is a museum upstairs which holds loads of old radios, record players and recording equipment as you will see by the photos. Down stairs is the authentic recording studio which still has all the original light fittings,  microphones and other recording equipment. While mum, dad and I went up to the museum to look on our tour, Tim was able to sit in the studio and sing his little heart out using the same microphone as Presley and the other greats!

 

 This is a concert contract for Elvis that states he will not have a support act nor a replacement singer should anything happen to him.


Tim and Dad hav'in a grand ole' time singing into Elvis Presley's mic.

Rock N Soul Museum -

This museum we did briefly. It was full of rock n roll history from the 50's to present. It included musical instruments and artists clothes such as bono's jacket etc.

My favourite piece was the cabinet with all the blues harps and harmonica's. Reminds me of dad who plays the harmonica.

The greatst history lesson excursion -

Visiting the National Civil Rights Museum was an awkward and uncomfortable feeling. It started off with viewing the assassination site of Martin Luther King which was interesting but never a nice thing to view.

But the real uncomfortable start was when they would not allow Roxy, a working dog, into the museum. Now admittedly Tim did not have her paperwork with him at the time, but the security lady would not accept that we had obviously cleared customs to get into Memphis and refused our entry. Now hot headed little me got very annoyed with this lady because she said Roxy could bite kids if she let us in. This seemed ridiculous especially while we were having this conversation, Roxy was lying sprawled out on the floor sleeping and snoring, and she was wearing her service dog vest AND it was The National Civil Rights Museum. After thinking about the situation for a while and all of us calming down from being so angry, Tim came up with asking if they would look on the Assistance Dogs Website and find him on there with Roxy as evidence that she was in fact a service animal. They agreed to take a look, about 45 minutes later they came and asked for the website again. Finally I saw a lady trying to find it on their archaic computer system that still had dial up internet and asked if I could just find it for her as her computer skills were quite minimal. Eventually we got in.

I'm not sure if it was just me inside this museum but reading about how the "white" man thought of themselves as far superior, or a better quality of human, than those of colour, made me feel so dirty and disgusted. I can't even think how such a thought comes into one's mind, and so much so that they not only think it but act upon it! Reading the different stages of cruelty and degradation the white man had; from slavery to the KKK.

They had this bus in the museum that you could walk into and were instructed to sit near the mannequin of Rosa Parks. If you don't know who Rosa Parks is she is a lady of colour who refused to sit in the back of the bus with her fellow coloured friends as it was expected of her at the time.  This caused a huge upset not only that a coloured sat in the front, but she was a woman too. Now I jumped on this bus at the same time as 4 other coloured people. They all sat next or near Rosa Parks and I sat at the back. Now the bus driver, also a white male mannequin, started yelling for Rosa (and consequently the other coloured people) to sit at the back, with each request getting more violent and aggressive and disgusting. Now I don't know if it was the fact that these other coloured people were on the bus that it felt so real, but I can tell you as the only white person sitting on that bus, I felt so ashamed and embarrassed, I had to get off there so quick. I was almost in tears. Those poor people!

Thank God for Martin Luther King! Part of the museum showed you the hotel room Martin Luther King was in and they had preserved it exactly, like it was still a crime scene and not allowed to be touched. Then it showed you the exact point on the balcony where he was shot and the window from which the assassinator shot from.