rock and roll history lesson

okay, so there's this old-fashion public bus, and we get on and take a seat. and there is this guy sitting in the front facing us with a guitar. and he hands out tambourines and shakers and bongos. do you think richard and rylan were thrilled with this? nothing like a participatory tour bus! with only 6 customers on board, the guitar player/tour guide and the bus driver took us on a 2 hour tour of the music history of memphis.

yes, he sang and played guitar. a lot of the time - and we were expected to play tambourines along with him. we did! he was excellent - he played old blues, elvis songs, johnny cash songs, a lot of early soul songs. all in keeping with where we were at any point in memphis.

what did we see? well, there was the Sun Recording Studio where we went in and stood in the studio where Elvis recorded his first ever song, as did Johnny Cash (and many others). we drove past the apartment Elvis lived in when he was 13, and right down the street was the apartment BB King lived in when he was 19 - at the same time as Elvis . . . just a few years later they became friends down on Beale Street.

we drove past the apartment that Johnny Cash lived in when he first came to Memphis. we drove past Stax Records studio. We drove past (and sort of slowed down) the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King was killed. (we came back later in our own car, parked and got out to take photos. it is really EERIE to stand at the motel parking lot and look up at the walkway where he was shot.)

It was a great tour. the guide was really knowledgeable about Memphis and music history and i learned a lot. i don't know anyone who might be going to Memphis, but if you are - I highly recommend this tour! even if you have to play a tambourine while you ride in the bus.

Later, we visited the Memphis Rock and Soul Museum, which was more of the same. Not to say it wasn't interesting! We learned even more about Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash, plus people we have never heard of but who were influential in the music world.

all to say that Memphis played a huge role in modern music. The blues, soul music, and rock & roll all grew out of here, from gospel, country, jazz and the songs of sharecroppers.