TCB

1 June 2013 2013: Day 18 of 43 – Memphis TENNESSEE (State 8).
Overnight in Memphis TENNESSEE.
Today 238km, Total 6,539km. 

“Taking Care of Business” or “TCB” was the most favourite saying of Elvis Aaron Presley. He had it trademarked and emblazoned on everything he owned at Graceland, his only home since 1957, about 5 miles (9km) South of downtown Memphis. Graceland is something else. A combination of Theme Park and time machine stuck in the 50-60-70s. It now receives approx. 1 million visitors a year and feels almost Holy. It is the most visited private address in the USA. You cannot help but be blown away as you enter the 500 spot car park and then behold the huge

visitors complex which looks like a theme park and is actually 3 times the area of the actual Graceland estate across the road. Tickets are $37 and for this you get to visit the inside of Elvis’s House, walk around the estate, including his gravesite and then come back across to the visitors complex and see all his cars, his DC8 aircraft and watch various films about his amazing career. We started our tour by strolling around Elvis’s many cars including the pink Caddie he gave his mother, the white convertible he gave his wife, his stretch Merc limo and his famous black and white Rolls Royces.

 

Elvis bought Graceland for $100,000 ($823,000 in 2012 dollars) back in 1957 when he was only 22. What immediately struck us about Graceland is how small it is both outside and inside. A bit like visiting JR Ewing’s Southfork in Dallas in 1993 – looks huge on tellie but looks like a doll house in real-life. You get to see many rooms inside – one group of about 15 people at a time. Many mini-buses cart eager Elvis fanatics between the visitors complex and Graceland every 5-10min. Up-front we saw the formal living room and adjacent dining room – both very kitschy, brightly coloured and

featuring many mirrors and chandeliers. We also saw the kitchen (not too big for such a size place) and the rumpus room out back where Elvis spent most of his time. Then we saw his parents’ bedroom downstairs, a psychedelic red pool room, a bar room, a TV room with multiple TVs (an idea Elvis got from President Lyndon Baines Johnson, who used to watch 3 TVs at once) and even Elvis’s office. The highlight was the huge Hall of Fame or Awards Room with more awards, gold and platinum records than your eyes could possibly cope with. It is here t

hat you realise that Elvis was no man – he was a phenomenon and single-handily changed the face of music in his time. Most locals here attribute his success to his ability to mix country, blues and rock and roll to create a brand of his own that combined with his good-looks and strong family-loving and charitable background, created a package that 1950s America (and later the world) could simply not refuse. Graceland as an estate covers 14 acres complete with horses, stud and riding track. The house only covers 30% of the estate and is more like a collection of rooms, each with their own themes, rather than a conventional mansion with

huge spaces. According to voice recordings of his only daughter, Lisa-Marie, Graceland was never empty – friends and work colleagues would always drop round and spend hours with Elvis, mainly in the back room. Food and drink was served around the clock. No wonder Elvis eventually divorced his only wife, Priscilla, in 1973 after only 6 years of marriage. Elvis was born on 6 January 1935 in Tupelo MISSISSIPPI, 90 miles (145km) South of Memphis (we visited here the next day) to Vernon and Gladis who were very poor. Elvis actually had a twin Jesse who

sadly died at birth. Elvis died of heart failure, brought on by overeating and countless drugs to help him sleep, in his upstairs ensuite bathroom at Graceland on 16 August 1977 at only 42 years of age. The upper level of Graceland is closed to the public out of respect and the attendants told us that his bedroom is called the “Zebra Room” and themed this way. Elvis’s mother died in 1958 of a heart attack, at the age of 46 only one year after moving into Graceland – Elvis was only 23 and devastated since he was very close to his mother – they tell us that he really never

fully recovered from this event since he always wanted to give his mother a good life following the poverty she experienced all her earlier life. Vernon died in 1979, 2 years after Elvis and his paternal grandmother died in 1980. All are buried on Graceland near the houses very small swimming pool. A special enclosure complete with fountain and statue of Christ surrounds the graves – this is the last thing you see before leaving Graceland. Boy was we lucky. It started to pour as we pulled out of the car park. 

Next stop on our Elvis Pilgrimage was nearby “Sun Studio” where Elvis was “discovered” and recorded his first songs. The story goes something like this. Elvis was 19, just out of High School and delivering electronic parts when he found out, quite by mistake, that a studio near the city was offering to record two songs for $4 for anyone who walked off the street and that they liked. Elvis always wanted to record a song for his mother. He saved up and walked into Sun in 1954 to record a song for his mother’s birthday. The owner, Sam Phillips was not there and was running the promo to acquire talent to grow his newly established studio. Sam’s partner and administrator, Marion Keisker was there to meet the teenage Elvis and after listening to him sing “My Happiness” she was stunned, quickly took his $4 and left a copy of the tape for Sam. 

Guess what – Sam did not like it so Marion brought Elvis back to have him sing live just in case the recording was not up to scratch – Elvis sang “And Now my Heartache Starts” in a mixed-up Country and Blues style which grabbed Sam, enough to put it out to Memphis City live radio. This radio station rarely played new songs more than twice – the first day Elvis aired they received 14 requests to replay from teenagers around town. Sam was smitten and offered Elvis a 3 year contract. That should have been enough to seal it for Sam but unfortunately he spend nearly all he made on Elvis

on other artists who were nowhere near as profitable to the point that Sun was almost bankrupt. The next move was a bad one. He sold his Elvis contract to RCA after only 17mths in 1956 for a measly $35,000 ($300,000 in 2012 dollars). However every cloud has a silver lining.This money was enough for Sam to survive since soon after he took a chance on four unknowns called Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and someone called Johnny Cash. As they say the rest is history and these guys put Sam on the map until his death in 2003. Sun Studio is still a working studio with bigger premises elsewhere so that the original building we visited could become a heritage listed museum of not only the start of the Elvis Phenomenon but the birthplace of Rock and Roll. The Sun Studio museum has preserved the original recording studio where Elvis auditioned and recorded his first few commercial singles and albums. He even “jammed” here with the famous-four mentioned above even when he was with RCA. The most amazing thing about Elvis’s career is that he never wrote his own songs and yet he went on to sell more than one billion records. Amazing. The highlight at Sun Studio was each visitor able to hold the actual microphone Elvis used to record. Naturally, I sang from it!!! Think of it. I sang from the Elvis microphone. Heaven. I am in Heaven.

Thelma and Louise had to drag me out of Sun! It was still grey and sprinkling outside as we made our way to the Lorraine Motel just outside the city where Dr Martin Luther King Junior was assassinated on 4 April 1968. The original hotel has been preserved in its original, state including room 306 outside of which Dr King was gunned down at precisely 6:01pm as he was off to dinner. Across the road, the National Civil Rights Museum has been set up to explain this event and many other events in the struggle for Black American freedom and equality.

The motel is now officially part of the museum and you can stand outside room 306 and look into it to see an exact mock-up of what was inside at the time of the shooting. As most know, James Earl Ray was arrested for the crime in record time and he confessed to it to avoid capital punishment. No trial was required at the time for pleading guilty and he was simply sentenced to 99 years in jail – he died in prison in 1998, exactly 30 years after the crime. 

Since we were so close to downtown Memphis and the rain had stopped we drove into the centre to visit the famous “Beale Street”, a pedestrian strip full of Blues, Country and Rock and Roll venues. Not as impressive as New Orleans – a bit grungy, buildings un-kept and the music too much like hard rock.

Tonight it was Southern Fried Chicken night since this is the specialty of Memphis (population 650,000). By the way, Memphis has no suburb names – every street or road is simply in “Memphis”, which also has a very nice Mississippi riverfront for homes but not restaurants – strange. It also has a double arch bridge crossing the river that when lit up looks like a two boobs! Not a good design for a staunch Baptist community. The chicken at Gus’s was to die for. We ordered 20 pieces so we could have some left over for lunch the next day. It was brilliant. Huge pieces accompanied by smoked beans, collard greens (like spinach) and more fried green tomatoes. That night I think we must have sunk half-way into the mattress under the weight! Yum.