Andy: When we started this trip, Amy was most psyched about going to Graceland; I wanted to go to Sun Studio. I've always been fairly ravenous on rock 'n' roll history, and whereas it seemed that Graceland would be mostly kitsch (and I wasn't disappointed), I expected Sun to be the Real Deal: Elvis, Jerry Lee, Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, and so on. It was a lot more real than Graceland could be, but there were also bits of a facade.
The Sun Studio itself is not the first thing you see. First there's the cafe on the corner that is memorabilia shop, including the upstairs which has seven display cases which
show more about the history of rock and roll than all of Graceland does. This difference between music and glitz is the main difference between the two Memphis landmarks,
and, sadly, probably why the place was all but deserted.
Sun is not above appealing to popular interest. There are more than a few mentions of U2's having recorded there, and the clerk lamented that that's what most people are interested in.
Studio tours are given every hour on the half hour, so we had to cool our heels for a while. When the time came, we literally walked next door to the studio proper, and found that "tour" is a bit of a misnomer, since there are only two rooms. It starts in the office on the street, and leads directly into the studio itself.
Andy:If you've seen U2's Rattle & Hum, you know what the inside of the studio looks like. It's a recording studio with gear lining the walls, acoustic tiles floor to
ceiling, and an indescribable feel to it. Maybe it's just hype, but I had such a reverent feeling, standing where all these seminal songs were recorded.
The tour guide gave a half-hour presentation on the early history of Sun, punctuated with musical clips of the songs. He showed us the very microphone that Elvis cut his first sides with. When he explained how Johnny Cash put a dollar bill in the strings on the neck of his guitar to get that dead "chk-chk" sound on "Get Rhythm", he played along to illustrate. It was like we could see it happening. Although he spoke very quickly, and had it memorized down to the word, it was clear that he knew his stuff and loved the music.
The letdown came at the end, when we found that the studio had been sold long ago, and had been, among other things, a barber shop. The gear had all been sold off, and most of the acoustic tiles removed. It was only when a new owner bought it back in 1987 and restored it to its mid-50s style that it became a working studio again. Elvis' mic was the real thing, but everything else had been repurchased. Sure, there was a Hammond B-3 running through a Leslie, but it wasn't the original. That guitar with the dollar bill in it sure wasn't the one that Johnny Cash played.
Still, we left feeling that we'd saved the best for last. We bought our Sun t-shirts (one each) and stickers to put on Andy's bass case, and made our way to The Rendezvous for the best ribs on the planet. Forget Carson's, Chicago: These blow them away. We're going to go back to Memphis just to get the sausage 'n' cheese appetizer platter.
From there, the trip wound down. We made our way to Tulsa, OK to visit a relative of Amy's for a while, and then we made our way back to Chicago, starting Wednesday afternoon. A few hours out of Tulsa, when we normally would have wanted to be thinking about where we'd find a motel, we just wanted to get home. So, trading driving shifts and chugging lots of caffeine, we zoomed home by 6:00am on Thursday, glad to have beaten the rush hour traffic that would soon be starting.
So that's our story. We hope the horse poop wasn't too shocking. If you liked it, hated it, or have even better barbecue recommendations than the Rendezvous (although we doubt it), please email us at andy@petdance.com or amy@petdance.com. Thankyouverymuch.