Rock Around America: Memphis

Here are the big music landmarks once MUST hit while in Memphis, TN, et al. These photos were taken 6/8-11/2006 by Brent Owen and Chad Perry.

This is the entryway to Graceland. Here at 3734 Elvis Presley Boulevard Graceland was the home in which Elvis Presley, The King of Rock n’ Roll, lived and eventually died in on August 16^th, 1977.

This is Stax Records located in a converted Movie Theater at 926 East McLemore Avenue. Stax Records was the Memphis equivalent to Detroit’s highly successful R&B label Motown Records. The two labels rivaled each other year to year to see which label’s artists sold the most records. While Motown referred to itself with pomp as “Hitsville, U.S.A.” – Stax chose to antagonize them by referring to itself as “Soulsville, U.S.A.”, making the implication that Motown was now making Pop records and no longer the R&B tracks (then known as "Race Records" due to their specific appeal to the African American community) that had originally launched it to stratospheric success. And make no mistake the Stax roster ended up beginning the careers of some of R&B’s greatest and most influential artists, including: Otis Redding, Booker T and The MG’s, Albert King, The Staples Sisters, Rufus Thomas, and comedian Richard Pryor. The Stax Studio and house band Booker T and the MG’s also produced hits for artists outside of the Stax family, performers like: Wilson Pickett and Sam and Dave.

In this photo is The Lorraine Motel, located at 450 Mulberry Street, the site where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968. Just behind the pictured wreath is where his body fell. I include this because it represents the injustice that inspired generations of singers and songwriters to raise their voices in song or to pick-up their pens in protest or to bend their guitar strings in sorrow. This is why delta bluesmen played, this is what Billie Holiday sang about in “Strange Fruit”; and this is what poets wrote songs about, songs like: “A Change Is Gonna Come”, “Inner City Blues (make me wanna holla)”, and “Mississippi Goddam”. It was this restlessness that inspired some of the greatest most thought provoking music in history. And it wasn’t just reserved to African American artists either – The Civil Rights Movement also inspired the likes of more mainstream white artists like: Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, and Joan Baez.

This is the monument that stands at the intersection of Highways 49 and 61 in Clarksdale, Mississippi. This is Robert Johnson’s fabled “Crossroads” where he supposedly sold his soul to the devil; thus laying the early foundation of what would become Rock n’ Roll. This very intersection has inspired Johnson himself with “Crossroads Blues”, Bob Dylan’s “Highway 61 Revisited”, and the Page and Plant song “Walking into Clarksdale.” This legend has also inspired such films as Crossroads (1986) with Ralph Machio and Jami Gertz, unfortunately not the classic 2002 film starring Britney Spears; and of course The Coen Brothers’ epic O’ Brother Where Art Thou?.

Here is Sun Studios. If the true birth of Rock n’ Roll could be traced back to a single place…this red brick building would be the place. This store front operation at 706 Union Ave., started by legendary producer Sam Phillips, consisted of no more than a tiny reception area, a single studio about the size of a large bed room, and a tiny control room. It was here that Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, Charlie Rich, Jerry Lee Lewis, Levon Helm, B.B. King, and even U2 have recorded some of their most beloved songs. And on a hot summer after noon, it was in this building that an inspired engineer rolled tape on what became known as “The Million Dollar Quartet” which consisted of Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash all participating in an impromptu performance around the studio’s old upright piano.