I embrace my music geekdom!
On my very first trip to Louisiana, my Mapquest had me driving through Memphis. Without a moment's hesitation, I told the boyfriend I was running away from that I wanted to leave a day early so I could stop at Graceland. I laughed at his "why?" - the simplest answer at the time was because I would be driving right by it and no self-respecting music fan could simply smile and wave as she passed the exit.
I learned on a lot on that visit to Memphis, but not enough. It wouldn't be until several years later that the man (THE man, not the boyfriend I ran away from) and I planned a stopover in Memphis on our road trip to New Orleans. Sure, we could have taken the much faster drive my son discovered, traveling through Alabama and cutting off at the pass, but this was to be a vacation.
And we specifically planned the trip to include a visit to Sun Studio. After I published this article about the trip, the man reminded me I had forgotten the story about Ike Turner's amp being lost on Highway 61. I did leave that tale out of my article. The legend, as related by the Sun Studio tour guide, was that the unique sounds that Ike Turner created weren't of his own doing, but that of the damaged amp that fell off of the car as the band was zooming up Highway 61 from Clarksdale, Mississippi to a gig in Memphis. They turned around and retrieved the amp and it worked "good enough".
The feelings are there - and if there is a Rock & Roll Heaven, it goes right through Sun Studio in Memphis.
Sun Studio Tours: The Birthplace of Rock & Roll
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