I love travelling in this country. It is very beautiful but it is also wasteful. The US has the highest per capita carbon footprint in the world. This sense of waste is everywhere from the ubiquitous gas guzzlers/ SUVs to the disposability of day-to-day life. I enclose a photograph of the waste that we generated over breakfast on one meal alone. All these disposable utensils and plates will go into landfill. They are made from polystyrene and plastic (Petroleum products) and are not biodegradable. If this is the waste that 3 guys produce then the impact of this waste problem across the whole US population is inexcusable. A fleet of large buses ferries tourists the 200 meters from the reception area to the Graceland mansion. Conversion to electricity would be easy to do. Elvis would have approved!
A sign on the wall at Stax Records says “Music was made here and so was magic”
The original building was demolished in 1980 but a replica was recently rebuilt as close as possible to the original design. This is a run down part of town, full of boarded up shops and a distinct stamp of poverty. The true Soul fan would brand this a fake but the exhibition is good and we came out bopping after hearing that wonderful Soul sound again. We were as the early Stax recording stars described “In the Stax groove”
Soul music comes from a blend of Gospel, Blues, Country and Jazz. The two major influences were Gospel and Blues. Gospel was how you communicated with your God while Blues was about communicating with your fellow man.
My first experience of Soul was hearing Otis Redding singing “Dock of the Bay” on Top of The Pops (on film as he was already dead by then) at boarding school. I subsequently bought a LP called “Soul Sampler” put out by Atlantic Records which had all the great names such as Clarla & Rufus Thomas, Percy Sledge, Otis Reading, Wilson Picket, Sam & Dave and many more. It was such “Sweet Music” then and remains so today giving you a happy sense of wellbeing. Its about feeling good about yourself.
It appears that Martin Luther King’s death also impacted on the Memphis music scene. Before then, the label and its music was not tainted by racial and social issues but all was however about to change. Stax continued in business until the mid seventies when to everyone’s shock it went under. The new museum has been built with a music academy next door. Many of those early Stax artists (Booker T Jones, Isaac Hayes, Rufus & Clara Thomas, Aretha Franklin, Memphis Slim etc..) came from the area and its great to see the Stax influence returning something to the community.
Ask your friends in the UK about country music and most will tell you that they don’t like country music. In the privacy of a bar and a few beers they will often admit to being closet country fans. This is certainly the case with the 3 of us. I don’t like the glitzy, sequined singing cowboys but I love the alternative outlaw country music. It’s hard to find better musicianship and record production any where in the world. We have decided to go to Nashville. It’s not the Blues but its difficult not to get onto Interstate 40 (The Music Road) and bypass this great city.
Country music grew out of what people called “Hillbilly” and is heavily influenced by Irish and Scottish music. This is the white man’s blues. It is not a coincidence that Nashville and Memphis should be so close together. Modern popular music needed these two genres to come together to give us what we have today.
Tonight, we are about to leave for the Grand Ole Opry. How could we say that we had come here without visiting this iconic country show. It’s been running since 1925 and is the longest running radio music show in the world. More about that tomorrow
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