Wow, Memphis sure grows on you in a hurry! Today was jam packed with music and Civil Rights and a bit of art.
We jumped on the Backbeat Tour Bus for 90 minutes of driving round town, while the guide sat with his guitar at the front of the bus and we sang and played music as we toured the sights. Well, not really sights in that as they say "Memphis has torn down more history than most other cities have every had". We saw where Elvis grew up, and not 500m was where BB King lived. But because of segregation they never met there. We stopped in at Sun Records studio where Elvis recorded his first tunes, and Johnny Cash, and the list just goes on and on.
Then we wandered down to the Lorainne Motel - one of the only integrated motels in the 60's. So it was here that people like Martin Luthur King would stay, and in fact where he was assassinated in '68. It is now the National Civil Rights Museum. We went in but after a couple of hours had seen only a half of the story of the struggle for equality and freedom in the USA. As we were leaving they told us we could use the same ticket to come back the next day for the rest of the tour - such friendliness is commonplace down these parts. We had watched a movie called "The Witness" in which the story was told by the guy who was standing beside MLK when he was shot. Then amazingly we met this guy in person as we were leaving the museum. That was super cool. Reverand Kyles
Memphis - they'll put art on anything.
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