Southern spell gone

So, Memphis was better and not as good as expected. Graceland was amusing as one might expect;




I was disappointed at the bed in one of his jets. I had heard he had a bed installed and I imagined a huge affair taking up the whole back part of the airplane perhaps with mirrors on the ceiling,(something like this bed in Graceland)

but what I got was actually just a smallish thing with a brown bedspread, Ah well.


But what I really liked was the tour of Sun Studio. Not so much for the Elvis connection, but more for the Johnny Cash angle. Got to walk around the recording studio where he first played. So from a historic POV that was fun. On Sunday we drove to Tupelo, Mississippi (If you haven’t heard it Nick Cave has a song called Tupelo that's pretty rocking), as this was where Elvis was born. An interesting comparison seeing where he started (a two room shack) and where he ended up (Graceland) and led me to two observations... 1. Considering the level of attention and excess he lived under at the end it is no wonder he was popping those pills and I could empathic if he actually took he life on purpose, not a life style one could maintain in a sane manner. 2. Comparing Elvis’ career with Cash's I notice at least a major superficial difference. Elvis started out clean-cut innocent looking/acting and ended up an overweight decadent drug user, while Cash was pretty rambunctious punk/druggie in his early career and mellowed his lifestyle as he got older. Of course they both played integral parts in the development of American music but, without trying to dis Elvis, I think Cash has had a much broader, longer lasting influence, which may be strictly because of living so much longer but I think is deeper than that.
There was much more, the race observations, some amusing store names, my new fav. car, observing Elvis' vs. Jim Morrison grave sites (I know Morrison is in Paris), customer service, Graceland wall, the road patches in Arkansas, and the Krispy Kream Donuts, but this is a long post as is and I shall only bore you with the rest if asked to. It is nice to be back.