MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE

On a flight to Memphis, a man said to his wife, “Surely we’re not going to Graceland, are we?” to which she responded indignantly, “Are you kidding me? I’m not going to Memphis without going to Graceland!”

No, traveler, don’t go to Memphis without going to Graceland. See everything.

Memphis is history and its history is music and the river, and that means blues and race, vulgarity and elegance, beauty and hard times. It means what happens when musical genius triumphs over the most difficult of circumstances and it means what happens when you take a poor 22-year-old from a shotgun house in Tupelo, Mississippi and turn him into a god.

Memphis is America.

Before Europeans arrived in the area, the Chickasaw Indians had settled on the high bluff above the river, which became known as the Mississippi. The area actually divides the upper and lower Mississippi and looks south to the delta, the swamps, and what we think of as the Deep South. Two rivers meet here, the mighty Mississippi and the Wolf River. For these reasons, the area was an important and strategic location since before recorded history. In the mid-16th century De Soto arrived and 150 years later the French built a fort there, Fort Prudhomme. Later the English arrived and in the 19th century, Memphis was incorporated as a city and named after the ancient capital of Egypt. Today, the Memphis metropolitan area has a population of nearly one and a half million, making it only slightly smaller than the Nashville metropolitan area, although within actual city limits, Memphis is the largest city. Tennessee big.

Due to its strategic location, Memphis was the scene of a fierce battle in the Civil War and was eventually captured by Union forces. Devastating epidemics of yellow fever followed and for a time it seemed that the city would not recover. But despite this, Memphis called hundreds of freed slaves who came to the city on the cliff to work and brought their music with them. Memphis in those days had a reputation for being an open and carefree place and as such attracted people who were excited about freedom and happy to be out of repression. They played their music for themselves, but soon discovered that others were coming to the area just to listen to their music and join in the fun. Memphis became famous.

It may have been in part because of this history of racial freedom and miscegenation that Memphis eventually became instrumental in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Dr. Martin Luther King came to Memphis to support the sanitation workers’ strike and was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968. The motel where he was assassinated has recently been made a national historic site.

The Graceland site is in a way exactly what one would expect and also in a way surprising. The mansion (and that word is not an exaggeration) stands on its own and has been protected from any overt commercial ventures. Ticket sales, gift shop, advertising, are across a four lane highway and a small van shuttles visitors from one side to the other. It has been left, they say, exactly as it was when Elvis lived there, at least as he was the last time it was redecorated. It’s luxurious and for some probably tacky. Except that the kitchen, which we are told was the heart of the house and where the constant stream of guests and hangers-on congregated, is surprisingly small and unassuming. We’re told that Elvis liked to eat, but the fact that fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches are his favorite food may account for the fact that the kitchen doesn’t appear to have been designed for culinary masterpieces.

But the hospitality, generosity, love of family, and sentimentality that are such a part of the Elvis Presley legend are evident everywhere in this iconic spot.

Another place where evidence of wealth abounds and is lavishly displayed is in the sumptuous lobby of the Peabody Hotel on Union Avenue. Even if it weren’t for the Duck Parade, there’s enough to see at the Peabody (posh shops, jewelry, art) to make the short drive downtown worthwhile. Yes, we said “Parade of the Ducks” and if you don’t know it we don’t tell you enough to spoil it. Just this: the ducks live in the hotel attic at night and spend their days at the foyer fountain, parading down the lobby from the lift to the fountain twice a day with as much ceremony as the changing of the guard at the Palace of Buckingham. Another thing NOT to miss in Memphis!

And then there’s Beale Street, where the music began and where it still flourishes.
Here is the night life, some say it is the life of Memphis. Nightclub after nightclub, 30 of them in three blocks, each one playing music you just can’t hear anywhere else. Blues, of course, the music that was born here, but also jazz, rock and roll, rhythm and blues, gospel, you name it. Pick your music and your club, but if you’re going to BB Kings, be brave and wherever you go, expect to stay late – the musicians don’t start to come alive until after 10.

Plan to stay a few days and it’s a good idea at some point to take a tour. Otherwise, you may not know where to find the Sun Studio, the little shop where Elvis made that “That’s All Right, Momma” recording that was the start of a wild ride for a southern kid and the start of a cultural shift. for the whole country

This is just a taste of what awaits you in Memphis: we haven’t even mentioned the famous St. Jude Hospital complex, which has to be seen to be believed, the Rock ‘N Soul Museum, the Mississippi River Museum, the Museum of the Civil Rights, art, opera…too many to list. You’ll have to come and see for yourself, and then, “You’ll be back, huh?”