Deep South Tour - Fall 2011 - Day 8

Day 8
Again we refused the hotel breakfast and set off to find Sun Studios before traveling on to Jackson. Having parked at our objective quite close to the Lorraine Motel we found that the studio tours and the building opened at 10.00am. We walked up the street less than a block to find a bar open which would serve us with breakfast. We repeated our order from the previous day but this time we had a considerable wait for our food to come. Initially in a window seat we moved to sit at the bar to get out of the draught.
The owner was coming and going between the bar and the backroom and kept apologizing for the delay – we got the distinct impression the whole place was better suited to the evening! While we chatted to the manager at the bar he asked what we had seen so far and we mentioned Jack Daniels and noted that he had a dispenser of Jack & Honey opposite where we were sitting. I asked what that entailed; he said exactly what it sounds like and drew us off a tot to try, just past 10.00 in the morning. It was sweet and smooth but pretty strong. The food when it came was good and we returned to Sun studios. Julia’s research had led her to the belief that the tour was free but we had to pay over $12 and sign up for the 11.30am tour.
As we waited for our tour we chatted with a lady whose partner, a scot, was on the 10.30 tour, she had decided against it as she had done the tour before and had worked there as a studio musician.
From our tour guide, Phoenix, a musician trying to break into the business, we learnt that Sun Studio is a recording studio opened by rock pioneer Sam Phillips in Memphis, Tennessee, on January 3, 1950. It was originally called Memphis Recording Service, sharing the same building with the Sun Records label business. Reputedly the first rock-and-roll single, Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats' "Rocket 88" was recorded there in 1951 with song composer Ike Turner on keyboards, leading the studio to claim status as the birthplace of rock & roll. Blues and R&B artists like Howlin' Wolf, Junior Parker, Little Milton, B.B. King, James Cotton, Rufus Thomas, and Rosco Gordon recorded there in the early 1950s.
Rock-and-roll, country music, and rockabilly artists, including Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Charlie Feathers, Ray Harris, Warren Smith, Charlie Rich, and Jerry Lee Lewis, recorded there throughout the mid to late 1950s until the studio outgrew its Union Avenue location. Sam Phillips opened the larger Sam C. Phillips Recording Studio, better known as Phillips Recording, in 1959 to take the place of the older facility.
In 1969, Sam Phillips sold the label to Shelby Singleton, and there was no recording-related or label-related activity again in the building until the September 1985 Class of '55 recording sessions with Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Cash.
In 1987, the original building housing the Sun Records label and Memphis Recording Service was reopened by Gary Hardy as "Sun Studio," a recording label and tourist attraction that has attracted many notable artists, such as U2, Def Leppard, and Ringo Starr.
Phoenix played us samples of the music that grew up there and he made the point that Elvis had to work very hard to convince Phillips that he had talent; the owners dream was to promote the rougher voice of Howlin’ Wolf.
When we had finished upstairs we took the place of the previous tour downstairs in the recording studio part of the building. The fact that it is still the iconic site that it is comes about by pure luck; by the mid 1960s, Phillips had lost interest in recording and had instead branched out into radio. He opened several radio stations, beginning in the late 1950s, and Sun lost its reputation as an innovative recording studio. In 1968, Sun released its last record. In 1969, Mercury Records label producer Shelby Singleton purchased the Sun label from Phillips. Singleton moved the firm to Nashville, and sold the building to a plumbing company, who eventually sold it to an auto parts store, despite all of this the soundproofing was never removed from the walls and ceiling so it was a simple process to restore the studio fittings in 1987. The amusing thing is that the tours and gift shop are so popular the recordings take place mainly at night.
Phillips is held up as an example of poor business practice because he sold Elvis before he became huge but Phoenix contended that the sale to RCA was a good deal at the time. As Phillips saw his label expand massively due to the success of Presley's records, Radio stations and record stores all over the South were eager to play his records, and Phillips realized Sun was not large enough to break him nationally. In February 1955, Phillips met with Colonel Tom Parker, a man as famous for his hustling skills as his managerial skills. Parker persuaded Phillips that Presley needed a national record label to help him further his career, and after several more months Phillips agreed to sell Presley's contract for a $35,000 buy out fee. At the time, $35,000 was an unheard of amount of money for a recording artist's contract, especially one who had yet to prove himself on the national stage.
Although Presley didn't want to leave Sun, Phillips sold his contract because he needed the money to settle debts and pay off costs of a copyright-infringement suit. Phillips, however, insisted that he only offered Presley's contract for $35,000 because he believed it would put off any other record label from purchasing it. Regardless, Presley signed a record contract with RCA Victor in November 1955, and left Sun. Phillips used some of the money to further advance the careers of his other artists, by now featuring Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Roy Orbison.
We enjoyed our tour and soon set off for Jackson, it was a long ride in damp conditions and when we reached the hotel, La Quinta Inn, we settled there rather than exploring the area.
That evening we walked across the interstate over a bridge and settled into Chilis for their generous meal for two for $20. I also scored by ordering a beer and getting two as it was the early evening offer. I suspect that this offer was being well used by a large group of guys eating and watching a football game because strong opinions were being expressed on every play – it really enhanced the atmosphere.