Sun Studio

Sun studio was the birthplace of rock and roll, and I got to stand in the spot where Rocket ’88, commonly thought to have been the first rock and roll song, was recorded in 1951 and was only a rock song due to the fact that the bands amp had broken on the way there, and they fixed it with scraps of newspaper, giving it the distortion sound famous to rock and roll. I also stood in the spot were Elvis recorded the ten songs that he produced under the sun studio label. Lots of other famous bands have recorded in here.

The studio, at Sun Studio

The first time we went, I didn’t really realize the full scope and scale of the room which I was standing in. Little did I realize that Elvis, U2, Def Leppard, Howlin’ wolf, even the million dollar quartet, all recorded in that room. It was still very enlightening to see the area in which so much had started in, but I didn’t really realize it until the second time that we came (due to Bodie eating poor will’s camera data chip, we went again, because will absolutely needed to get those pictures, so we decided to go again). But luckily, the second trip paid off, as will met some very nice people who then gave him two tickets to see the Dali Lama.

They had lots of cool things belonging to Elvis, including coat, his guitar, the rest of his bands instruments, his original song that he played, and his first TV broadcasting ever. They also had a very interesting timeline of the history of the studio, shown in record cases and starting with Sam Phillips working for a small pop music radio station. But Sam Phillips, he was not happy, so he gathered up enough money and made his own recording studio (with the help of Marion Keisker). At first, to pay the bills, he used mobile recording equipment to record things such as marriages, weddings and funerals.

Elvis on his first TV appearance, with the clothes on display that he wore and other memorabilia, including the guitar.

But this was not what he really wanted to record. He wanted to record blues and other types of music. He got his chance when his first band walked in and wanted to record a song. He happily obliged and recorded their album before sending it off to major producers to mass produce it. The only problem with this is that the companies used their own label, so he was not getting any publicity for all of the records that he was now recording. He later decided to begin producing his own labels and records, so that he could gain publicity.

Sam Phillips

Soon he was realizing stars, like Howling wolf and Elvis. Although, the funny thing is that the first time that he heard Elvis, he was not impressed. But Elvis was originally recognized by Marion Keisker, who continually attempted to make Sam see the light. In about one year, Sam finally gave in and tried him out with some other musicians who he had on hand. After a night of Sam not being impressed, Elvis was just playing around and singing a blues song that he knew when his new band joined in and Sam was finally enlightened to the style that Elvis was best on. The next day, Elvis was invited back to play another song.

Marion Keisker

So much history had happened in that room, that they later bought the room next door after Sam Phillips moved the location of the recording area to one block over. They used it as both a small museum and as starting area for the tours that go through it. I absolutely loved my time there and was very enlightened.