Paparazzi Duck Photos and Rock n' Roll History
Aka, a typical weekend in Memphis 🎸🏙
No time to read? Listen to it instead. :)
Something spectacular happened last week…
WE BROKE 100 SUBSCRIBERS 🤯?! ALREADY?! WOWOWOWOW! WHAAA!!!
Ok, ok, calm down, Macy. I know that in a world where it’s not uncommon to see social media posts getting millions of likes, the number 100 might seem microscopic, inconsequential even, but, hey, even a tiny victory is a victory. Size does not invalidate your reason to celebrate.
So, here’s to us. Here’s to the road behind us and the journey ahead of us. Here’s to this small but maturing circle of adventurers and friends seeking to explore the world one email at a time. I swear, you guys make traveling twice as fun and twice as fulfilling. Thank you.
And if you’re new here, welcome! Whether you’re a travel junkie, an armchair explorer, or someone who’s never ventured outside their state, there is space for you here. If you feel confident about joining this adventure, just pop in your email below and we’ll see you on the other side (expect cookies, streamers, and lots of cheering).
Now, where were we? Ah, yes, Memphis, home of the Blues, birthplace of Rock n’ Roll, and the destination of my most recent getaway…
Two Truths and a Lie: Memphis Edition
In order for this part of today’s article to work, we need some audience participation, so roll up your sleeves and get ready to rumble. Rather than monologue about what makes Memphis unique for several paragraphs, I thought it’d be fun to deliver the facts in a more interactive manner.
Below are ten questions based on the icebreaker “Two Truths and a Lie”. I chose this particular game because to me, a place—be it a village of 400 people or a megacity of 20 million—is as alive and three-dimensional as a person. Like you or me, places have distinct, inimitable personalities and quirks.
Some are mellow, with hippie vibes. Others are Type A, always itching to reach their next appointment. Just as it takes time to get to know and develop your relationship with a person, so too does it take time to get to know and develop your relationship with a place. You might only ever experience some people superficially while you might experience others in such a way that their influence is permanently stitched into your soul. The same applies to the places we visit or we call home.
Now that you understand the significance of what you’re about to undertake, allow me to introduce you to my newest friend, Memphis, Tennessee!
(Answers are located at the end of this section ☺️).
Answers:
Soul, gospel, jazz, R&B
Memphis style BBQ
The 2nd most visited home in the U.S.
FedEx
Whitney Houston
Music, Black history, nightlife
A civil rights museum
A Bass Pro Shop
So now that you and Memphis are homies, it’s time I show you around some of my favorite attractions, including a luxury hotel whose brand revolves around an internationally renowned gaggle of ducks and a historic studio that gave birth to some of America’s biggest names in Rock n’ Roll.
Ready or not, HERE. WE. GO!
The Peabody Memphis
When you think of business managers making important decisions, you probably imagine men and women in suits with solemn expressions droning on and on about reports and profit margins. While that might be the case sometimes, it certainly isn’t a requisite. In fact, one of the most important decisions to take place at the historic Peabody Memphis Hotel happened in the least formal way possible.
The year is 1933. The newly renovated Peabody has been in business for eight years and during that time, it’s gained a respectable reputation among America’s gentry. Outfitted with marble walls and crystal chandeliers, it oozed class as much as it shouted opulence.
So, you can imagine the surprise of the guests the night when Frank Shutt, General Manager, and his friend, Chip Barwick, buzzed from one too many glasses of Tennessee Whiskey stumbled into the hotel, laughing and joking in booming voices. They’d just returned from a hunting trip and had in their possession three English call ducks and a hunger for unconventional entertainment.
Spotting the ornate fountain in the center of the lobby, one of the men thought something that would alter the course of the Peabody’s reputation forever, “Say, don’t ducks belong in water?”
With their brains and courage elevated to new heights by their drinks, the men promptly fetched the ducks and plopped them into the fountain, much to the consternation, of the birds and the delight of the guests. The move was such a hit that in 1940, Bellman Edward Pembroke offered to train the ducks to march to the fountain each morning and to march from the fountain to their duck palace on the top floor each evening. His success not only earned him the title of “Duckmaster” for the next fifty years, it also turned what had originated as a joke into a time-honored and beloved tradition.
As I listened to the current Duckmaster relay this story, I was reminded of this piece of advice I’d received back in Louisiana, “Have fun.” Though, as I explained in this previous article, the advice is profound in its own right, I want to extend it by two little words: Have fun with others.
Regardless of our age, socioeconomic background, culture, our nationality, etc. we all want to feel joy. We want to laugh, have fun, and—as Ralph Waldo Emerson put it—suck the marrow out of life, not just on our own, but with others. I suspect one of the reasons why the Duck March was such a hit from the start is that it not only entertained people but it also brought them together. There’s something so wholesome, so laughably human about standing elbow to elbow with strangers and delighting in these web-footed celebrities for no other reason other than curiosity.
As fun as the Peabody has been, we can’t linger here forever. Where our next destination lacks in cuteness, it makes up for in talent.
(IMPORTANT: Before we move on, here is an Oscar worthy fan-made music video of the Duck March. Seriously, if you need a reason to smile today, this is it.)
Sun Studios
No Memphis trip is complete without a visit to Sun Studios, aptly dubbed the “birthplace of Rock n’ Roll” for its discovery of some of the biggest artists in our nation’s history. Besides The King himself, Elvis Presley, this list also features major players like Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins among dozens of others. But before Sun Studios rocketed to international eminence, it started out like any other small business as a dream in the imagination of an everyday Joe, which in this case happened to be a radio engineer called Sam Philips.
Partnering with his long-time friend Marion Keisker, Philips founded the Memphis Recording Service in 1950. In order to generate revenue, he promised in his slogan that he’ll “record anything, anywhere, anytime”. And he meant it 100%. Whether he was requested for conventions, weddings, choirs, or even funerals, he’d be there with his mic and a good-natured attitude.
However, despite his versatility, his real passion was for music, in particular, Black inspired styles of music that haven’t been picked up by the mainstream industry. Guided by this passion, he founded Philips Records not long after founding the Memphis Recording Service. Though the first song he recorded flopped and soon after his record label also shuttered, Philips wasn’t ready to give up.
Collaborating with a few other record labels, he’d finally accomplish what he’d set out to do: Record an inventive and original-sounding song. Can you guess what the style of that song would be called later on? That’s right. Rock n’ Roll, baby. How about the name of that first song? If you ventured “Rocket 88”, you’ve hit the nail on the head.
With his confidence renewed, Philips took a second stab at the label business, calling the company Sun Studio as a nod to his indefatigable optimism and his hope of bringing something new to the music industry. Still, the going was tough. On top of slim profits, his first hit, “Bearcat”, would be sued for copyright infringement, and at one point, he’d end up in a mental hospital from stress and alcoholism.
Just when it seemed like the sun had disappeared behind the clouds forever, a single ray of light shone through the cracks: A handsome, young artist fresh out of high school who had the guts to claim, “I don’t sound like nobody.”
After his first recording session came to nothing, he’d return again a year later to record another song. During a recording session, he began to jump around and sing with such a fervent energy that it immediately caught the attention of Philips plus the other artists with him. Philips recorded the song and sent it to a local radio DJ. The night that it debuted, so many listeners called in about the song, that the DJ replayed it fourteen times. Just like that, the King was born and soon after him, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Billy The Kid, Billy Lee Riley, and numerous others.
As my friend and I meandered from room to room, admiring the instruments and other knickknacks that had once belonged to these musical legends, I found myself contemplating the studio’s precarious rise to prominence. How easy (and justifiable) it would have been for Philips to lock his dream in a trunk and return to his engineering job after multiple defeats. How would Elvis or Johnny’s story have turned out without Philips’ fortitude in those early years? What would Rock n’ Roll look like today without Philips’ influence?
I may not know the answer to those questions but after hearing Philips’ story, I am confident about this: Opportunity begets opportunity.
In pursuing his dream of starting a studio, Philips was paving the way for others to achieve their dreams as well. When Philips seized the opportunity to record Elvis, Elvis was simultaneously seizing the opportunity to launch his career. When Elvis brought Rock n’ Roll into the mainstream, he opened the door for countless other artists—such as the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Jimi Hendrix—to expand the genre. Even today, forty-six years since Elvis’s death and seventy-one years since Philips launched Sun Records, their influence can be felt in our everyday lives. Each time you hear The King’s rich baritone floating through a speaker or you pump your fist at a rock concert, you have these two to thank.
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Beautifully crafted!
I love it!!!