Muscle Shoals, Alabama

Even if you think you've never heard of Muscle Shoals, you've definitely heard songs recorded there at FAME studios (eg 'Mustang Sally' by Wilson Pickett and 'Wild Horses' by the Rolling Stones), or elsewhere by their session band the Swampers (eg 'Respect' by Aretha Franklin). I heartily recommend that you spare half an evening to watch a recent film made about both. Also see the lyrics to the third verse of Sweet Home Alabama. That's all for today!

FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals.

Edd vs Fast Food #3
Quiznos
An Italian Classic six-inch sub on Italian bread, and a Tuna six-inch sub on wheat.
It's like Subway, but a bit more expensive and much better all round, especially the bread.
Subway still has its place. But any time you see both, this is definitely the one to go for.

Memphis, Tennessee

Music is a recurring theme in my blog. It's been pretty unavoidable really. Chicago is the home of the blues; Detroit is the home of Motown; New Orleans is the home of jazz. But Memphis is the home of rock'n'roll. Needless to say I have invested quite heavily in souvenir T-shirts.

Here I've visited Sun Studios, a room the size of a garage where Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison all recorded their first hit singles. Did you know that U2 recorded 'Rattle and Hum' there? Also the Stax Museum, formerly Stax Records. (If you've ever seen 'The Commitments', well, basically in that film when they're talking about 'soul' music they're essentially talking about Stax music). Then there's the Memphis Rock & Soul Museum, which has (just as an example) the guitar Elvis took with him to Germany while serving in the US Army. Finally there is Graceland, which I trust needs no introduction...

At Sun Studios the tour guide showed us how the equipment is set up as it was when Elvis recorded 'That's All Right Mama' there in 1954. He (the tour guide, not Elvis) asked for silence and played the original radio broadcast over the speakers. In my tour group there was a well-built man of about seventy, with graying but still-prominent sideburns, and as the music started he broke down silently into tears. Maybe he went there every weekend. Maybe he'd waited all his life to be there.

In amongst all of the above it's essential to include the National Civil Rights Museum, erected around the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated in 1968. Stax Records was tightly bound up with the civil rights movement in a way that Motown, admittedly, wasn't. (Berry Gordy Jr didn't want Motown to release 'What's Going On' at all.) It's worth adding that there were white people, not just record label staff but writers and studio musicians, involved at all levels in Stax.

Beale St, which is where everything used to happen in the heyday of the blues pre-rock'n'roll, is nowadays the focal point of social life, or at least tourist life. It's rather like a miniature version of Bourbon St in New Orleans. In truth it's pretty trashy, but I found a club called Rum Boogie with a good blues band and a good plate of red beans & rice.

Memphis as a city is surprisingly upmarket, or at least the downtown area is. Realistically, I think this probably indicates that the authorities have been more successful than in other cities at keeping the poverty confined to the suburbs. Maybe I'm just cynical. But I really like this place and I'm definitely coming back here one day. All of a sudden Machu Picchu and the grand temple at Angkor Wat seem that little bit less important. I've been in Elvis Presley's kitchen. I'm all shook up.

Downtown Memphis, from the rooftop bar of the art deco Madison Hotel.

Sun Studios.

Stax

Stax Studio A.
This is where '(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay' and 'In The Midnight Hour' were recorded,
among many others.

A rotating exhibit of the 1972 Cadillac El Dorado, in peacock blue, driven by Issac Hayes.
Fur-lined interior, external gold trimmings, plus TV and refrigerator in the back.
Not many cars had TVs and fridges in 1972. This ride is pimped, y'all.
 

Graceland from the outside

Graceland from the inside.
The 1970s were a brown decade.

Graceland - the kitchen. Surprisingly modest.

New Orleans, Louisiana

All those hikes have been great exercise, but now it's time to give the legs a rest and let my liver take the strain for a while. New Orleans is the ideal place to do it.

All joking aside, I was starting to go a bit stir crazy in the National Parks because nothing was happening socially at all. (While in Yellowstone I picked up a couple of hitch-hikers just for the sake of having someone to talk to. Obviously I selected young female hitch-hikers, for security reasons.) Now I'm staying in a lively hostel, meeting all kinds of people and getting drunk with them, as is my wont. Please note that there are no nightlife pictures below, because expensive cameras and binge drinking don't mix.

My hostel is about a mile or two from downtown: the slow and creaky streetcar (tram) runs 24 hours and only costs $3 for a day ticket. Naturally I have gotten sozzled on Bourbon St, as you do. It's an experience, but I prefer some of the quieter areas like Magazine Street and Frenchmen Street. To use a Newcastle analogy, if Bourbon St is the Bigg Market then the others are Jesmond and the Quayside.

In one bar, called Huge Ass Beers, the plastic glasses hold 32oz - that's about a litre. Sadly I can't tell you about the interesting brews here, because I've been so blotto that I can't remember what they were. The exception is Hopitoulas, which is one of my favourites on this trip to date. At 6.5% ABV, I probably shouldn't drink it a litre at a time. Lesson learned for next time. Probably.

I've explored pretty much the whole of the French Quarter, as well as other interesting areas like the Garden District and Tremé. In the latter I visited a barbershop called True Stylz, where I was the only white customer present, and indeed perhaps the first one ever. They charged me $20, which is the most I've ever paid for a headshave - even more than in Manhattan last year. Maybe I'll try a redneck place next time instead.

There's a huge amount of musical history in New Orleans: in the context of 20th-century music, perhaps more so than in any other city in the world. I've seen quite a few live jazz and blues bands, some better than others. And there's live gospel music audible in the hostel from the surrounding churches.

There are of course also some very prominent social, racial and economical issues on show here. In my life to date I have spent quite a bit of time on the wrong side of numerous tracks, but it was still quite an eye-opener just to walk a few blocks north-west from the hostel. I wish there was something positive I could say, like I did with Detroit last year. It's not for me as a newly-arrived tourist to offer opinions on the rights and wrongs of it all, and certainly I'm not about to start taking 'poverty porn' photos.

On Bourbon St, one ancient trick is for the panhandlers to approach tourists and say 'I bet you $20 I know where you got your shoes...' The tourist accepts the bet, and then the beggar says 'You got them on your feet!' Apparently some tourists do pay up. I had read about this beforehand, so when my turn came, I was all primed with my smug response: 'Yeah, yeah, I got them on my feet'. But then I noticed how old, weary and unwell the guy looked, and immediately I felt like a complete w*nker. Deservedly so.

St Louis Cathedral, New Orleans.
I had to wait ages to get this picture without any fat people or big SUVs in the shot.

A statue of Louis Armstrong, in Louis Armstrong Park

The hostel's on-site pet: a Pomeranian from the rescue shelter. Yes, it's a dog and not a cat.
I got him to pose for the picture by pretending that I was going to feed him.
I'm a very bad human being.

The Opera Guild Home, 2504 Prytania St, New Orleans.
In the Garden District. A fine example of Greek Revival architecture, built in 1865.
Also a fine example of a Porsche 928S, as driven by Tom Cruise in 'Risky Business'.

18

Edd vs Food #18
A 'Mr Biggs' combo at the Rum House Caribbean taqueria, 3128 Magazine St, New Orleans.
Taco 1 is jerk chicken with mango salsa;
taco 2 is marinated flank steak with guacamole and lime cream;
taco 3 is red curried lamb with mint yoghurt chutney and sliced plantains;
taco 4 is shredded pork with savoury mole sauce and grilled pineapple salsa.
Black beans with chorizo relish and sour cream on the side. All washed down with draught Blue Moon.