Last week, Connie and I took a road trip from Texas to Illinois - we've traveled by air for a couple of decades, so driving somewhere was almost like a new experience.
On the way, we spent an afternoon in Memphis, where we visited the Sun Recording Studio, which was started by Sam Phillips in the early '50s and is famous for producing Elvis' first recordings. Prior to his work with Elvis (as well as with Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis), Phillips recorded a very cool, quasi R&B tune - "Rocket 88" - played by Jackie Brenton in a band that included (and perhaps actually led by) a 19-year-old Ike Turner. Many regard the recording to be the first example of what would become Rock 'n Roll; at that time, Sun was simply a recording studio and not a label, so the song was released by Chess.
Here are some snapshots I grabbed while we were there.
Jer
A small, unimposing building:
An early recording on the then new Sun label - this guy (who've never heard of) played alto sax:
Hey geezers, remember RCA's 45s?
An Ampex 1-Track (!) recording machine, which was state-of-the-art in the early '50s:
The original studio, which remains essentially unchanged. It's still used as a recording studio:
[/URL]
The docent presents the mike that Elvis used during his early recordings:
A photo of a photo taken at an impromptu (and well lubricated) session at the studio:
One more shot:
Similar Threads 
