2 Dec 2018 - "Walking Ten Feet off of Beale"

2 Dec 2018

A great day taking in the magic and history of the Beale Street Entertainment District in downtown Memphis.  Sunday morning is not a bad time to check out Beale Street. The good part is we quickly found on-street parking for the big 'ol truck only a block away as it is usually too tall to fit in the parking ramps, and open-air parking lots are few and far between.  The down side is there are no
performers in the blues clubs until 5pm.

From the campground in Arkansas, the Beale street area of Memphis is just about 14 miles south and east, just into Tennessee.

Beale Street's history goes back to the 1841, but it really started to grow in the early 1900's when black entrepreneurs started to open clubs and restaurants there.  Blues musician W.C. Handy came to Memphis and the Beale Street area became the center for blues music.  In the 1920’s-1940’s some of the most famous blues musicians started to perform there, such as B.B. King, Louis Armstrong, Memphis Minnie and Muddy Waters.  "Memphis Blues" was born, and Beale Street grew as the epicenter.  In the 1960's Beale Street started to diminish and the buildings were crumbling.  Memphis enter a revitalization period in the 1980-90's and it's popularity continues to grow today.

Back to our tour, we started near our parking spot at the Martin Luther King Reflection Park. This great memorial was established just this year, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the death of Dr Martin Luther King in Memphis.

Across the street is the Gibson guitar factory.  It is one of the oldest, founded in 1902 by Orville Gibson.  We were hoping to tour the facility Monday as they were closed on Sunday.  This is where the famous guitars are or were built, but apparently they filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this summer and are relocating to a smaller facility elsewhere, so this facility is closed.

Half a block north and we arrived at the corner of Beale Street and S. Second Street.  It was very quiet with a few tourists and locals walking about.  We can only imagine the crowds, the festivities and blues music on a summer Saturday night.

We made our way to iconic Beale Street arch and a retired Army vet snapped our picture (above).  We passed a monument for Elvis who rose to fame here in Memphis at Sun Records. 

We then headed east on Beale to B.B. King's Blues Club. No one was performing so we had a cold one and took in all the history of the club - if the walls could only speak.

We continued east on Beale and walked the "Beale Street Brass Note Walk of Fame".  There are brass musical notes embedded in the concrete sidewalks along Beale Street. It was Memphis'  way of acknowledging those who helped make Memphis and blues music world known.

We looped around the north side of Beale and headed back west.  The street is lined with interesting shops, clubs and restaurants.

 You will surely remember the song, "Walking in Memphis" by Marc Cohn.   If not click here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFEB9xLeLmY

We turned north on S Second St and entered the Memphis Music Hall of Fame.  It's not a very big facility but they also have a sister facility called the "Rock and Soul Museum" which is affiliated with the Smithsonian Institute.  We toured the museum which was full of history and artifacts relating to the music industry and blues here in Memphis.

Elvis's Mobile Phone - predecessor to the cell phone!

Old recording and splicing equipment used to create records

Jerry Lee Lewis' 1985 Cadillac

B.B. King's guitar

Before leaving the Beale Street area we had to stop into the Blues City Cafe for Memphis barbecue!  It was absolutely awesome.  Doreen had a half rack of ribs with all the fixin's and I had the  combo platter which included a half rack plus catfish!  The meat literally fell off the bone!  We each could only eat a portion of our food, so we hauled the remainder back to the RV for supper!!

Well, we had a great time "walking ten feet off of Beale" today!  We plan to visit Graceland and Elvis's car museum tomorrow, then back to downtown Memphis to eat at Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken with Jason Hunt (132d Comm Flight, Iowa Air National Guard retiree) and his wife tomorrow evening.