July 26, 2013 10:00am by David Farrar

Clinton to Sun Studio

Both being political geeks, we of course had to visit the Clinton Presidential Centre and Library. Is easy to get to, next to the Arkansas River.

The car used as Clinton’s car during his terms as President.

A replica of the Cabinet Room and table.

Me trying out Clinton’s chair which has a slightly higher back than the others.

The replica oval office.

As well as the replicas there was a huge amount of info on both the Clinton presidency, but also demographic changes in the world and US during his eight years as President. My favourite section was reading some of the personal correspondence to and from him. And yes there was a section on his impeachment. Of course as it is his library it was written reasonably favourably to him.

The museum also had a temporary exhibition of dresses by Oscar de la Renta, who designed dresses for both Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush (and many others). He was also a personal friend of the Clintons. Auckland Girl made me attend, but actually some of the outfits were amazing – and was well worth seeing.

One of many gifts to the Clintons.

After Little Rock, we drove to Memphis and went to see their number one ranked attraction. No, not Graceland, but Sun Studio. This was the home of rock and roll – where Elvis was found and first produced. Ironically Elvis was originally rejected as not good enough!

A picture of Sam Phillips, who owned Sun Studio. It was the Memphis Recording Service. He released Rocket 88 in 1951 by Ike Turner – the first rock n roll single. He also produced for BB King, Howling Wolf, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis.

This is the actual recording room. It is still used almost every night by local musicians to do recordings. Ironically for a couple of decades it was used as an office, but luckily the owners never changed the internal structure so as it became famous, it could go back to being a recording studio. Was amazing being in the room where so many legendary songs were recorded.

The tour guide was a local musician, and was a great guide. You got played parts of various original recordings, and heard about the history.

A photo of the impromptu million dollar quartet. By chance Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley were in the studio at the same time, and they did some impromptu jamming – which Sam Phillips recorded without them knowing (Elvis was on a different label by then). They had Johnny Cash pop in also, and this iconic photo captured them together.