Graceland - Paul Simon

Aaand, we’re going to Graceland my friends, the famed Graceland. Dad bought us tour tickets for the mansion and for the other Elvis museum-y things that surround Graceland. We walked over at around 10:00am, got our tickets and hopped on the first shuttle over to the big house. The tours were guided by your own personal iPad program, so I got mine all ready to go on the very short ride over to the Graceland drive. The first stop at the house, after the front door of course, was the living room. You can’t actually go in the rooms, they’re cordoned off, but the house is quite open so it’s pretty easy to see everything. Also you can get a 360˚ view of each room on

your iPad screen, so that’s pretty fancy. First thing, I must let you know that I thought the decor in the front room was pretty flamboyant. Apparently, before this tour, I didn’t know what flamboyant was because let me tell you, it was pretty plain compared to a few other rooms. Most other rooms actually. The living room had a fifteen foot long couch and a ten foot coffee table on the right side of the room, a piano room through some doors at the back, and lots of pictures and painted portraits of the Presley family. The virtual tour guide, also known as John Stamos, told us a bit

about how Elvis almost always had people over who he entertained in the living room. It was also where they set up the Christmas tree during the holidays and where Elvis would play the piano and sing for his family and friends. Next was his parents bedroom, which they used until the death of Elvis’ mother at which point his grandmother took over the room. Then we went around to the kitchen and the dining room, passing the stairs. We weren’t aloud upstairs because of privacy reasons and also because it’s where Elvis died, so it would be a little morbid. The dining room was very fancy with this massive table, Elvis and Priscilla’s wedding china set out on it, lots of cabinets, a

polished floor, even a TV in the corner. Apparently Elvis always sat at the far head of the table so he could see the television while he ate. The kitchen itself was huge and it had an antique microwave, a couple of TVs and the hugest fridge I’ve ever seen in a person’s house. But, with that many people in said house at all times, it was probably necessary. Then I headed downstairs to the TV room. Okay, well, let me tell you a thing about this room. It was painted a violent yellow with navy blue, had three TVs that were always on, on different channels that Elvis would watch at the same time, a massive record shelf and the classiest 70’s

turntable made. It also had couches covering almost all the floor space, mirrors on the roof, a bar and a big pull down screen with a projector used for watching movies. The next room was the pool room, which could have been normal if it weren’t for the fact that the walls and ceiling were completely covered in thousands of feet of cloth. I can’t remember the type of cloth but I think it was from Asia somewhere. It looked like the inside of a circus tent, a very expensive and suave circus tent. The last room in the house had been a later addition and had originally been kind of a sun room until Elvis, as John Stamos put it, went on a shopping spree. Thus the jungle room was

born and this is what it looked like: green shag on the floor and the ceiling, so as to better the acoustics; hand carved wooden furniture with fur covered upholstery; recording equipment and musical instruments; an indoor waterfall on the left wall; polished wood panelling on the walls. It was great, I loved it. Elvis decorated it to remind himself of Hawaii, his favourite place to visit. It was interesting to hear about Elvis’ early life and his family life, his journey through the music industry, the army and the movie industry. In the back of the house, we went through Vernon Presley’s, Elvis’ father’s, office, past the stables, through the trophy room where all of Elvis’ famous suits, his Grammies and his Gold and Platinum records are and his racquetball court where Elvis spent the morning on the day of his death. The last stop was the meditation garden, Elvis’ favourite spot in his house to just relax and where him, his parents and his grandmother are all buried. There is also a small memorial for his twin brother, who was stillborn. Funny thing, his grandmother

ended up outliving them all. Gladys, Elvis’ mother, died in ’58, Vernon died in ’79, Elvis died in ’77 and then his grandmother died in 1980. Good for her, she live till ninety. Also, January 8th was a very important day in terms of music. It was the day both Elvis Presley and David Bowie were born and it was also the day that John Lennon was killed. Funny how that works out. We ended the tour in the front of the mansion where we got a picture before getting back on the bus and heading back

to the pick up point. We stopped for lunch at the Rock and Roll café before continuing on our Elvis journey. We had tickets for the Hounddog and the Lisa Marie, the two planes Elvis owned. Then we went through the car museum, which displays most of the cars Elvis owned, including the famed pink Cadillac. After that there were a few more Elvis galleries; one about the many photographers who captured him over the years and one that had archives of the stuff they found in Graceland. Dad had missed the car gallery because he ran back to the trailer to check on Kizzy, so he went over there while Mum, Isaac and I went back to the trailer. The other three went back to the gates of Graceland once it closed to get a picture of the closed gates while I stayed at home and read. Peace out m8s.

#camping #memphis #tennessee