Sun Studios in Memphis

[Kalle L.]

Hi there,

This summer, I had a pleasure of visiting Sun Studios in Memphis, TN
for the second time in my life. The place is now really taken care of
properly: there is a nice tour with a funny and informative tour guide
(the guy is a musician himself), and they have built a museum room
upstairs with original gear from used in the studio in the 50's. I've
always been a huge Elvis fan and somehow Sun Studio was always THE
neatest EP-related place...sure gave me some shivers down my spine
when I looked at those original wall tiles and imagined the music that
was created there in the 50's.

Aaanyway, I just though that some might be interested to know that it
is still actually used a studio. You can rent it for $75/hour,
engineer included. Wouldn't it be cool to record there... to make your
own 'Sun Single' :) Perhaps they'd still let you use Shure 55 that
Elvis used in his recordings (that's still there on display).

Here's some info about the original gear if someone's interested:
http://www.scottymoore.net/studio_sun.html


Kalle

[georgeh]

"Dan Chamberlain" > writes:

>I visited too and liked it quite a bit.
>The most amazing studio tour I have had was Hitsville, USA in Detroit
>though...

Yeah, there's something about standing in that humble Studio A, isn't there?

[georgeh]

"Dan Chamberlain" > writes:

>I visited too and liked it quite a bit.
>The most amazing studio tour I have had was Hitsville, USA in Detroit
>though...

Yeah, there's something about standing in that humble Studio A, isn't there?

[Kalle]

> The most amazing studio tour I have had was Hitsville, USA in Detroit
> though...

Well, I was outside the building, and it was thanksgiving in 1997 so it
wasn't possible to get inside. Which, when I think about it now, was a
shame. But you cannot win them all I guess.

I took a tour of Studio B in Nashville though, and it was cool. Almost equal
to the Sun experience. Some of Elvis's best recordings (strictly IMHO of
course) were made there in the early 60's.

Kalle

[Kalle]

> The most amazing studio tour I have had was Hitsville, USA in Detroit
> though...

Well, I was outside the building, and it was thanksgiving in 1997 so it
wasn't possible to get inside. Which, when I think about it now, was a
shame. But you cannot win them all I guess.

I took a tour of Studio B in Nashville though, and it was cool. Almost equal
to the Sun experience. Some of Elvis's best recordings (strictly IMHO of
course) were made there in the early 60's.

Kalle

[Kalle]

> I don't think Elvis made those recordings with a Shure 55, but with an
> RCA ribbon mic... the Shure was a live thing. I thought the studio
> tour was overpriced, but what do I know. It is cool that you can
> still make a recording there.

After travelling from Finland and paying for those flights, the USD10 (or
whatever it was) didn't seem like a huge money anymore :))

Kalle

[Kalle]

> I don't think Elvis made those recordings with a Shure 55, but with an
> RCA ribbon mic... the Shure was a live thing. I thought the studio
> tour was overpriced, but what do I know. It is cool that you can
> still make a recording there.

After travelling from Finland and paying for those flights, the USD10 (or
whatever it was) didn't seem like a huge money anymore :))

Kalle

[Mike Rivers]

In article > playonATcomcast.net writes:

> I was in Memphis about 6 months ago and they were asking $35 for a
> guided 1 1/2 hour tour.

Ouch! I was there about 5 years ago and I think it was $12 for a
"tour" which lasted about half an hour and consisted of a walk back to
the main studio and hearing a guide talk about the history of the
place and the artists and producers who worked there. He played a
couple of fragements of songs off genuine analog tape on a genuine
mono Ampex 351. He gave a good presentation.

It was worth it just to say I had done the tour. I asked to see the
currently fuctional studio but he couldn't show that. I asked about
what original equipment was still there and he pointed to a closed
metal cabinet and said "there are a few microphones in there" but the
mics that I saw set up around the studio were all contemporary models.


--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me here: double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

[Phil Brown]

>
>I took a tour of Studio B in Nashville though, and it was cool. Almost equal
>to the Sun experience. Some of Elvis's best recordings (strictly IMHO of
>course) were made there in the early 60's.

By that time a lot of Elvis stuff was cut in Los Angeles.
Phil Brown

[Kalle]

> By that time a lot of Elvis stuff was cut in Los Angeles.

Well the soundtracks for movies were. But the real thing was cut in
Nashville, exclusively, from 1960 until 1968 I believe.

For some weird reason, I prefer songs like 'Little Sister' to tracks like
'There's No Room To Rhumba In a Sports Car' :)) Although I like his 50's
stuff and the more raw rock'n'roll material, I think Elvis's performances
reached new heights with tracks like 'Anything's That's Part Of You' or 'I
Met Her Today' from 1961. His vocal talents were great in those days.

Kalle



Kalle

Here's whats sad.
Elvis didn't record THAT much at SUN.!
In 1969 Chips Moman produced cut 31 "hits" on Elvis at American Studio in
Memphis
at 827 Thomas St. Songs included: In the Getto, Kentucky Rain, Suspious
Minds, Moody Blue ect.
The studio property and building went up for sale. I tried to petiton the
City to buy it and zone it historical.
for a museum. No luck, The city was more interested in a new stadium and an
NFL franchise. It sold
and the building was bulldozed. Now an Autozone sets there. I know SUN
studio was an important part of music history,
But American Studio was too but never gets mentioned.. BTW, I've allways
thought SUN was located down on the
corner (where the SUN resturant is) when elvis recorded there NOT where it
is now.

http://shopping.yahoo.com/p:Chips%20Moman:1927163743:page=biography


RonL


"Mike Rivers" > wrote in message
news:znr1092482564k@trad...
>
> In article >
playonATcomcast.net writes:
>
> > I was in Memphis about 6 months ago and they were asking $35 for a
> > guided 1 1/2 hour tour.
>
> Ouch! I was there about 5 years ago and I think it was $12 for a
> "tour" which lasted about half an hour and consisted of a walk back to
> the main studio and hearing a guide talk about the history of the
> place and the artists and producers who worked there. He played a
> couple of fragements of songs off genuine analog tape on a genuine
> mono Ampex 351. He gave a good presentation.
>
> It was worth it just to say I had done the tour. I asked to see the
> currently fuctional studio but he couldn't show that. I asked about
> what original equipment was still there and he pointed to a closed
> metal cabinet and said "there are a few microphones in there" but the
> mics that I saw set up around the studio were all contemporary models.
>
>
> --
> I'm really Mike Rivers )
> However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
> lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
> you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
> and reach me here: double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

[Kalle]

> I know SUN
> studio was an important part of music history,
> But American Studio was too but never gets mentioned..

That's true, it's pretty sad. The first time I visited Memphis, I assumed
that American Studios was still existing as a building, but it wasn't. I've
seen some gear from there sold on Ebay and it's pretty sad. But the studio
would have been important to maintain. Talk about a 'hit factory'. Although
I wouldn't have cared too much for the rats, that were there in -69 :)

> BTW, I've allways
> thought SUN was located down on the
> corner (where the SUN resturant is) when elvis recorded there NOT where it
> is now.

I don't think so. A cafe in the corner used to exist in those days too. Then
it was called Taylor's Cafe. In fact that was a place where the musicians
used often to spend their breaks during recording sessions. The upstairs
(then owned by Mrs. Taylor) had some rooms for rent, which the musicians/Sam
Phillips used to rent if they were from outta town etc. Sam had a his own
booth in the cafe, which he used for making paperwork, business meetings
etc.

The address of the cafe was & is 710 Union Avenue, whereas the Studio was &
is 708 Union.

I think my tour ticket costed something like $ 9.50.

Kalle

[Matt Macchiarolo]

You can book Studio B too, but you hve to know someone at Belmont University
since BU owns it now and uses it at a teaching studio. Tours are still
running, though. Last spring my old roomie who teaches at Belmonth showed me
around there and at Ocean Way Nashville, also owned by Belmont.

"Kalle" > wrote in message
.. .
> > The most amazing studio tour I have had was Hitsville, USA in Detroit
> > though...
>
> Well, I was outside the building, and it was thanksgiving in 1997 so it
> wasn't possible to get inside. Which, when I think about it now, was a
> shame. But you cannot win them all I guess.
>
> I took a tour of Studio B in Nashville though, and it was cool. Almost
equal
> to the Sun experience. Some of Elvis's best recordings (strictly IMHO of
> course) were made there in the early 60's.
>
> Kalle
>
>

[Bob Olhsson]

"Phil Brown" > wrote in message
...
> >
> >I took a tour of Studio B in Nashville though, and it was cool. Almost
equal
> >to the Sun experience. Some of Elvis's best recordings (strictly IMHO of
> >course) were made there in the early 60's.
>
> By that time a lot of Elvis stuff was cut in Los Angeles.
> Phil Brown

A major reason for RCA building a studio in Nashville was to lure Elvis away
from Radio Recorders in Los Angeles. He didn't like the "9 to 5 shirt and
tie" atmosphere of RCA's union facilities in New York and Chicago. I'm sure
this is why RCA's original Nashville studio was built a lot more like Sun
than like a typical major label studio of that era.

--
Bob Olhsson Audio Mastery, Nashville TN
Mastering, Audio for Picture, Mix Evaluation and Quality Control
Over 40 years making people sound better than they ever imagined!
615.385.8051 http://www.hyperback.com

[Scott Dorsey]

Kalle > wrote:
>
>> I don't think Elvis made those recordings with a Shure 55, but with an
>> RCA ribbon mic... the Shure was a live thing. I thought the studio
>> tour was overpriced, but what do I know. It is cool that you can
>> still make a recording there.
>
>After travelling from Finland and paying for those flights, the USD10 (or
>whatever it was) didn't seem like a huge money anymore :))

To get the real experience, though, you have to take a lot of Percodan
and eat jelly doughnuts until you fall over.
--scott


--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Kalle L.]

> To get the real experience, though, you have to take a lot of Percodan
> and eat jelly doughnuts until you fall over.

In all fairness, in the Sun days, Elvis looked more like he was
starving and hadn't had a doughnut in his life :)

Kalle

[georgeh]

(Kalle L.) writes:

>> To get the real experience, though, you have to take a lot of Percodan
>> and eat jelly doughnuts until you fall over.

>In all fairness, in the Sun days, Elvis looked more like he was
>starving and hadn't had a doughnut in his life :)
>Kalle

I thought it amusing that the Rockabilly HOF in Jackson Tn had and EKG
machine in their Elvis exhibit.

[Kalle L.]

> I thought it amusing that the Rockabilly HOF in Jackson Tn had and EKG
> machine in their Elvis exhibit.

Well, after checking 'EKG' from a dictionary, I too find it...a bit
weird at least.

Unless EKG is some weird bootleg version of some AKG mic, that they
claimed that Elvis used. ;) But you mentioned 'machine' so it cannot
be that either...

Kalle