What I Did on my Daycation (Walking In Memphis)Aug 02 '09 Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line "Like to get drunk and hear the blues?" should be Memphis' tourism slogan After 15 years, I finally made it back to Memphis. Memphis is a city you should only visit if you’re going to pay tribute to The King, M L King or you want to get sloppy drunk and hear really good blues music. A straight-edged person not into Elvis, the blues or Civil rights would do best to skip Memphis altogether. Our reason for coming to Memphis was to see the Donnas open for Blondie and Pat Benetar on Mud Island. They’d had to cancel a show a few days before in Arizona due to illness, and nasty clouds spit out angry rain when I arrived in Memphis, so we had good reason to believe the show might not happen. My friend James was coming the opposite direction as me on I-40 from Little Rock and he could barely see past the hood of his Hyundai for all the showers pouring down. Fortunately, the rain eased off and we made our way for the appropriately named “Mud Island”. The Donnas even started early, perhaps to rock away the clouds that hung overhead, as people were still making their way into the show. Our section of the pavilion was practically empty at that point, but those around us seemed to enjoy our favorite ladies rocking out on stage. Some even got a kick out of us rocking out to, shouting the words to every song. Spoiled by our last time seeing them play a two set show in the desert; we loved what we saw, leaving us wanting more. Blondie took the stage and are those cats showing their age! Debbie can’t really hit the high notes anymore, or at last that night she couldn’t, but she more than made up for it in charisma and mid-range. I might’ve thought she looked like somebody’s grandma when she first strutted out, but I remembered why I crushed on her all those years ago first catching her singing on “The Muppet Show”. I expected “One Way Or Another” to rock out, but it was just kind of “eh?”. Fortunately it was one of the first songs played. “Rapture” surprisingly rocked the house and Debbie has stepped up her skills as an M.C. ( Seriously! I know it sounds like one of my snide remarks.) “Get Off My Cloud” was an oh so appropriate encore, and “Heart of Glass” we expected, but the place erupted when she covered MJ’s “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get What You Want”. The place was packed solid by then, and even we rhythm-challenged white guys in the crowd were shimmying like we’d snuck by the bouncer at Studio 54 circa ‘79. After Blondie played, we decided to skip Pat Benetar because James had seen her years before in Memphis, when she was so drunk she forgot the words to her songs. He even said her stage banter included, ”I probably shouldn’t have opened that last bottle of wine.” I’d like to have seen her, but I figured I’ll have more chances to see her perform again than I will partying away on Beale Street. Besides, seeing Benetar without my T & A cohort Amanda would have felt like cheating, but not cheating in a good way. We weren’t the only people making that choice, as a young couple boarded the monorail right behind us to leave Mud Island. When we got there, a sign read, ”Please Wait for the Attendant” but none was there. We walked past the sign and into the monorail when it arrived. A very abrasive young black woman rushed past us to the young couple and let loose with a mean lecture about waiting for an attendant before entering the monorail. Somehow we were spared this speech, despite being the first to disobey that sign. Soon, about 10 of us were standing in pairs waiting for the monorail to take us off Mud Island. The attendant stood guard by her favorite sign. Every few minutes, a couple of people would wander out and ask her when the monorail would be leaving. The attendant snapped, ”Look! I don’t control when the monorail stops and goes. I only control when the doors open and close.” My buddy James wanted to light into her for being rude, but two police officers climbed aboard. “Whatever you say dude I’m sure won’t be worth it” “You’re right” he replied, ”but with these guys on board I bet it starts moving,” gesturing towards the cops. Soon we were on our way, just like the man said. As much as I enjoyed The Donnas & Blondie, I think I liked hearing the band off Rufus Thomas Lane and the one in B. B. King’s Blues bar just as much. The guys playing off Rufus Thomas lane were all smoking during their performance. Not just metaphorically, they played well, but literally, freely puffing away on their smokey treats. I’ve seen hundred of blues bands play over the years, most of them Downtown Chattanooga during the Bessie Smith Strut, but it never ceases to amaze me how much better a band is with a good horn section. With a good buzz from the beer we drank and the great music we’d enjoyed that evening still fresh in our heads, we made our way back towards our hotel. A panhandler stepped out of the shadows. I held up my palm and told him, “I’ve had enough blues for one day friend. We’ll catch up with you later, but right now this party doesn’t have room for a third. If you know any pretty coeds send ‘em our way, otherwise this ain’t no sausage party. Oh, when you bring the girls, we’ll let you have first pick, my friend here will draft second and I’ll just hope y’all save me the best for last.” Not really ready for the party to end we grabbed what was left of the pre-party twelve pack and walked out to James car parked in the hotel parking lot. Dude has an awesome sound system in his Hyundai. In honor of ZZ Top, the first band he saw live, we decided to play them first. “What song do you want to hear?” he asked, holding a copy of ZZ Top’s greatest hits. “Anything is cool.” “No, pick one.” “Okay, anything except the stuff that came off ‘Afterburner’, so no ‘Rough Boy’ or ‘Sleeping Bag’” “I like ‘Sleeping Bag’!” “I do to, but not if I only get to hear one ZZ Top song. If I only get one song, I ain’t wasting it on ‘Sleeping Bag’” So he plays what I should’ve picked, ”My Head’s in Mississippi”. If you can enjoy someone’s company just cranking up music or watching TV, you’ve probably got a pretty good friend. It was getting late, but just before saying our goodbyes and looking forward to seeing the Donnas in some other city again, I told him, “If I learned anything tonight its this: I can’t control when the monorail starts and stops. I can only open and close the doors.”  |
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