But if you were to join me at my various tourist stops, you'd think I had developed a careful lesson plan of contemporary American history. In particular, a lot of the music stops I hit early in the trip -- Country in Nashville, Rock&Roll and Soul in Memphis, and Blues in Clarksdale -- cover historical periods that overlap with the time periods of the museums I've visited in the last few days -- LBJ Library in Austin, JFK assassination museum in Dallas.
When I visited the LBJ Library on Sunday, for instance, I came across this section...
... about LBJ's handling of 1968, which included MLK Jr assassination (as well as Bobby Kennedy's assassination). But the Stax Museum in Memphis put a finer point on the moment by describing what effect the MLK assassination had on its record label.
As Wikipedia puts it, "While Stax is renowned for its output of African-American music, the label was founded by two white businesspeople, Jim Stewart and his sister Estelle Axton, and featured several popular ethnically-integrated bands, including the label's house band, Booker T. & the MG's." (More commonly known artists that came from Stax include Isaac Hayes and Otis Redding.) The museum spends a lot of time talking about this racial integration and how important it was to the label's success.
MLK's assassination, however, was the catalyst to the record label's rapid decline. I can't remember exactly how the museum described the moment, but my impression was that like the assassination itself, the relationships developed at Stax seemed to come to a remarkably sad and violent end in 1968.
(Be sure to click on the two photos above to expand them. The MLK bust from the LBJ museum is one of my favs, and LBJ's words in the picture below are worth reading.)Anyway, I'm finding a lot of these historical overlaps along my road trip, and I love being surprised by them. Today and tomorrow's trip to Lubbock and Abilene includes stops at the Buddy Holly Center, the National Heritage Ranching Center, the American Wind Power Center, and Cadillac Ranch. Finding the overlap among these stops might be a bit tougher.
You may remember my story about being a 19-year old and driving west on I-40 at day's end and watching the sun remain still at the end of the highway,,,,,I believ you may have experienced that similar feeling across Texas.
ReplyDeleteA few years ago I drove east from Palm springs to Phoenix and went through several vast wind farms.. Gave me goose bumps.. Looked like a moonscape..
Glad you showed me the STAX plaque...I always thought it referred to record platters (stacks)... I now realize that it's the combination of the two partners last name initials!
Were you familiar with any of the Buddy Holly music before visiting the museum? "Peggy Sue"
was one of the earliest songs I liked and owned as a 45.. I was 11!