Museum of Rock and Soul and Gibson

Today we went to the Museum of Rock and Soul and the Gibson Factory. After we finished those two we even went to the National Civil Rights Museum, but that will need it's own post. The Museum of Rock and Soul was pretty impressive, but the thing that was so enjoyable about it as Dad pointed out is that we could listen to the progression of songs over the years. It started with the the blues of Robert Johnson and Charley Patton and went through the Stax years of Isaac Hayes and Otis Redding.

This was really where I started to realize that there are so many songs that other people wrote that I have heard in more famous versions and enjoy. Dad and I were discussing what we thought the difference between Motown and Stax was, because they were the predominant soul labels during the 60s and 70s. I think that Motown had a more refined sound and a smoother sound. Stax had a very raw sound. Stax was taking instrumentalists that grew up on blues and other influences that were driving rock and roll and then using that as the backbone to their soul music. Again at the Soul Museum we saw a whole church group of ladies find the song of their younger years and they were just screaming and shouting about how much they loved it. Despite being annoying it was at the same time endearing to see them.

From the Soul Museum we walked across the street the Gibson Factory. This was an amazing experience to see how the guitars come together. A Gibson guitar has an entirely different look and I imagine feel to it when compared to a Fender or for that matter any other electric guitar. It is interesting doing something like this particularly when I don't play guitar, but I feel like it is something that I still get to some degree. I think the pictures for this tour tell more of a story so I'll leave it at that.