0:00:02 > 0:00:04I have crossed the Atlantic,
0:00:04 > 0:00:07to ride the railroads of North America
0:00:07 > 0:00:09with my reliable Appletons' guide.
0:00:12 > 0:00:14Published in the late 19th century,
0:00:14 > 0:00:19my Appletons' General Guide to North America will direct me to all that's
0:00:19 > 0:00:25novel, beautiful, memorable and striking in the United States.
0:00:25 > 0:00:28THEY SHOUT
0:00:28 > 0:00:30As I journey across this vast continent,
0:00:30 > 0:00:34I'll discover how pioneers and cowboys conquered the West.
0:00:34 > 0:00:35GUNFIRE
0:00:35 > 0:00:39And how the railroads tied this nation together,
0:00:39 > 0:00:42hoping to create the global superstate of today.
0:01:08 > 0:01:12I'm nearing the end of a thousand mile railroad journey.
0:01:12 > 0:01:14It began on the mighty Mississippi
0:01:14 > 0:01:18and that is where I will also make my final stop.
0:01:20 > 0:01:25Great rivers bring fertility and prosperity all along their banks.
0:01:25 > 0:01:29So it was with the Nile, in Ancient Egypt,
0:01:29 > 0:01:32and its shimmering city of Memphis.
0:01:32 > 0:01:35So, with the Mississippi and its cotton fields.
0:01:35 > 0:01:37In 1826,
0:01:37 > 0:01:42a group of Tennessee entrepreneurs decided to name their river city
0:01:42 > 0:01:44Memphis, too.
0:01:44 > 0:01:45Appletons' tells me,
0:01:45 > 0:01:50"It's the largest city on the river between St Louis and New Orleans."
0:01:50 > 0:01:54Roughly translated, "Memphis" means "place of good abode".
0:01:54 > 0:01:57Or, more roughly still, "graceland".
0:02:04 > 0:02:08On this route I've been learning how waterways and railroads
0:02:08 > 0:02:11shaped the 19th century Midwest.
0:02:11 > 0:02:13Starting in Minneapolis,
0:02:13 > 0:02:18I explored the upper Mississippi as far as the Wisconsin border,
0:02:18 > 0:02:20then headed for Lake Michigan.
0:02:20 > 0:02:23From industrial Milwaukee, I continued south into Chicago,
0:02:23 > 0:02:27the nerve centre of the United States' rail network,
0:02:27 > 0:02:31before striking out across the Illinois prairie.
0:02:31 > 0:02:32Now I'm on the home straight,
0:02:32 > 0:02:35bound for Memphis, Tennessee.
0:02:40 > 0:02:44On this journey, I'll navigate the perilous Mississippi.
0:02:44 > 0:02:47How safe was it to travel on the steamboats?
0:02:47 > 0:02:49It was extremely hazardous.
0:02:49 > 0:02:52There was great danger of sinking,
0:02:52 > 0:02:55from boiler explosions, from fire.
0:02:55 > 0:02:57Get my ducks in a row.
0:03:00 > 0:03:02There they go. Don't let them get away!
0:03:02 > 0:03:04Oh! I think this is the bizarrest thing
0:03:04 > 0:03:06I have ever been involved in.
0:03:06 > 0:03:08And get a dose of the Blues.
0:03:30 > 0:03:33Ladies and gentlemen, now arriving in Memphis.
0:03:33 > 0:03:35Memphis, Tennessee. Memphis - now arriving.
0:03:47 > 0:03:49Thank you very much. Bye-bye.
0:04:07 > 0:04:11Memphis was a transport hub even before the arrival of the railroads,
0:04:11 > 0:04:14because of its strategic position on the Mississippi.
0:04:16 > 0:04:18SHIP HORN BLARES
0:04:19 > 0:04:23Then travellers would have caught their first glimpse of the city
0:04:23 > 0:04:26from one of the hundreds of paddle steamers that plied the waters.
0:04:36 > 0:04:38Appletons' remarks that,
0:04:38 > 0:04:42"The prevailing character of the lower Mississippi is of solemn gloom.
0:04:42 > 0:04:48"The dreary solitude, the trees with melancholy drapery of pendant moss,
0:04:48 > 0:04:52"the vast volume of dark and turbid waters through the wilderness form
0:04:52 > 0:04:56"the most dismal yet impressive landscape."
0:04:56 > 0:05:01And indeed, Memphis has inherited a kind of shabby soulfulness,
0:05:01 > 0:05:05which has been its making in modern times.
0:05:05 > 0:05:09I've come here mainly to think about a man who looked back wistfully on
0:05:09 > 0:05:12childhood days on the Mississippi.
0:05:16 > 0:05:2119th century writer Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain,
0:05:21 > 0:05:24cemented Mississippi life in American culture.
0:05:24 > 0:05:26Historian Dr Charles Crawford
0:05:26 > 0:05:30can tell me how the river shaped his life and work.
0:05:30 > 0:05:32- Hello, Charles. - I'm glad to meet you, Michael.
0:05:32 > 0:05:35Tell me about Mark Twain. Who was he?
0:05:35 > 0:05:40Mark Twain was, in the opinion of many people,
0:05:40 > 0:05:42the greatest American author who ever lived.
0:05:42 > 0:05:47Because his novel Huckleberry Finn,
0:05:47 > 0:05:50about three boys on the river
0:05:50 > 0:05:54is one of the great travel adventures
0:05:54 > 0:05:57cos it is done with such simplicity.
0:05:57 > 0:05:59It can be read by children.
0:05:59 > 0:06:01But with more maturity,
0:06:01 > 0:06:05you see he's commenting on the social aspects
0:06:05 > 0:06:09and economic aspects of society at the time.
0:06:09 > 0:06:11And he's doing it
0:06:11 > 0:06:16through the view of two young boys and one slave.
0:06:19 > 0:06:22The Mississippi first captured Twain's imagination
0:06:22 > 0:06:27during his childhood in Hannibal, Missouri, some 400 miles upriver.
0:06:27 > 0:06:32Then as a young man he experienced the thrills and spills of life
0:06:32 > 0:06:34as a Mississippi riverboat pilot.
0:06:36 > 0:06:39How safe was it to travel on the steamboats?
0:06:39 > 0:06:41It was extremely hazardous.
0:06:41 > 0:06:48There was great danger, sinking from boiler explosions, from fire,
0:06:48 > 0:06:51of boats running aground to simply sinking.
0:06:51 > 0:06:55Steamboats had a short life expectancy.
0:06:55 > 0:06:59Tell me what was the worst disaster that befell a steamboat on the river?
0:06:59 > 0:07:02The worst one occurred in 1865.
0:07:02 > 0:07:06The captain of that boat was being paid per person,
0:07:06 > 0:07:11so he admitted approximately perhaps 2,400 people to a boat
0:07:11 > 0:07:14that should have been limited to 600.
0:07:14 > 0:07:18During the night, several miles north of Memphis, it exploded
0:07:18 > 0:07:24and the loss of life was between 1,500 and 2,000.
0:07:24 > 0:07:27Mark Twain knew the risks all too well.
0:07:28 > 0:07:32His brother also travelled on the Mississippi River,
0:07:32 > 0:07:35and in 1858
0:07:35 > 0:07:39a steamboat explosion occurred near the city and his brother Henry
0:07:39 > 0:07:45was seriously wounded, was brought to Memphis for treatment.
0:07:45 > 0:07:50They were cared for by the people so much so that Mark Twain said after
0:07:50 > 0:07:54his brother had died said, "God bless Memphis,
0:07:54 > 0:07:57"there is no more noble city on the face of the earth."
0:08:05 > 0:08:09Late 19th century United States citizens had to endure danger,
0:08:09 > 0:08:12violence and disease.
0:08:12 > 0:08:16The civil war claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and fast-growing
0:08:16 > 0:08:21crowded cities were the perfect breeding ground for epidemics.
0:08:21 > 0:08:22In 1878,
0:08:22 > 0:08:27Memphis was gripped by a pestilence that threatened its very existence.
0:08:39 > 0:08:43This lovely spacious place is according to Appletons',
0:08:43 > 0:08:48"The principal of the six cemeteries and is known as Elmwood."
0:08:48 > 0:08:52It's the final resting place for 14 Confederate generals
0:08:52 > 0:08:56and for many dead from steamboat disasters,
0:08:56 > 0:09:01but lots of people buried here were not the victims of great events,
0:09:01 > 0:09:04but of something extraordinarily tiny.
0:09:29 > 0:09:32Executive director at Elmwood Kim McCollum
0:09:32 > 0:09:35works to raise awareness of the cemetery's history.
0:09:40 > 0:09:44So, Kim, why are the years just before my guide book was published
0:09:44 > 0:09:45so memorable for Memphis?
0:09:46 > 0:09:51Well, the 1870s brought a lot of turmoil to the city of Memphis
0:09:51 > 0:09:55in the form of a mosquito, the Aedes aegypti mosquito.
0:09:55 > 0:09:59She caused a lot of damage in the form of yellow fever.
0:09:59 > 0:10:01Did people know that the mosquito was to blame?
0:10:01 > 0:10:04No, no-one knew the mosquito was to blame, in fact,
0:10:04 > 0:10:09many believed that it was what Americans called a miasma,
0:10:09 > 0:10:13that was sort of a fog that floated over cities,
0:10:13 > 0:10:17that carried a foul air and infected people.
0:10:17 > 0:10:2317th century slave ships first brought yellow fever to the east coast of America.
0:10:23 > 0:10:25The disease spread,
0:10:25 > 0:10:28aided by the advent of steamboats and railroads.
0:10:28 > 0:10:32In the 1800s, it reached Memphis' crowded streets.
0:10:32 > 0:10:36Why was Memphis particularly badly hit, do you think?
0:10:36 > 0:10:41Memphis was a very unclean city during the yellow fever epidemics.
0:10:41 > 0:10:46There were no sewer systems and the Gayoso Bayou was located downtown,
0:10:46 > 0:10:52which was a large body of water that was stagnant and so the mosquito
0:10:52 > 0:10:55had a wonderful breeding ground in Memphis.
0:10:57 > 0:11:01The city was struck by a series of yellow fever outbreaks,
0:11:01 > 0:11:04each worse than the last.
0:11:04 > 0:11:08So when a case was reported in 1878, panic set in.
0:11:10 > 0:11:11In the year 1878,
0:11:11 > 0:11:15the population of the city of Memphis was approximately 50,000,
0:11:15 > 0:11:18so about 25,000 people chose to leave the city of Memphis
0:11:18 > 0:11:22and they headed up the Mississippi River towards St Louis.
0:11:22 > 0:11:27Most of those were Caucasian people who had the means to leave the city,
0:11:27 > 0:11:30those who remained in the city were largely African-American.
0:11:30 > 0:11:35We liken it to a modern-day Hurricane Katrina in its devastation.
0:11:36 > 0:11:40So what was the impact on the 25,000 who remained?
0:11:40 > 0:11:44Out of the 25,000 who remained in Memphis,
0:11:44 > 0:11:49about 5,000 of those died from the yellow fever.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52In the month of September of 1878,
0:11:52 > 0:11:55about 200 people were dying per day in the city of Memphis
0:11:55 > 0:11:58and about 50 of those people were brought to Elmwood for burial
0:11:58 > 0:12:03and they were buried in trench-style graves in this piece of land
0:12:03 > 0:12:07that we're standing on now, which is called No Man's Land.
0:12:10 > 0:12:14The epidemic upended the social order in Memphis.
0:12:14 > 0:12:17White flight made way for African-Americans to serve for
0:12:17 > 0:12:20the first time as police officers,
0:12:20 > 0:12:23while businessman Robert Reed Church,
0:12:23 > 0:12:27whose mother was a slave, made a fortune snapping up property,
0:12:27 > 0:12:30becoming reputedly the South's first black millionaire.
0:12:32 > 0:12:36Nowadays the people of Memphis remember those who stayed behind
0:12:36 > 0:12:38to serve the victims.
0:12:38 > 0:12:42One unlikely hero was a brothel owner
0:12:42 > 0:12:45who apparently still haunts the cemetery today,
0:12:45 > 0:12:47keeping her story alive.
0:12:47 > 0:12:50Well, Annie Cook, I presume!
0:12:50 > 0:12:52- Good afternoon.- I'm Michael.
0:12:52 > 0:12:55Annie, what sort of business have you been running here in Memphis?
0:12:55 > 0:12:57I've been very successful in Memphis.
0:12:57 > 0:13:01I started out as a housemaid, but there's not a lot of money in that,
0:13:01 > 0:13:06so I knew what the sailors in a rough river town like Memphis needed
0:13:06 > 0:13:09was it something a little more exciting than a clean house.
0:13:09 > 0:13:12How did 1878 begin?
0:13:12 > 0:13:17Well, that terrible disease hit Memphis that was nicknamed "yellow fever"
0:13:17 > 0:13:20because you turned as yellow as a banana.
0:13:20 > 0:13:24It was burning you up from the inside out.
0:13:24 > 0:13:29You bled from everywhere, your ears, your eyes, your nose, your mouth.
0:13:29 > 0:13:33Luckily, I mean, mercifully, you died within three or four days.
0:13:33 > 0:13:35What did that do to your business?
0:13:35 > 0:13:40Well, I turned my palatial mansion into a hospital.
0:13:40 > 0:13:43- How did you do that?- Well, we just pushed back the furniture,
0:13:43 > 0:13:44rolled up the carpets
0:13:44 > 0:13:46and filled every room with cots
0:13:46 > 0:13:50and they were full with the sick and the dying.
0:13:50 > 0:13:54Well, Annie, thank you very much for all of your services to Memphis.
0:13:54 > 0:13:57- Sure, thank y'all.- Bye-bye.- Bye.
0:14:14 > 0:14:17Appletons' recommends the Peabody Hotel,
0:14:17 > 0:14:20which first opened its doors in 1869.
0:14:27 > 0:14:30It moved to this site in 1925
0:14:30 > 0:14:34and soon after, a remarkable tradition was born.
0:14:43 > 0:14:44Mr Duck Master, I assume?
0:14:44 > 0:14:46Mr Portillo, great to have you with us.
0:14:46 > 0:14:50Thank you, it's lovely to be here. What's going to happen?
0:14:50 > 0:14:53Well, have you ever seen a duck march before?
0:14:53 > 0:14:55- Duck march? No. - Well, that's all right.
0:14:55 > 0:14:58Have you ridden on an elevator with ducks before?
0:14:58 > 0:15:00- With ducks? No. - That's fine.
0:15:00 > 0:15:04Have you ever seen a Royal Duck Palace?
0:15:04 > 0:15:05- No.- That's all right.
0:15:05 > 0:15:09The Peabody ducks, these guys right here,
0:15:09 > 0:15:12they are a legend here in the city of Memphis and you, sir,
0:15:12 > 0:15:15have been nominated to act as our honorary Duck Master.
0:15:15 > 0:15:19Oh, that is a great honour, I'm humbled.
0:15:19 > 0:15:23Ducks have been a feature here since 1933,
0:15:23 > 0:15:26when an inebriated general manager
0:15:26 > 0:15:29positioned some of them in the fountain of the hotel,
0:15:29 > 0:15:30to the guests' delight.
0:15:30 > 0:15:34Nowadays the daily duck march draws a crowd.
0:15:34 > 0:15:36Here we go. All righty, ducks,
0:15:36 > 0:15:38wait for it, wait for it.
0:15:38 > 0:15:40Very good. I like what you're doing.
0:15:40 > 0:15:42Excellent. Very good, very nice.
0:15:42 > 0:15:45Very good, I think he's got it.
0:15:45 > 0:15:48Duckies, hup, hup.
0:15:48 > 0:15:52Very nice. Double back for you.
0:15:52 > 0:15:55Very good waddle, duckies.
0:15:55 > 0:15:58Look at you guys! Oh, excellent posing, ducks.
0:15:58 > 0:16:01Very nice. Very good!
0:16:03 > 0:16:05Great job!
0:16:10 > 0:16:12The ducks are going to go running right past you
0:16:12 > 0:16:14as soon as that door opens, just so you know,
0:16:14 > 0:16:17if just stay still. There they go.
0:16:17 > 0:16:20- Don't let them get away. - Oh, right!- We got work to do.
0:16:21 > 0:16:23Beautiful day for a duck march.
0:16:23 > 0:16:26I think this is the bizarrest thing I've ever been involved in!
0:16:26 > 0:16:28You're doing great. Pardon me, ducks.
0:16:28 > 0:16:31Pardon me. Thank you, good job.
0:16:31 > 0:16:34- Hooray!- Great job, Duck Master! Thank you very much.
0:16:34 > 0:16:37Wow! Duck Master, what an honour to serve with you.
0:16:37 > 0:16:41It was a pleasure having you with us. Thank you so much.
0:16:41 > 0:16:43Look at this palace that they're in as well.
0:16:43 > 0:16:45Not bad for ducks, right?
0:16:45 > 0:16:47Well, I'm staying here slightly less time than they are
0:16:47 > 0:16:50and I think my room is not quite as big.
0:16:50 > 0:16:52Well, there's five of them!
0:17:00 > 0:17:02Before I turn in,
0:17:02 > 0:17:05I'm taking a stroll down the famous Beale Street
0:17:05 > 0:17:08to soak up a little Memphis nightlife.
0:17:08 > 0:17:10Around the time of my guidebook,
0:17:10 > 0:17:13this was where African-Americans gathered.
0:17:15 > 0:17:19I suppose Beale Street is what it is today because about 150 years ago,
0:17:19 > 0:17:22penniless black musicians came here
0:17:22 > 0:17:26who would have faced immense prejudice, I dare say and now,
0:17:26 > 0:17:27look at this.
0:17:27 > 0:17:32All the neon signs, all the tourism, and it's all down to those guys.
0:17:32 > 0:17:38How the wheel of fortune, how the wheel of fashion, turns.
0:17:52 > 0:17:56A new day and I've been invited to play with a big toy...
0:17:56 > 0:17:59Hi! May I come aboard?
0:17:59 > 0:18:02- Yes, sir.- Thank you very much.
0:18:02 > 0:18:05..to get a feel of Memphis' modern rail story.
0:18:24 > 0:18:28Appletons' tells me that Memphis has an immense railroad
0:18:28 > 0:18:31and steamboat traffic. Of course it was a hub,
0:18:31 > 0:18:34having both the railroad and the Mississippi River,
0:18:34 > 0:18:37but perhaps more surprising is that even today,
0:18:37 > 0:18:42the big five railroads of North America all converge on Memphis.
0:18:52 > 0:18:57Railfreight today is a 60 billion industry
0:18:57 > 0:19:00and Memphis is America's third largest rail hub.
0:19:02 > 0:19:05And the city represents a cultural crossroads too.
0:19:06 > 0:19:11Since travelling black musicians first congregated on Beale Street,
0:19:11 > 0:19:14Memphis has been a musical melting pot.
0:19:28 > 0:19:30In the home of the blues,
0:19:30 > 0:19:34I'm meeting Grammy-nominated musician Cedric Burnside.
0:19:44 > 0:19:48Cedric, how did music begin in your life?
0:19:48 > 0:19:52My big daddy was a big part of my musical history.
0:19:52 > 0:19:55RL Burnside. I grew up with him.
0:19:55 > 0:20:00Because he grew up playing in the juke joints I kind of grew up too.
0:20:00 > 0:20:02That was the life we had, you know.
0:20:02 > 0:20:03What are you saying with your music?
0:20:03 > 0:20:07What is it you're communicating, do you think?
0:20:07 > 0:20:10Slaves, you know, really started the blues,
0:20:10 > 0:20:13they couldn't talk a whole lot, so they had to do code
0:20:13 > 0:20:16and I kind of think blues is sort that way still today.
0:20:16 > 0:20:19People go through things, you know,
0:20:19 > 0:20:21they talk about it through their blues.
0:20:21 > 0:20:23It's the roots.
0:20:23 > 0:20:25After the civil war,
0:20:25 > 0:20:28African-Americans made use of their new-found freedom and the growing
0:20:28 > 0:20:32railroad network to travel, taking their music with them.
0:20:32 > 0:20:34In 1912,
0:20:34 > 0:20:38the first commercially successful blues song was published by WC Handy,
0:20:38 > 0:20:40a Beale Street band leader,
0:20:40 > 0:20:45inspired by a lone musician whom he heard playing at a Mississippi rail station.
0:20:45 > 0:20:47During the Great Depression,
0:20:47 > 0:20:50blues men migrated north on the Illinois Central
0:20:50 > 0:20:53and the electrified Chicago blues was born.
0:20:53 > 0:20:56Cedric, there are different sorts of blues.
0:20:56 > 0:21:00How would I distinguish between, I don't know, between Delta blues...
0:21:00 > 0:21:02Chicago blues, hill country blues?
0:21:02 > 0:21:07- Tell me about that.- Well, Delta blues, it's all bars, you know.
0:21:07 > 0:21:11I like to think of hill country blues as film music.
0:21:11 > 0:21:13It don't have any bars.
0:21:13 > 0:21:15It's just a straight beat that goes on through.
0:21:15 > 0:21:19You can't put hill country blues in front of somebody and say, "Play this,"
0:21:19 > 0:21:21because you can't write it, really.
0:21:21 > 0:21:23This is a hill country song I'm about to play you
0:21:23 > 0:21:26that my big daddy used to play all the time.
0:21:26 > 0:21:29And it don't really have too many changes,
0:21:29 > 0:21:37it just has a lot of finger picking and just a strong, hypnotic beat.
0:21:37 > 0:21:39This is called Skinny Woman.
0:21:56 > 0:22:02# Well, I don't want skinny woman
0:22:02 > 0:22:05# Well, I don't want skinny woman
0:22:05 > 0:22:07# Meat don't shake
0:22:07 > 0:22:09# Meat don't shake... #
0:22:31 > 0:22:35- Thank you, Cedric.- You're very welcome, man. Thank y'all.
0:22:50 > 0:22:52In the mid-20th century,
0:22:52 > 0:22:57the blues helped to give birth to a new style of music here in Memphis.
0:22:57 > 0:23:00And a local boy was its king.
0:23:04 > 0:23:07I'm joining the 20 million people
0:23:07 > 0:23:09who've made the rock and roll pilgrimage
0:23:09 > 0:23:13to his home since it opened to the public in 1982.
0:23:18 > 0:23:20My guide is Libby Perry.
0:23:22 > 0:23:25- Hello, Libby, I'm Michael. - Hey, Michael, welcome to Graceland.
0:23:25 > 0:23:29Thank you so much. It's really very exciting to be here.
0:23:29 > 0:23:32In what sort of circumstances was Elvis born?
0:23:32 > 0:23:34Elvis was born in Tupelo, Mississippi.
0:23:34 > 0:23:36It's about an hour and a half south of Memphis.
0:23:36 > 0:23:38He was born to a poor family,
0:23:38 > 0:23:43they had a very small shack on the edge of a very poor historically
0:23:43 > 0:23:45African-American neighbourhood.
0:23:45 > 0:23:51Elvis moved to Memphis at the age of 13 and absorbed its musical influences.
0:23:51 > 0:23:53- Where was he going to hear his music?- Beale Street.
0:23:53 > 0:23:57Everyone goes to Beale Street in Memphis to hear all sorts of music.
0:23:57 > 0:23:59It was the same for Elvis when he was growing up.
0:23:59 > 0:24:03And he really made a lot of connections at Stax and Sun Studio
0:24:03 > 0:24:05with so many up-and-coming Memphis musicians
0:24:05 > 0:24:08that would really help put Memphis on the map in terms of blues
0:24:08 > 0:24:10and gospel and eventually rock and roll.
0:24:10 > 0:24:13And does Elvis himself pick up the blues?
0:24:13 > 0:24:14Yes, absolutely.
0:24:14 > 0:24:19Big influences of Elvis in terms of blues are Big Mama Thornton,
0:24:19 > 0:24:23who actually came out with Hound Dog and that famous song of Elvis'
0:24:23 > 0:24:24is a cover of hers.
0:24:24 > 0:24:27Otis Blackwell was an amazing blues writer
0:24:27 > 0:24:29that Elvis loved to work with.
0:24:29 > 0:24:31He wrote, Don't Be Cruel and All Shook Up.
0:24:31 > 0:24:35So, Graceland, I've never been here before, big moment,
0:24:35 > 0:24:37but when does he acquire it?
0:24:37 > 0:24:40Elvis bought Graceland when he was 22.
0:24:40 > 0:24:42It's June 1957,
0:24:42 > 0:24:46came with about 13 acres of land and he paid about 100,000 for it.
0:24:49 > 0:24:51The poor boy from Mississippi had become
0:24:51 > 0:24:54the first global rock and roll superstar,
0:24:54 > 0:24:59thanks to his fusion of rhythm and blues, country and gospel.
0:25:00 > 0:25:03He died aged just 42.
0:25:03 > 0:25:06But it's as though he lives on at Graceland.
0:25:10 > 0:25:12Well, it's a...
0:25:12 > 0:25:14- a time capsule, isn't it? - That's right.
0:25:16 > 0:25:18When Elvis passed away in 1977,
0:25:18 > 0:25:21he was kind of in a very masculine, '70s phase,
0:25:21 > 0:25:24so most of what you see here that's white or blue
0:25:24 > 0:25:28was actually red and black, lots of leather and fur.
0:25:28 > 0:25:32So we kind of like to hedge the balance between what it was like when he passed away
0:25:32 > 0:25:35and what it was like the majority of the time that he lived here.
0:25:35 > 0:25:37What was the difference that he made to music?
0:25:37 > 0:25:39He is credited with a lot.
0:25:39 > 0:25:44At Sun Studio, downtown, he and Sam Phillips, Johnny Cash,
0:25:44 > 0:25:48Jerry Lee Lewis really blended together blues, gospel, country, R&B,
0:25:48 > 0:25:52soul and created what we now know as the infancy of rock and roll.
0:25:52 > 0:25:56And so many current pop culture and musical artists today kind of attribute
0:25:56 > 0:26:00some of their success, some of their musical stylings to the King of Rock 'n' Roll.
0:26:06 > 0:26:11Despite his renown as a rebellious youth whose music and sensuality
0:26:11 > 0:26:16divided generations and families, Elvis was devoted to his parents.
0:26:16 > 0:26:21They lived with him off and on at Graceland and are buried beside him.
0:26:49 > 0:26:51I've been thinking,
0:26:51 > 0:26:54which figures most help you to understand American history?
0:26:54 > 0:26:56Thomas Jefferson, "All men are created equal".
0:26:56 > 0:26:59Abraham Lincoln, the abolition of slavery,
0:26:59 > 0:27:01and Elvis Presley.
0:27:02 > 0:27:07That's not far-fetched because from the second half of the 20th century onwards,
0:27:07 > 0:27:12America, through its entertainment, has global, cultural domination
0:27:12 > 0:27:15and Elvis is absolutely at the heart of that,
0:27:15 > 0:27:17and the interesting thing is
0:27:17 > 0:27:21that he draws his inspiration largely from black Americans.
0:27:44 > 0:27:45Guided by my Appletons',
0:27:45 > 0:27:50my train journey from Minneapolis to Memphis has left two strong impressions,
0:27:50 > 0:27:53that the Mississippi tells the story of America up to
0:27:53 > 0:27:56the late 19th century.
0:27:56 > 0:28:02Native Americans, fur traders, settlers, steamboats,
0:28:02 > 0:28:04industry and the civil war.
0:28:04 > 0:28:09And that Chicago carries on the history of the United States,
0:28:09 > 0:28:13sitting at the centre of a vast iron web,
0:28:13 > 0:28:16spinning out new rail lines in every direction.
0:28:16 > 0:28:21Growing fat and tall on the profits, because by then
0:28:21 > 0:28:26access to a railroad was more important than proximity to a river.
0:28:26 > 0:28:30Even to this one, the father of the waters.