Offered are four acoustic tiles from the walls of The Memphis Recording Service that were installed by Sam Phillips himself when he opened his doors in 1950. They were salvaged by a devoted writer and fan who visited the then-abandoned space in 1970. These four tiles witnessed thousands upon thousands of hours of recording for Sun Records that included the very birth of Rock & Roll. Go ahead an argue whether that means the July 1954 session where Elvis Presley, Scotty Moore and Bill Black pounded out the revolutionary version of "That's All Right" OR the March 1951 session where Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats (which included Ike Turner) recorded "Rocket '88'"...
Because they were both recorded with these tiles "listening" on the walls of The Memphis Recording Service!!
All of Elvis Presley's Sun recordings, Howlin' Wolf, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Little Milton, Billy "The Kid" Emerson, B.B. King, Roscoe Gordon Charlie Rich, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash all played and recorded while these tiles held sway on the walls. The Million Dollar Quartet!! The list is endless.
The tiles survived because an English writer set off on a journey across the U.S. in 1970 to write a book about the birth of Rock & Roll. His travels brought him, of course, to Memphis, where his first stop was at Marion Keisker's door. Sadly for the writer, it was too soon after Jerry Hopkins had made the stop and caused Marion a bit of trouble with Sam Phillips after her revelation that she, and not Sam, had recorded Elvis that very first time in 1953. His next stop was an abandoned store front at 706 Union Ave. that still had the "Cody's Barber Shop" sign hanging out front--Cody had come and gone in the 10 years since Sam had moved out, but he never changed the walls. The writer was able to convince the landlord, a Mr. Aste who was the son-in-law of the man who first rented the space to Sam Phillips, to come down and let him have a look. The writer was thrilled to see the wall's tiles still intact, and after a little prodding convinced Mr. Aste to let him take a few. He made a quick sketch on the back of them showing where they came from, roughly, and safely transported them back to England where they have stayed for MORE THAN 50 YEARS.
The tiles each measure 12 x 12 inches and maintain the same green paint that Sam Phillips applied when they first went up on the wall. The backs show where the adhesive was before the were removed, but each tile is intact. Each is accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity signed by noted Elvis Presley collector and expert Jimmy Velvet.
This is just an incredible opportunity to acquire a group of items that can only be described as true Rock & Roll relics.