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Published: August 15th 2015
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…and Rosie brought us to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. It looked like a glass pyramid.
They had a lot of music memorabilia in there. A LOT. The flow of the museum was pretty good. It started with very early influences from the 1920s. From there, it showed the evolution of music through the ages. As it neared more contemporary times there were displays focusing on certain cities and their influence in music: London, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle. There’s a bigger section devoted to bands from the Midwest and specifically Cleveland. MTV’s influence was represented by a very disjointed video montage on several television screens. Very MTV…the real one…the one that actually showed music videos…24 hours a day…every day. If you’re prone to seizures, skip this one.
The big names had individual memorabilia displays: Elvis, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix. Other notable acts either had smaller individual displays or were mixed in with other groups from the same era or genre. The museum covers more than just the rock and roll genre. They also highlight jazz, blues, punk and grunge among others.
The museum had interactive displays with
several stations at each display…no waiting for the headsets. You could listen to audio clips from all those early influences, one-hit wonders (Kajagoogoo…where are they now?) and songs that shaped rock and roll. There are several screenings you can watch ranging in length from just over 10 minutes to 75 minutes. We watched one about American Bandstand. The clothes! And the hair! And the dancers! And through it all Dick Clark looked the same. We also saw most of the 75 minute movie. It was a collection of highlights from each of the induction ceremonies from 1986 to 2013.
Behind the back wall of the Hall of Fame Theater (where, go figure, they show the 75 minute movie I just talked about) is a dark hallway. On the left wall of this dark hallway is a series of glass panels. Etched in the panels are the signatures of each of the inductees. Blue light illuminates the signatures. Nearly impossible to take pictures. Completely impossible if you’re using the built-in camera on your cheap phone. This is the only place where ALL of the Hall of Fame members are represented.
I was a little disappointed. I guess I was
expecting something more along the lines of what Cooperstown does; individual recognition citing the accomplishments that got them inducted. In this case I guess it really was a HALL of fame, or more accurately a WALL of fame in a hall.
We spent nearly all day there…about 7 hours and didn’t see everything. I guess somewhere on a lower level we never went to were cars that had belonged to Janis Joplin and Joan Jett. Maybe next time we’ll get to the rest of the museum.
As we were heading back to the interstate, I noticed throngs of people in Cleveland Indians jerseys. Apparently there’s a game today. No, we didn’t go.
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