So Rand and I went to Cleveland over the weekend. Neither of us had ever been to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, so we made a trip of it. We spent pretty much all of Saturday wandering about the various halls and exhibits. Rand was especially excited about the Tommy exhibit. (I didn’t previously know much about Tommy. I knew some of the songs, of course, but that was about all.)
Some of the highlights…
The Tommy documentary, which I thought was very interesting and well done.
The little clip show of the induction ceremonies. I cried every time they showed someone who’s died since their induction. And why, oh why, do they not produce and sell an induction ceremony/concert DVD?
One little wall display of Bon Jovi memorabilia. Hee! 🙂
The John Lennon memorabilia, which featured a bunch of things from Julian’s private collection. *sniff*
The collection of various costumes worn by performers over the years.
One big disappointment…the “multimedia presentation” featuring the inductees. Let me see if I can adequately describe this. You waited for the presentation in a little room where the clip show was showing on continuous loop. This would lead one to believe that the presentation would feature some bits from the induction ceremonies and concerts, right? But no…the presentation, on three big screens, was just video clips (with sound, of course) of each inductee. I suppose the three screens and big floating words were what made it “ultimedia”? Eh. It could have been a lot better.
One discussion topic…looking at the list of inductees, Rand pointed out that most of the “great” bands are British, while the US seems to produce more singer/songwriter/performers. Thoughts?
L. David Wheeler wrote:
Sounds like fun! I posted some mutterances at Rand’s LJ feed. Rand’s observation is valid, to a point. Great American bands would include The Byrds, The Beach Boys, The Band (yes, I know Robbie Robertson’s Canadian), Buffalo Springfield (yes, I know Neil Young’s Canadian), The Allman Brothers, The Ramones, The Blasters, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Little Feat (please tell me Lowell George isn’t Canadian). (I still think Kansas is a great band, but not enough to spend time defending my thesis. 🙂 ) Plus, there are all the seminal Motown and Stax groups, but that might be stretching the definition of “band” (except for Booker T & the MG). But yeah, that lineup still pales when put up against the Beatles, Stones, Who, Kinks, Led Zep, Floyd, Sabbath, Cream, Animals, Elvis Costello and the Attractions, The Clash, The Police, etc. etc.
Stephanie wrote:
Yeah, I left the room. It was boring. Everything else, though? Fantastic. I got a big kick out of seeing the Parliment/Funkadelic costumes…man, the boots Collins wore! Do they still have that room with the ‘making of’ three songs? It was Aretha, Jackson and one other the last time I was there. I happen to love “Sky Blue and Black”, so it was perfect for me. My friend Tim, who writes for Goldmine, gets to vote for the inductees. I’ll ask him what he thinks about the UKBand/USSinger/songwriter thing.
I remember looking at the size of those rockers’ outfits and thinking that all these years I’ve been idolizing a bunch of hard-rocking dwarfs. Especially ZZTop; those guys must be TINY!