Paris. London. Dublin. Barcelona. New York. We could have gone to any of the world’s great cities to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. We chose Cleveland, and let me tell you Cleveland Rocks! The city was friendly. The food was great. And The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is a must-see for music fans of every generation and taste.

see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at this link: https://www.rockhall.com/

The story that’s told by a visit to the Hall of Fame starts off with Rock and Roll’s roots in the Country, Gospel, and Blues of the early 20th Century. Furry Lewis was a 1920’s Memphis bluesman who reemerged in the 1960’s during the Blues Revival advanced by the popularity of such blue-based bands like The Rolling Stones, who Furry later opened for twice, and included such other musical luminaries as Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, and John Lee Hooker.

Elvis Presley was the bridge between the old ways and the new, and the template for all rock and roll stars of the future. An American original, influenced by all of the Southern culture that surrounded him, Elvis combined the currencies of his time – the rise of mass media, changing race relations, and an yearning to break from conformity – and became something no one else had ever really become before. Elvis Presley was one of the first famous people to not really need a last name. There was only one of him. Elvis was, of course, a first year inductee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

In an exhibit featuring the Radio Deejays who brought the new sounds of the 1950’s to the world, there’s a small tribute to Buddy Deane. The Buddy Deane Show was a teen dance show similar to American Bandstand broadcast on Baltimore, Maryland’s WJZ-TV from 1957 until 1964. The racial integration story-line of The Corny Collins’ Show in Baltimorean John Water’s Hairspray  is based on Deane’s trailblazing music program.

Collections of memorabilia at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame spotlight items from such trendsetters as Motown and the English Invasion of the 1960s:Including the flip sides of the lovable/dangerous Rock and Roll coin, The Beatles and the Rolling Stones:

Other displays of pioneers from the Viet Nam – Civil Rights era of music include Jimi Hendrix and Led Zepplin:

New musical genres, like Punk and Rap, that challenge the status quo are well – represented at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. As to any controversy as to whether hip-hop should be included, Ice Cube best summed it up when N.W.A. was inducted in 2016:

“Now, the question is, are we rock and roll? And I say to you goddamn right we rock and roll. Rock and roll is not an instrument, rock and roll is not even a style of music. Rock and roll is a spirit. It’s a spirit. It’s been going since the blues, jazz, bebop, soul, R&B, rock and roll, heavy metal, punk rock and yes, hip-hop. And what connects us all is that spirit. That’s what connects us all, that spirit. Rock and roll is not conforming to the people who came before you, but creating your own path in music and in life.

“That is rock and roll, and that is us.

“So rock and roll is not conforming. Rock and roll is outside the box. And rock and roll is N.W.A. I want to thank everybody who helped induct us into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and I just want to tell the world, “Damn, that shit was dope.”

Tributes to the greats are located throughout the museum:

One of the most intriguing collections are the various stage costumes from Hall inductees:

2017 Hall of Fame inductees include: Joan Baez, Pearl Jam, Nile Rodgers, Tupac Shakur, Journey, and Electric Light Orchestra, and each artist or band currently has a featured exhibit running.

https://www.rockhall.com/2017-inductees-exhibit

Another cool exhibit features modern artists of every musical genre:Stage gear from Kesha, Bruno Mars, The Black Keys, & Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” outfit

Another current exhibit features artifacts from one particular long lost era including psychedelic concert posters, art, instruments, and the sound board Jimi Hendrix used that summer of 1967. 

A favorite part of our visit was the Rolling Stone Magazine’s 50th Anniversary exhibit. There is a recreation of the counter culture periodical’s early San Francisco office space, and displays of the beautiful art and photographs that have graced the magazine’s pages, along with important issues of the day Rolling Stone has addressed over the decades, as well as explorations into Rolling Stone’s impact on both the creators and consumers of pop culture, but the crowning glory is the massive cover gallery located way up there on the museum’s top floor. The cover of The Rolling Stone is a who’s who of the important touchstone personalities of each generation that has come along since in its inception.

Rolling Stone Magazine Cover Gallery:

As part of our visit to Cleveland, we caught one of the best rock concerts we’ve ever attended. 2015 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Green Day provided two+ hours of a massively entertaining high-energy sing-along-with-the-hits and how-about-dem-deep cuts show, plus a medley of covers that included Shout, Satisfaction, and Hey Jude. They pulled three fans  up on stage at different times, including a 13-year old guitar player named Noah, who owned his moment in the spotlight like a boss and got himself a signed guitar to prove it. One local newspaper review said the venue should either cancel all upcoming shows or just face the fact that the show of the year has already happened.

Any fan of Rock and Roll should take any opportunity ever offered to see Green Day live.

Most of the photos below are courtesy of the fan pics attached to The Cleveland Plain Dealer article about the Green Day Concert at Ohio’s Blossom Music Center on 08/21/17.

http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2017/08/green_day_delivers_whats_proba.html

Handwritten lyrics to Life’s Been Good by Joe Walsh at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame