The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

June 1, 2015

This Oracle was still a teenager when the location of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was up for grabs.  Detroit was a top contender and I still believe it should have ended up there.  Having fueled at least two genres of rock/pop music by that time (Motown in the late 60’s and guitar rock in the 70’s), it would only make more sense today considering the region’s contributions to alternative and rap.  But hey, like so many other fumbles of that time, Detroit dropped that ball and Cleveland picked it up and ran with it.  Another sigh, an oh well, and then getting over it and moving on.  It’s really all about the music anyway.

Thankfully, less than a three hour drive from Metro Detroit, in Cleveland and on the shore of Lake Erie, stands the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  If you’ve ever found yourself getting sucked into a cable documentary about a rock band, or even just found yourself feeling nostalgic about the music of your youth, it’s time to make a trip to Cleveland.  Your curiosity won’t be disappointed.  And no doubt some long forgotten emotions will stir again as you are surrounded by the sounds, fashions, and memorabilia of moments that fixed our lives at the time, but now seemingly slid away in a blur.  That first girlfriend or boyfriend, your first beer, or the music that was playing that one time when you and your friends ditched the cops; it’s all waiting for you to take a day trip from Detroit to Cleveland.

As you enter the great glass pyramid that is the Hall of Fame your senses need to adjust to the various oddities hanging around you from the ceiling.  The specific items may vary depending on when you visit, but don’t be surprised to find a giant hot dog, small cars, and anything else that might have been part of a stage show at one time but now requires a large volume of space for display.  Not surprisingly, these things tend to be very colorful and they contrast well against the modern white superstructure and glass building enveloping them.  In this way the contemporary architecture of the Hall of Fame has so far guaranteed that it itself stays ahead of the collection it houses, and it doesn’t compete with the styles encapsulated by the bands and the music that are featured there.

As with the birth of most bands themselves, your journey begins in the basement.  And as you look around at the collection it’s only fitting as you wonder who’s basement many of the artifacts were pulled from.  Genres are generally broken into separated areas, and in some cases further broken up by geography.  You will also quickly realize that Rock and Roll is really a catch all for “popular” music, and all of the music that has influenced it.  So your journey begins with displays of country, blues, and even gospel as you’re led into the early days of rock, including of course the King, Elvis himself.  In a nice historic touch there are listening stations where you can here recorded statements from more contemporary band members giving homage to their early influencers.

Now pass through the “Happy Days” of the 50’s and into the turbulence of the 60’s.  This is where things start to get interesting for the Oracle.  Ah Motown, and the guitar

bands of the 70’s.  Want to see the hand written lyrics of Joe Walsh’s Life’s Been Good?  You’ve come to the right place.  Then there’s CBGB and Punk, the California Sound and Haight Ashbury, the British Invasion.  The 80’s are represented as well and make me wonder, “what were we thinking?”  No, really, what were we thinking?  Grunge of the 90’s, and less directly what I like to call the second coming of Punk, and of course Alternative.  Hip Hop, Rap, and Disco; as you walk through it all you might be surprised how closely it seems to tie together, in spite of having been separated by time and geographic space when it was popular and on the radio.

In many ways the basement of the Hall of Fame is where it’s at.  Again, the Hall of Fame is shaped like a pyramid so this is the largest floor of the building.  But as you move upstairs it doesn’t get any less interesting.  There will always be a special exhibit going on, and there is the hall of inductees with a looping video showing clips from the artists acceptance speeches and outtakes of performances.  It’s all been produced to elicit maximum emotional recall and let’s say if you’re over 30 be prepared, you will experience a “life flash before your eyes” moment.  There are displays dedicated to the disc jockeys who delivered the music to the masses, and even one celebrating the technology that has made it all possible.  The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is wonderful articulation of the history of the art, and I doubt anything has been left out.

I have visited the Hall of Fame three times and have had another unique experience every time.  Although I was just a toddler at the time of Woodstock, and not a participant in any form in the social-political changes of that era, I have always felt the emotion of it.  And that fact has made me aware of one magical quality of music.  I find that more than any other art form, Rock and Roll seems to capture the social conscious of its time.  It’s more than the lyrics or the guitar chords.  Something deeper runs through this music and while walking through the Hall of Fame one can actually feel America’s collective social conscious ebbing and flowing with the cultural changes and challenges of the times.

As I step back and look at the large walls of memorabilia from bands of a given era, I contemplate two scenarios.  Either there are a thousand bands at any moment all playing randomly different types of music and the successful ones are just the ones that hit it right.  Or that at a more spiritual level bands form and channel the emotions of their generation, capturing it forever in a three and a half minute melodic statement.  Every time I ask myself this question I come to the second conclusion.  Visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  Take your time walking through and think about it.  I can’t be certain, but how you feel about it might surprise you.

- Uncertain Oracle