Road Trip Continued...

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame & Museum was my favorite part of our weekend road trip. We visited it for the first time in 1997 and enjoyed it then. We’ve decided we’d like to go back every 5 years or so. Anyone who loves music should go although I wouldn’t bring children as there are some mature themes. I will avoid going on a Saturday in the future as it was quite crowded.

Let me get my one complaint out of the way and it’s a big one. You aren’t allowed to take pictures inside the museum. They say this is because

“Many of the artists who have generously loaned or donated artifacts to the Museum have stipulated that these items are not to be photographed or reproduced in any way.”

The more I think about this, the more I think it is bull. If Madonna is willing to put her cone shaped lingerie on display for all to see, does she really care if I have a picture of it? Isn’t it already well documented in photographs? If Pete Townsend cared so little for his guitar that he smashed it, does he really care if I snap a photo of the remaining pieces? I KNOW Jimi Hendrix doesn’t care if I take a photo of the Purple Haze lyrics he scratched out on a piece of scrap paper. If you don’t want your artifacts to be photographed, DON'T PUT THEM ON PUBLIC DISPLAY!!! Then again, I don’t exactly NEED a picture of a rare Beatles board game from the 1960’s. But I WANT a picture of the ZZ Top car. Whatever. There's probably photos of these things all over the web but their not my personal photographs, documenting my personal experience for my scrapbook. Grr!

The museum does a great job of telling the history of rock & roll and celebrating the present as well. I enjoyed seeing the artifacts but my favorite part was the films and interactive media. There was a great display about the history of MTV and the snippets of music videos brought back so many memories. The can’t miss attraction was a film that went through all of the inductees from 1986 to 2007. The film featured photographs & film clips along with a snippet of a song for each artist. I was overwhelmed by how much good music is out there. There’s some that I’ve never heard but I know I could love. There’s some that I know I love but do not own. I wanted to run out and buy some serious music. I entertained the thought of purchasing at least one song from each artist on iTunes. Of course I already have music from some of the artists like Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Stevie Wonder, Hank Williams, Roy Orbison, Queen and The Who but I’m sadly lacking some major artists such as the Beatles, U2, R.E.M., Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Elvis etc. Some of these must be worked into the budget. I will also need a bigger iPod.

There were special displays on The Warped Tour, The Clash & The Doors. The Doors are a favorite of Jason and I so that exhibit played a role in bringing us there. I left feeling so sad that Jim Morrison died so young. It would’ve been so interesting to see him mature and grow, both as a musician and a man.

The gift shop was really nice. Jason splurged on a t-shirt that lists every inductee on the back. They actually had some pricey rare collector items for sale such as a few strands of Paul McCartney’s hair and an original Yellow Submarine toy. We cannot recommend the cafeteria. It was overpriced and the food was poor quality.

The positives far outweighed the negatives and it’s a quality, unique place to visit. I'll definitely go again.

Hanging out, taking pictures OUTSIDE the museum. A variety of arsty guitars were on every corner in downtown Cleveland.