Hi everyone, welcome back!
Today, we went to a place in Cleveland renowned throughout the country, and the world. It is where legends are honored, culture is honed, and emotion is channeled.
I speak of course, of the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame!
Spanning five floors of exhibits, it is truly a memorial to all those who sought to bring their music to the world, and made an impact!
Let’s not waste any time, here we go!
Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame
As we approached the Hall of fame, it became apparent to us that this was a very refined facility.
Look at the size of this place! (And yes, that’s dad there).
No picture that we could take could fully get the scale of what we were seeing. The main room is massive.
This is from the top floor looking down. I know it isn’t as impressive, with the usual “curve” of the panoramic picture, but you can see most of the floors down there, including the front doors.
And here is a view of the Cafe! We ate Lunch here, where I had a Ham and Cheese Sandwich with Tomato Soup. Pure. Heaven.
Most of the exhibits were located on level 0, below the ground level. The majority of the pics we took come from there.
Cases like this represented the early days of “Rock n’ Roll”, known as “The Blues”, with stars like Johnny Otis, Big Joe Turner, Robert John, Howlin’ Wolf, and others. Their kind of music went past the presence of racism, and could unite both whites and blacks under the same tune. Music has that kind of magic doesn’t it?
Another similar case.
Even country singers got their start and influenced Rock N’ Roll, like Hank Williams (thats his suit on the left) and Bob Wills.
And who could forget the King of Rock himself, Elvis Presley? Other singers often took inspiration from black singers’ songs, and it was from here that Elvis became famous! His person is legendary, and even if you don’t like his music, you’d have to agree that he has a fantastic voice. The two pictures above are one of his guitars, and a golden suit he wore for his comeback in the 70’s.
Elvis wore this hat on a tour in Texas! Now who says that superstars can’t be connected?
Many of these names and items Ive either never heard of, or can’t remember (probably both). Still it’s a very impressive collection.
It’s neat to see several items from Motown (which we visited a few days ago), you can see Marvin Gaye on the TV, and some of the Supremes dresses.
Michael Jackson, regardless of your opinion, left a great impact on many of the youth of his time (Not including myself). Here is one of his stage outfits, and one of his trademark gloves on the left. We saw another pair at the Motown Museum.
The Supremes were some of the greatest female singer sensations in Rock N’ Roll, especially in the 50’s! They were Motown regulars. Perhaps the most well known song that comes to mind is, “Baby love”.
Then came one of my favorite exhibits… Ladies and Gentlemen… The Beatles!
I am a very big Beatle fan, having listened to their music since i was little!
That was only a couple of months after the Ed Sullivan Show! They work fast…
Imagine the melodies that came from this piano when John was at the helm… The Beatles were not only great musicians, but also big thinkers, hence the deep thought of some of their songs.
Jimi Hendrix has his special place here too. I’m not that familiar with him as an artist, but dad seemed fascinated about him (and everything else come to think of it)! He (Hendrix) had a colorful wardrobe.
A number of midwestern singers. As these were more recent though, we were less familiar with them.
There were a number of more modern bands that were a bit…well… “unique.” Let’s just say I have my limits when it comes to taste.
This year, among the newest inductees into the Hall of Fame was another one of my favorite bands, The Moody Blues! I didn’t get introduced to them as early as the Beatles, but their songs are some of my favorites too, such as “Question”, “Gemini Dream”, and “In your wildest dreams” (among others).
In the upper exhibits, we came across other notable bands and singers, including these outfits belonging to the Jackson Five. Of course, Michael Jackson was still a kid back then.
Heh, I loved Schoolhouse Rock. And yes, this does count, it’s songs were revolutionary.
Poor Eric Clapton used this guitar to pay tribute to his deceased son. A very poignant moment.
And here are outfits belonging to numerous individuals. The dress on the left belongs to Cher, the green suit is Sonny Bono’s, (and Cher’s former husband), and a suit of Johnny Cash.
Were we to explore every inch of the complex, we would probably take the whole day. Eventually however, we visited the gift shop (with dad getting a neat magnet), and departed.
Driving nearby Lake Erie (unfortunately we couldn’t get a good picture), we continued along Interstate 90, the longest interstate highway in the country (running from Seattle to Boston). Though the Garfield Home had closed, we decided to come back to it on our return round further in the trip. That certainly didn’t mean that we couldn’t scout out the place however!
So we went into Mentor, nearby Cleveland, and took a couple of pictures of Garfield’s Victorian Mansion (and yes, I’m still referring to the president, not the cat).
Garfield definitely had a well-based foundation here in Mentor.
I think this house is even bigger than Spiegel Grove! Well, we won’t know for sure for a couple of days.
We continued on our way to Buffalo, and before leaving Mentor, we found this street.
My dad suggested that maybe “Johnny Cake” was the brother of “Patty Cake”. Sigh..
We continued on our way on I-90, through Pennsylvania and into New York.
Now, we are currently in Buffalo! We’ve a good two days planned for this area, as well as Niagara Falls!
Tomorrow, we will likely head to the Falls first, and see what we can see. Then, depending on the time, we will see a number of other sites in Buffalo afterwards, including the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site, The grave of President Millard Fillmore at Forest Lawn Cemetery, and the McKinley Assassination marker. Nearby is Fillmore’s home in East Aurora, but again, we’ll probably play it by ear.
Only time will tell. See you then!
Mark's Historical Roadtrips! 