Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame

Well, I finally made my pilgrimage. After years of saying I wanted to go I finally made it to Cleveland to visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.

My review?

Well, it would have to be mixed. It was simultaneously over and underwhelming. Overwhelming because it is so large and there is so much stuff and underwhelming because it seemed, in large part, so haphazard. I believe a modern museum (those that have been around forever and have just grown willy nilly belong in a different category) should lead you, through their architecture and design and have a strong, clear statement to make.

The best example of this I have visited is the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis. The museum is built in the former Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated. The tour starts in the basement with the importation of blacks to this country-the visitor works their way up, through time and history, until you end at the room and balcony where King was killed. It is a thoughtful design that packs an emotional wallop.

Not so in Cleveland. There is one small (and easily missed-I didn't see it until I was doubling back for the bathroom) display on rock's forebears to start you off then your senses are overwhelmed with display after display packed full of stuff. And why I.M. Pei chose a pyramid design escapes me still, which points to a bit of a failure-if a design truly works it should seem to the visitor like there could be no other. Granted, the glass walls might have been nicer if it had not been so nasty smoggy when we were there. With little or no lake visibility all we saw was the trash that had collected right next to the dock-not so pretty.

To be fair I have to say it was a Saturday in August so it was very crowded which can obviously color your experience. Because of the crowd we did not go to see "Mystery Train", the audio-visual presentation, which may have added some structure to our visit.

The other issue interfering with our enjoyment were our fellow guests which I guess no museum can control. For every sweet moment we witnessed (like the dad attempting to explain 45s to his dubious son) there were at least double the number of scary ones ("Otis Redding? Who's that?"). As I said to my boyfriend as my disappointment grew there should be a way to CLEP out of Rock 101 so they could have a seperate musuem for true music fans.

Despite all these reservations there were some parts I really liked. The special Bob Dylan exhibit was stellar with loads of great video and photos. (One bonus to the pyramid structure is that the special exhibit ends up in its own special spot up high.) There were some great paper items that could be very eye opening like Tom Petty's first Pre-Heartbreakers contract which showed after sales of 740 units of his first record he owed the record company a grand total of $101,000. (As I've said here before that's the reason you have to go see people live-you have to buy the record so the label will want them to make another but you have to go see the show because that's how they make their nut.) And of course some of the items (the fuselage from the Otis Redding crash, the bass guitar smashed on the front of The Clash's "London Calling") spoke volumes even in the midst of chaos.

To those who would say what could represent this particular art form better than a crowded, loud, overstimulating space I say maybe, if it was intentional. My advice would be to skip it and use the money you would have spent buying some CDs from the artists contained in it that you don't already have in your collection. What could be more rock and roll than that?