I always thought the RRHOF was a museum with exhibits talking about the segments of rock 'n roll history and its various changes over time. Even exhibits showcasing a particular band or musician how they add to the extensive history of rock 'n roll.

 

But, instead I'm finding out that the museum seems to more about -- "This the outfit the Beatles wore during the making of Yellow Submarine" or something like that. Its a showcase of outfits and memorabilia only. It doesn't use the memorabilia as a side piece to an exhibit showcasing whoever singer, band, etc.

 

 

I disagree, having visited the rock hall several times, I think one of the main thing that most visitors miss is that they don't treat it like you would any other museum, and instead walk by a lot of the important/relevant info such as you describe above, lighting on stuff like the outfit from yellow submarine.  Yes, they do have some of that memorabilia in there, as would any museum, but they definitely cover the history of rock and roll, how it was formed, early pioneers, legendary moments from concerts like Monterey Pop, concert for Bangladesh to Frank Zappa battling the PMRC, etc.  They cover rock from it's inception and roots to the present day.

 

I think most people just don't READ what's in the museum, they just look at the pictures.  I remember reading in the Rolling Stone magazine exhibit a letter from Charles Manson that he wrote to Jann Wenner after they had him on the cover, for example, along with the famous Yoko & John picture, correspondence between Jann and Hunter S. Thompson, etc.  I remember reading a letter in the Rolling Stones' exhibit window from a 13-year-old schoolchild saying how everyone in the US hated their band and they should go back to England because they were never going to be successful here, with their stupid clothes and hair; I spotted a picture of a very young Bill Graham on the inside of one of their guitar cases on a recent trip through the hall.  It's not just about memorabilia, though there is that.  If you watch the movies, listen to all the things that are available to listen to and read what accompanies the memorabilia, they definitely tell that story.  I just think that a lot of people don't take the time to do that.  And if you just walk through it and look at people's costumes and set pieces, it comes off as a giant Hard Rock Cafe.  JMO of course.

 

"And if you just walk through it and look at people's costumes and set pieces, it comes off as a giant Hard Rock Cafe."

 

In some cases, sure - but they have Madonna's bustier from her 'Blonde Ambition' tour. As a gay man (who at age 35, remembers her first world premiere video on MTV when they used to have music), that iconic piece alone makes a pilgrimage to the Rock Hall completely worth it. :-)

"And if you just walk through it and look at people's costumes and set pieces, it comes off as a giant Hard Rock Cafe."

 

In some cases, sure - but they have Madonna's bustier from her 'Blonde Ambition' tour. As a gay man, that iconic piece alone makes a pilgrimage to the Rock Hall completely worth it. :-)

 

hee.  and my getting the option to see clothing actually worn by Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix offered the same iconic experience. :)

The clothing section was amazing. For me, even greater than the Madonna wear, was Jim Morrison's cub scout uniform. That's classic.

They're out! Bring on the 80's!!!

 

Madonna, Beastie Boys, Mellencamp lead rock hall nominees

9/28/2007, 12:09 p.m. EDT

The Associated Press

 

NEW YORK (AP) — Here's something Madonna can really celebrate: a nomination to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

 

Madge joins heartland rocker John Mellencamp, the puckish rappers Beastie Boys and premier dance acts Donna Summer and Chic among the nine nominees for the hall. The five leading vote-getters will be inducted in the annual ceremony March 10, at New York's Waldorf Astoria Hotel. The hall is in Cleveland.

 

...

 

Anyone questioning Madonna's contributions/worthiness will be permanently banned, drawn and quartered, and spayed/neutered via a rusty serrated knife.

 

I hope I make myself perfectly clear.

 

Let me tell you about Ms. Madonna...........................

Anyone questioning Madonna's contributions/worthiness will be permanently banned, drawn and quartered, and spayed/neutered via a rusty serrated knife.

 

I hope I make myself perfectly clear.

 

Did you say Drawn and Quartered? 

 

 

 

 

 

Over at blabbermouth.net everyone's bitching up a storm about Metallica not getting nominated even though they're not eligible until next year. Somebody pointed that out but they didn't seem to notice.

Fox:

 

Rolling Stone Magazine Hits a Sour Note With Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Nominees (Like Madonna)

Monday , October 01, 2007

By Roger Friedman

 

To anyone who’s still reading or buying Rolling Stone: It’s time to boycott Jann Wenner’s flagship magazine.

 

I’ve never participated in a boycott — not of lettuce or grapes or anything else. But enough is enough.

 

After the announcement late Friday of the nominees’ ballot for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, there’s only thing to do: Hit publisher Wenner, who controls the Rock Hall, where it hurts.

 

...

 

Honestly, I have to agree with a lot of that.

^ Interesting I got a free year of RS with my membership to the rock hall.

If things keep going this way, just wait until the '90s acts can get in. Nirvana and Radiohead will be the only rock bands and the rest will be poppy rap and  other pop garbage like Spice Girls, Boys II Men and the guys who wrote the Macarena.

who wouldn't declare a rrhof instant nomination to anyone who put out cookie puss?

hell imo they got in right there --- straight from the get go.  :mrgreen: 

 

 

yeah man & doff your kangol to perfect beat planet rocker ab too!

 

mrnyc....sometimes you scare me.  8-)

well i figured you and mayday had lucky star and the madonna-wannabe craze covered so....  :laugh:

 

it's just nice to see that at last my day is starting to get rrhof notice -- of course per that article linked above the boomers are predictably slagging it, but thats ok i'm used to that, their influence and loud voice is fading out fast.

 

now when public enemy, new order, eric b & rakim, schoolly d, lee scratch perry and the replacements get in i'll be satisified that the rhof did right by the 80's. not holding my breath tho!

well i figured you and mayday had lucky star and the madonna-wannabe craze covered so....  :laugh:

 

it's just nice to see that at last my day is starting to get rrhof notice -- of course per that article linked above the boomers are predictably slagging it, but thats ok i'm used to that, their influence and loud voice is fading out fast.

 

now when public enemy, new order, eric b & rakim, schoolly d, lee scratch perry and the replacements get in i'll be satisified that the rhof did right by the 80's. not holding my breath tho!

 

I hate madge!  So she wins no brownie points with me.  'nuff said!

never got into the groove eh?

never got into the groove eh?

 

If you add "Ms. Thang" +  "Sacha" +  "Jonas" stir in being shot at on a Los Angeles street at 3 AM = MTS being called an "Uptight Controlling Angry Bitch!"

 

then, no, I didn't get into the groove.

Shortly after Cleveland was awarded the Rock Hall, this large billboard was erected near the East Shoreway. (mid 1980's)

 

Rock Hall, Tri-C Center set to roll

By SHANNON MORTLAND

4:30 am, October 22, 2007

 

 

Cuyahoga Community College and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum this Thursday, Oct. 25, will break ground for the $35 million Center for Creative Arts on Tri-C’s downtown campus.

 

The 75,000-square-foot building, which will have a glass triangle that will mirror the Rock Hall’s structural design, will include a rock ’n’ roll library and archives.

 

It also will house various music, dance and theater programs and Tri-C Jazz Fest Cleveland.

Center for Creative Arts planned for Tri-C Metro Campus is a disappointment

Posted by Plain Dealer Architecture Critic Steven Litt

November 02, 2007 17:24PM

 

Astonishing. That's the only word to describe plans for the Center for Creative Arts at Cuyahoga Community College, a $35 million project for which the college broke ground last week -- but for which it didn't receive city planning approval until Friday morning.

 

The building, designed by the Cleveland firm of Robert P. Madison International, is one of the weaker efforts I've seen in my 16 years as architecture critic of The Plain Dealer.

 

More at cleveland.com http://www.cleveland.com

 

I wholeheartedly agree with Litt on this one. Man. What a typical, institutional offering from Tri-C. Especially since it's working in conjunction with the Rock Hall, I would've expected something so much more interesting than this. What a piece of boring design.

^Definitely.  This sounds like a pretty big blown opportunity- both the crap design and the location.

Ugh.  Horrible.

... you ain't got no al-i-bi.

 

Still a $35 million capital campaign. I was kind of hoping that financial shortfalls were the reason they had hacked the original design (which was still pretty damn ugly, imo). But no ... apparently, money was not the reason for building this monstrosity.

 

Perhaps most importantly, that building looks horribly diswelcoming to the public, which is a real shame ... this was an opportunity (and still is, I suppose) for Tri-C to really increase joe-schmo traffic and raise the visibility of their campus.

 

^I'd preferred decreasing the visibility of the heinous Tri-C and building this thing downtown somewhere.  This sounds like the kind of thing rock nerds/writers/historians might be visiting.  Can't imagine a way to show them a worse time then to send them to this new piece of junk.

Any serious Black Sabbath fans reading this post are surely aware that Toni Iommi briefly played in Jethro Tull before Sabbath got started.  It's actually pretty cool to see him playing a different style, and in no less of an appearance than the Rolling Stones Rock 'n' Roll Circus:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIbI6Yl8J_U

 

 

But you definitely see the influence in The Wizard from the first Black Sabbath record, one of my favorite songs of all time!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIC_7si4ims

 

 

When I went to OU there was a bar that used to play this record straight through almost nightly.  The whole place would go nuts for "Black Sabbath" and "The Wizard" but then predictably almost riot when the CD would skip in the third song!

 

 

 

Any serious Black Sabbath fans reading this post are surely aware that Toni Iommi briefly played in Jethro Tull before Sabbath got started.  It's actually pretty cool to see him playing a different style, and in no less of an appearance than the Rolling Stones Rock 'n' Roll Circus:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIbI6Yl8J_U

 

 

But you definitely see the influence in The Wizard from the first Black Sabbath record, one of my favorite songs of all time!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIC_7si4ims

 

 

When I went to OU there was a bar that used to play this record straight through almost nightly.  The whole place would go nuts for "Black Sabbath" and "The Wizard" but then predictably almost riot when the CD would skip in the third song!

 

The average Black Sabbath fan has a coronary when they see Rock 'N Roll Circus for the first time. It usually goes like this "Is that really Iommi? I can't tell because of the hat. Iommi never wears hats! That guy's playing a Strat, too. That can't be Iommi; he only plays SGs. It doesn't sound like Iommi [iommi didn't play on the recording, he's just miming for the camera]. Wait a second, that really IS Iommi!! Gimmie a minute, heart attack."

 

What is this bar you speak of?

Also, the most hardcore Sabbath fans would know that Iommi didn't play with Jethro Tull before Sabbath started, but instead took a break from Earth/Black Sabbath which had been a band for two years at that point.

Yeah we're clearly hearing a slide guitar but there's obviously no slide on his finger.  It still does sound like his style a bit even if that's not him playing on the recording. 

 

I'm talking about The Union in Athens.  This CD would come on and everyone knew that terrible skip was coming right before "NIB" and there'd be a collective boo from the whole place.  It was great because everyone knew where that one cow bell hit was in "The Wizard".  Recently I heard "NIB" wafting out of a bar in Cincinnati, it's always exciting to hear that stuff in public because it's so rare. 

 

Rock & Roll Circus is a great program in my opinion, it's totally unpretentious and everyone looks like they're having a good time.  There's some footage where John Lennon looks high as a kite, he's totally geeking out dancing to I think Jumpin' Jack Flash.   

 

 

Thanks for posting that!  I am a big Sabbath fan, and knew about Iommi's stint in Tull, but had never seen the footage.  Iommi looks odd with the Strat (Iommi switched to the SG when his pickup blew on that guitar) and the big white hat covering his head, but otherwise he's all dressed in black of course.  I found it interesting that the camera almost seemed to avoid any close up of him, though everyone else got close ups. If it isn't him on the recording, do we know who it is?

Well those 1960's strats feel and sound a lot different than new ones so it's okay in my camp.  If I had a spare $2K I'd probably get one.  I hate the sound of newer ones and the neck feels totally different.  I have an SG and a Marshall tube amp, it's a furiously loud but very rich combination and I don't even have any effects pedals.  When you get quality stuff it sounds good with anything.  All these clowns out there with the digital 999 effects pedals gimmicky amps sound ridiculous.     

 

Somebody finally posted clips from the banned Rolling Stones documentary Cocksucker Blues:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INNeuD2AQQA

 

Some killer live footage of the band.  But I'm still waiting for someone to post the last 5 minutes of that movie, where the band played an incredible version of "Midnight Rambler" with Mick in a cape falling down on stage during the breakdown section.  Then a narrator comes out of nowhere, reads the first verse of "Brown Sugar" matter-of-factly, and the movie ends.  The whole thing starts with the band playing that song then cuts to shots of a horde of white British girls going nuts for the band out in a parking lot.  When I get tenure I'm going to make my students watch this film!     

 

This past week I was playing Polk Salad Annie off my my Elvis: Live in Las Vegas disc and some 18 year-old was telling me that "they can do this all on a computer now".  Yeah, so apparently now computers can generate backup singers, a full horn section, an audience clapping along...

 

 

 

Another killer classic Rolling Stones cut:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgqogVTN1PM

 

For some reason the sound always seems to suck on live Rolling Stones recordings and/or the band is messing up left and right.  The album version of this song of course is fantastic but it remains a relatively obscure song, I don't think I've ever heard it on the radio although in other cities this might be played more commonly. 

 

 

And it's time for a great James Brown clip:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPyaF7_iUTA

 

Apparently that's Bootsy Collins on bass, he looks about 17.  The band's killing it, I'd of liked to see some shots of the French audience.  Between rap, emo, etc., we've experienced a total musical meltdown here in the US.  To think these clips of James Brown and the Rolling Stones are almost from the same year, you can't even hear this stuff anymore live. 

 

Why the Pope is right to purge modern music

By Damian Thompson

Last Updated: 2:29am GMT 21/11/2007

 

For decades, the standard of singing in St Peter's basilica has struggled to match that of a Gilbert and Sullivan society.

 

Church music in Italy is generally atrocious, and the Vatican is no exception.

 

Since he arrived in Rome nearly 30 years ago, the music-loving Joseph Ratzinger has had to endure the sub-operatic warbling of bad 20th-century music. Now he has had enough.

 

...

 

The next generation of choir directors have been charged by the Pope with the task of reintroducing beautiful music into church. If they succeed, then at long last the pews may begin to fill up again.

That was the plot to "WKRP in Cincinnati".  Carlson brought in Andy Travis who hired Venus Flytrap and Johnny Fever to spin rock-and-roll.  Carlson's mother, the station owner, was skeptical about them replacing the format of "beautiful music".

 

I can just hear the Henry Mancini Orchestra.  Lawrence Welk.

^If you've ever wondered why American Catholics can't sing to save their lives, look no further than the Irish.  They've dominated the leadership American Catholic Church from it's foundings up to the present day.  Since the Catholic Church in Ireland was oppressed by the Protestant Anglo-Irish ascendancy, masses there were typically held without music, and those traditions were brought with them to the States.  Later Catholic arrivals (certainly Germans and Italians) had rich musical traditions, and this probably played no small part in the tradition of ethnic parish congregations in the U.S.  It would be interesting to look at some of the traditionally ethnic parish churches in Cincinnati and see if there is a noticeable difference in their designs for incorporating music (traditional German parishes- Old St. Mary's, Immaculata, St. Rose; traditional Irish parishes- St. Peter's in Chains, Holy Cross [in Mt. Adams]).

I would rather their be no music than bad music in any situation, church or otherwise.  The post Vatican II songs are individually and collectively an impotent peripateticism.  Folksy at best and nursery-rhymey at worst.  The larger issue is that the Vatican II changes made all aspects of the Catholic Mass less serious (English instead of Latin, childish music, token audience participation, new suburban churches made of cheap materials) and it no doubt contributed to subsequent generations taking the religious services and religion in general less seriously. 

 

The various Southern churches all wrote their own music basically from scratch instead of sticking to stuff written by Europeans in the 1700's and ealier.  Different rhythms, different scales and chords, different instrumentation, different vocal approaches, different lyrical themes.  Since virtually all pop music nationwide in the recording era was descendent of southern religious music, there wasn't the same rift between popular and church music for that crowd as existed then and now for Catholics.  So that meant everyone who sang and played in church once or twice a week growing up in southern churches got regular practice in a type of music that translated easily over to what was happening in R&B, rock, etc.  That's all changed in the last 20 years thanks to the destruction of the Great American Songbook by rap, the boy bands, etc.     

 

 

 

cnn:

 

Madonna leads list of Rock Hall inductees

 

CLEVELAND, Ohio (AP)  -- The Material Girl is about to become a Hall of Famer.

 

The ever-evolving Madonna was announced as a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee on Thursday along with John Mellencamp, The Ventures, Leonard Cohen and The Dave Clark Five.

 

...

 

Normally they don't release the winners until the ceremony, but Johnny Cougar let the cat out of the bag at a show.

Stay tuned 'til 1:15...

 

'Major announcement' coming on Rock Hall

Posted by Henry Gomez December 19, 2007 09:12AM

Categories: Top Story

 

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson will hold a news conference at 1:15 this afternoon to "make major announcements" regarding the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame & Museum.

Well, we will find out in an hour, but the cerimonies are scheduled for the Waldorf-Astoria in March. 

Maybe it is a concert

Hmmmm.... I wonder what this could possibly be?

Hopefully it's good news.

Hmmmm.... I wonder what this could possibly be?

 

My spidey sense tells me that you have an idea...

An advisory sent this morning says they will discuss the 2009 Rock Hall induction ceremony.

 

or....

Hmmmm.... I wonder what this could possibly be?

 

My spidey sense tells me that you have an idea...

 

I can neither confirm nor deny.

 

An advisory sent this morning says they will discuss the 2009 Rock Hall induction ceremony.

 

or....

 

That's what it is!

Hmmmm.... I wonder what this could possibly be?

 

My spidey sense tells me that you have an idea...

 

Does your spidey sense know when I'm gonna find a job?

 

 

WKYC:

 

NEW: 2009 Rock Hall Induction Ceremony to be held in Cleveland

Created: 12/19/2007 11:50:43 AM

Updated:12/19/2007 1:26:27 PM

 

CLEVELAND (AP) -- Cleveland will be rocking in early 2009 when the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony returns for the first time in more than a decade.

 

The announcement has been made by Mayor Frank Jackson, joined by officials from the hall.

 

...

 

From the Mayor's Office:

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 19, 2007

 

Cleveland Mayor Frank G. Jackson partners with Rock Hall to hold 2009 Inductions in Cleveland Induction ceremony and other major initiatives support Rock Hall’s mission

 

CLEVELAND – Cleveland Mayor Frank G. Jackson, City Council President Martin Sweeney, Joel Peresman, President and CEO of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation and Terry Stewart, President and CEO of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, were joined by Rock Hall Board Members to announce today that the 2009 Rock Hall Inductions would be held in Cleveland in March 2009, with the option of bringing them back to the City every three years. In addition, the Rock Hall announced additional measures designed to support its mission and capital campaign ...

 

... More at http://www.city.cleveland.oh.us/pdf/press/20071219366.pdf

Long overdue...