The first thing you notice is the building is shaped like a pyramid. I'm not sure why that is the case, but as I started at the bottom and worked my way up I got increasingly excited at the thought the top room was going to be very small and pointed and perhaps where the museum kept its greatest artifact. Turned out neither of those thing happened, as the top floors are actually behind the point of the pyramid. Also, they were filled with Rollings Stones memorabilia and as a Beatles guy I was less than impressed.
Before you even get inside you are greeted by the famous hot rod from the ZZ Top videos. Sadly, the hot girls from that same video were no where to be found.
The exhibits go one of two ways - first they go by time and then they go by city. That is probably why we start in the early days of rock and roll with Johnny Cash's guitar. Now, as much as I love the Man in Black I always thought of him more as country or blues, so I am not totally sure he belongs in this Hall of Fame, especially when you remember country music has its own Hall of fame in Nashville. It's little like Christian Laettner getting into the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield just because he was on the Dream Team - the college basketball Hall of Fame in Kansas City is probably recognition enough.
As you would expect, there was a lot of Elvis memorabilia. They had everything from Elvis' honorary police badges to the receipt for the gate to Graceland. Honestly, I am little worried Elvis may have been a hoarder and it makes me think of just how crazy the Graceland museum must be if that were true. However, they had nothing from Fat Elvis, only skinny Elvis. I feel like this only tells half the story.
Here we have one of Stevie Wonder's old jackets. Alright, I'll be the one who says it - God, you must be blind if you think that looks good.
At first you may think this is one of the mu-mus Stevie currently wears but it is actually a dress from Mama Cass of the Mamas and the Papas. No sign of the alleged sandwich which was her downfall. (And if you think I'm being morbid, another display contained wreckage recovered when Otis Redding's plane crashed. Clearly the Hall will take anything they think is important.)
There was a whole section devoted to U2, but this was the only thing I cared about in there - the jacket Bono was wearing during the Super Bowl 36 halftime show (also known as the Patriots' first championship). Since I knew I wouldn't have time to get down to the Football Hall of Fame this was as close as I could get.
One section of the Hall featured mannequins wearing some of the more famous outfits donated to the museum. This is a Steven Tyler outfit. As you would expect, he is not a very big dude. And right now some grandmother in Boca Raton is wondering where she can find this in her size because she has a canasta tournament coming up this weekend.
One of the cooler artifacts the Hall had were many pieced of paper reportedly with the original lyrics to some of the most famous songs in history written on them. Here are the lyrics to "Purple Haze" and I decided to show you these because if this is Jimi's handwriting it shows he took a few tries to get the lyrics right. And this is where I had to call bullshit, because too many of the lyrics were cleanly written out. I simply have a hard time believing that many artists got the lyrics right the first time. I have re-written this paragraph twice while sitting here and yet I'm supposed to believe Brian Wilson nailed "God Only Knows" on the first try?
The Seattle section of the Hall was surprisingly full, because while I remember grunge and the influence on the music industry, you forget just how many bands came out of that small area of the country in one big wave. Still, I wonder how many of the bands which had items on display will never be inducted themselves. Here's is Kurt Cobain's guitar, probably the most important piece in the whole city exhibit.
Original Metallica bassist Cliff Burton's bass. As you would expect I took a ton of pictures of the Metallica memorabilia, but we'll just show you this one to keep things moving.
For some reason The Doors display was all about Jim Morrison, full of random things like his Cub Scout uniform and some award he won as a kid. These are his high school and college diplomas. Apparently he was the only interesting thing about the band.
This is Janis Joplin's Porsche. The fact this wasn't a Mercedes Benz shows someone in their marketing department seriously dropped the ball on that one.
As you would expect, the Hall had a lot of Beatles memorabilia. This is John Lennon's suit and guitar. As you can see by the reflection in the glass the other half of the room was full of Rolling Stones items. I stuck to the Beatles side of the room or, as I like to call it, the correct side.
At first the rumor was that there was no photography allowed anywhere in the Hall of Fame. Later I would learn it was just no flash photography, but even that was a pretty relaxed rule. In fact the only time I saw anyone get scolded was when a guy took a picture of Michael Jackson's famous sparkling glove. However, at that time three guys appeared to reprimand the photographer. Apparently, they have decided this is the most important thing they have.
So, one of the last exhibits you see is a hall of signatures of all the previous inductees. Between no flash photography and the fact the hallway is backlit it was hard to get a good picture. In fact, none of them came out very well. That is why I wasn't going to show you any of those pictures, expect for one small factor. The picture above is Guns N' Roses autographs. Is it just me, or are those way too many signatures? The original line-up was five members and yet somehow I count seven autographs. Does this mean the "Chinese Democracy"-era members are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, despite the fact that album nearly kept Guns out of the Hall? That would be like giving every extra in "Argo" an Oscar. Just being part of an already-great outfit doesn't automatically make you great as well.
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