Rock N' Roll Road Trip

Summer of 2009, I embarked upon a very exciting road trip with some of my good friends, where one of our stops was Cleveland and our main objective was to see The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

I’ll start with my highs and lows of this experience: With the recent passing of Michael Jackson I was anticipating a ridiculous amount of space set up in some over the top display with dozens of weeping people all around it dropping off flowers, drawings and teddy bears dressed in black hats and white sequined gloves. Luckily this was not the case. There was a tasteful display set up near the entrance that told the story of his life, and also in the lobby was a small area set up for people to drop off tributes. My low was that the Johnny Cash bus was closed, probably due to the weather. We had all been looking forward to that, so we made the best of it and took tons of photos of each other standing in front of it.

The museum takes you through the history of music starting with its roots: gospel, blues, rhythm and blues, country, bluegrass and folk. Some great quotes from this era of music and its artists are:

“The Blues? It’s the mother of American music. That’s what it is- the source” BB King

“The Blues had a baby, and they called it rock and roll.” Muddy Waters

Then you start to see all these really cool display cases and set-ups with Johnny Cash’s shoes, Elvis Presley’s clothes, and original release vinyl’s of Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis etc and you think this is this the coolest thing on earth, but then you turn the corner and there’s Elvis’s car, or a huge Beatles display with pieces of paper with John Lennon’s handwriting on it. Pictures drawn by Jimi Hendrix as a child are hanging on the wall. I can’t describe my feelings as I walked through aisles of clothes and thought to myself, “Yep I recognize that” Amongst hundreds of costumes there’s David Bowie’s clown costume, the Beatles’ collarless Jackets, and the beautiful dresses that The Supremes wore. I had to keep reminding myself to close my mouth as I found myself walking around with my jaw dropped. In the end, I just covered my mouth with the map so people couldn’t see. The guitars were really cool as so many of them were custom made, or they were the artist’s first guitar. I saw something from all eras and all music that has been born from Rock and Roll all the way up to present time, including a pair of boots from the band Mushroomhead. My favourite display was the Sex Pistols, Ramones, The Damned, Siouxie and the Banshees, Patti Smith and New York Dolls one. That won’t surprise anyone who knows me. But I was also very moved by Jim Morrison’s wall, I don’t want to explain why, you need to go yourselves.

Anyone who loves music really must go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It will be different for everyone that goes, but you’ll enjoy it! You can’t get that experience from looking at photos on the Internet. And if you need to eat while there, I recommend a Cajun Blues themed restaurant and bar called Fat Fish Blue. The food and the entertainment were absolutely amazing, and seemed quite an appropriate way to end the day.

By Lissy MacMillan