Cleveland Rocks!!

05/16/2022 – 05/21/2022

The Journey West 2022 – Leg 4

Turning Lemons into Lemonade

One of our favorite sayings is “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade!” That is exactly what we did this week. You see, originally our journey was going to continue up into the mitten of Michigan so we could check out Sleeping Bear Dunes and Traverse City. However, a monkey wrench was thrown our way. Bill’s work needed him to be physically on a job site.

Before we started the full-time RV adventure, we talked about the possibility of him having to travel to a job site and what that would mean for me. Would I stay with the rig at an RV park… by myself? Would I go with him? And if I went, what would we do with Kona? So, we tabled the discussion and decided to cross that bridge if and when it happened. And here we are…

Luckily, for us, the answer was simple. The job was in Cleveland and we were in Michigan. That is an easy one-day drive. Problem solved. I just needed to cancel the reservation in Traverse City, make some minor tweaks to a couple of stops up in the U.P. and find a place to stay around Cleveland. An hour later everything was taken care of and we are going to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!! (This is the lemonade 😉)

THE Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

This has been on our radar for quite some time and FINALLY we get to check the box. Now the first question that comes to my mind is, why Cleveland? Why is the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland? It doesn’t make any sense. Rock and Roll did not originate here. There are no major recording studios here. The Country Music Hall of Fame is in Nashville, that makes sense. So why isn’t the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in New York or LA or Memphis (Elvis, King of Rock and Roll)?? Off to the Googles I go and can find no real answer. It seems basically, Cleveland lobbied the hardest for it. Whatever the reason, I am so happy to be here, at last.

We arrived a little late in the day and had about 3 hours to explore 5 levels of rock history. Can it be done? Yes, but not adequately. Another 1-2 hours would have been nice. An article I read advised starting on the 5^th level and working backwards to level 0. This is what we did.

  Level 5 – Legends of Rock

This is where I found Bon Jovi’s display which included a long leather coat Jon wore on the photo shoot for the album, New Jersey. He said it was an attempt to shift focus from his appearance. LOL, sorry Jon ain’t gonna happen. I’ve been fortunate to see Bon Jovi in concert two times. I had tickets for the summer of 2020 but…covid happened ☹

Also on this level were displays from a number of various genres of rock and roll from Stevie Nicks to Nirvana to Jethro Tull to Tina Turner as well as one of my favorite artists from the 80’s, Michael Jackson. Say what you want about the man, but I choose to believe what I believe. I would rush home every day after school to watch the “Thriller” video on MTV. Remember when MTV used to play actual music? I do and I wish they would again. Anyway, I digress. On display was the jacket he wore in the video. Also on display were his aviator sunglasses, jacket he wore during the recording of “We Are The World” and one of the eight Grammy’s he won in 1984 for the album “Thriller”. Pretty cool!

  Level 4 – Featured Inductees

The featured inductees on our visit were Prince and Pink Floyd. They only had one guitar for Prince. Really? That’s it?

 A portion of Pink Floyd’s The Wall was replicated with a personal message from Roger Waters,

“In the old days, pre–Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd played to audiences which, by virtue of their size, allowed an intimacy of connection that was magical. However, success overtook us and by 1977 we were playing in football stadiums. The magic crushed beneath the weight of numbers, we were becoming addicted to the trappings of popularity. I found myself increasingly alienated in that atmosphere of avarice and ego until one night in the Olympic Stadium, Montreal, the boil of my frustrations burst. Some crazed teenage fan was clawing his way up the storm netting that separated us from the human cattle pen in front of the stage screaming his devotion to the “demi-gods” beyond his reach. Incensed by his misunderstanding-and my own connivance I spat my frustration in his face.

Later that night, back at the hotel, shocked by my behavior, I was faced with a choice. To deny my addiction and embrace that “Comfortably Numb” but magicless existence or accept the burden of insight. Take the road less travelled and embark on the often painful journey to discover who I was and where I fit. The Wall was the picture I drew for myself to help me make that choice, Roger Waters, Summer 1995”

In 2012, Bill and I were fortunate to see Roger Waters perform “The Wall” in Portland. It was an amazing show and remains in our top 5 concerts.

  Level 3 – The Hall of Fame

How does an artist get into the hall of fame anyway? The artist can only become eligible for induction 25 years AFTER the release of their first commercial recording. (This explains why it took so long for Bon Jovi to be inducted 😉) They are artists that have had the greatest impact in rock and roll and reflect their ability to innovate, inspire and evolve rock for generations to come. The voting committee consists of artists, historians and music industry professionals.

On this level, you must watch the Power of Rock Experience, a 15 minute montage of performances of inductees at their induction ceremony. Fantastic walk thru all the inductions since 1986. They end with one of the best performances by inductees (in my opinion). A tribute to George Harrison. Prince showcases his raw talent and it just leaves you going, Wow! Click here to see the R&R Hall of Fame youtube video.

After the video, take a walk through the Hall of Fame Gallery, which showcases gear and clothes and other memorabilia from the current year’s inductees. The big ones from 2021 are the Foo Fighters, The Go-Go’s and Tina Turner, as a solo artist. Man, Tina had to wait a long time for this honor.

Then walk thru the Signature Gallery. All inductees are memorialized by year with a plaque that includes the names of all the members of the band with their signatures. If you would like to see the inductee ceremony of your favorite band, go to the nearby monitors and search by your bands name. Of course I had to go re-watch Bon Jovi’s.

  Level 2 – The Garage

Have you ever dreamed of having your own band? On this level you absolutely can. Gather your friends and have a jam session with real gear. Once you’ve jammed, step over and Brand your Band. If you are a loner, like me, there are stations where you can play the drums, guitar, bass or piano along with an inducted artist. You’ll get a short lesson and then the next thing you know, you are a member of the band. I played the keyboard riff for 1999 along with Prince. LOL Rock On!!

  Level 0 – The Main Exhibit Hall

This is largest floor in the place and displays the most memorabilia. You start at the beginning with the blues and jazz artists, move in to some country history and how all that shaped what we now know as rock and roll with an exhibit dedicated to Elvis Presley. Then you move along thru the evolution of rock. Display cases are packed with bits and pieces of gear from every genre of rock. The Doo-Wop, Boogie Woogie, Metal, Rap, Punk, The California Scene… anything you can imagine. It was a lot to look at.

This floor also had an expanded exhibit of the British Invasion with the Beatles and Rolling Stones. There were several stations to learn more about the Beatles and the recording of their Let it Be album and the Rooftop Concert. I loved watching the collaboration in the studio between John, Paul, George and Ringo.

 Wrap Up

Did you notice I left out Level 1? Level 1 consists of a café and a very large gift shop. They have a huge selection of shirts and jackets, books and music. There is also a large section for children, the future lovers of rock and roll!

I believe the 3 hours we spent here were used efficiently. Certainly another hour or two would have been great, but we came and we saw what we could. As we were heading back to the campground along I-77, we passed the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Library and Archives. This building was HUGE! I do believe, they need to expand the Hall of Fame so they can display more memorabilia from the 80’s and early 90’s. Maybe have a section dedicated to the Hair Bands?

Who is your favorite artist? Who would you like to see honored in the Hall of Fame? Let me know in the comments.

A Christmas Story House

Thanks to the KOA e-mail I received and actually read, I discovered that A Christmas Story House and Museum were also in Cleveland. This is why we only had 3 hours to spend at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Since we are huge fans of the movie and it has become a family Christmas watching tradition of ours, we could not pass up this opportunity.

Missing the 12:15 tour by 10 minutes, we milled around the gift shop and bought a pin for our collection. Can you find it?

The tour cost $15 and was worth every penny. Starting inside the house itself, the guide told many stories of how the house was found and the deal they had to make with the owner to use it. All of the exterior scenes were shot here. Some of the interior scenes were also shot here as well as on a set in Ontario Canada. If you can see out a window in the movie, then it was shot inside the house. No window, then it was filmed on set in Ontario. We were able to go thru the house and play with the props. What fun!

Oh, another fun fact… the Bumpus’ dogs were actually City of Cleveland Police dogs and they did run thru the house and out the back door and tore the door up in the process. The owner of the house was not happy with that.

  Museum

Across the street is a small museum. There were 5 small rooms containing wardrobe and props from the movie. A couple of newspaper reviews on the wall indicated this movie was a flop when it was released in the theaters. It was released 1 week before Thanksgiving and wasn’t very successful, mainly due to holiday films not being very popular at that time. Look where we are now; holiday films, TV shows, decorations out there before Halloween. Okay, back on topic… Thanks to TNT and TBS, in the mid-90’s the movie was aired for 24 hours on December 24^th and increasingly became one of the most popular holiday movies.

One thing missing from the collection is what? You guessed it, the bunny PJ’s. Peter Billingsley kept these for his personal collection along with the Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot, range model air rifle. What we have are the pattern that was used for the bunny suit and one of the six air rifles made for the movie.

This was a great stop! Our family loves this movie and we watch it every year on Christmas Eve. No matter how many times I’ve seen this movie, when Ralphie goes in the backyard with his new air rifle and hits that metal sign with the BB, which ricochets and hits his glasses; he exclaims “I shot my eye out!” I just howl with laughter. I LOVE IT!

In case you were wondering, you can actually stay overnight in the house. During the year it rents for $545 a night. If you would like to actually spend Christmas here it is a mere $4995/night with a 2 night minimum. I’ll pass.

That’s a wrap for Cleveland! I thoroughly enjoyed my lemonade! 😉