Cleveland Rocks

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

Finally a "Hall of Fame" that I can understand.

It wasn't crowded because of some sports thing happening at Cleveland's new stadium up the street. I heard that Sundays can be very crowded sometimes. The parking angel got a spot closest to the door.

It was really cool. There were little nuggets of history everywhere but you had to look for them. I searched out Sister Rosetta Tharpe and some of the old timers first. There were film clips playing everywhere. Watching the censorship hearings was scary. Some of those people are still in office. I had never seen any footage of that because that was during the period when we didn't have a TV. It was cool to see the governor of California (when I was a teenager) asking "Are these young kids just showing their idealism or is there a PLOT involved?".

There were movies about the start of rock & roll, the entire Bangladesh concert, kiosks with headphones everywhere. With a minimum amount of people there, it was a cacaphony of sounds which was as exhausting as being in a Best Buy at Christmas shopping season. Normally a lot of bodies would absorb the sound so that each display's sound was all you could hear.

Beth and I were going at a different pace. I love to read OLD PAPER. It's in my genes.

Well remember from the last post that I was a little "fragile"? Well I guess I still was a wee bit fragile even with the excitement of the museum. I was watching a little movie clip of Al Hendrix. He was talking about the first time his wife said "that's Jimi's voice" when they were in a restaurant and they checked out what music was playing and he found out it was his son. He talked to Jimi on the phone and said that he actually made the big time, cut his first record, and they let HIM sing it. "And you know, I don't have a good voice..." and Al said "Oh I know, that's for sure...". Al was talking about how when Jimi was on tour they got together for the first time in five years, "even though they had always stayed in touch", how he saw his show and was sooooo proud of him, but he slid way down in his seat when Jimi was playing the Star Spangled Banner because he was afraid "he's gonna be arrested now" but then he looked around and everybody was cheering, so he sat back up and figured that it must be OK after all.

He joked and talked about all kinds of things about Jimi, and he had a big grin on his face the whole time. He was soooo proud of his son. This interview was three decades after he lost his son. The laughter and the pride was still as strong as ever. I stood there by myself with the headphones on sharing being a father with him. The pride, the joy, the friendship. (now remember the part about being fragile?) I don't know how much time I stood there with my headphones on, but Beth pretty much finished the museum while I was standing there. The pride, the laughter, and what really knocked the stuffin' out of me was while Al had this big grin on while telling the stories and laughing, there were tears down his cheeks during the entire interview. I couldn't get my focus off the tears. Three decades. It never goes away.

Well I finally broke away and went to another little kiosk and listened to studio takes of Little Wing and Angel a few times. I looked at the drawings that Jimi made as a kid (he was very good). Looked at all of the clothes, and the handwritten song lyrics. Did you know that Purple Haze was originally "Purple Haze, Jesus Saves"? I had heard in the past that Jimi complained that purple haze had a lot of wonderful lyrics that got lost when the record company shortened the song to turn it into a single. By the time Jimi heard the finished product his notes were already gone. The record execs probably didn't mean to remove all references to Jesus, it just happened.

I quickly looked at everything else in the museum. Beth and I met up in the lobby, I bought a few postcards and we left.

Wheeeeeew.....