Rest Easy, Old Friend

I held quite a few different titles during my radio career. One of those was “Music Director.” Part of my job was to listen to the new songs that we received every week and then discuss with the Program Director and consultant which ones we would add to the play list.

One day a week, before the meeting with the PD and consultant, I would take record calls. There was a two to four hour window where representatives from the various record labels would call to “sell” me on their records. They would pitch me recent research or airplay success stories in hopes that we would add their songs.

There were a few independent record promoters that would call working songs that might not be on a major label or to help promote major label artists. One of my favorite music calls each week was from and independent promoter named Jack Pride.

He and I began chatting when I first became a music director at B95. Our program director had known him for longer than me and we would often add songs that we felt were good enough to play (even though consultants disagreed). It felt good to be able to help him out. As time went on, it started to get harder and harder to get some of those songs on the air, as many corporate consultants stepped in and had the final say on adds.

I always enjoyed chatting with Jack. For both of us, it was never about the label or the artist – what mattered was if the song was good or not. He and I loved a good lyric and story behind the song. He was passionate about the music he promoted and there were many songs that should have been hits that never made it to radio because of consultants and corporate people.

Our chats each week lasted a bit longer than a normal call, but that is because we became good friends. We’d talk about mutual friends, our family, faith and life in general. He was such a great guy.

After years of telephone chats, I finally had the pleasure of meeting Jack in Nashville at the Country Radio Seminar. He had been talking about a steakhouse down there called Morton’s and he took me and my program director there for dinner one night. It was such a great time.

Every year, Jack would make hundreds of chocolate chip cookies for his radio contacts. The first year, I got this big box with a metal tin in it. When I opened it, there was a dozen of his famous cookies. There were the BEST cookies! I know I wasn’t the only one who waited for those cookies every year. The first couple years I was out of radio, Jack still sent me cookies at Christmas. He knew my kids loved them, too.

When I left radio all together and went into sleep medicine, our chats were less frequent. I’m not sure he ever retired, but I know he had stopped making calls to stations within the last couple years. I guess he had some health issues recently, and I was saddened to hear that he passed away this week at age 80.

I really need to be better about calling someone when I think about them. I had just thought about him a week or so ago and made a mental note to call him before the holidays. Lesson learned.

Rest easy, Jack. See you on the other side, buddy.

The Music of My Life – 2011

Welcome back to The Music of My Life, where I feature ten songs from each year of my life. In most cases, the ten songs I choose will be ones I like personally (unless I explain otherwise). The songs will be selected from Billboard’s Year-end Hot 100 Chart, Acclaimed Music, and will all be released in the featured year.

This week, we look at 2011. I turned 41 that year. I was still working on the radio and I was still DJing a lot. I was surprised as I looked ahead to see that there was still some good tunes to choose from. The closer we get to 2025, I am not so sure.

When the song Safe and Sound was written, the band wasn’t even known as Capital Cities yet. “It started as a little idea we came up with – it wasn’t a fully fleshed-out song, per se,” Ryan Merchant told Billboard magazine. “We noticed that, when we showed it to people, there was this unanimous feeling that there was something special about this music, and we started to develop it. It took 10 different versions before we finally came to what you hear on the radio now, where we decided to add a trumpet for the main bridge part, which I think was one of our best decisions on the song. And we brought out this vintage keyboard that provides the foundation for the song. So the song really took a long time to get right, because we knew it was such an important song for us.”

What exactly does the song mean? Merchant says, “It seems like every generation feels like it’s living in the worst of times, and of course there are horrible things happening, but the average person is better off now than he or she was 50 years ago. In some ways ‘Safe and Sound’ is an antidote to the human tendency to think in apocalyptic terms and not really look at the logic of the world around us. Things are getting better and there’s a lot to be positive about.”

For me, I can still remember the first time I played it. I remember thinking how good it sounded in my headphones.

Safe and Sound

Someone Like You from Adele is about getting over an ex, hoping to find another who can bring back those feelings that made it so special. Not everyone can do that. As a matter of fact, I couldn’t do that! However, I was able to find someone who brought feelings that I had never experienced and a love that means more to me than anything.

It was a feeling that inspired Adele to write the song, “I was trying to remember how it was I felt at the beginning of a relationship,” she said. “Because as bad as a break up can be, as bitter and horrible and messy as it can be, that feeling when you first fall for someone is the best feeling on earth, and I am addicted to that feeling.”

This album runs the gamut of emotions. It is no wonder that so many of the songs were hits and won awards. Adele said, “The experience of writing this record was quite exhausting, because I would go from being a bitch to being completely on my knees.”

Someone Like You

Next a song I just like. Tonight Tonight starts with the line, “It’s been a really really rough week…” Who can’t relate to that? However, as the song gets going, it’s more of a feel good sound. I loved watching the high school kids dance and jump around when this one played.

The band was formed in Nashville and took their name from their first “dedicated fan.” Her name? Chelle Rae.

Tonight Tonight

I was programming a Classic Rock station when the next song came out. It got me in trouble. Maybe I am wrong, but I felt that if a classic rock band released a song that I felt “fit” the format, the listeners would want to hear it. So when the Cars released Sad Song, I added it.

The song played a few times before a VP of Programming called to ask why I was playing it. I told him, “It sounds like a classic Cars song, why wouldn’t I play it?” I was told to stop playing it and that is where the matter ended. It is also why most terrestrial radio sucks today.

Take a listen and tell me that this doesn’t fit a classic rock station …

Sad Song

Another great dance song that sounded good on the radio and worked well at dances was Moves Like Jagger. Now anyone familiar with the Rolling Stones can conjure up a visual of some sort of Mick Jagger dance. Mick was a master mover and his moves were something else. He was just fun to watch.

Adam Levine told MTV News why he likes to move like the veteran Stones’ frontman: “I’ve been a student at the Jagger School of Interesting Movement for 17 years. I’m graduating next fall, with honors,” he said. “[His moves are] a very carefully calculated, but slightly spastic, incredible rhythmic experience, in which all of your limbs and every bone in your body is moving at completely different times, and it’s impossible to re-create. Nobody has moves like Jagger, that’s kind of the point. That’s why the song is so fun, it’s fun to try.”

Fun Trivia: When this song climbed to #1 on the Hot 100, Mick Jagger became the first artist to have both topped the Hot 100 (as lead singer of the Rolling Stones) and be name-checked in the title of a #1 by another act.

Moves Like Jagger

The next song was one that I played at the Adult Contemporary station. It has such a unique sound to it that it really stuck out to me. I remember getting a call from the program director after the first time I played Somebody That I Used To Know because I had destroyed the artist’s name.

It is not “Got-Yee.” It is much classier – “Go-tee-ya”

The song was a number one in the states, in the UK, and other places world wide. American Songwriter magazine asked Gotye why he thought the song has proved so successful? He replied:

“I think it’s the kind of slow build and drama that it has, the two-part story, and the multiple perspective aspect that has struck people. It’s written openly enough that it expresses that confusion you can have after a broken relationship, and the way you can feel emotionally quite up and down.

You can feel nostalgic and rosily melancholy, in a way. But sometimes we often feel quite bitter about things, when you have nothing to do with that relationship or maybe with that person anymore, at least not actively. It can be quite a confusing feeling. So maybe the way the song expresses those feelings appears to strike people as quite true, and quite relevant with their experiences.”

Somebody That I Used To Know

Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen was all over the radio in 2001. The song was huge. Other singers loved it, too. Justin Bieber tweeted: “‘Call Me Maybe’ by Carly Rae Jepsen is possibly the catchiest song I’ve ever heard lol,” and his then-girlfriend Selena Gomez added, “This smile is because of Carly Rae Jepsen. We have not stopped listening to your song girl!”

The singer explained that when she and her guitarist Tavish Crowe are on the road together, during downtown she’ll sing out ideas whilst he plays off some chords on an acoustic guitar. “Actually, the chorus lyrics came out really easily,” she added, “the entire thing: [singing] ‘Hey I just met you, and this is crazy.’ We thought it was a nice little pre-chorus or something. We brought the idea to Josh and he was like, ‘That’s your chorus right there, keep that, that’s it.’ After a little while of production and just working together we had the song done. It was really easy to write.”

Carly was asked by NPR whether guys ever use this song’s lyrics as a pickup line. The Canadian songstress replied: “It’s happened a few times, yes. And they usually think that they’re the first person to do it. Some guys start with, ‘Hey, I just met you and this is crazy…’ It’s not very original.”

I have used some bad pick up lines in my day, but never this one.

Call Me Maybe

One Direction didn’t want to be known as another boy band. Songwriter Carl Falk wrote What Makes You Beautiful for them. I love his story.

“It was the first song we did for One Direction. It was hard at first for us to be convinced that a boy band like One Direction would work. How do you do this without sounding outdated or copying someone else? What we thought and what was clear about ‘What Makes You Beautiful’ was we had a vision of going back to the ’90s, and bringing a little bit of that sound from 1999 — like the sound choices and instruments — and just do an updated version of that.

If you look at the One Direction fans who are between 10 and 14 years old,” he added, “they haven’t grown up listening to music that I did when I was growing up, like’I Want It That Way’ [from the Backstreet Boys] or ‘Bye Bye Bye’ [from N Sync]. So we started to experiment with sounds and riff and everything. It didn’t take long.

The title was done already. We all loved it. It’s kind of cool to say, “You don’t know you’re beautiful. That’s what makes you beautiful.” That takes it from being a beautiful title to a really smart concept. So everything just clicked.

I tell my wife she is beautiful all the time, but she always tells me I need my eyes checked. I wish she could see the beauty that I see.

What Makes You Beautiful

I have never seen the Twilight movies and I have never read the books. However, they inspired a beautiful song from Christina Perri. A Thousand Years was that song.

SHewrote the song based on the emotions that she felt reading about the star-crossed love affair between Edward and Bella throughout Stephenie Meyer’s series. “When we went to watch the screening, they told us to see where there was temporary music added and just jump into those scenes a little harder,” she explained to MTV News. “But I’m fortunately a fan of the movie and the characters, and I feel like, by reading these books, I can step into that feeling that Edward and Bella have for each other. So [songwriter] David Hodges and I sat down, and it just came out in one afternoon. I feel like it was all meant to happen; I feel like it was all waiting inside me, waiting to come out.”

Knowing now that Twilight’s vampires inspired the song, all of a sudden one of the lines makes sense: “I have loved you for a thousand years, I’ll love you for a thousand more.” Because, you know, vampires are supposed to be immortal and all.

A Thousand Years

Another song that popped out of the radio at me in 2011 was Adele’s Rumour Has It. At first, it bugged me because I felt like that was all she sang. But as I went back and listened, I could tell that she wrote this from personal experience.

Songfacts says, The song sounds like it could be about the famous folks who show up in the tabloids, but it’s not. Adele says the inspiration was a lot closer to home.

After being away from home for about 18 months, she returned to the UK and reconnected with her old friends, meeting up for lunch and going out at night. She was shocked when her friends asked her about rumors that they had heard about Adele. “My own friends were gossiping about me and believing stuff that they’d hear,” she said. “I was mortified, really. I had to set the record straight with my own girlfriends who know and love me.”

She wrote the song with OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder. He told the US breakfast show Today that this song was inspired by Adele’s frustration at false speculation about her love life. He recalled how an angry Adele stormed into one of their recording sessions exclaiming: “People in London, my friends are saying, ‘Rumour has it that Adele has gone off and done this with this guy and she’s done this with another guy,’ and I didn’t do any of it, it’s a rumour!'”

Tedder responded: “There it is. We’re gonna write a song called Rumour Has It.”

Rumour Has It

With that, we wrap up 2011. Did I miss any of your favorites? Tell me about it in the comments.

Next week, we move on to 2012. My list includes one of the dumbest dances ever to hit the dance floor, a motivational song about getting through rough times, a non-sleepy song, and a song that we often shouted at work during some rough times. I hope to see you then.

Thanks for reading and listening.

Tune Tuesday

Charles Edwin Hatcher was born on this day in 1942. You and I know him better as Edwin Starr. He was born in Nashville, moved to Cleveland and eventually to Detroit.

In 1957, he formed the Doo Woo group, the Future Tones. Soon after, he was called to serve in the US Army. He spent most of his time in Europe. When he was discharged, he decided that he wanted his career to be in music.

He joined up with Bill Doggett’s group. Bill was known for his hit Honky Tonk Part 2. Starr’s stage name was suggested to him by Doggett’s manager, as he didn’t think Charles Hatcher would catch on.

In 1965, Edwin made his solo debut with his first single for Ric-Tic Records. The James Bond series was quite popular at the time. Starr’s first single was a play on that entitled Agent Double-O-Soul.

Songfacts says that instead of being a spy, Edwin is “a sophisticated cat that brings soul music to the masses. He doesn’t have to go undercover!” I think that is a perfect description!

When I first started in radio back in 1988, it was at an oldies station. My dad gave me a list of songs that he asked me to look for. Most of them were songs he grew up loving. Many were also big hits by local artists in Detroit. Agent Double-O-Soul was on that list.

Thanks to that list, I was introduced to songs that I was unfamiliar with. Those songs have since become some of my favorites.

When Ric-Tic Records went out of business, they sold Starr’s contract to their much larger rival, Motown. His first few singles there flopped. But in 1969 he scored with “Twenty-Five Miles” and in 1970 he had a #1 hit with”War.” He ended up leaving Motown in the mid-’70s. In 1983 he moved to the UK, where he performed until 2003, when he died of a heart attack at 61.

Friday Photo Flashback

I’m just under the wire for another Friday Photo Flashback. For this edition, we go back to Y2K!

The above photo was taken outside the Country Music Hall of Fame on either December 31, 1999 OR January 1, 2000. I was working at B95 in Flint, MI at the time. We had a huge promotion where we took a couple buses of listeners to Nashville to ring in the year 2000 with Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. I believe Kenny Chesney and some other singer all were with them that night.

Kristine Turner, our morning show co-host, and I were the station chaperones. I don’t recall if the listeners bought tickets to go or if they won them, but the trip was quite a whirlwind and awesome time. I remember we left Flint at the crack of dawn and drove all the way to Nashville nonstop. I believe when we arrived at the hotel, we had time to check in, change and we left for the show.

The atmosphere in the arena was electric! For weeks, all the news could talk about was Y2K and all the potential issues and uncertainty that may or may not happen at midnight on New Year’s Eve. Y2K was the furthest thing from everyone’s mind at the show! It was a big party.

The year 2000 rang in to loud cheers, Auld Lang Syne, and couples kissing. Afterwards, the concert continued. We knew the buses were heading back to the hotel until much later, so we ventured out into downtown Nashville. All along Broadway, EVERY bar was hopping with activity. We stopped at almost all of them. Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, where singers like Terri Clark were discovered, was packed and we enjoyed some great music.

As we walked the streets of Nashville, people were coming up to us. I had worn my Detroit Tigers jersey to the show and people from Michigan kept stopping us asking us where we were from and then telling us what Michigan town they were from. There were many hugs and handshakes throughout that walk. I don’t think things closed down until like 4am that night. It was unreal how busy the town was that night.

The following morning, New Year’s Day, we had a few hours to walk around and take in some sights before the buses left to go home. We opted to go to the Opryland Hotel and walk through there. I won’t lie, I had no idea how big it was and just how much was in there. I remember thinking, “Wait. You are leaving our hotel … to go see another one?”

I was floored when I walked in. I remember seeing the boat that floated through the hotel. I couldn’t believe it. The hotel was obviously more than a hotel. I enjoyed walking through it and checking out the attractions. I may have gotten a caricature done while I was there. Years later, after we were married, Sam and I took a trip down to see her aunt in Kentucky. On the way home, we made a stop in Nashville and took that boat ride together.

On that trip, time was very limited, but it still was a lot of fun. We did have one “incident” on that trip. We stopped at one point, I can’t remember if it was to eat or maybe at a rest stop to just get out and walk for five minutes. One of the bus drivers actually locked the keys in the bus! This is the same bus driver who had taken us on a “tour” of Nashville at some point during the trip and got lost! I had to laugh, because I could see us stuck there for a while. Luckily, someone was able to reach in and get ahold of the arm that opened the door. It was no easy task, but we finally were able to get back on the bus and head home. That was a story I enjoyed telling on the air!!!

I have yet to actually walk through the Country Music Hall of Fame, so I think another trip to Nashville is in order.

Tune Tuesday – Guitar Man

It was 52 years ago today, on September 10, 1967, that Elvis Presley recorded the song “Guitar Man” in the RCA studios in Nashville. The song was written and originally recorded by Jerry Reed (who went on to act in Smokey and the Bandit and other films). Jerry’s version reached only #53 on the country chart that year, and Elvis would see much greater success with it. Jerry enjoyed that success, too, because he was playing on the Elvis version.

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One of my favorite interviews I ever did was with Jerry Reed, shortly before he passed away. I asked him about his connection with Elvis. He told me that Elvis was in the studio trying to record the song. He was unhappy with the way the guitar part sounded. He kept telling the guitar player “That don’t sound like Reed’s record.” Jerry’s version of the story is that the guitar player told Elvis, “If you want it to sound like Reed’s record – you better get Reed in here!” (Another version of the story says that Elvis said, “Get me that redneck picker who’s on the original tune!”)

Jerry told me that he was out fishing or something and someone from his office was finally able to reach him by phone and said that Elvis wanted him in the studio. Jerry said that he hadn’t shaved in days and walked into the studio looking a bit shaggy. He said Elvis looked at him and said, “Lord, have mercy! What is that?!” Jerry went on to tell me, That he never thought of himself as a Nashville recording musician. He called himself a stylist. He said he had his own way of tuning. He said “they were trying to record Guitar Man, and they couldn’t make it feel like my record.” He said that those players use picks, and he uses his fingers. He said that once he “wound up his guitar” and got it all set he told me that “as soon as we hit the intro, you could see Elvis’ eyes light up he knew we had it”. (Jerry also played on other songs in that session including Big Boss Man) It was so cool to hear Jerry tell this story!

In 1981, the song was re-recorded with Elvis’ vocal left intact. That version went to #1 on the country charts.

Here is the song from 52 years ago:

Here is Jerry Reed’s original version:

Guitar Man

Guitar Man”

Well I quit my job down at the carwash I left my mama a goodbye note
By sundown I’d left Kingston with my guitar up under my coat
I hitchhiked all the way down to Memphis got a room at the YMCA
For the next three weeks I went a hauntin’ them night clubs
Lookin’ for a place to play
Well I thought my pickin’ would set ’em on fire
But nobody wanted to hire a guitar man

Well I nearly bout starved to death down in Memphis
I run out of money and luck
So I bummed me a ride down to Macon Georgia
On a overloaded poultry truck
I thumbed on down to Panama City
Started checkin’ out some of them all night bars
Hopin’ I can make myself a dollar makin’ music on my guitar
Got the same old story at them all night piers
There ain’t no room around here for a guitar man
We don’t need a guitar man son

So I slept in hobo jungles bummed a thousand miles of track
Till I found myself in Mobile Alabama at a club they call Big Jack’s
A little four piece band was jammin’ so I took my guitar and I sat in
I showed ’em what a band would sound like with a swingin’ little guitar man
Show ’em son

So if you ever take a trip down to the ocean find yourself down round Mobile
Well make it on out to the club called Jack’s if you got a little time to kill
Just follow that crowd of people you’ll wind up out on his dance floor
Diggin’ the finest little five piece group up and down the Gulf of Mexico
And guess who’s leadin’ that five piece band
Why wouldn’t you know it’s that swingin’ little guitar man yeah

“Cleveland Rocks!”

For our anniversary, my wife and I wanted to plan a little getaway to celebrate. Neither one of us had too much PTO in our “banks” at work, so we decided on a weekend trip. During the planning the destinations changed frequently. Originally, we had hoped to head back for another trip to Florida, but due to the lack of time available, we decided on something a bit closer to home.

There was talk of going to Nashville and maybe catching a show at the Grand Ole Opry. Then there was talk of Gatlinburg, where my mom so often talked about. I think we even chatted about Pennsylvania, too. Eventually, we decided that Chicago was where we wanted to go, but then realized that it was St. Patrick’s Day weekend, and we figured it might be just a tad crazy (although seeing the river turned green would have been cool.

Cleveland??

To be honest, I am not even sure how we decided on Cleveland, Ohio. I had mentioned that my dad had gone to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and said it was cool. I started to look at things in Cincinnati. There was a lot to do there, but why wasn’t the Hall of Fame coming up in any of my searches? I knew that Cincy was close to Louisville, KY and thought that we could maybe do something there, too. I had gone as far as to drop a radio buddy a note to say we were gonna be down there and asked for good restaurants to eat at … only to then realize the Hall of Fame was in Cleveland!

Now that we had cleared that up, we were set for Cleveland. Now, I will be the first to admit “Cleveland,Ohio” as the answer to “Where did you and your wife spend your first wedding anniversary?” is not at all romantic. Many people laughed when I told them. Here is the thing about my wife and I, the destination really didn’t matter – it was simply the fact that we were going to be together. To me, this is just one of the reasons I love her. We can be content with just having time with each other, no matter where we are, or what we are doing.

We have made it a tradition to go to restaurants that local wherever we go. If we can go there at home, we’ll go there at home! By doing this, we have really been treated to some amazing food. We always try to find a good steak house or something very unique to the city we are in and we have yet to be disappointed.

The Hall of Fame

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Personally, I think Sam loves watching me get excited about stuff like this. We both love museums, but I must have been like a little kid on his birthday during this trip! I had, of course, seen pictures of the Hall of Fame, but it was something else to be standing in front of it. The big red block letters that sit upon the sidewalk read “LONG LIVE ROCK”. As I walked up the steps, there are phoney concert speakers erected by the hand rails. The excitement builds as you walk in.

As you enter, you walk into a huge foyer/lobby. The gift shop is to your right, to the left a cafe/coffee shop, and in front of you there is an escalator to take you down to purchase tickets. After buying our tickets, you get ready to enter and above the doors the perfect AC/DC quote to welcome you: “For those about to rock …”

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Walking into the main exhibition hall, the first thing I noticed were pictures of John Lennon and Ray Charles on the wall. The first thing I am drawn to is a glass case containing Bill Haley’s guitar. Bill is often credited as being the singer of the first “rock and roll” song – Rock Around the Clock. There is a picture of him playing it in the case as well. I am not sure why I was so taken in by it, but I was.

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The next thing we saw was a line of bass guitars that belong to Geddy Lee of Rush. I didn’t count , but there had to be like a dozen of them. The information said that this was only part of his massive collection.

The Roots

One thing I was thrilled to see here was the fact that the “roots” of Rock and Roll were well represented. Rock really evolved from a combination of Gospel, R&B, Bluegrass, Country, Folk, and Blues music. Each of those genres was represented here. Among my favorite things I saw: a suite belonging to Hank Williams Sr.; Louis Jordan’s music folder with his music and cue sheets; stuff from Muddy Waters, BB King, and Mahalia Jackson; Ray Charles sunglasses; Carl Perkins Guitar; salutes to Johnny Otis, Big Joe Turner, and Sam Cooke and so much more. The roots of rock were so well represented. Without these people and the genres of music, there would be no rock and roll.

Elvis

There is a pretty cool section devoted to Elvis, who was one of the first 10 artists inducted into the Hall of Fame. The Hall has a standing agreement with Graceland in Memphis (which is a museum in itself) and they send memorabilia to them often, so the exhibit changes often. There was a very cool motorcycle that was custom-built for Elvis. His gold sequins suit is there, and a jukebox which was given to him as a gift from RCA Records – it contains only Elvis records. Also on display was a double Gibson guitar which he played in his film Spinout.

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The Summer of Love

With the 50th anniversary of the “Summer of Love”, there were some very cool things here. I saw groovy outfits from the Mama’s and the Papa’s, clothing from Jimi Hendrix, and the HUGE mixing board that was used to record some of Jimi’s music.

On thing I really liked to see was the various things that song lyrics were written on. There were quite a few original pieces of paper where the beginnings of songs were scribbled. There were also plenty of hotel pads of paper with lyrics on them. Loved seeing where changes were made to lyrics.

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Cities and Sounds

I loved that there was a section of the hall that saluted cities and sounds. There was a section devoted to Memphis, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London and Liverpool, Seattle, and of course, Detroit.

In the Memphis section, there were plenty of neat things from Sun Records. Johnny Cash, Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Roy Orbison all recorded there. To stand in front of Roy Orbison’s glasses and guitar was pretty awesome. My earliest musical memories are of my dad playing Roy’s music for me.

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A nice tribute to Motown is here with stuff from Barry Gordy, The Supremes (you can see some of their dresses), Smokey Robinson, and the Temptations are all here. They were playing the episode of To Tell The Truth with Barry Gordy as we walked through this section.

The Beatles and the Rolling Stones each have a nice section at the Hall. I thought Mick Jagger of the Stones was taller, but standing by some of his outfits, he’s shorter than I thought. There is the Asher family piano that Paul McCartney donated, some of John Lennon’s outfits, and the handwritten lyrics to “In My Life”. A very cool documentary was playing in their section as well.

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I jumped ahead a bit because the next section was London and Liverpool. There were some very neat things from the Yardbirds, Peter and Gordon, Herman’s Hermits and the Zombies too. All in all a nice salute to the British Invasion.

San Fran featured stuff from The Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin, while LA featured stuff from The Eagles, Jackson Brown, Joni Mitchell and Neil Young. One cool thing here was a duffle bag full of hotel keys. I don’t recall, but I think it said it belonged to one of the Eagles. They basically kept the hotel key (and keychain) from every place they stayed while on tour. The bag was stuffed full of some very cool looking keychains!

This section also had tributes to grunge music, punk music and a section called “Rave On” which focused on the “pioneers” of rock. Those pioneers included Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, The Everly Brothers and Buddy Holly. Soul Music was also spotlighted here with some awesome suits from James Brown, stuff from Aretha Franklin, pieces of the wreckage from Otis Redding’s plane crash, and Sam and Dave. Featured in the soul section were two amazing things – guitars from Donald “Duck” Dunn and Steve “The Colonel” Cropper. They played on almost every Atlantic and Stax record. They were members of Booker T and the MG’s, and also played with the Blues Brothers. Very cool to see!!!

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Don’t worry metal heads, there was a section for Heavy Metal too. Oh, and a section for Rap, as well.

Protests

When Rock and Roll started to make waves, it wasn’t too popular with folks. We tend to forget the hatred toward the genre, but they had plenty of newscasts about burning records, and protests that happened. It was weird to watch the hatred toward the Beatles and read hate mail to the Rolling Stones. Other artists that were discussed in this section were Frank Zappa and ELO.

On the Radio

As a radio guy, it was cool to be able to walk up to an interactive touch screen and select a region of the US and then listen to old airchecks of DJ’s from different eras. Naturally, I had to listen to some of the Detroit personalities: Dick Purtain, Robin Seymour, and The Electrifying Mojo! There were plenty of familiar names from all over the states and it was nice to get to listen to their stuff too.

The Power of Rock

On the third level, there was a wall with each “class” inducted into the Hall of Fame by year. You could also go to a touch screen and search by class, by year, or by artist, and listen to their music. SO many great songs!!!

The Power of Rock is a short film by Jonathan Demme which features many performances from past Hall of Fame inductions. So many stars and so many great songs were in this film. The theater had a light show and great sound for the film and it was almost like you were watching a concert live. The film ends with Prince’s guitar solo on While My Guitar Gently Weeps – WOW! Forgot how amazing that was! They also had some of the great quotes on the walls of the hallway that you left the theater by. Prince’s outfit from that show and other outfits were there as well.

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Rock on TV

It was also very cool to see some of the TV show memorabilia on this level. You could go and record something about your favorite singer or album in special booths. It was pretty cool to stand in front of Dick Clark’s American Bandstand podium! His microphone was in a glass case with other things like the set design for the Beatles appearance on Ed Sullivan. They had TV cameras there, Don Cornelius’ suit from Soul Train, outfits from the Jackson Five and Sonny & Cher and the coat worn by Davy Jones of the Monkees that he wore on The Brady Bunch. There was also some cool musically related stuff from Saturday Night Live, and from various music videos we all watched on MTV. It was neat to see Paul Shaffer’s keyboard that he played for so many years on the Late Show with David Letterman.

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On the Radio – LIVE

One thing I didn’t realize was that Sirius XM broadcasts their “Classic Vinyl” station out of the Hall of Fame. Rachel Steele was on air when we went through. There is a glass window that allows you to look into the studio and watch them broadcast. I actually felt bad for her. One thing radio people like is the fact that they can go in to work without really worrying about what to wear, because….who is going to see you!? Whoever is on the air here, really has to “doll up” every day.

Over all, I loved every second of my visit here! Any music lover would enjoy themselves!! If you have never been …. you have to!

Christmas in March

The final stop on the trip was The Christmas Story House. It is the house featured in the holiday classic. They renamed the street “Cleveland Street” in honor of the movie. The Leg Lamp proudly sits in the front window and the Bumpass House is next door.

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This is such an inexpensive treat! The house looks a little different on the inside, but they have restored much of it to be exactly like it looks in the film, which took a bit because there were a few owners since the movie.

We were allowed to take as many pictures as we liked. There was a guide who took us through the house and told some stories. You can see the bathroom where Ralphie solves Little Orphan Annie’s secret message, you can see the many plugs the tree was plugged into, pick up the phone that Mrs. Parker calls Flick’s mom on, see the boy’s room, and see the damper in the kitchen that billows black smoke because of the “clinker” furnace.

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From the backyard you can see the steel mill (still in operation), which helped Jean Sheppard (the author) pick that particular house for the film. Across the street is a museum with the actual Red Rider BB gun used in the film, outfits from the cast, Darren McGavin’s plaster life mask (used for make up and such), plenty of behind the scenes pictures, and the Old Man’s car. The gift shop is full of great items and yes, you can purchase a pink bunny suit or a leg lamp (in various sizes).

Sam told me she’d buy me a bunny suit, but only if I wore it every Christmas! Incidentally, if you have the $$, you can spend the night in the house or next door at the Bumpass house.

The trip was short, but full of good memories. I love that we were able to do it and I love that we got to spend time with each other. It was the perfect anniversary trip.

Cleveland, does indeed, ROCK!