A new feature at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

One of the perks of having in-laws in the Cleveland area is that I get to hit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame pretty much on a yearly basis.

I’ve been going since it opened and the first visit was a full day, we are talking from opening of the doors until being told the place was closing. 

These days I can get in and out in about 2.5 hours.

Keep in mind that items are on constant display from artists, with a little change.  For example there is a pretty large section devoted to Elvis Presley and much of it has been the same, but they’ve put in a car, or a motorcycle (the TV with the bullet hole in the screen is/was my favorite).  So, when I go to the museum sometimes it can be a “walk on by” vs slow down and read. 

To cut down on time I skipped a lot of the “films” they played.  I had seen them.  There was one they had that would lead in to the actual “wall of fame” as I called it.  A darkened hallway with signatures of band members that had been inducted.  Its “neat” but I felt it took a lot of space.  The big thing is that at the end of that portion was a few displays of memorabilia from that year’s class of inductees, so that was never one to miss.

The museum switched things up, the new class is now in one of the main levels and the lit up all is gone.

What replaced it was a film that I initially was going to pass on, but decided to go through it.

It was great.  It opened in July so it’s really new (and smells new still!!)   You wait in a small lobby area and see past inductees thank the audience and most of them would sort of elude to that “making speeches is/was not their thing” and they just wanted to “jam”.  That that is what this film was, you went in, sat down and were blasted to the back of the room with segments from the all-star jams.  It had concert hall lights and volume.  Heck the floor shook…it was great.

95% of the film is 15/30 seconds of artists playing.  The final probably two minutes is the solo that Prince did during “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”.  It went on long enough that I thought, there is NO WAY they can cut this short…and they didn’t.  It was high def, with concert hall sound and lights etc.  It was awesome.  Below is the suit that Prince wore that evening as well as the clip to remind you just how awesome the moment was.  Video included that goes right to the solo…..  The gentle smiles, the awe of the other players is a great nod to a player being in “the zone”.  What I like the most is that a few times Prince sorta looks over and is like “I can wrap this up now…or I can keep going”.  Thankfully he kept going.

Check out the solo right here