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eaglesvet
06-23-2009, 07:59 AM
My family was so impressed by our visit to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Annex on Mercer St in NYC on my birthday/Father's Day this past weekend, I wanted to tell you a bit of the details. I also figured there might be a few of you who've visited the main RRHF in Cleveland, that maybe you'd want to describe your impressions/adventures here as well.

The Annex, which opened in November 2008, is in an unassuming building in Soho. It's got a small sign on it that simply says, "Annex." In fact, the only reason we knew we had found it were the John Lennon banners and posters on the Annex and surrounding buildings, announcing a special feature exhibit created by Yoko Ono about the couple's New York City years. The Lennon exhibit opened May 12 with tickets currently being sold through July 12...however there is no official ending date.

The first part of the museum is the Hall of Fame Gallery, a room housing the silver plaques of each honoree, inscripted with his/her signature, and displayed according to year of induction. Imagine the grin on my face as we entered this darkened room, and the sounds of Best of My Love hit my ears! I knew I was gonna like it here! In the Gallery, as about 30 seconds of a rock song would play, the artist's plaque would light up with a pretty neon light behind it, so that the signature would glow from amongst the hundreds (?) of plaques mounted on the walls. Then, another song would come on, and another plaque would light as the first would fade. That was pretty cool! It was fun to see who could find their favorite artists fastest; and surprising sometimes to see which artist beat another one into the Hall. I learned, for one, that although the Beatles each have their own individual plaques as part of the Beatles induction in 1988, all but Ringo have been inducted as individual artists and have plaques in later (different) years. Also, Jimmie Page has been inducted both as a member of the Yardbirds and of Led Zeppelin...but his signature is so different on each plaque that you would never think it was the same person in a million years!

Next, the museum staff shuttles us into a room made out to be a large club with stools and a stage, and they show a movie...well, media show...that literally makes you feel like you in the audience watching concert after concert of famous rock performances throughout history from the 50's to today. I was surprised by how many my kids recognized...I guess "our" music has rubbed off on them. No Eagles here, however. :-(

Then, to explore the rest of the museum, the staff hands each of us wireless stereo headphones that transmit the audio for the rest of the exhibits in the galleries. That makes the museum what it is. As you pass a certain display, poster, whatever, technology triggers the correct song/voiceover to play in synch with what you are viewing. If you back away, or circle around to view something else, the audio automatically changes to suit what you are changing to view. Brilliant! The highlights for me in the galleries were the original handwritten manuscripts of songs that artists had written. I'd say the best was Elvis Costello's (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes which he wrote on a train schedule while on a 10-15 minute train ride in England. I also enjoyed the room dedicated primarily to the Boss, Bruce Springsteen; with a smaller area of the room bringing in Billy Joel. They had Bruce's first car, a 1957 Chevy convertible (along with his driver's license/registration), plus a few handwritten manuscripts, clothes, etc. Billy Joel's manuscripts were actually in notebooks in a large colorful display...he seems pretty organized!

Finally, the show ended with a separate exhibit hall dedicated solely to John Lennon. Yoko Ono had gathered personal photos, movies, artwork (both by him and her), newspaper articles, etc. and created this exhibit to memorialize his NYC years with her. We spent a lot of time in this area. There were two very moving things at the end, that led to a wall-sized petition for tighter gun-control laws that will be sent to Obama when the exhibit is over. One was a photo shoot Yoko did of John's blood-stained glasses for her album cover (the glasses looked to be real behind the glass display case...it took a while to realize it was a photo.) The other was a brown bag of the clothes he was wearing at the time he died. She states that even though he was a famous man who had everything he needed, that this was the way he was returned to her...as Patient #---, in a brown paper bag. She wanted that display to invoke the senseless nature of all killings.

Well, that ended the official tour of the Annex. Of course, no tour is ended until you are led out into the Gift Shop. They had some lovely first-rate rock and roll items that I briefly considered buying for some of you. First up, Soda, a mounted and framed Fleetwood Mac Rumours album signed by all band members for a mere $2500. That seemed a better value than a mounted and framed "test pressing" of the Hotel California album signed by all the Eagles for $4500--the reason being is that this item was a plain white wrapper-type album cover with their signatures, plus a typed song-list dated Nov. 12, 1976 on a separate page. (No photos of the guys or the hotel!) Finally, the best one of all was a signed Beatles album (an early one, though I'm sorry I've forgotten which one) for $39,500!! I didn't see any takers for any of these. We settled for a poster for the Lennon exhibit (the same one hanging on the street outside) and a pin of the Annex logo.

This has only whet my appetite to make the trek to Cleveland to see the main Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where I know there is a HUGE Springsteen exhibit that just opened, and is on until spring 2010. Road trip!

MikeA
06-23-2009, 08:13 AM
I really enjoyed reading your impressions Eva.

I might have been able to put together as detailed rendition of our experience at the Cleveland RRHF as was your's Eva of the Annex. But I seriously doubt it! I certainly cannot do so now.

But I say that I would love the opportunity to go back to Cleveland and do it again with the intent of soaking it in better than before. It was just too overwhelming at the time. We had been to a Simon & Garfunkle concert the night before in Columbus and had to make the drive to and from Cleveland to get back to the Eagles Concert in the same arena in Columbus that night! That didn't leave a lot of time for us to take our time through the RRHOF.

But it was a one shot deal and I didn't want to miss it Because we had to hit the road early the morning after the Eagles concert to drive to Indianapolis for the last of our Eagles Concerts on that trip. I'd LOVE to return to take my time going through the RRHF but Cleveland is a long way from Wichita <sigh> (everywhere is a long way from Wichita!).

eaglesvet
06-23-2009, 08:18 AM
The Annex is designed to be toured in about 1 1/2 hrs, without the special exhibit...so I guess we spent about 2 1/2 hours there (actually lost track of time!) From a brochure, it seems the Cleveland exhibit takes at least 5 to 6 hours, and considering they sell a 2-day pass, I'm sure 2 days could do it justice!

TimothyBFan
06-23-2009, 08:44 AM
I loved the one trip I've made to Cleveland to see the HOF. The displays that stood out for me on that trip were the Jim Morrison/Doors exhibit that included hand written notebooks of some of Jim's lyrics and poems and Pink Floyd's The Wall exhibit. Pretty cool to actually walk up to "the wall" and be able to touch it! I must admit tho, it was hard for me to take it all in and I would love to go back one of these days. I was in such awe of most of it because to me, most the people in the HOF are Gods and I just couldn't believe I was actually seeing where so much of it began etc.

I know a lot of you here have already heard how that trip came about but for those who haven't, I will tell you so you can all get a really good laugh at my expense. :hilarious: My husband being the sweetheart he has always been to me (sincerely!), decided that we had to go visit it in 1998-the year that the Eagles were actually inducted! He said I HAD to see the Eagles display THE year they were actually put into it!! We got up early on a Saturday morning and drove 5 hours only to find out once we got there that the display was not finished and that the whole floor that it would be on was closed down while they worked on it. I was disappointed but there was still so much to see that I figured oh well, always later, but I thought my poor hubby was going to sit down and cry right there when we were told that. He was so mad that he hadn't thought to check before coming. Poor guy! It was a great experience anyways.

Prettymaid
06-23-2009, 05:52 PM
This is a place I want to go to. It's probably 4-5 hours away for me. Everytime I read about it on here I want to go even more!

Molly
06-23-2009, 06:56 PM
It's been years since I've been there. Pre-Eagles induction, in fact. Our boys were pretty small so we had to do kind of a "speed tour" since they weren't at all interested.

Now that they're grown and music lovers themselves, we really want to get back as a family and take our time going thru.

We may be making a trip to Detroit this Fall to visit family, and I'm hoping we can head over to Cleveland then.

eaglesvet
06-29-2009, 03:06 PM
I wanted to post my photos of the RRHF Annex that I finally had developed. The musicians don't allow any photos of the exhibits, so we had to settle for pics of the exterior only. Here are two shots of the rather unassuming building in Soho...you see what I mean about the little "Annex" sign. If there weren't the special Lennon exhibit going on currently, the site would be easy to miss.

The third shot is of my guys near the Lennon poster that is an exact replica of the one we purchased for a mere $5--a veritable bargain next to the various signed artists' posters and album covers selling for multiple thousands! :nod:

MikeA
06-29-2009, 03:09 PM
Wow Eva, that is a rather obscure location!

Prettymaid
06-29-2009, 04:37 PM
Great poster and handsome boys!

eaglesvet
06-29-2009, 05:39 PM
Thx!

Ive always been a dreamer
06-29-2009, 06:47 PM
First of all, I could have sworn that there was already a thread about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on the board that I had posted about this in, but I sure don't see one. Oh well, I guess I must be having a premature senior moment. :shock:

As some of you may know, I am a huge Miami Dolphin fan, and in August, 2005, I made a trip to Canton to see my football hero, Dan Marino, be inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame. We decided we needed to make it a true “Hall of Fame” trip and drive on up to Cleveland to also visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It was a great time and if you are ever in the Cleveland area, you don’t want to miss it. We spent a full day in the museum, but definitely would have spent more time if we could have. There were many memorable exhibits, but I’ll focus on the things I can remember about the Eagles memorabilia on display.

The first Eagles-related thing I saw was Don’s original drum set that he used on the first several albums and tours. I don’t know why, but I was kinda awestruck. But, I do remember being very unimpressed with their ugly dark reddish gold color. :wink:

The Eagles exhibit was relatively small, but very cool, nonetheless. Each of the band members had something on display, but I can’t remember everything. The things I do remember are one of Bernie’s acoustic guitars, one of Joe’s electric guitars, and one of Felder’s white Hotel California double necks. There were hand-written lyrics for a couple of songs, which I thought were very cool, but I am bummed because, for the life of me, I can’t remember which songs. I do remember being pretty confident that one of them was in Glenn’s handwriting. There was a football jersey with Joe’s name on it. They also had a pair of Glenn’s patchwork jeans with the same silver belt that he is wearing in the famous ‘Come Hither’ photo. Another thing that was really cool was a very large duffel bag full with hundreds of hotel keys that Timothy “collected” during his days of touring with the band. Man – that was a lot of hotels. :lol:

There was also a James Gang display, but it was in such a small area that I had a difficult time seeing anything. I do remember being jazzed because they were playing Walk Away in that room, which I could hear just fine.

Eva, my biggest disappointment was that the museum did not permit photographs of the exhibits. I wanted to try to snap a quick pic of the Eagles exhibit, but the policy was being strictly enforced. They had museum staff stationed all over to prevent it. This was really puzzling to me, especially since the NFL Hall of Fame had absolutely no restrictions about taking pictures.

Prettymaid
06-30-2009, 07:58 AM
First of all, I could have sworn that there was already a thread about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on the board that I had posted about this in, but I sure don't see one. Oh well, I guess I must be having a premature senior moment. :shock:


Dreamer, I knew you were not crazy - here's the link!


https://www.eaglesonlinecentral.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1280&highlight=rock+roll+hall+fame&page=2

eaglesvet
06-30-2009, 11:40 AM
You know, I looked for a thread on this as well before I started mine...oh well!

Dreamer, too cool on the Eagles display! I would've loved to see Timmy's key collection (I wasn't aware he kept one...), and that silver belt buckle of Glenn's (if he only knew how we entitled that photo!) Also, I really get a kick out of hand-written lyrics! I wonder if that is the main reason for the ban on photos? It seems that those would be the most personal items--and maybe for that reason, the musicians have nixed the photography.

Prettymaid
06-30-2009, 01:09 PM
You know, I looked for a thread on this as well before I started mine...oh well!


No, it's okay EV - this definitely needed its own thread!

I have talked to several friends and family members who have visited the RRHOF in Cleveland. Everybody says to go - it's worth the trip. We'll get there one of these days - maybe even this year!

eaglesvet
06-30-2009, 02:49 PM
I'm definitely going before Spring 2010 ends...Springsteen special exhibit, ya know! :headbang: I might even try for the end of the summer...

Ive always been a dreamer
06-30-2009, 11:59 PM
Thanks for your detective work, PM. I actually thought I had a started a thread and posted about my visit, but I am, obviously, "confused"! :shock: Oh well, I was well-intended. :lol:

And yeah, ev - I'm not sure why the museum doesn't permit photography. It wasn't clear to me whether it was at the request of the artists or not. I really don't understand it. I don't think seeing pictures would deter anyone from visiting - quite the opposite, as a matter of fact.

eaglesvet
07-27-2009, 10:41 AM
There are going to be two special 25th Anniversary Concerts honoring the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at Madison Square Garden in NYC this October. Tickets went on sale this am for American Express Card holders; and for the general public on Aug. 3. On Oct. 29 the concert features Bruce Springsteen, Simon and Garfunkel, CSN and friends, Paul Simon, and Stevie Wonder. On Oct. 30, the concert features Eric Clapton, Aretha Franklin, Metallica, and U2. (Both nights sound like our "Greatest Band" thread to me!) The creative team choreographing the musicians and film clips include Tom Hanks, Robbie Robertson, and Cameron Crowe; and the event will be produced by Joel Gallen (who produces/directs the RRHF inductions and the MTV Music Awards.) Proceeds from the event are going to set up a permanent endowment for the RRHF Foundation and Museum. Sounds fabulous!!

Ive always been a dreamer
07-27-2009, 01:44 PM
Thanks for the heads up on this, ev. Wonder if Tom Hanks and Cameron Crowe can get their good friends, the Eagles, to play one of those events? Now, wouldn't that just be awesome - I would soooo be there!!! :wink:

sodascouts
07-27-2009, 07:50 PM
WOW, that's quite a line-up!!!

eaglesvet
07-27-2009, 08:04 PM
Thanks for the heads up on this, ev. Wonder if Tom Hanks and Cameron Crowe can get their good friends, the Eagles, to play one of those events? Now, wouldn't that just be awesome - I would soooo be there!!! :wink:
Actually, I went back and re-read the press release on Bruce's website, and it does say that the "shows will be packed with guest stars." I just wonder why they aren't listing them in the top billing?? Maybe it's just because they aren't finalized?? I guess we should just keep our heads up!

sodascouts
07-27-2009, 08:20 PM
Cameron Crowe should at least be able to enlist Glenn. He wrote a whole freakin' movie around a character inspired by Glenn!

Freypower
07-27-2009, 11:55 PM
The Eagles don't do this sort of stuff for the most part where they would have to mingle with stars as big as they are. Cynical but true.

eaglesvet
08-03-2009, 02:32 AM
I saw that the 25th Anniversary tix are onsale at 9 AM Monday 8/3 to the general public. Gee, I sure hope they still have some of the "Once in a Lifetime VIP Benefit Packages" left at @ $25K--$100K a pop...I would hate to have to settle for a mere "Special VIP Benefit Package" for only $750--$5000 each. There's no mention of meeting any artist at all in the description of the latter package; I didn't get a chance to read up on the "Once in a Lifetime"---with a name and pricetag like that, I'd sure hope I'd meet at least one musician out of the bunch!!

I probably will just scout out the regular ol' joe tix, and see what's up at the $79--$2500 ticket price range. Well, actually, just the tix in the lowest part of that, come to think of it. I have an inkling the seats may be too nosebleed in those sections, but it's worth at least a look-see!

Prettymaid
08-03-2009, 07:29 AM
Oh EV, go for the Once In A Lifetime VIP package...you're worth it! ;):hilarious:

eaglesvet
08-03-2009, 09:23 AM
Oh brother...I guess they had a wild and wooly AmEx presale for both shows. I logged in at 9:02, thinking I could get a go at 2 tix at either $79 or $150. After running through the motions for "Best Available" (including $230, $450, and $2500 seats)...I couldn't find a pair together anywhere in the house! I would have had to "settle" for a single seat at $2500---granted, it was right at rinkside, front row of the tiered seating. All of the floor seating was taken, as were the "Special VIP Benefit Packages." The "Once in a Lifetime" Package info is only available by phone; so, alas, I cannot afford the time to check that out right now! (Since I cannot afford the pricetag at any one time in my lifetime!)

sodascouts
08-03-2009, 10:48 AM
Dang! That's pricey!

TimothyBFan
08-04-2009, 07:59 AM
Dang! That's pricey!

Dang! That's ridiculous!!!! :-x

eaglesvet
08-05-2009, 11:46 AM
LOL!

Apparently this September there will be a release of a book and a 9-DVD set of all 25 previous RRHF Induction Ceremonies, including footage never before seen by the public. No mention of any future DVD of the Anniversary Concert, however.

Freypower
08-05-2009, 07:26 PM
Well, that surely has to be good if the Eagles' induction ceremony is included! I think it was 1998.

sodascouts
08-05-2009, 08:44 PM
That would be worth a look, definitely! Fleetwood Mac was also that year.

Ive always been a dreamer
09-22-2009, 11:44 AM
I'm reviving this thread because one of our members, bernie's bender, posted a picture of the original lyrics to Peaceful Easy Feeling in another thread. As I said in that thread, I can't be 100% positive, but I'm pretty sure that this is one of the same papers that is on display in the Eagles' HOF exhibit. Thanks for finding this, bender. I think it is uber cool!

https://www.eaglesonlinecentral.com/forum/showthread.php?p=84197#post84197