Latest / The Red Solo Traveler Podcast / They Put the Rock Hall in Cleveland for a Radio Night. The Pyramid Opened Nine Years Later

Transcript

They Put the Rock Hall in Cleveland for a Radio Night. The Pyramid Opened Nine Years Later · The Red Solo Traveler Podcast

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Why does a multi-million dollar glass pyramid dedicated to, you know,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: the most rebellious music in history just sit on the
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: freezing shores.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Of Lake Erie?
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 0:19
  Speaker 4: It's a great question.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: I mean, welcome to the Red Solo Traveler podcast, everyone.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: Because if you've ever looked at that striking IMP pyramid
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: sitting on North Coast Harbor in Cleveland and just wondered,
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: you know, why isn't this in New York or L.A.? Well,
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: you're asking the exact same question every single visitor asks
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: before they even buy a ticket.
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, they all ask it. It's the first thing on
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: your mind when the wind hits you off the lake.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Exactly. And to answer it, we really have to explore
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: the source material today. We have to go all the
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: way back to 1952, specifically to a radio DJ, a
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: totally overbooked arena. And a concert that was just shut
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: down by the police before it even really began.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: The origin story of that pyramid is, I mean, it's
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: basically a masterclass in how cultural shifts actually happen in
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: real time. Right. Because in the early 1950s, the music
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: industry was, you know, it was rigidly segregated.
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: It just was.
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: But then you have this local Cleveland record store owner
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: named Leo Mintz.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: The record rendezvous guy, right?
• 1:13
  Speaker 4: Exactly. He ran record rendezvous.
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: And Mintz starts noticing this massive crack in that segregation.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: He's watching the demographics change right inside his own store.
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: White teenagers were coming in and specifically asking for rhythm
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: and blues records.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: Oh, wow.
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but Mintz had this huge logistical problem. To get
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: those records played on mainstream radio to actually get past
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: the cultural date keepers of that era, the music desperately needed.
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: A new label.
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: The old industry terms just carried way too much racial
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: and cultural baggage for the mainstream stations.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: Okay, so Mintz teams up with this guy named Alan Freed, who...
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: was working the midnight radio shift on WJW in Cleveland.
• 1:53
  Speaker 4: Right. The late shift.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And Freed starts playing these records. And crucially, he
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: puts this new phrase out into the public sphere. He
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: just starts calling it rock and roll.
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: He basically forces the rebrand over the airwaves.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: He really does. And then they decide they need to
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: test this new branding in the real world. So on
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: March 21st, 1952, Freed and Mintz put on a show
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: at the Cleveland Arena.
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: The Moondog Coronation Ball.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: Yes, exactly.
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: And I mean, the response was entirely unprecedented. They promoted
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: this event on late night radio and just far, far
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: more people showed up than the Cleveland Arena could legally
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: or frankly, physically hold.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: Just total mob scene.
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: Complete chaos. The crowd overfilled the venue. They completely overwhelmed
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: the doors. Just total chaos ensued. So the fire marshal
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: and local authorities shut the entire show down almost as
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: soon as it started. And historians widely treat that specific
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: chaotic night in Cleveland as the very first major rock
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: concert in the country.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: OK, let's unpack this, because I think people get this
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: twisted all the time. And it's a trap we really
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: need to avoid for you listening at home.
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a huge misconception.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: Being the site of the first major rock concert is
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: absolutely not the same sentence as saying rock and roll
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: was invented here.
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: No, not at all.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's like capturing lightning in a bottle. Cleveland
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: didn't invent the lightning. The lightning... The music itself was
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: already moving organically through Memphis and Detroit and New Orleans.
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: Exactly. It was already everywhere.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: Cleveland just provided the bottle. They named it in public.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: They put it in a room. And then the bottle
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: immediately exploited.
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah. And that distinction is what separates the myth from
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: the actual history. Cleveland's claim to the museum isn't invention.
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: It's recognition.
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: It's recognition followed by this uncontainable enthusiasm. They proved, quite
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: violently in 1952... that the public demand for this music
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: was explosive.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: It couldn't be ignored by the mainstream industry anymore.
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: Right, exactly.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: But wait, if Cleveland proves the concept in 1952, how
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: in the world do we get to a massive, multi-million
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: dollar glass pyramid on the waterfront decades later?
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: Well, that's where it gets complicated.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: Because the institution, the Rock Hall, actually has a bit
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: of a split personality today, doesn't it? The physical building
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: was absolutely not a straight line from that concert.
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: Oh, far from it.
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: I mean, the Hall of Fame itself actually started as
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: a New York idea. Yeah.
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: Fast forward to 1983.
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: You have Ahmet Erdogan, the legendary head of Atlantic Records,
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: along with a tight circle of these music industry power
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: players like Jan Winner of Rolling Stone. They formed the
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation. And their initial
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: vision was to create a shrine, but they wanted it close.
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: To the industry.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: Meaning New York City.
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: Exactly. They envisioned it right there in New York.
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: And the physical reality of the hall started there too, right?
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: I mean, the first induction class wasn't anywhere near Ohio.
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: No, not at all.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: It happened on January 23, 1986.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: They held this formal dinner at the Waldorf Astoria in
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: New York.
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: Right, very fancy.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: We're talking about an incredibly prestigious industry dinner in a
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: Manhattan ballroom where they inducted just absolute titans. Chuck Berry,
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: James Brown, Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, Fats Domino, Little Richard,
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: and yes, Alan Freed is a non-performer.
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: Yet, despite all that star power, the museum still had
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: no physical address. They had the foundation, they had this
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: incredible roster of inductees, but literally no building to put
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: their plaques in.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: Just a concept at that point.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: And suddenly the realization hit that this could be a
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: major cultural tourist attraction. And every major city wanted it.
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: New York just assumed.
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: They would get it.
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: But San Francisco, Memphis, Chicago, and Philadelphia all threw their
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: hats in the ring.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: So how did a Rust Belt city pull this off
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: against New York and Chicago? I mean, they must have
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: treated it like a massive political campaign.
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: They treated it like a civic crusade. Cleveland decided they
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: were simply not going to lose this bid. The city
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: launched a massive, aggressive campaign, leveraging the exact same local
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: radio power that sparked the Moondog coronation.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: Let's go circle.
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: Exactly.
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: Local DJs rallied listeners. They completely stacked a USA Today
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: poll by organizing phone banks. They collected hundreds of thousands
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: of signatures on petitions passed around at grocery stores and malls.
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: And crucially, local leaders put serious concrete public money on
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: the table to back up the enthusiasm.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: So they basically told the New York Foundation, hey, we
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: sold the Radio Night in 1952. We sold the concert
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: that got shut down. And if you give us the bid,
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: we will actually build the physical monument.
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: That was the pitch.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: And it worked. On May 5, 1986, the foundation officially
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: picked Cleveland to host the physical building.
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: Right. And what's fascinating here is the sheer gap in
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: time that follows. It is vital that you don't collapse
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: this timeline in your head because the struggle to build
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: it is entirely part of its DNA.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the timeline is wild.
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: They win the bid in 1986. They commission the world-renowned
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: architect I.M. Pei to design the Striking Glass Pyramid. But
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: groundbreaking doesn't even happen until June 7, 1993.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: And the doors don't finally open to the public until
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: September 2, 1995.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: Nine years.
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: Exactly nine years of waiting, arguing, and planning, from the
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: vote to the day the public actually walked through the
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: doors of that pyramid.
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: It was a massive undertaking.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: And that split personality from the 1980s still exists today,
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: doesn't it?
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: Oh, absolutely.
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: It dictates the entire rhythm of the institution. The induction
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: dinner never permanently moved into the pyramid. The party and
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: the building are totally divorced.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the dinner still travels. Like the upcoming class of 2026,
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: for example, is going to be named and honored out
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: in Los Angeles on November 14th.
• 7:28
  Speaker 4: Right, out in L.A.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: But the glass pyramid, that stays firmly anchored on the
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: lake in Cleveland. The industry party moves around the country,
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: but the building that has to stand for the argument
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: stays put. That is definitely the second beat of this
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: whole story.
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: And that concept of the argument is the central lens
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: through which you really have to view the Rock and
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: Roll Hall of Fame. Because the dinner travels and the
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: building stays, the hall is inherently a place of friction.
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: The ballot fight itself is not a bug in the system.
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: So think about that band you love, you know, the
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: one you've streamed thousands of hours of, the one that
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: changed your life. Now imagine an invisible committee in New
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: York telling you they aren't rock enough to matter.
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that stings.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: That's the frustration purists feel. Which is exactly why the
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: ballot fight is the actual museum experience. It's not just
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: some pre-show rant you have in the parking lot. Arguing
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: about who is in and who is out is the
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: fundamental interaction you were meant to have with the building.
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: You only get one pass at it.
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: And the mechanics of that frustration are just built right
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: into how the foundation operates. The nominating room is not
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: a public ledger.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: Right, it's a secret.
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: Exactly. It's a closed-door process run by a specific subset
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: of industry insiders, historians, and musicians. You see the tension
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: constantly because the original voting body had heavily defined biases.
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: Classic rock names arrived early and often, just completely.
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: Dominating the early classes.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: Oh, for sure.
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: But when the institution widens the lens to include alternative
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: or hip-hop or pop acts, purists get incredibly angry, arguing
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: about the definition of the genre.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: The timeline of who gets in when. is just so
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: weird as a result. Like, look at Phil Collins as
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: the perfect named example of this lag.
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: Oh, Phil Collins is a great example.
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: He was inducted with Genesis back in 2010, but he
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: had to wait until the class of 2026 to be
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: inducted as a solo artist.
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: Such a long wait.
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: And the author of our source material was actually walking
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: through the building in May of 2026, living right in
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: that strange gap, just occupying the space between the April
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: press release announcing Collins' solo induction and the upcoming November
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: speeches in L.A.
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: That gap is the Hall of Fame in miniature, really.
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: Everyone agrees the work is already monumental, you know. Everyone
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: agrees the artist belongs. But the cultural gatekeeping of the
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: ballot just takes an entire generation to finally say the
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: name twice.
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: And then there are the people who are just left
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: outside entirely, despite massive public support. Like our source mentions
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: voting for Toto on their phone at a kiosk in
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: the museum.
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: Yeah, just a fan on a phone.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: It's literally just a vote on his phone, not some
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: massive organized campaign. Toto gave us Hold the Line. They
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: gave us Rosanna. They did massive legendary session work behind
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: countless other artists' hits. And yet they remain completely outside
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: the hall.
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: Still waiting.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: But wait, I have to push back here. If millions
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: of people want a band like Toto in and a
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: secret committee in New York just ignores them, isn't that
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: just a broken system? Why visit a museum that doesn't
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: listen to its own visitors?
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: Well, if we connect this to the bigger picture, you
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: have to realize that a hall of fame that lets
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: the public yell into the process, you know, vote on touchscreens,
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: scream about who deserves to be in, and then largely
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: ignores that yell it, is actually functioning exactly as intended.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: Wait, really?
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: That is the process, the argument, the pushback, the friction
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: between the establishment making a choice and the public revolting
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: against it. That is the very ethos of rock and
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: roll itself. If everyone just agreed on who got in,
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: it would be a mausoleum, not a rock hall.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: OK, the argument is the lifeblood of the place. So
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: at the ballot, it's just one big generational argument that
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: takes decades to settle. How does a physical building actually
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: contain that tension? You can't just stare at glass boxes forever.
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: No, you can't.
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: So the museum handles this by focusing your physical journey.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: If you want to understand the thesis of this museum,
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: you really only need to pay attention to three specific rooms.
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: Right. The architecture channels that emotional friction perfectly. When you arrive,
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: you pay your admission upstairs, and then they immediately send
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: you down into the depths to the main permanent floor.
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: Here's where it gets really interesting. The very first thing
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: you should do is go to the roots cases downstairs.
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: Even if you only came to see the Beatles exhibits or,
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: I don't know, your favorite 90s grunge band, you need
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: to start at zero. This room is dedicated to gospel, blues, country, folk,
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: and early rhythm and blues.
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: And it is the most vital room in the building
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: for understanding the institution's underlying philosophy. This room is the
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: hall's own physical, permanent argument against the people who constantly
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: complain that the museum has gotten too wide by including hip-hop.
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: Or pop artists today.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: It sets the record straight.
• 12:11
  Speaker 4: Exactly.
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: By starting the entire physical journey with gospel and blues,
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: the hall proves that rock and roll was always a bigger,
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: more inclusive room than just the traditional guitar bands who
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: later sued to try and keep the name for themselves.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it has always been a collision of different sounds
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: from the very beginning. In May 2026, the building featured
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: a temporary Saturday Night Live 50 years of music exhibit
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: with screens and costumes, but it will eventually leave. So
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: once you understand the roots, you venture deeper into the
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: floor and hit the second essential room, the 1984 gallery.
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: And the 1984 gallery is fascinating in its curation. It
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: isn't laid out calmly or chronologically at all. It's designed
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: to feel like a massive pileup.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: Wait, a pileup? Isn't a museum supposed to be carefully curated, neat,
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: and organized? Why design an exhibit to feel chaotic?
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: Because the year itself was chaotic. The room visually represents
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: the sheer density of creative output from that specific moment
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: in time. I mean, you had Bruce Springsteen releasing Born
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: in the USA and Prince releasing Purple Rain arriving in
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: the exact same season.
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: That's just wild to think about.
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the curation reflects the feeling of too many massive
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: culture-shifting records that simply refuse to wait their turn. The
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: production techniques and the sheer theatricality of those artists created
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: a template that modern music still uses today.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: And the power of that room isn't just nostalgia for
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: people who lived through the 80s. The shock of the
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: 1984 gallery is realizing that those singles still work perfectly today.
• 13:38
  Speaker 4: They absolutely hold up.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: Okay, so you have the roots showing where the music
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: came from and 1984 showing how massive and chaotic it
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: could get. But eventually, you need an outlet for all
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: that energy. The third room is where the museum actually
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: stops acting like a museum. We have to talk about
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: the Minoff Family Garage.
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: Oh, the garage is a brilliant psychological shift for the visitor.
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: It moves you from a passive observer of history to
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: an active participant.
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: You actually get to play. Right.
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: It features three distinct bays, including Willie's Acoustic Lounge and
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Studio. It is essentially
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: a space where you are actively encouraged to pick up
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: an instrument.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: It's basically a highly funded karaoke bar where you can
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: overcommit to a guitar or a drum kit and just
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: make an absolute fool of yourself in public.
• 14:24
  Speaker 4: Pretty much.
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: And honestly, that is the most correct rock and roll
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: education you can possibly get.
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: Oh, absolutely.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: The vulnerability of it is the whole point. You stand there,
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: watch strangers walk in, miss a chord, laugh it off,
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: and you just walk out a little lighter. Because while
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: all the untouchable clacks and artifacts upstairs tell you who
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: got in, the garage is the only room that tells
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: you why anyone ever bothered to pick up an instrument
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: in the first place.
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: It completely democratizes the experience, doesn't it? You realize that
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: before there were legends encased in glass, every single person
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: honored in that building was just a kid in a
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: garage making a terrible noise until it sounded good.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: The contrast between the perfection of the artifacts and the
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: raw terrible noise of a beginner downstairs is what bridges
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: the gap between the fan and the rock star.
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: So after you've certainly exhausted and embarrassed yourself on the
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: drums in the garage, you need some inspiration. You need
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: to see how the actual pros do it when everything clicks.
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: And that brings us to the grand finale of the
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: Visit the Conner Theater.
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: And the Conner Theater is included in your ticket. It
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: runs a 15-minute film called The Power of Rock. It's
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: a compilation of highlights from various induction nights over the years.
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: But it is not just a movie. It is an
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: entirely sensory experience designed to completely overwhelm you.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: The room actually moves.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: The screen physically grows as the film progresses. And the
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: floor beneath you physically thumps with the base of the
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: live performances.
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: And it all builds to this one specific, undeniable climax.
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: The film ends with the legendary 2004 induction ceremony performance
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: of the Beatles, while my guitar gently weeps.
• 16:02
  Speaker 4: An unbelievable moment.
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: You have this absolute supergroup on stage. Prince, Tom Petty,
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: Jeff Lynn, Steve Winwood, and George Harrison's son, Donnie Harrison.
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: This raises an important question, though. Out of all the
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: decades of performances, all the incredible jams the Hall has
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: facilitated since that first dinner in 1986, why does the
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: film end on this specific moment? Why does the single
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: performance matter so much to the thesis of the museum?
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: Well, is it just because Prince's guitar solo at the
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: end of that track is technically brilliant? Because it is, frankly,
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: one of the greatest solos ever captured on film.
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: It is technically brilliant, yes, but on a deeper level,
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: it showcases the absolute unifying power of the music.
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: How so?
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: Think about the people on that stage. You are looking
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: at a room full of massive, historically significant egos. These
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: are people used to being the center of their own universes,
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: and for those few minutes, they perfectly align. They surrender
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: their egos to serve the song. It captures the exact
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: magic the museum is trying to preserve. that moment when
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: the music is bigger than the personalities playing it.
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: So what does this all mean? When you strip away
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: the glass pyramid, the arguments over the ballot, the touchscreens
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: voting for Toto, and the traveling induction dinners, what is
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: the true thesis of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?
• 17:17
  Speaker 4: It's pretty profound when you get down to it.
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: I think it boils down to this. There are some
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: people in this world you will never ever settle an
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: election with. You will never agree on politics or religion
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: or how the world should be run. You will, however...
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: Settle a record with them in one single song.
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: That is the only brief the building needs to exist.
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: You can stand next to a total stranger in the
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: Connor Theater, someone who you disagree with on every fundamental level.
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: But when that Prince solo hits, you are both nodding
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: your heads to the exact same rhythm.
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: The Hall of Fame is polarizing, precisely because music is polarizing.
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: It brings out our deepest passions and our fiercest loyalties.
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: And despite all the arguments over who belongs, despite the
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: foundation originally wanting it in New York, and despite the
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: agonizing nine-year wait to get the doors open, Cleveland kept
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: the pyramid anyway.
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: They sure did.
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: They anchored it to the freezing shores of the lake,
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: and they just kept the generational argument going.
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: Which leaves you, the listener, with something to really mull
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: over today. Think about the music that serves as a
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: neutral ground in your own life. When you're with the
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: people you disagree with the most, what is the music
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: you can put on that stops the fighting? What is
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: the one song or the one record that acts as
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: your personal glass pyramid?
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: That permanent structure that survives all the passing arguments.
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: Exactly. The song that just lets you exist together in
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: the music.
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: Find your glass pyramid. Thank you all so much for
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: joining us on the Red Solo Traveler podcast. Keep listening,
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: keep arguing about the ballot, and keep exploring. Until next time.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: Music Thank you.