Behind the Scenes: "Rolling Stones: 50 Years of Satisfaction"
An exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the making of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum's new exhibit highlighting 50 years of the Rolling Stones. The exhibit, Rolling Stones: 50 Years of Satisfaction, opens to the public on May 24, 2013, and will span three floors, more than 4,000 square feet and feature hundreds of items -- instruments, clothes, handwritten correspondence, art, photographs and more -- from the Rolling Stones' amazing history as the "World's Greatest Rock and Roll Band."
Watch the video below for a sneak peek at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum's new Rolling Stones exhibit.
War's Lonnie Jordan Talks Music, Playing with Eric Burdon and Jimi Hendrix's Final Performance
The six founding members of War – the late Papa Dee Allen and Charles Miller, survivors Harold Brown, B.B. Dickerson, Lonnie Jordan and Howard Scott – were gigging around L.A. for nearly a decade before hooking up with Eric Burdon (ex-Animals) and Danish harmonica player Lee Oskar in 1969. Burdon and producer Jerry Goldstein named them War, and they backed it up with a steamy Afro-Latin R&B groove that rocked their debut hit “Spill The Wine.” Less than two years later, Burdon dropped out and War went their own way in 1971. A long string of Top 10 pop/R&B crossover hits established War’s status through the Seventies, always with a social message grounded by their distinctively breezy Southern California vibe. In this interview with War founding member Lonnie Jordan, he shares his first memories of playing, how War first connected with Eric Burdon and jamming with Jimi Hendrix during what would be his last public performance.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: How did you first become interested in playing music?
Lonnie Jordan: As a kid, I used to watch old black-and-white movies. Now keep in mind I'll be 65 this year, so when ...
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Interviews Oliver Stone
Interview with award-winning filmmaker Oliver Stone, who visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio, and sat down with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame after his visit to share his impressions of the Museum, learning more about the roots of rock and roll, the history of rock and roll and the films featured in the exhibits; as well as hearing Motown for the first time in Vietnam; a time when rock and roll was "trashed," the importance of preserving pop culture, how "music is supposed to transcend" and more. Click here to plan your visit to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum this summer!
In the Lab with Les Paul
I began my internship at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum’s Library and Archives expecting to be busy with basic preservation tasks and minor conservation duties, such as creating enclosures for documents and rehousing materials. What I ended up doing instead was much more exciting, and it provided me with a much richer internship experience than I ever imagined.
I began by preparing the conservation lab, creating a conservation policy and expanding on the Library and Archives’ existing conservation manual. With everything in place, it was time to work on the collection most in need of treatment: the Les Paul Papers. The papers were in rough shape at the time of acquisition, as many of the documents and files were moldy and covered in rust from old staples and paper clips. The items with the most obvious mold damage were bagged and placed in quarantine until they could be cleaned, but mold seemed to be everywhere I looked in the collection.
Cleaning mold is not a simple task and requires special care and technique. Wearing personal protective equipment, including gloves, goggles, mask and apron, I carefully cleaned each item in the collection with conservation grade sponges ...
At the Library and Archives: Storm Thorgerson Retrospectives
Storm Thorgerson, arguably best known as the designer of Pink Floyd’s album cover for Dark Side of the Moon, died Thursday, April 18, 2013, after a battle with cancer. He was both a close friend to the band and integral to their artistic vision. The Library and Archives has two compendiums of his career, which lasted from the 1960s well into 2012. The first, Mind Over Matter : the Images of Pink Floyd, concentrates on his breakthrough work with the influential rock band and 1996 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees. The second is a lavish, limited edition set by Genesis Publications called Taken by Storm : the Album Art of Storm Thorgerson (pictured below), which features a 203-page book edited by Thorgerson himself, as well as full-color prints, a bonus retrospective book on SunStorm Studios and a 3-D Viewmaster of cover images.
The Library and Archives also holds several album cover collections edited and compiled by Thorgerson:
Classic album Covers of the 60s / compiled and written by Storm Thorgerson
Album Cover Album / edited by Storm Thorgerson & Roger Dean
Album Cover Album : the Second Volume / edited by Storm Thorgerson, Roger Dean & David Howells
Album Cover Album : 5 / compiled by Roger ...
At the Library and Archives: The Smith Tapes 1969-1972
Howard Smith was a man both on the scene and of the scene in late-1960s New York. As a photographer, columnist and broadcaster, Smith immersed himself in the emerging subculture of music and art while maintaining a keen journalist’s eye on the revolution happening around him. The interviews that comprise the set, The Smith Tapes 1969-1972, recently acquired by the Library and Archives, are raw, unedited recordings with those at the forefront of the hippie subculture as well as the era’s rock superstars, including John Lennon, Abbie Hoffman, Lou Reed, the authors of Hair, and Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper talking about their new film Easy Rider.
Within this compelling collection there are some true gems. A USB flash drive – cleverly housed in a replica audio cassette with faux-stained labels – contains a collection of reports from the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival, where Smith describes both the serenity of the fans and the struggle of organizers amidst the rain and near-overwhelming crowds. On one of the final discs in the collection is a brief phone interview with Janis Joplin who, when questioned about the burgeoning women’s liberation movement, initially dismisses it but encourages women not to settle ...
Celebrating Record Store Day In Cleveland – and Beyond
I’m a native Clevelander, and have always been a keen record shopper. I bought my first record with my own money, Lulu’s “To Sir, With Love,” at the Disc record store in Severance Center mall, across from the cinema where my Mom and I had just seen the movie starring Sidney Poitier. As a kid I shopped ‘em all: Record Revolution and the Record Exchange on Coventry Road in Cleveland Heights; Tommy Edward’s Record Heaven in the Memphis-Fulton Shopping Center in Cleveland and the venerable Record Rendezvous in downtown Cleveland, among others.
When I moved to New York City in the late Seventies, my record jones sent me out on regular excursions around Greenwich Village, both east and west. Sounds on St. Mark’s Place was my East Village haunt, while Bleeker Bob’s, closer to the West Side, was a little more out of the way. It took awhile for me to warm up to Bleeker's – or rather – for the store to warm up to me. I experienced my own ...
Inside the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
On April 18, 2013, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame officially ushers the 2013 class of inductees into the Hall of Fame during the 28th annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. The class – Lou Adler, Heart, Quincy Jones, Albert King, Randy Newman, Public Enemy, Rush and Donna Summer – are represented in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland's newest exhibit. In the series of clips below, get a behind the scenes look at the 2013 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductees exhibit. Visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum to see the new exhibit!
