Something has had the Dogg upset for years. Its been chewing on me like a pitbull on a hot dog. How in the hell did Detroit mange to lose the Hall of Fame to Cleveland? Since this has been bothering me for over 10 years, I thought, why not have the Dogg bark out a rant?
Let's examine the merits of the Cleveland contribution to Rock & Roll. Let me see, there was a pretty good band back in the 60's called the "James Gang". OK, but who else. I came up with the Michael Stanley Band, and a couple of other basic one hit wonders. Compared to Detroit: Ted Nugent, Amboy Dukes, Rare Earth, Bob Seger, Four Tops, Temptations, Stevie Wonder, all of Motown, The Frost, Kid Rock, Eminenem, The Rockets, Grand Funk (though technically from Flint), and on and on. Bands like Kiss, Aerosmith, and J. Geils adopted us big time. There is no comparison!
Then lets examine concert venues: The Grande Ballroom, Eastown, Cinderella Ballroom, Ford Theater, Cobo Hall, Joe Louis, Fox Theater, The Filmore, Majestic, St. Andrews Hall, Clutch Cargos, Pine Knob, Meadowbrook, Freedom Hill, Phoenix Center Amphitheater, Magic Bag, Crofoot Ballroom, Crisler Arena, Masonic Temple, Silverdome, Ford Field, Comerica Park, Tiger Stadium, The Blind Pig, Harpos, and on and on.
Cleveland..... well they have Munincipal Stadium, Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland State Auditorium, The Blue Note, and?????? Well, at least you have "The Flats"! Oh I forgot, they are mostly closed now. Oh well, you can always light your river on fire again for kicks.
There is no artist, big or small that would ever consider bypassing Detroit on a tour. Cleveland, well... if you pay us a bit extra, we might spin by for a set or two.
The Dogg calls it like he see's it. The politicians in Detroit at the time put forth no real effort to land this project. Had a man with foresight like Roger Penske been around then, we'd have won it for sure. I propose that the metro area embraces a Riverfront competitor to Cleveland's Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. We could call it "Rock -n-Roll & Rythem & Blues Hall of Fame". We do not need a shiny new upside down pyramid type building. Since Detroit is the home of Rock and Roll and Rhythm & Blues, we know the origins of this music was in small gritty garages, dingy basements, clubs, and industrial style halls. I propose we convert the Ford Auditorium in the new Hall of Fame. At least study the feasibility of it. It is my belief that Detroit area musicians would be happy to endow part of the costs. Hell, add $.50 to all concert ticket sales and this would generate approx $4,000,000.00 per year.
Tell me what you think! The Dogg wants to hear some barking on this subject.
The ostensible reason for granting Cleveland the Hall of Fame is because of a deejay Alan Freed coining the term rock and roll there.
ReplyDeletePretty shaky stuff, but what can you do?
The Hall of Fame is pretty expensive, and only so-so as a museum-going experience. Detroit's museums are already suffering financial setbacks in this economy, so I don't see how adding another would be particularly helpful at this juncture. I'd be surprised if the HOF in Cleveland is even making money at this point.
Better than another museum would be to rotate special music-related exhibits at one of the existing Detroit museums. This way, a permanent exhibition of materials does not need to be maintained. Patrons are also more inclined to visit museums for new special exhibits than to see the same permanent stock that's been there for years.
I nominate the Detroit History Museum as the best place for this line of thinking. They could probably use the space currently devoted to fashions throughout the century.
As ususal you offer some insights that make sense. As ususal, we will debate this in the future (its what we do). The RRHOF is not making money and never has. It operates on endowments and sucking on the public tit. Detroit can do it better!
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