Today was all about music and it turned out to be in chronological order. My first visit was to Hitsville, USA, which was the first Motown studio. They do a very comprehensive tour of the of both the genesis and the growth of the industry. Berry Gordy Jr's family history is discussed, how he started with $800 and made $2,000,000 the first year. How everyone did multiple jobs, the contributions of people like Smokey Robinson. Many of the early great performers were friends from the neighborhood and school where Berry Gordy grew up. The tour guide discussed the growth of the business until it out grew the buildings that they kept buying in the neighborhood. They moved the production part of the business to California but left much of the business end in Detroit.
My next stop was the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. The last time I was in Cleveland I was busy selling UU Communion wafers, aka Biscotti. I wandered around the Hall of Fame for about 90 minutes and some of it made me very nostalgic. They had a huge display for Elvis which didn't interest me at all. I have never been an Elvis fan and so of course the largest exhibit was for Elvis. They had a short film about the roots of the Rock & Roll going back to early, early Black music and then what was Country Western music, to the Blues. They had costumes from all sorts of people, which are called uniforms by the Motown group. I took pictures before I found out I wasn't allowed to take them. They had a great exhibit from the 60's, including Janis Joplin's porsche. The Jimi Hendrix exhibit was very impressive and I wish I hadn't already been caught taking pictures. I got there late so I couldn't do the whole museum as they were about to close. But the Kaplan ears had had about all they could stand anyway. The music was way too loud. But it turned out to be a great day.
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