Subject: Gettin' loaded in the funhouse -- our HoF weekend
Date: Tue, 5 Sep 1995 11:52:48 -400 (EDT)

What a trip!

We drove down to Beachwood Friday, after convincing Paul to come with us.  On
to Saturday, after some debate we decide to drive on in to Cleveland.  Turns
out the roads are totally clear all the way into downtown.  No traffic at all.
The HoF building is beautiful.  We get down there about 1:45, are told they're
not going to let us in until 2:45.  By 2:30, we've seen people taking wedding
pictures outside the building, we've seen more camera crews than we can count,
and the line is stretching all the way around the record grooves of the plaza.
And we're there wondering, "Where's Judi? She was supposed to be here, but I
don't see her!  Where's Judi?"

2:45, and we're in.  Tremendous, tremendous museum!  Start off with the
influences screens, for Bruce we see Woody Guthrie and... oh, hell, I don't
remember, probably Chuck Berry.  Look at the city-by-city displays.  Motown is
seriously shortchanged, and its display contains at least one very glaring
error.  Finally, we make it to the Bruce wall, which he shares with Paul Simon.
On Bruce's side, there's 10-15 people at any time; on Simon's one or two.

Bruce's display includes a signed high school yearbook, several old posters,
some original hand-written lyrics, and so forth.  Included was something
labelled as a setlist from the Darkness on the Edge of Town tour in 1979, but
it did not resemble any setlist I've ever seen (certainly not the one Darkness
show actually played in 1979, in nearby Richfield).  Some of the displays were
incredibly realistic.  On the wall, there was Garry Tallent's bass guitar.  And
there, right near the guitar, standing on the floor, was Garry W. Tallent.  Or,
as Paul said, "Hey Matt, see that guy with the Allman Brothers' manager?  
That's Garry Fucking Tallent!"  So, we went over, said hi, said our thank-yous
and wished him well.  The only bit I actually remember was mentioning to Garry
that I heard he was going to open to show, to which he gave a big smile and
said, "Yes.  Me and Chuck!"

After greeting Garry, back to the Bruce display, and reading some of the lyrics.
How about these lines, from "Backstreets":  "Gettin' loaded at the funhouse,
Hittin' on the fags."  ???  Lots of raised eyebrows, and a screech from our own
Susan West.  One guy insisted that Bruce was talking about cigarettes. 

I'm told there are 6 floors to the museum, but we never made it out of the main
exhibit hall.  We'll be back in 6 weeks to see the rest.  At 5pm we made it to
the cocktail party, for which there was a single serving table, with food
selections that went something like this:  traif, traif, traif, boring, traif,
traif, strawberries.  We made it out of there as soon as we got our drinks, and
headed for Fagan's.

Passed the stadium along the way, and, and, is that Bruce's voice wafting out?
Oh, yes it is!  They're checking "Johnny B. Goode," and it's coming through
clear as a bell.  Dilemna time:  stay, or go to Fagan's?  Well, we decide to 
meet up with the folks at Fagan's, and though most of the folks have left by
the time we arrive, there's still time to meet Chris, Michelle, Lisa, 
David and Kevin (and one or two others whose names escape me at the 
moment), and to down a beer before heading back for the concert.

The show?  The opening was great, the sound sucked.  With TAFKAP, Snoop and Dre
off the bill, and with Europe represented only by the Kinks and Eric Burdon,
it was fairly heavily lopsided toward white American rock and roll.  If there
was a non-white or non-American headliner under age 50 in the line-up, I cannot
recall who it was, but we got plenty of Bon Jovi, Sheryl Crow, John Mellencamp
and Natalie Merchant, just to name a few.  This also turned out to be a zero
Elvis content show.  No songs, no mentions in the classic clips, nothing.  The
show went on too long, the in-house camera work was pathetic, and, as already
noted, the ending was a wretched version of "Rock and Roll Music."

Still, there were highlights seemingly by the dozen, more than I can recall.
Al Green was great.  John Fogerty torched the place with "Fortunate Son."
Bruce Hornsby turned in a poignant tribute to Jerry Garcia; during "Scarlet
Begonias" one could count the crowd's deadheads with little problem.  The
Gin Blossoms turned in surprisingly strong covers of the Beatles and Byrds.
Bob Dylan stayed a bit long, but just as I was thinking, "Bob, that's fine,
now let someone else have the stage," he introduced Bruce -- "OK, Bob, stay!"
Little Richard should get a medal for getting the crowd to dance a 2am.

As for Bruce, well, did that whet anyone's appetite for a tour, or what?  No,
it wasn't the greatest performance I've ever seen.  "Shake, Rattle and Roll"
was completely unrecognizable from my locaton until the second verse, and he
seemed tight until Killer hit the stage.  "Darkness" seemed an odd choice, but
the performance of it was so good I won't complain.  Anyone see the smile on
Clarence's face just before the "She's the One" solo?  And Bruce didn't exactly
seem upset by that fan, did he?

--Matt