Visiting the MC5 Inductee Exhibit at the Rock Hall

About a week ago I finally made it to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to see the MC5’s section of the new inductee exhibit. I’ve been trying to get there since November because it’s not a permanent exhibit – many of the items are on temporary loan – and there’s literally no way to know how long it will be there. I have a lot of thoughts on that but first I’d like to just talk about the exhibit.

The new inductee exhibit is on the third floor, in an U-shaped alcove across from the stations where fans can (allegedly) cast their votes for who should be in the Rock Hall, and adjacent to the “signature gallery” for the inducted members. This exhibit included everybody, so you had the MC5 next to Suzanne DePasse on one side and Big Mama Thornton on the other. I was not mad at that placement because it meant that they weren't stuck between, idk, Foreigner and the Dave Matthews Band. The MC5 exhibit is substantial and takes up a large corner of the display; the only other artist that had that large of a display was Kool & the Gang, who got the other corner of the room. (I could probably write a whole essay on how much space each newly inducted artist got but someone else can fight that fight.)

As you enter the gallery at a short distance, the sequins are what give it away and then Wayne Kramer’s American flag guitar confirms it.There are instruments from all four members, which is more than I can say for anyone else in the exhibit, but those are honestly not the most interesting things in the exhibit, from my perspective. Given what we all learned about the band’s stage clothing from the book, I am even more intensely interested in anything the Five wore onstage.

I think my favorite thing in the entire exhibit is the SONIC bowtie, a thing I was completely unaware existed until this moment.

And Rob Tyner’s outfit that he wore onstage at Tartar Field (the white pants and black top in the image above) has particular resonance because we’ve all seen that footage. (Or if you haven't, there's no time like the present. Enjoy!) 

But also, Rob Tyner’s authentic bull fighter’s cape! Adjacent to artifacts from Michael Davis.

And there are not one but two sparkly jackets, one of which you can see above, but also this one!

There are also lyric sheets and original artwork!

I’m annoyed that I don’t have better photographs of the lyric sheets, which is why they are not here for you to see, sorry. In my defense I was trying to get on the road by 2pm because Detroit was getting a snowstorm.

If you saw the reel that was going around before the induction where Jackson Smith was talking about his dad's stuff, here it is on display!

What I disliked about the exhibit: it is in a small space, everything was crammed together, and everything was under low light which I get might be very necessary for archival reasons, but it wasn’t just me not being able to see because I am old, because everyone who walked through the exhibit in the 40 or so minutes I was there complained that they couldn’t see things. 

Nothing was labelled well or in a manner that was easy to take in. It looked like there were some kind of signs that were meant to be backlit with the names of each artist, but the backlighting didn’t work so there was absolutely no large indication of whose exhibit belonged to who. While I did hear too many people walking through saying versions of, “I have no idea who any of these people are,” they were also in the exact place where they should have been able to ameliorate that information deficit! But there was nothing available to make that easy for them to do.

The other issue was that instead of having written cards next to every item (which you probably wouldn’t have been able to read because of the low light), instead there were electronic displays that had information about each artifact, but they rotated descriptions. So you’d barely finish reading one description and then the next one would rotate in. You’d have to look up, orient yourself, then look down again and sometimes while doing that it would rotate to the next item. This is the reason I was in the exhibit for almost an hour, because I was trying to read everything. 

Anyone who does research in library archives these days knows that the best thing you can do in those circumstances, when you’ve travelled a distance and made an appointment to see material and you have to get in and out in a set time, is that you just take photos of everything with your phone and sort it out later. I should not have to do that at the Rock Hall! The people who didn’t know who anyone was? Should have been able to glance down at the electronic display and quickly learn who the MC5 were. They were not going to stand there for almost an hour like I did. They were going to look at the shiny things and keep moving. 

There was also a very limited musical soundtrack that rotated through each of the inductees. I stood there for a very, very long time convinced that there was no MC5 on the tape because they weren't inducted as performers before finally hearing "Kick Out The Jams." Headphones adjacent to each exhibit would have been extremely helpful in, again, telling the full story and giving each inductee the respect they deserved.

I still don’t know if any of these items -- from the MC5 or anyone else in the exhibit -- are permanent, if they were all loaned because of the induction, if anything in the exhibit was from the permanent collection. I know that as a journalist I could try reaching out to the Rock Hall to find out the answers to these questions, but I should not have to do that! It should be clearer! HELP US CARE ABOUT OUR HISTORY. This is our history, too! Rock and roll doesn’t exist in a vacuum. If no one had been listening to Alan Freed on the radio this fucking building on the shores of Lake Erie wouldn’t even exist. 

I know this is about the time where I will get an email or a DM from someone who will tell me that the people who work at the Rock Hall have limited resources or they’re all very nice and they really care about their jobs. We need to be able to constructively criticize things! This is not a personal attack on the people who work there; this isn’t even a personal attack on the people who are in charge of the joint. But if we’re expected to give a fuck about this institution and this institution is going to hold themselves up as these great cultural arbiters, then they need to fund the Rock Hall properly so it can do its job. 

I keep comparing this to the time I went to the Country Music Hall of Fame 10 years ago when I was in Nashville for a wedding. I didn’t have a lot of extra time in town, it was the first time I had been there in decades, but I felt like I couldn't come to Nashville and not go to the Ryman and see the museum. I am not even an enormous country music fan, but the museum was an exceptional experience and I will absolutely go back there the next opportunity I have.

It was comfortable. It was easy to navigate. It was enjoyable to walk through, and it was possible for me to get something meaningful out of the encounter even though I was coming to it with far less fandom than other folks who were there at the time. I mostly geeked out at being able to see Gram Parsons’ Nudie suit, Carl Perkins’ blue suede shoes, or Mother Maybelle Carter’s guitar. 

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Finally, for the love of god, can the Rock Hall please rotate what you see when you walk inside the building. The atrium is still adorned by the same mirror ball Trabant from the ZooTV tour and the giant hot dog from that Phish concert and then up above are the artifacts from the Pink Floyd The Wall tour, all of which were there the first time I walked into the Rock Hall in 2010 for the Springsteen exhibit. The hot dog is falling apart and looks janky as hell at this point. Imagine traveling from wherever you’ve come from and being incredibly excited to visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and you walk inside and this is how you are greeted. Everyone who works there is very nice and helpful! But man, it looks like a third-rate mall at this point. 

I did want to give a big shoutout to the store at the Rock Hall for seemingly having every music book in existence available, including both my Patti Smith book and How Women Made Music! It’s been like this for a while, this is not new – again, I am sure all of the people who work there care very much about their jobs. I just wish the people above them or whoever controls the checkbook made it possible for them to execute their work with the excellence it deserves.

(Also, guys, a coat check. You are on the shores of Lake Erie, the parking lot is too far away to make it reasonable for folks to leave their coats in the car and sprint to the entrance, and tourists are going to be taking a taxi or walking from a downtown hotel.)

ON THE RADIO: At the beginning of the month, I was a guest Dylanologist on the CBC programme Commotion, talking about A Complete Unknown, and was on the Rock Docs podcast talking about Springsteen's Road Diary.