All the way home from Cleveland - approximately nine hours by car from where I live - I was trying to formulate sentences for this IK! article that would adequately describe what I thought about the John Lennon exhibit now on display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. Words were hard to come by and I worried I wouldn't be able to describe it at all. Then I finally realized I was having trouble making words out of what was actually a very emotional experience. I have never intellectualized John Lennon's music. It always went straight to my heart. And that's what this exhibit has done.
The exhibit begins where John Lennon's life ended. With a wall of holes in which the visitor can view miscellaneous items from John's life in the late 1970's. His favorite tie clip. A pair of eyeglasses. Polaroid snapshots of John, Yoko and Sean. Everyday items that humans tend to collect. A plaque indicates that these items had not left the Dakota apartment since John was killed. They are the personal little things that rekindle memories and bring back that aching pain of loss to loved ones left behind when they touch them, or come across them unexpectedly in a drawer.
Next to this display, is another case with larger openings to look through. When you look inside, you see the bag containing John's clothes that were returned to Yoko from the hospital where he died. The eyeglasses with the bloodstains that appeared on the cover of Yoko's album, "Season of Glass."
These side-by-side glimpses of John's happiness with his family and the wrenching sense of loss one feels when viewing what Yoko has always called the "reality of John's death" set the tone for the rest of the exhibit. John wasn't a burned out rock star who drank or drugged himself to death...he was murdered and you are confronted with that immediately. For me, it was a physical experience coming back into touch with the realization of what a powerful force this real human being was in his life, and what a tragic loss it was to all of us - but most especially to his family - when he was killed. The imagination can't even conjure up an adequate image of what this man might have created in his 40's and 50's while viewing these artifacts of his incredible artistic and musical journey from a young child to a 40-year-old adult.
The exhibit covers three floors of the museum and I must say, I was so overwhelmed by being there, I didn't have the good reporter's sense to bring a pad and pen to write down what items were on which floor.
There were clothing items, such as the white tuxedo John wore in the "Magical Mystery Tour" movie; the black Asian-designed jacket seen in photos from 1980, a torn and worn denim jacket that obviously got a lot of use in the '70's and the kimonos worn by John and Yoko during the "Double Fantasy" videos.
Several guitars are displayed high on the wall - out of the reach of those who can't resist touching - and there are some incredible collages that John created during the family's visits to Japan in the late 70's. I heard one woman remark while looking at the collages: "What an artistic talent, even when just pasting together pictures!" There are two collages of interest to Beatle fans: one John created for George and one for Ringo.
There are nearly 40 drawings, including from John's earliest days at school, the Steinway piano that was in John and Yoko's bedroom at the Dakota, and John and Yoko's bed they designed in the early 70's by hooking together two church pews. While standing back looking at this piece, I overheard a woman laughingly say, "That's almost sacrilegious!" and it wasn't until I read a newspaper article later about what the bed was made from that I realized what she meant.
The third floor (Level 6) of the exhibit was, for me, the most emotionally-charged.
A carpeted spiral staircase winds up and around into a smaller space
where the white walls are covered with framed lyrics from John's
songs. What was so striking about this room is the hushed reverence
we felt when we arrived there. One reporter wrote that some people were
taking off their shoes to walk up the staircase. Just down the stairs, a band was playing
ear-splittingly loud rock and roll music, but with each step up into this Song Sanctuary,
the sound downstairs faded until it was completely silenced by the time we reached the room.
I hadn't even been aware that this soundproofing was in effect until I made my descent down the staircase and
the music came back into earshot.
A Return Trip
Because we were there during the Grand Opening Reception with approximately 1400 people in the mood to party, I feel that I missed some things in the Exhibit and didn't have a chance to fully read the descriptions for each item. For example, it took at least three hours for the floor around the wall of holes to clear away before I had a chance to look in those spaces.
We will probably make a return visit to Cleveland before the Exhibit closes next September. (Tom doesn't know that yet! Wink, wink...)
To those of you who were concerned about the John Lennon Museum being in Japan, this is your opportunity to see an incredible collection of history from John Lennon's personal life and career. And as with anything Yoko Ono is involved in, this collection is being presented with class, style and love. Visit Cleveland and feel it.
