NEW YORK, April 6, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – The art of rock and roll is getting its
due at an upcoming show at New York’s Met museum, which is decking its halls
with instruments from the genre’s greats.
The storied Manhattan institution has amassed a staggering collection of
rock memorabilia and instruments from superstars including Chuck Berry, Eric
Clapton, Prince, Joan Jett, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, Bruce
Springsteen and Elvis Presley for the show “Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock
& Roll,” set to open Monday.
The exhibit put on in partnership with the Cleveland-based Rock & Roll
Hall of Fame celebrates “tools of innovation and outstanding artistic
innovation,” Max Hollein, the Metropolitan Museum’s director, told
journalists at a preview.
The more than 130 instruments from 1939-2017 in the show are organized to
depict how musicians used and advanced emerging technologies throughout the
20th century to create new sounds and styles.
In addition to instruments, the Met is displaying flamboyant costumes of
rockers along with show memorabilia like gig posters and even the remnants of
smashed guitars.
“Instruments are some of the most personal objects connected to musicians,
but as audience members we are primarily used to seeing them from far away,
up on a stage in performance.” said Jayson Kerr Dobney, the show’s curator.
“This exhibition will provide a rare opportunity to examine some of rock
and roll’s most iconic objects up close.”
– ‘Holy grail’ –
Steve Miller — whose Steve Miller Band is known for such hits as “The
Joker” and “Fly Like An Eagle” — told journalists that “he was stunned by
the power and the elegance and the intelligence” of the show, which he loaned
several guitars to.
He praised curators for their work to “cut through years of nonsense
designed to trivialize these instruments.”
Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, whose iconic “Stairway to Heaven” guitar is on
display, voiced awe at making it into the Met, which he dubbed “the holy
grail.”
“For me to be here… I never would’ve even dreamt about it, even as a
kid,” Page said. “I was really keen to be able to loan whatever I could to
make it come alive.”
The show came under some criticism when it was announced, because the
initial teaser before the full list of more than 80 artists was released
spotlighted just one woman, Grammy-winning contemporary rocker St. Vincent.
Indie rockstar Neko Case voiced her anger, tweeting “Do you really think
NO OTHER WOMEN, OR FEMALE IDENTIFYING performers contributed to rock n’
roll?”
But the show was ultimately more inclusive than it first appeared, and
Dobney addressed the gender issue in the show’s catalog: “Rock and roll was
for many years a boys’ club,” he writes with Hall of Fame curator Craig
Inciardi.
“In the 1950s and 1960s, and even beyond, the women in rock and roll
bands, were primarily limited to vocals, the reason they were under-
represented in these pages.”
Along with Jett and Mitchell a number of female performers are represented
including Patti Smith and Lady Gaga, whose enormous futuristic piano is
featured in the exhibit to run from April 8 until October 1.
At the show’s preview Don Felder of The Eagles played the intricate solo
from the band’s hit “Hotel California.” He said that after arriving in New
York as a 20-something, “the very first thing I did the following day is I
came to the Met.”
“It’s such an incredible honor that 50 years later, this guitar would be
hanging” here, Felder said of his double-neck Arctic White instrument.