Gallery at Rock Hall of Fame inspires reverence

Eleven years ago, I visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland. It was one of the greatest moments of my life.

I saw the actual equipment Sun Records founder Sam Phillips used to record Elvis Presley's first songs. I saw Jimi Hendrix's notepaper filled with his original lyrics to "Purple Haze." And I saw all the rejection letters, dated in the late 1970s, from various record labels addressed to a new band called U2.

However, I was mostly impressed by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame gallery. What struck me was the fact that there was no music playing. My friend and I, along with others who were taking in the exhibit, spoke in whispers — not wanting to interrupt the reverence.

The museum was loud, unruly and flashy, but the Hall of Fame (which is located on the top floor of the Ieoh Ming Pei-designed building) focuses on the artists themselves and not the music or the spectacle.

Pink Floyd, the Grateful Dead, the Beatles, Chuck Berry, Smokey Robinson and Led Zeppelin were among the inductees at the time.

Last Monday, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation announced its 2007 inductees.

They are (in alphabetical order) Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, R.E.M., the Ronettes, Patti Smith and Van Halen.

They will all be honored during the induction ceremony on March 12 at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. And VH1 will probably air a taped version of the ceremony later.

I was first introduced to Sugarhill Records' Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five in 1979. I was working as a DJ at a roller disco in Wichita, Kan., and some guy brought in an extended version (on vinyl) of "The Birthday Party."

I put it on and was bombarded by requests to hear it again. I played it 30 minutes later and everyone was on the dance floor or skating to the beat. Every weekend the kid brought the vinyl to me and every week I played it.

When R.E.M. hit the scene in 1983, the band had already made a name for itself in its hometown of Athens, Ga. With a string of gold and multiplatinum albums, the band brought back the '60s jangly-guitar sound, with a modern twist. My favorite R.E.M. song is "Losing My Religion."

In 1964, the Ronettes, one of the seminal "girl groups" in the history of rock music, released the debut album "Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes featuring Veronica." (Veronica would eventually marry uberproducer Phil Spector.)