One fan's New York City Lennon experience

by Tomm Sprick

My wife Linda and I visited the "John Lennon: The New York City Years" at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Annex New York City located on Mercer Street in SOHO last Friday, and found it all just fascinating.

You have your own headset, the sound for which is individually triggered through floor panels as you approach each display. The focus of much of the Hall's historical aspects is on inductees from the Greater New York City area -- Springsteen, Joel, Ramones, etc., etc., etc. and key venues, such as the late CBGB.

The icing on the cake is the Lennon exhibition, all done in bright white. There are four major areas where you can sit and listen to/videos that capture different aspects of John's life in New York City. These displays frame out the room, while the center area feature various written documents pertaining to John, his work, etc.

John Lennon's Steinway piano on display at the Rock Hall exhibit

The exhibition's high points are two panels near the exit, one of which features the brown bag given to Yoko by the police following John's death. The bag contains the clothes he wore the night he was murdered. The other panel contains the actual bloodied glasses John wore that night. Just try not shedding a tear when you read these panels and see these items. Yoko included both as a message for gun control and a third panel enables you to write a message on the subject (or anything else) that will ultimately be sent to Obama.

Finally, you will notice a white telephone of the wall at the top right hand corner of the room when you enter. If it rings while you are there, answer it...it will be Yoko calling to talk. I was told she called frequently after the exhibition first opened and still does periodically. No, she did not call while we were there.

All in all, we learned a great deal about John's New York City years and many thanks are due to Yoko for putting this exhibition together.

The admission price is a bit steep at $26 (with tax), especially in these economic times, and I'm not sure I would have felt it justified without the Lennon exhibition. The initial special exhibition, I'm told, centered on The Clash. However, if you get tickets at the site, you don't pass various service charges.

And, be sure to ask for the FEST09 discount whichever way you pay; it's good for about $5 off admission. We initially tried to make reservations on line (they're available in 15-minute blocks), but had on-line problems and ultimately decided to roll the dice and just show up. No problem during the week, it seems, but the weekend could be more crowded. We wound up spending 2.5 hours in the Hall.

For more information on the exhibit, go to www.rockannex.com.

Published June 1, 2009

This article is Copyright © 2009, The Author, and may not be reproduced on other web sites or in print, in whole or in part, without expressed permission

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