Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Is it me or is the Beatles exhibit at the EMP in Seattle pretty weak? Half the stuff on the walls I already own (and I'm not a big collector). And come on...if you can't get McCartney's bass correct, could they at least make it left handed. I know the casual observer may not know, but as a casual observer to other areas it makes me wonder what else they have wrong.

The Beatles Story in Liverpool was horrible!

"This guitar is smiliar to the one used by George Harrison" OR "This recording desk was in use at Abbey Road Studios between 1968 & 1971. It may or may not have been used by The Beatles at some point."

I swear to God that was listed on the display!

Well, it may or may not have been. At least they were trying to be accurate. I'm sure they were going for period feel and eschewing the celebrity-whore focus of so many of these exhibits. I'd personally be more interested in seeing the type of recording console than having McCartney's snot on one of the pan-pots.

Besides, insurance would have gone through the roof if they'd have used George's actual guitar!

Man, if you could test that snot and get a match, you could pay for the whole museum several times...

Maybe George really gave them a guitar, but they didn't want their insurance to go through the roof, so they simply said it was like George's guitar. But George just gave them 'a guitar' rather then 'the guitar' because he couldn't bear to part with it. Since there wouldn't be any reason to steal it, the museum could afford to show it, so everyone could pay to see a guitar that has no historical value at all. Hey, I oughta open my own museum. I've got loads of guitars that look similar to the ones the Beatles played!

You want to see celebrity stuff? What makes it different from identical, non-celebrity stuff?

That's right, the celebrity once owned it. So what?

This cult of worship of famous people just because they're famous, is way out of hand and has been getting worse for 45 years. Read Daniel Boorstin's "The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America." He was the Librarian of Congress until he passed away a couple of years ago. He hit the nail on the head.

Who cares if it was Harrison's guitar or one just like it? If it was his actual instrument, it would be worth a couple of million and would have to have been insured for a like amount, which would have doubled your admission price. From a curator's point of view, this would have been a logistical nightmare, if not an impossibility.

"Historical value" is all an illusory part of this cult of celebrity. It is just the vulgarization of our and their culture in the name of mass merchandising.

Go to see the exhibit for a vibe on how it must have been back then to play and record. But why go in hopes of seeing a dried drop of Beatle sweat on a drumhead?

Randy, open a museum. But you'll have to hype it like the Liverpool one to make any money. Oh, yeah, and you'd have to move it to Liverpool, too. Or at least Abbey Road, WC.

Paul, I was being silly. I agree completely with you when it comes to celebrity-owned items.

Except for when it comes to Hitler's limo...where else but Vegas can you go to see a fully armored '38 Mercedes with leather interior?

Or maybe on of the 13 "Bonnie and Clyde '34 Ford Death Cars". Or the 6 "Original Batmobiles" with the neon red Fisher Price toys glued to the dashboards!

Or the thousand metric tons of wood splinters that make up 'the True Cross'...

I agree that in our modern society the culture of celebrity worship is out of hand. But I still think there's value in having publicly-held repositories of significant historical artifacts. To me, that includes original instruments of famous musicians.

Maybe it's splitting hairs over the term "museum": Is the EMP an exhibit or a museum? How about the various Hard Rock Cafes? Who knows, maybe it's just the proliferation of junk. I just know that when I go to MoMA I want to see a real Picasso or Matisse, not an exact replica or digital rendering.

The difference in celebrity stuff as opposed to non-celebrity stuff is the value a musician of historical importance (celebrity or not) brings to your life: the wear pattern on a fretboard; a quirky modification; a ding that you recognize from a concert pic. If these things had no importance, what difference would there be between a museum and a good guitar store?

Excellent points, Steve, and these bring into sharper focus some of the the shades of gray in such a complex issue.

I, too, want to see a real Matisse or Picasso, but that is an original work of the creator.

Craft items like guitars only gain cachet if they were handmade by a legendary luthier or company (a Macaferri) or played by a legendary musician (Django's Macaferri).

But a million bucks for "Blackie", which would have been a junky mutt but great-playing Strat?

Nah....

"But a million bucks for "Blackie", which would have been a junky mutt but great-playing Strat?"

Well, that's exactly right, and that's how "collector hysteria" prevails to pervert the value of these instruments.

Actually, the MoMA model is somewhat pertinent, as it exhibits many prototypes of modern design artifacts that provide a true sense of time, place and purpose without the insane acquisition costs. How great would it be to have something similar for 50s-and-beyond musical instruments.

I wonder to what extent Paul Allen considers EMP as part of a public trust... lol!

It's part of the Paul Allen Trust...

I was in the Industrial Design portion of MoMA once and saw a really wild guitar...all stainless steel, consisting of a length of pipe with frets, nut, bridge, tuning keys and electronics welded on. I was sure at the time that it must be the same one carried by Andy Summers in the Godley/Creme video of Synchronicity...

If I'm right, that's gotta be an expensive hunk of pipe by now.