Welcome to the Philharmonie de Paris; the exhibition of metal music and the history of hard rock. How fascinating is this… and particularly to me because it all happened in my lifetime. And you might say that the precursor of metal, the great-grandfather if you like, was the advent of Rock ‘n’ Roll in 1951. A phrase coined by Alan Freed, a disc jockey in Cleveland, Ohio.
Now that’s a long way from Tupelo. Mississippi, which for me was the birthplace of Rock ‘n’ Roll; well all right, let’s not forget St Louis, Missouri, or Macon, Georgia, or Lubbock, Texas, all of these places engraved in my memory as the home towns of Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Buddy Holly…just four of the giants upon whose shoulders we were able to reach the sky.
If so inclined, you can follow this amazing route through the years as each generation imposed its own interpretation upon the bedrock of popular music, and it has survived right through and into the digital age, then – in the new form of metal – smashed its way into the here and now, as represented by this wonderful exhibition.
What a phenomenon.
I imagine a conversation at the village hall, during an event for local pensioners. Suddenly ‘Ace of Spades’ by Motorhead comes on the record player. He says to her ’Darling, they’re playing our tune, shall we dance?’