Bob Marley Exhibit & More @ Grammy Museum

ABOVE: The house Robert Marley was born & given by his grandmother on Nine Mile St.

Let me start off by saying how much I love LA. There are enough interesting things to see & do for a lifetime and then some in this great city. This post is about the Grammy Museum & how reggae's biggest start has impacted the music world. Keep in mind, there was supposed to to be no photography in the museum. These are all camera phone photos.



There was one point where I liked reggae music, then there was a point that came when I wanted to know ABOUT reggae music. I have spent the last couple years reading, listening & searching out the roots & history of the Caribbean & Jamaican music both folk & tradition reggae.


ABOVE
LEFT: "Judge Not" Robert Marley's first studio release (1963)
RIGHT: "Simmer Down" first pressing - The Wailers (1964)

Along with over twenty amazing photos, the Marley family has donated many many great artifacts from the legacy of Robert Marley's musical career. I felt this was an exhibit that would only help further my knowledge of one of reggae's most prominent figures... w/ neat tid-bits we might not always get to see in the public sphere.


ABOVE: The Kebra Nagast - The Lost Bible of Rastafarian Wisdom & Faith from Ethiopia & Jamaica

Much of the backdrop for reggae music is driven by religious & cultural views of the artist. While this is most commonly Rastafarian, there are many different sects w/ that one belief structure that all have different takes on their religion, just as any other culture. When these seep into the lyrics & morals of the songs presented.


(one of many walls)

The Grammy Museum is four floors of amazing interactive history about all different types of popular music history. One floor is dedicated to the last hundred years & also has a wonderful exhibit all about John Lennon. There are many hand written lyrics pieces & letters.


ABOVE: The originally penned lyrics for John Lennon's song Imagine

One of my other favorite portions was the area all about the history of American Jazz. Without going into too much detail, Jazz music history is another area that weaves roots so deep that must be explored over the coming years as well. However, it almost never fails, I find a Jazz artist I like & while looking into their discography I find links & traces to Blue Note Records somewhere.


ABOVE: The first release by Blue Note Records ever.



ABOVE: Daft Punk outfits from Kanye West's music video 'Stronger'


ABOVE
While walking through the entire museum there was a senior group that we talked with a few times & were really enjoying themselves. This older gentleman got down & played some electric drums reggae style. It was great!

TIME TRAVELING

This past week an amazing exhibit opened up that I hope everyone can get to see sometime in the next five months. The California Heritiage Museum has worked with several skateboard historians to gather a plethora of boards, skates, photos & wheels together under one roof.



The museum is located just off Ocean Park in Santa Monica, California. Almost set in the heart of the original Dogtown, where skateboarding crawled out of the ocean & onto the streets. The old two story house/museum has been ronvated to help bring each visitor back in time to what many of the homes in California looked like when the area was first developing.

As you wander through the bottom floor, gazing upon roller skate relics & a new style of soap box racer you can't help but wonder how the search ever began for such items, let alone who had them?! Some of my favorites were the older photos of kids riding the old plank & box scooter racers.

Up the stairway their is two great displays of skateboards as they evolved into a trendy childs toy, taking on the shape of small surf boards. Some of my favorites were on these walls.



As the exhibit snakes around the top floor of the house, visitors see the progression of board shapes, wheel materials, and the varrying bright & evolving graphics that accompany the boards from day one. I even saw the very first board I had in 1988!!

Lastly, you come to some of the newest boards on the wall (pictured above) made by Girl Skateboards. These are a tribute to the history of our sport & an homage to the past. These boards display a history that is important for future generations of riders to understand, to help them see where their sport came from. Thank you so much to the California Heritage Museum for putting together such an amazing exhibit for the public to see.

CALIFORNIA HERITAGE MUSEUM MAP

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