Back in the '70s Cleveland still had a bad reputation (amongst popular names for the City was "Mistake on the Lake"), as demonstrated by this splash page from Howard The Duck Volume 1, Number 1 (January 1976). Howard stands on the banks of the Cuyahoga River contemplating suicide (not because he is in Cleveland), and it doesn't look very nice. If Howard had been on the banks in June 1969 he would have seen the river on fire. It was so polluted that it was regularly burned to remove the pollutants, but on this occasion it was not deliberate. The Cuyahoga river fire gave rise to many famous songs, including Cuyahoga by REM, from their 1986 album "Lifes Rich Pageant" (and yes, there is no apostrophe in the album title).
"Let's put our heads together, start a new country up,
Underneath the river bed we burned the river down.
This is where they walked, swam, hunted, danced and sang,
Take a picture here, take a souvenir
Cuyahoga
Cuyahoga, gone
Rewrite the book and rule the pages, saving face, secured in faith
Bury, burn the waste behind you"
The fire helped increase demands for action to combat such pollution and, a few years later, the US Clean Water Act was put into law.
The Cuyahoga flows into Lake Erie (the lake in "Mistake on the Lake"). Notable point of interest on the lakeshore is the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum:
The museum contains memorabilia from various rock and roll artists and is also a marketing outlet for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Despite its name, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame does not include all the artists you would expect to find there but does include some you might not. An artist is eligible for nomination 25 years after its first recording is released. However, Rush only made it there in 2013 and bands like Deep Purple are still not in there. In many cases, it takes so long for bands to get accepted that their members have either died (Led Zeppelin made it in 1995, fifteen years after John Bonham had died) or no longer speak to each other (Journey, Kiss, Eagles), leading to difficult decisions about who should attend the ceremony. The 2018 nominees included Judas Priest; they failed to clinch a place, but Nina Simone made it - Rock and Roll!!
Although neither Judas Priest or Deep Purple are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, some of their memorabilia is in the museum. I was looking forward to seeing what Rush memorabilia would be there, and after much searching (including through the disproportionately large John Mellencamp section) the only thing I could find were their albums on a juke box:
Along with quite a few good craft beer places and decent restaurants, they have a House of Blues in Cleveland, and I was fortunate enough to catch the magnificent UFO (supported by Saxon) playing there:
It is probably no surprise that UFO are not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Anyway, it turns out Cleveland is not so bad after all. Things have definitely improved since Howard the Duck first arrived in the '70s. And no river fires now either.