Hard Rock Hotel offers a walk down a rock ‘n roll memory lane

Saturday, June 22, 2013

With a little help from things such as instruments, clothing and even a pair of round glasses, memories can play back like favorite songs on an iPod.

TAMPA — From the elaborate costume hanging in a display, you can almost envision Elton John doing a handstand on the piano keyboard in front of tens of thousands of screaming fans. A dress from Amy Winehouse whispers silently of what could have, should have, been for the talented but troubled singer.

A Les Paul guitar that somehow survived Pete Townsend of the Who hangs peacefully now; but the vibrations, the music it made, are still almost palpable. John Lennon’s glasses…well, they are John Lennon’s glasses. All you can do is stand there and try to envision what the legendary Beatle saw through them: how he saw the world, and how those things may have affected him. Those glasses were the windows to his soul.