Exhibition in New York: gods, gaga and guitars

Don Felder moved to New York in 1968. "I carried a guitar in one hand and a suitcase in the other," recalls the ex-member of the legendary Eagles. He spent his entire first day in the city at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where the young rocker wandered through the endless halls of ancient masterpieces.

Half a century later Felder, meanwhile 71, stands in a covered courtyard of the Met, between marble statues of Degas and Rodin. But this time he is a guest of honor himself: "That," murmurs Felder visibly seized, "I never would have dreamed me."

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Between the two Met visits Felders lies music history. From 1974 to 2001 he was the lead guitarist of the Eagles and wrote some of their early rock hits - most notably "Hotel California" with his probably most famous guitar solo in the world.

Felder has hung the electric guitar with which he recorded the song in 1977, a Gibson EDS-1275 with double neck. "In principle, these are two guitars glued together," he says. Then it starts - and "Hotel California", the ode to the excesses of the Seventy, echoes through the halls of the Mets, the temple of the fine arts.

And for the finale of this awesome program - a special performance of "Hotel California" by @donfelder! #MetRockandRoll pic.twitter.com/3i9ZUCawhG

The moment makes goose bumps, and not just the many visitors who happen to find themselves in the Met. The visual and acoustic fusion of old and young, sublime and wild, mainstream and rebellion ennobles rock music - and its original form Rock'n'Roll - itself to the high art.

"Rock'n'Roll is the most artistic movement of the 20th century," says Max Hollein, the Met director from Austria. "His instruments are iconic artifacts, and we celebrate them as unique tools of innovation."

That's why Felders Gibson EDS-1275 disappears behind glass again, in an air-conditioned showcase in the south wing of the Met. Here the first museum exhibition opens on Monday dedicated exclusively to the instruments of rock'n'roll and rock - mostly guitars, but Also drums, keyboards and synthesizers, which inspired entire generations with their sound and their often shrill-striking optics and, as it has long been clear, changed the world.

Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

An electric guitar painted by Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones

More than 130 exhibits from 1939 to 2017 have been compiled by curator Jayson Dobney. Many have nicknames ("Frankenstein", "Wolf", "Melody Maker") and are privately owned by stars such as Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan. Others provided the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame who co-organized the show.

For Met boss Hollein, who took up his job last fall and raves even for punk rock, it fulfills a private dream - and a professional goal: He has set out to dust off the 148-year-old Met thoroughly.

Thus one enters from a bright hall, where the Met presents ancient Greek and Roman art, directly into a giddy escape from seven galleries, as in the labyrinth of a rock club. From hidden boxes, the unmistakable soundtrack of the 20th Century roars: "Great Balls of Fire", "Gimme Shelter", "I Want to Hold Your Hand", "Fire on the Mountain".

Courtesy of Kate Simon

Jimmy Page with his famous Gibson guitar (1975)

The show tracks the creation of this soundtrack based on the instruments and their masters, from the earliest "Guitar Gods" to their current heirs.

Some highlights:

• Jerry Lee Lewis' baby grand piano from 1955, which stood in his house until 2017.
• Chuck Berry's electric guitar, with which he recorded in 1958 "Johnny B. Goode". With her Berry coined the Rock'n'Roll.
• Muddy Waters' guitar "The Hoss", on which he played from 1958 until his death in 1983.
• Ringo Starr's first drum kit from the US brand Ludwig, which he bought in 1963.
• John Lennon's 12-string Rickenbacker, whom he played on the Beatles' first USA tour in 1964, and whose notes can be heard at the beginning of "Ticket to Ride".

Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Jimi Hendrix poster from 1969 when he performed in Woodstock

• Jimi Hendrix ' pointed guitar "Love Drops" from 1967, which he decorated himself. Hendrix's white Stratocaster, where he staged his radical version of the US national anthem in 1969 at the Woodstock Festival in protest against the Vietnam War.
• Keith Emerson's Moog synthesizer, which he built in 1970 on a Hammond organ.

• Eric Clapton's "Blackie" (1973), his famous guitar, which he built from the remains of old Stratocaster.
• Jerry Garcia's "Wolf", with whom he performed from 1973 to 1979 with the Grateful Dead.
• Eddie Van Halen's "Frankenstein", his favorite guitar, which he built and painted himself in 1975. Best known for Van Hennen's legendary solo "Eruption".
• Joan Jett's "Melody Maker" (1977), with which she recorded "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" and "Bad Reputation".
• • Several guitars by Prince , including one from 1993 in the form of his iconic "Love Symbols".
• • A futuristic-angular, white, internally lit acrylic wing featuring Lady Gaga 2014 in the "Tonight Show".

"Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock & Roll" will be in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art from April 8 to October 1.