Get Ready to Rock and Roll

It's no secret that Las Vegas' Hard Rock Cafes and Hard Rock Hotel offer Southern Nevada music lovers a Louvre's-worth of items associated with the artists -- and the songs -- we love.

But, sometimes, that very wealth of cool memorabilia can be intimidating to those of us who stop by a Hard Rock with only limited time to spare.

So, we asked a few people in the know a simple question: If we don't have time to browse the entire collections housed in Southern Nevada's Hard Rock locations, what, at least, are the top 10, can't-miss, gotta-see items we should check out?

Our guides were Carrie Ielfield, Hard Rock memorabilia designer; Greg Thomas, general manager of the Hard Rock Cafe's newest Las Vegas location on the Strip; and Warwick Stone, curator of artwork and memorabilia for the Hard Rock Hotel.

Not surprisingly, the hardest part of our exercise was choosing only a handful of items from the hundreds available for viewing locally. But, in the end, our experts selected a handful of items that are must-sees because of their connections to rock history, or because they're linked to Southern Nevada's musical heritage, or, even, just because they're really cool.

First, though, is this insider's tip from Ielfield: Next time you stop by, feel free to ask a hostess or staff member if they have any memorabilia on display from your favorite artist.

"Staff members can give you a tour, sometimes, of the memorabilia," she explains. "Or, if we don't have your artist in particular, maybe we have a genre that has to do with the artist."

And, now, let the tour begin.

When designing exhibits for any Hard Rock location, one goal is to display items that are important to a particular locale, Ielfield says. "For Las Vegas in particular, there are so many great stories we wanted to portray, like vintage Vegas and things like that."

Thus, check out the can't-miss mug shot at the Hard Rock Cafe's Strip location, at 3771 Las Vegas Blvd. South, of Jim Morrison, taken after The Doors frontman's Jan. 28, 1968, arrest in Las Vegas for public drunkenness at the Pussycat A-Go-Go on the Strip.

Then, check out two more items with ties to Las Vegas' musical history at the original Las Vegas Hard Rock Cafe, 4475 Paradise Road: A black tuxedo worn regularly onstage by Frank Sinatra, and a custom-tailored suit worn by Sammy Davis Jr.

While they seem incongruous at first -- what does the Rat Pack have to do with rock and roll? -- Ielfield says the pieces mesh perfectly with Las Vegas' musical heritage.

"I think, given the location, we'd be remiss if we didn't pay tribute to the Rat Pack artists like that, because they were such a huge part of music history in Las Vegas," she explains.

Also on Ielfield's top 10 list at the Hard Rock Cafe Strip location are: A piece of the stage of the Cavern Club, the fabled Liverpool venue where the Beatles and anybody else who was anybody in the early '60s played; a guitar Queen guitarist Brian May used, Ielfield says, on "One Vision"; a "collage-art bustier" worn by Madonna on her 1987 "Who's That Girl" tour; the desk featured on the cover of Alice Cooper's 1972 "School's Out" album, representing the link between vaudeville and the conceptual rock concerts Cooper pioneered; a metal-scaled guitar strap designed in 1964 for John Lennon in a snakeskin design that, Ielfield notes, was unheard of back then and that, even today, seems more apropos of heavy metal than the British Invasion; a rare Nudie jacket of Bob Dylan's from the singer's '70s "Rolling Thunder Revue" era; and an autographed, triple-necked, heart-shaped guitar that belonged to Steve Vai.

Also on the Strip Hard Rock Cafe's can't-miss list, Ielfield says, is a pair of satin pants worn by The Who drummer Keith Moon -- Thomas admits that, even though he sees it every day, it's one of the items in that location's collection that continues to wow him -- and a red blazer worn by Milli Vanilli's Rob Pilatus when he accepted his Grammy for best new artist of 1990.

Of course, that latter item bears a bittersweet history: The duo later had to return their Grammy after it was revealed that they lip-synced their music. In 1999, Pilatus died of an apparent drug overdose.

At the Hard Rock Cafe on Paradise Road, the list of can't-misses begins with a 1979 bass custom-made for John Entwistle. Entwistle, of course, has his own sad tie with Las Vegas rock history: The Who's bassist was found dead in his Las Vegas hotel room in June 2002, the day before a show that would have kicked off the band's 2002 world tour.

Another can't miss at the Paradise Road Hard Rock Cafe is a 1966 Fender Stratocaster owned and once set ablaze by Jimi Hendrix. It survived Hendrix's onstage predilection for pyromania, and even has one string that survived the fiery onslaught. And, for additional Hendrix memorabilia, the cafe has on display a full-length hooded cape that Hendrix once wore to a dress ball in London.

Hard Rock Cafes typically display all sorts of instruments -- guitars, basses, drum heads -- owned, made for and used by artists.

But one of the oddest housed here is at the Paradise Road Hard Rock Cafe: A washboard used by Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant in his youth while he played in the Delta Blues Band. It was, Ielfield notes, the first instrument Plant learned to play.

Because of his long tenure at the International (now Las Vegas Hilton), Las Vegas can claim as strong a connection to Elvis Presley as anybody. That means a local can't-miss list also has to include a Gibson acoustic guitar of Elvis' that, Ielfield notes, was stolen from Graceland and given by Vernon Presley to Elvis' cousin, Billy, after it was recovered.

Rounding out the Paradise Hard Rock Cafe's list of can't-miss items are: Custom-made KISS mannequins with costumes worn by the band during its 1998-99 Psycho Circus tour; a postcard sent by the Beatles' George Harrison to friend and early bandmate Arthur Kelly just after the death of original Beatles bassist Stu Sutcliffe ("I suppose you heard or read about Stu. Not much fun is it ..."); and a sequined Gibson guitar owned by David Lee Roth.

At the Hard Rock Hotel, 4455 Paradise Road, Stone begins with a real insider's tip: Check out the main hotel, sure. But, also enter via the HRH tower entrance on Harmon Avenue and you'll find a new area, he says. "It's huge and sort of glassed-in in front to make it look private, but it's not."

There, says Stone, you'll find "not-to-be-missed stuff."

There's a glove worn by Michael Jackson. A padlock and chain that used to hang around the neck of the Sex Pistols' Sid Vicious. A .357 Magnum Elvis gave to his personal physician, George "Dr. Nick" Nichopoulos. Kurt Cobain's MTV Video Music Award for best new artist.

And, Stone says, there's what "I think is everybody's favorite."

Go into the reception desk area of the tower and, behind the central registration desk, you'll find an 8-by-12-foot photographic portrait of Jimi Hendrix fashioned out of lenticular lenses, which offer different images depending upon the angle upon which the photo is viewed.

It's sort of like those 3-D of pictures you find on kids' pencil boxes, Stone says. "Move it, and there are about 12 images of Jimi Hendrix overlaid over each other. And as you walk past you see different images and Jimi turns and looks at you. It's amazing."

Contact reporter John Przybys at jprzybys@review journal.com or 702-383-0280.