the Hard Rock Park

I always have had a sense of guilt about the Hard Rock Café. As a baby-boomer who remembers when Chevy Chase hosted Saturday Night Live, my life should have revolved around visiting Hard Rock Café’s. I like to travel and have been to Amsterdam, Vancouver, Tokyo, London and Lisbon and never visited the Hard Rock Café’s in any of these places. I always felt that as a hip baby boomer I had an obligation when I arrived in a town to find out where the Hard Rock Café was and buy hundreds of dollars of t-shirts there. Souvenirs that I could then display on my wall and give as Christmas presents. It is one of my moral failings.

I’m not surprised that the Hard Rock Amusement Park in Myrtle Beach failed. For a town to have a successful Hard Rock establishment it needs a certain cache of edginess. I don’t believe Myrtle Beach ever had that. I used to bring my parents there for Army reunions. Nice town. Nice beach. Nice bars if you like drinks served out of airline bottles.

But I don’t see David Bowie or Lou Reed playing golf or going on a Ferris wheel in Myrtle Beach. My father and his army buddies yes but not David Byrne or Amy Winehouse. And that, along with the bad economy, was the essential problem with the venture.