Hard Times for Rock Icons

It hasn't been easy for some of the big names in rock'n'roll recently. Tower Records is liquidating (at the stores I visited recently, CDs are all 60 percent off and DVDs are 50 percent off--they're pretty picked over at this point, but there are still a few things of interest left). Dick Clark auctioned off a vast amount of the memorabilia he's picked up over the years, although a bass ostensibly owned by Paul McCartney and played in the Beatles may not be authentic. Punk rock may be in the process of being elbowed out of the way by childrens' music. And the Hard Rock Cafe, formally owned by the Rank Group of the U.K., has just been purchased by the Florida Seminole tribe (no, not these guys) for just under a billion dollars. They had already opened Hard Rock casinos and hotels in Tampa and Hollywood, Florida, and have done very well for themselves, so in a way, they're just expanding their holdings. Still, there's some concern that Rank sold the franchise for less than it was worth, but that's just an indication that the perceived value of the brand name and its rock memorabilia had been shrinking. Maybe the Seminoles can infuse new life into the company. According to The Saigon Times Daily, the company is getting ready to move into Vietnam. What looks like it may have been a shrewd business deal may be little more than poetic justice. Max B. Osceola, Jr., a Seminole council representative, was quote in The New York Times as saying, "Our ancestors sold Manhattan for trinkets. We're going to buy Manhattan back, one burger at a time."