Detroit music history: from Motown to the Rock Hall in five days

I grew up in Hamtramck, inside Detroit, with Motown on the kitchen radio and my older brother playing the Stooges in the basement. Cleveland was where we drove for concerts. When we built our northern tours, putting the two cities together was the obvious move.

Day one and two: Detroit

Hitsville U.S.A. comes first. Berry Gordy bought the house on West Grand Boulevard in 1959, and the museum tour ends in Studio A, a small, worn room where nearly every Motown hit of the 1960s was cut. The guides get everyone singing; nobody is embarrassed for long.

The museum has grown into the houses next door, with new galleries, but book well ahead: the timed entries sell out weeks before.

Jazz on Livernois

Detroit is also a jazz city. Baker's Keyboard Lounge, on Livernois Avenue, opened in 1934 and has hosted Art Tatum, Ella Fitzgerald and Miles Davis. It still has music most nights, a bar painted like a piano keyboard, and smothered chicken from the kitchen. It is the best night out in the city.

On Labor Day weekend the free Detroit Jazz Festival fills Hart Plaza downtown. If your dates allow, do not miss it.

The road to Cleveland

Three hours along Lake Erie, with lunch in Toledo. In Cleveland, the Agora on Euclid Avenue has been a rock club since 1966, and the Beachland Ballroom in Collinwood books good bands in a smaller room. We check both calendars for every date.

A day at the Rock Hall

Give the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame a full day. It has six floors, a collection that runs from Robert Johnson's contract to hip-hop, and a garage where you can play the instruments. Most visitors try to do it in three hours and leave frustrated. Start at the top, with the inductees, and work down, with lunch on the harbor in between.

Why together

Motown and rock and roll can look like different worlds. In the Rock Hall you find them in the same rooms: the Supremes and the Rolling Stones, Marvin Gaye and the Stooges, all from a few hundred miles of the Great Lakes. Five days lets you hear how close they are.