Thursday, March 20, 2008
Kind Induction at the Waldorf
Pam and I spent our dinners this week working our way through the VH1 telecast of the Rock N Roll Hall of fame. What set it apart from other award shows is that it was presented mostly uncut (with the exception for the cursing, mostly Madonna's as I recall) thus giving the viewer a sense of real time and being at this event with impossible to get tickets for the industry privileged.
The highlights were surprisingly many:
- During the tribute for Gamble and Huff, THE sound of Philadelphia, Patti Labelle pulling out all of the stops in If You Don't Know Me By Now Kenny Gamble is one very cool dude. He made mention of how Me and Mrs. Jones still has topicality (It was the day the Spitzer crisis was in the midst of unraveling) and he looked absolutely resplendent in his pillbox hat. The viewer in this tribute came away with the sense that Gamble and Huff was a dynasty of destiny, two guys who met in an elevator who contributed a huge happy legacy that gave the disco era some of its most credible musical moments.
- Ben Harper did a posthumous induction of Little Walter with a poem similar to the kind of thing Bono does when you give him the mike at such affairs. But the true highlight of the segment was James Cotton (also much deserved of the honor) playing the blues big time with Harper and the somewhat goofy Paul Schaefer uber-band that is pulled together for these occasions. Cotton is not likely to do the somersaults he was once known for, but that deep growl only a few can pull off well on the harp was truly chill inducing to the spine of almost any living creature.
- Then came original MTV VeeJay Marc Goodman doing a stand up backstage (which is the kitchen) at the Waldorf Astoria. It took Pam and I a second or two to recognize him. It is the kind of sensation one gets when you bump into people from your high school. He introduced a 1988 induction ceremony clip of Jaeger, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and just about everybody else doing Satisfaction I'm not much for superband jam sessions, but this one was pretty impressive
- Then it was time for the Ventures. John Fogerty did the induction honors with the seemingly the right amount of garage band nostalgia. He mentioned that the Ventures released 250 albums and added "Nowadays, a lot of us would like to sell 250 albums." Don Wilson and the other Ventures seemed quite privileged to be there overall and credited Les Paul and Chet Atkins as being very influential in their sound and success. They then took the stage for Walk Don't Run and Hawaii Five O. I forgot how very cool the stage move of pointing twin guitars in the air or the ground during the triplet section of Walk Don't Run could be.
- Leonard Cohen is another of the coolest folks to ever walk the planet. Lou Reed seemed like he was trying to upstage him almost during the induction segment, randomly reading chunks of Cohen's poetry and lyrics. Then Leonard came out and talked about this was a most unexpected event for him. And finished up reciting Tower of Song which gave a legitimacy to his poetry that Reed had been chewing on:
Yeah my friends are gone and my hair is grey
I ache in the places where I used to play
And I'm crazy for love but I'm not coming on
I'm just paying my rent every day
Oh in the Tower of Song - The most disposable of the segments was Justin Timberlake's induction speech for Madonna followed by the icon herself rambling on about all the members of Team Madonna who make her possible. But Iggy and the Stooges doing Burnin' Up and Ray of Light was truly fun and inspired. As was the brief segment afterwards where handheld camera followed Iggy heading back through the kitchen to meet up with Madonna. Pam was amused by Ron Ashford's remark to her: "Thanks for the Gig."
- We moaned when Billy Joel was announced to do the induction for John Mellencamp, but what a surprise -- we laughed as hard as we do at the best segments of the Daily Show. His delivery of the story of his participation at the first Farm Aid was hysterical. One of my favorite moments was Mellencamp putting out his trademark cigarette out on the steps on his way to do his acceptance speech. The music segment was excellent. Authority Song featured Speck, his maybe barely teenage son on guitar with a huge round bowl of blond hair that made him look like a ingenue model from the mid-sixties.
- The finale was all about the Dave Clark Five. I connected with Tom Hanks' (who is only 9 months older) tribute to what it was like to be growing up in the mid sixties with the British invasion and the energy that was unleashed. I love the image of his sister's clock radio with the speaker the size of the bottom of a soda can. Later they showed a clip of an American Bandstand like show where the announcer was asking about all of the jobs they had before they became teen idols. Pam suggested that "teen idol" was a great occupation description to have and perhaps we should put that down as such on our taxes this year.
I very much liked the minimalist CSPAN approach to the telecast and wish it would be emulated further. The induction will be broadcast a few more times, hopefully in the same uninterrupted fashion.
posted by well-executed buffet at 8:36 PM
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