I was hoping that I would be able to share some clips from the ceremony but Disney is understandably protective of their footage so the Hall has not uploaded anything onto their YouTube channel yet. I see random uploads from cellphones but I would suspect the quality might not be all that great.
If nothing else a Hall Of Fame induction promises to be a feel-good evening. Just take a look at the 1000-watt smiles the likes of Questlove and Dua Lipa were showing as they performed with their idols. So many of the people on stage look like kids in candy stores.
If you plan on catching the full ceremony on demand, a word of advice. Budget your time & carve out a few days to watch it. The ceremony lasted just shy of five and a half hours long, and believe me, it felt like it. The event producers did do a good job of planning the program out. For the most part it alternated between a full-blown performance/speech segment and one containing a film clip only with no corresponding performance. That helped with the flow. But… the evening could have also been subtitled The Evening Of Rambling Speeches. I don’t envy the editors who will have to cut it down to the version that ABC will air in January. It’s going to be a challenge to make some of the speeches coherent. There is no way to say this delicately; there were a lot of speakers of a certain age. It did not help that everyone appeared to have issues with the teleprompter. Too often I was thinking to myself “PLEASE get this person off the stage before they embarrass themselves further.”
With that out of the way, here is how the evening went. Please note that of course I Have Opinions over who should and should not be in the Hall. This is not the time for that discussion. It was a special evening for all of those being honored; I’m not gonna be the guy booing from the cheap seats.
I had speculated that Kool & the Gang would kick off the show. I was close - they were third in line. The event began with Dua Lipa performing Believe, and then halfway through the song Cher herself emerged to join her in duet. Cher was in very fine voice; she blew Dua Lipa away. Zendaya made the presentation speech, and in a nice touch she was wearing a vintage Bob Mackie designed outfit. There was a lot of speculation that Cher would rip the Hall a new one in her speech, and in fact the video package began with one of her old interviews in which she said “f*** the Hall of Fame.” Her actual speech was warm & gracious, and she closed her section of the evening up by performing If I Could Turn Back Time.
The Cher segment was one of the few in which complete songs were performed; most of the other artists depended on medleys to squeeze as many songs as they could into the brief amount of time set aside for performances. I had joked that the show producers would not schedule Cher too late in the evening out of fear that she would lose interest and leave early. Well, I didn’t notice her in any crowd shots so it’s very plausible that she packed up and went home as soon as she was done. One last fun fact about Cher’s induction. There are a plethora of members of the Hall who have also won Oscars. Until now, all of them, from Bruce Springsteen & Prince to Elton John & The Beatles to Trent Reznor & Eminem and so many more have won for composing. Cher is the first to have won her Oscar for acting.
Next came the Alexis Korner segment. He was the first of several side category honorees whose induction was limited to a film package with no presentation speech or acceptance speech attached. That was followed by Chuck D inducting Kool & the Gang. He started with a “hey hey hey” and proceeded to half-rap his speech. In my opinion the Kool & the Gang performance was the musical highlight of the evening. (The Roots served as the house band for the evening. Here they were supplemented by several members of the current KATG touring band.) It began with Hollywood Swinging, showcasing Robert “Kool” Bell’s nifty bass playing. Then James “J.T.” Taylor joined in to complete the set with Get Down On It, Ladies Night, Jungle Boogie, and of course, Celebration. As much of a cliche as Celebration has become, that groove is undeniable and it perfectly completed a performance that was pure joy. Bell and Taylor are the only two surviving members of the band, so they were the only two to speak. With one exception, that trend continued. Family members were generally not given an opportunity to make proxy speeches.
Dionne Warwick’s induction followed, with Teyana Taylor making the presentation speech. It was at this point that the teleprompter issues were painfully obvious, and it was more than simply a reflection of the advanced age of some of the speakers. Jennifer Hudson began the performance portion with a rendition of I’ll Never Love This Way Again. Warwick herself joined in halfway through the song and then closed with a rendition of Walk On By. Warwick gave a professional effort, but she is 83 years old. Her voice is nowhere near what it was in her heyday. This is not a criticism, it’s just reality.
Of the side category honorees who did not receive a performance segment, The MC5 were the only ones granted a presentation speech. The presenter was an appropriate choice, Tom Morello. Rage Against the Machine are arguably the single most obvious descendants of the MC5, and anyone who has watched previous ceremonies can verify that there are few people more capable of making a fiery and passionate speech quite like Morello can.
Next it was Foreigner’s turn, with Sammy Hagar doing the honors. Two of the members were missing. Mick Jones is suffering from Parkinson’s, which makes travel difficult. And Dennis Elliott pulled out days before the ceremony, reasons for which are hazy. The Hall claims it’s because Elliott threw a hissy fit after being told his wife would not be allowed to walk the red carpet. Elliott denied that, he instead said “I was finally given the schedule after I packed the night before my flight and it was totally unacceptable.” Not sure what he means by that - was he demanding that Foreigner should have closed the show? - but neither side looked good.
The current iteration of Foreigner is an example of Thesus' Paradox, and when Hagar introduced the performance he called them the current touring version of Foreigner, i.e. none of the inducted members. Joined by Slash and Chad Smith it began with Demi Lovato singing Feels Like the First Time. Hagar followed with Hot Blooded, and it climaxed with Kelly Clarkson doing I Want To Know What Love Is. It was at this point that an actual Foreigner member joined in on the fun, with Lou Gramm coming in halfway through. During the speech portion Jones’s daughter was the aforementioned sole family member allowed to speak. She was the first speaker of the evening to say the words “Hello Cleveland!” saying that her father would always say those words while headed towards the stage regardless of which city he was in and that she didn’t get the Spinal Tap reference until years later.
The filmed tribute to Norman Whitfield came next. These packages generally do a great job of explaining an honoree’s importance to casual music fans. The number of classic songs that Whitfield wrote and/or produced is staggering. I just wish there was a way that the show could have carved out enough time for an artist to perform a medley of Whitfield tunes, but as mentioned this ceremony ran for an epic length. You can only ask for so much time from an audience.
Roger Daltrey was the next man on stage, there to induct Peter Frampton, or as he called the man, his doppelgänger. Daltrey’s never ending speech added to the tedium, but he did tell a cute story about how fans had mistaken him for Frampton, only to have Pete Townshend tell him how lucky he was, being that Townshend was usually mistaken for Tiny Tim. Frampton performed Baby (Somethin’s Happening) before being joined by Keith Urban to play Do You Feel Like We Do, complete with the talk box guitar effect. In an odd moment, the telecast cut to a shot of Bryan Adams at a concert in which he had his audience send congratulations to Frampton. It soon dawned on me that this was used to allow Frampton, whose mobility is hampered by a degenerative muscle condition, time to walk from the stage to the podium without the camera focused on his movements.
This was followed by the Big Mama Thornton segment, which adeptly cut from old interview and performance footage of her to clips of two very famous cover versions of her big hits - Elvis Presley’s Hound Dog & Janis Joplin’s Ball and Chain. Once again, part of me wishes that there could have been time for the show to at the very least combine the inductions of the 3 blues acts into a performance of some type, but for fear of repeating myself, the evening was so darn long as it is.
The Jimmy Buffett segment came next, and let’s just say that the event producers made some choices. It began with a surprise appearance from Dave Matthews, performing a solo acoustic version of A Pirate Looks At Forty, starting things off on a somber tone. James Taylor then made the presentation; he pointed out that he had also spoken at Buffett’s funeral, and his speech had a eulogy type feel to it. This followed with Taylor, Kenny Chesney, and Mac McAnally strumming more acoustic guitars playing Come Monday. Not a steel drum to be seen anywhere. And… that was it. I get that this comes with a tinge of sadness knowing that Buffett has recently died, but this was stunning. The first thing you think of when you picture Jimmy Buffett is the Parrothead culture - a celebratory tone, with a cool tropical vibe. Why not lead the audience into the Fins dance? And no Margaritaville? My immediate thought was that this song was being saved for an all-star finale. Narrator: there was no all-star finale. I understand the sincerity of the performance, but to me it did not properly convey the feeling of what Jimmy Buffett was all about. Some people claim there’s a show producer to blame, but I know it’s SOMEBODY’S fault. There are a multitude of ways to appropriately honor Jimmy Buffett, giving an arena full of people a case of the sads is not one of them.
The Ahmet Ertegun Award went to Suzanne de Passe, a perfect recipient for the honor. She is exactly the type of vital behind the scenes presence that many people would not necessarily know. The film presentation told her biography well, along with a pre-taped speech from Berry Gordy. She told a wonderful anecdote in her acceptance speech. The apocryphal legend is that Diana Ross “discovered” the Jackson 5, but in reality it was de Passe who convinced Gordy to sign the act. He had no interest, saying he did not want another kid act on the Motown roster. “Do you know how big of a headache Stevie Wonder is?” Unfortunately, de Passe went on. And on. And on. And on. I do not begrudge her enjoying her moment in the sun, but more than anyone else that evening she was making it a real test of endurance.
Things improved with the A Tribe Called Quest induction. Following a heartfelt presentation speech from Dave Chappelle, Q-Tip & Jarobi made equally warm acceptances. (Ali Shaheed Muhammad did not attend.) Just before they left the stage, the late great Phife Dawg’s father took to the mic to make a couple of dad jokes. “Cher, I just want to say. I got you babe. And Miss Dionne, I’m heading to San Jose but my GPS is not working. Can you tell me how to get there?”
The performance portion consisted of The Roots backing up several fellow members of the Native Tongues collective along with other genre appropriate guests. Queen Latifah started off with Can I Kick It? followed by Posdnous & Black Thought on Check the Rhime. Common joined in for Bonita Applebum (you know it was a special occasion because he wasn’t wearing one of his signature turtlenecks) and Busta Rhymes closed things out with Scenario. This was my second favorite performance of the evening.
The ceremony took a brief pause for a promotional video about the museum itself. Cyndi Lauper (dressed up like vintage 1984 Cyndi) narrated a segment largely focused on an exhibit devoted to the music & culture of 1984. This housecleaning served as a palate cleanser to prepare us all for Mary J. time.
Method Man & Dr. Dre served as a tag team to present for Mary J. Blige, who for the record, is the inductee whom I was most thrilled to see make it in this year. In her set she was briefly accompanied by Lucky Daye and Ella Mai, but otherwise it was all Mary. Her medley consisted of My Life, Live No Limit, Be Happy, and Family Affair. It was relatively sedate by her usual standards; at her best she performs as if she were possessed by an otherworldly power. Think back years ago to her Grammy performance of No More Drama in which she was practically doing the full body writhe that you would see at some sort of religious revival. Or more recently her Super Bowl performance which she punctuated with the Nestea Plunge on stage, having given every last ounce of energy that she could muster. She didn’t quite reach that level, but there are few who can command a room as well as she.
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The next segment was the In Memoriam, which the Hall does a better job with than other award shows. Rather than go with the standard award show format of having a singer perform a somber song over the montage - which limits the number of names shown to how many can fit in with the length of the chosen song - the musical bed is a medley of songs from some of the deceased performers along with occasional sound bites from old interviews. This montage also takes the time to acknowledge a number of lesser known industry figures deserving of this moment of respect. For those interested, the montage began with Kris Kristofferson (interesting, as he is not a member of the Hall) and ended with Dickie Betts.
Which leads into the Ozzy portion of our show. Jack Black gave what might have been the speech of the evening, and his face was turning a shade of red that made him look like a human mood ring. I was seriously starting to get worried that he was going to have an aneurysm on stage. It’s possible that the lighting was changed during his speech, but there were so many technical foul-ups - in addition to the teleprompter there were frequent microphone issues - I can’t see that happening intentionally.
At certain points leading up to the evening there had been faint hope that Ozzy Osbourne might attempt to perform, but seeing him made it clear that his health is poor enough that he is in no condition to do so. After a very brief thank you, he was placed on a throne that was shaped like a bat and watched a band featuring Chad Smith, Robert Trujillo, Andrew Watt, Wolfgang Van Halen, Steve Stevens, and the MVP of the ensemble, Zack Wylde. As for the singers, Maynard James Keenan did Crazy Train, Jelly Roll did Mama I’m Coming Home, and Billy Idol closed it up with No More Tears. Each musician then took turns to step towards the throne and congratulate Ozzy. If this evening was his farewell to public life, it was a great way to go out.
The penultimate segment of the evening was the filmed tribute to John Mayall. Part of me wonders if the Hall had hoped that inducting Mayall and Alexis Korner in the same year could have enticed a few of the musicians who had their first breaks in either of their bands to appear, but, say it with me, this would have made a long evening even longer.
That left it up to the Dave Matthews Band to close the show. Julia Roberts made the presentation; she might have been better served by editing her remarks down. Earlier in the evening a story about what happened when she googled the wrong Dave Matthews might have been cute; at this late hour we were all in full “check the time on our watch” mode. The band performed a medley of some of their radio favorites: Ants Marching, Crash Into Me, So Much To Say, and Too Much. I was a bit concerned when it was time for the acceptance speech; Matthews has a tendency to get goofy in such a forum. Thankfully he read the room and kept his remarks to a reasonable length. The band then retook the stage for one final song. Would this be a closing jam with all of the honorees who had stuck it through to the end? Nope, they performed a truncated version of Burning Down the House - ostensibly to mark the 40th anniversary of Stop Making Sense - and called it a night.
Despite my criticism of the length of the evening, the highlights make everything worthwhile. If you love music I strongly urge you to watch the ceremony. Just watch it at a leisurely pace; skip through the segments you don’t care about. It really is one of the most special nights on the calendar.
Thanks for indulging me today, the Hall Of Fame is one of my obsessions and the annual ceremony is a good occasion to set aside all of the arguments about the institution for one night and just sit back to enjoy the festivities. We’ll be back with our regularly scheduled newsletter tomorrow. See you then.
