Well, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame show went by this weekend. After years of wanting to watch this show, I finally caught it and...could have done without it. This was by far the most bizarre awards show I've seen, one where the point was to honor a really small part of each artist in the most backhanded way possible.
The opening was a tribute to Ahmet Ertigun via a performance by Aretha Franklin. Lady Soul gave it her best and the one of a kind soulfulness shone in her set. But, she is clearly not feeling well needing assistance getting to the stage and running out of breath before the big note at the end of her song. Still, her tribute seemed heartfelt.
Other bits went on almost uniformly too long. The Ronettes were inducted with Ronnie Spector thanking herself throughout her speech and song set. Meanwhile, the now blacklisted Phil Spector had his role downplayed somewhere behind the recording engineer and the janitor. Grandmaster Flash was inducted and though the performance was a nostalgic exercise in 80's rap, rap just ain't my thing. Patti Smith was also never a favorite of mine, I'll never get the amount of cred she gets though her rendition of the Stone's "Gimmie Shelter" wasn't bad.
All of this built up to the anti-climax: the induction of Van Halen. Sadly, since their announced induction and supposed reunion tour was planned it all fell apart. After weeks of mystery and rehab, only former members Michael Anthony and Sammy Hagar showed up. They gave nice speeches, but were then inducted by Velvet Revolver. David Lee Roth reportedly didn't show because Velvet Revolver refused to play "Jump" with him. They offered to play other non keyboard songs because they didn't have a keyboard player. So, a band supposedly playing tribute to Van Halen refuses to play their biggest hit because they can't find a keyboard player in a room literaly full of musicians. That's lame. Revolver gave a half assed speech and then proceeded to murder Van Halen's music to a ridiculous level. Proving that any song can be stripped of it's melody, groove or anything remotely listenable, Velvet Revolver played "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" and "Runaround" with downtuned guitars and droning vocals. It was so bad I thought I was watching a South Park parody of a rock band. The performance and lack of respect pretty much made me a non-fan of Velvet Revolver.
With VH out of the picture, the big prize went to REM. Reunited with drummer Bill Berry for the occassion, REM sounded pretty good running through classics like "Begin the Begin", "Gardening at Night" and "Man on the Moon". Except Michael Stipe's apparent bordom nearly took the fun away making the performance seem like a chore. It wasn't until Patti Smith came out to jam that Stipe seemed to wake up and care about the show.
If it weren't for an emphasis on past highlights (Prince jamming on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and U2 teaming up with Springsteen on "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For") it would have been a total waste of time.
In other bits, Brandon Rogers was voted off American Idol much earlier than I predicted. I guess forgetting the words midsong and bad dancing will do that. Though Phil Stacey may still prove a prediction right for me, he gave a good performance and still found himself in the bottom three. I still can't believe Chris Sleigh proved me wrong, I've never heard a more forced song on AI before his insistance that "Endless Love"s lyrics be sung to the instrumentation and melody of Coldplay's "Clocks".
R&B continues to make a comeback with some decent tunes courtesy of Christina Aguilera and Joss Stone. Aguilera's "Candyman" comes across 40's style like the Andrew Sisters in heat. A fun song that borrows a little from "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy". Stone looks to 70's funk/soul and turns in a gem with "Tell Me About It". R&B with a hook, powerful singing and no scat rapping. What a novel idea.
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