She was a country singer and Elvis told her to go rockabilly – she said she was a country singer, Elvis said he was too. That was all it took. She never gave up country as she rocked.
She mentions “Fujiyama Mama” and "Let’s Have a Party” as faves. She still plays up to 80 dates a years, is an international star, and now (Roseanne fighting back a tear) a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Wanda says her Mama and Daddy sacrificed to let her live her dream. Her mother is still alive at 95. At 14 she sang with the Brazos Valley Boys. Thanks Elvis for encouragement – DJ and Scotty are here tonight. Wanda feels the presence of Elvis. She thanks producer Ken Nelson, who "believed in his artists and never held them back." Capitol signed her as a country singer and then she went rock ‘n’ roll crazy! They didn’t know what to do with her. She thanks her husband of 47 years, he is weeping.
Wanda didn’t get a lot of recognition back in the day, “with my fringe flying, breaking guitar strings, singing wildly,” but she has a new career at this point of her life: “It doesn’t get any better than that,” she says. She thanks Elvis Costello and Bruce Springsteen for taking up her cause to get into the Rock Hall. She thanks filmmakers for the documentary on her, now showing on the Smithsonian Channel, The Sweet Lady with the Nasty Voice – Wanda says she's "not sure it’s an accurate title, not sure I'm a sweet lady.”
Now she’s gonna rock! The first song she wrote and recorded “Mean Mean Man.” Wanda still sounds like Wanda! She’s rocking her pink acoustic guitar – her voice sounds young and vibrant. “Let’s Have a Party” her “signature song.”
Paul Shaffer (who is leading the backing band) intros side man inductee Spooner Oldham, keyboardist extraordinaire. He played on “When Man Loves a Woman, “I’m Your Puppet,” “Cry Like a Baby” (co-wrote and played on), “Natural Woman.” "It’s not what you play, it’s what you don’t play – sometimes the silence is more powerful than the sound,” says Shaffer. Spooner is introduced.
Bobby Womack time. We see young Bobby on Soul Train. He started singing in the ‘50s with his four brothers, and played guitar with Sam Cooke. Bobby, wrote, sang, produced, played guitar on his recordings. Ronnie Wood inducts Womack, “an inspiration to our band.” Womack co-wrote "It’s All Over Now” (Stones’ first #1) for his first band, the Valentinos. Wood relates that Womack visited Jackie Wilson on his deathbed, sang some of Jackie's songs for him, and for a time Wilson slightly revived, with tears in his eyes. Bobby comes out.
Article comments
1 - Glen Boyd
That Jeff Beck set was just SICK! Becks Bolero with Immigrant Song in the middle -- Page doing the power chords, while Beck did Plant's vocal parts on guitar -- just SICK! Jeff Beck is the best guitarist on earth, period.
-Glen
2 - Brian Garrepy
Great "Live" Blogging...
Metallica is only [the]second metal band in the Rock Hall
I totally agree with you ,Eric, about YES,Rush,etc.. BUT, after Black Sabbath it should have been Iron Maiden.
These people [Rock Hall & Voters] have no idea what Maiden did for Heavy Metal especially the amount of albums sold without the help of Radio & TV! Hell, Maiden didn't just perpetuate a genre they re-invented it! They need to get their fucking act together...
3 - Pamela
That wasn't Bill Black's 3 kids...one of those guys was DJ FONTANA...which you so kindly COMPLETELY skipped over. Unbelieveable that so much attention is focused on Run DMC and the pioneers of rock and roll go virtually unnoticed. Maybe you were too busy trying to go "places you weren't supposed to be" to notice who was really on stage. Talk about the ultimate disrespect to Mr. Fontana!!!
4 - Jordan Richardson
Wow, Pamela. Take it easy.
5 - Pamela
Take it easy? After what DJ contributed to music, and he was actually refered to in this blog as one of Bill Black's kids? Nothing about his speech was mentioned and when Max was introducing him, this blog stated that he was droning? No I won't take it easy. That's just terrible reporting and extremely disrespectful to the man that paved the way for music today. He couldn't even be given the decency of this "reporter" acknowleding his presence on stage. Lame. Maybe we should talk about how Run DMC brought their whole freaking family on stage and we had to listen to that drone on and on and on, which, if hadn't been allowed to happen, maybe the broadcast wouldn't have been cut off so early.
6 - Donald Gibson
U2 was another band that was inducted while still a "current" best-selling act. And Prince, come to think of it.
On the Bobby Womack/Ronnie Wood collaboration, (the one you've got as "Used To Love Her"), was it "It's All Over Now" -- which Bobby wrote and the Stones made a huge hit out of in the '60s?
7 - Jordan Richardson
Pamela, we all have our opinions in terms of what should be covered, who "drones" on and on, and so forth. It's a blog posting, one I found to be entertaining.
To be honest about it, if I was at the Ceremony the last thing I'd be thinking about doing was blogging to allow readers a bit of insight into what was going on inside.
Save your moral indignation for something worthwhile or, better still, write about the importance of DJ Fontana yourself.
8 - Jordan Richardson
he was actually refered to in this blog as one of Bill Black's kids?
By the way, I didn't see this specifically in the entry. I'm not sure, the author might need to clarify, but isn't it possible that when Eric said "his three children chat" he actually meant Bill's three kids and didn't mean to infer that DJ was one of them?
Again, just spitballing here because I couldn't find any actual specific, clear reference to what you were so angry about. In your first post, you act like Eric didn't even mention DJ Fontana when even the briefest reading reveals otherwise.
9 - Eric Olsen
Now that I've fixed typos (with Glen Boyd's help, thanks!) and weird constructions, it should read a little better.
Very sorry to neglect DJ Fontana, Pamela, totally not my intent. The Elvis trio was absolutely integral to making Elvis what he was. Remember, I was just trying to cover what was going on, my impressions, in between talking to people, answering questions about what the hell I was doing, and the like.
10 - Glen Boyd
Yer quite welcome boss-man.
-Glen
11 - Eric Olsen
I am certain there was a fair amount of inelegant structure and ambiguity in my meaning in the original version - that's live blogging. Thanks all!
12 - tink
Thanks for the bird's eye view...am pea-green with envy!!!
Yea, EO!!!
13 - Eric Olsen
thanks tink - was hectic but a lot of fun! Why does anyone ever try to thwart me?
14 - Al
Eric as one of your “table mates” at the ceremony I’ll confirm (for Pam) that you were trying your best to capture the essence of the night. You had your hurdles to vault with the Wi-Fi issues and glasses but having just read your post (a week later) I think you captured the program well. The biggest problem with the induction speech for DJ wasn’t the “droning on” but rather the board operator for the PA must have fallen asleep during the speech and I had trouble (at the back table with you) hearing Max and Gary. I was there to hear the music AND the speeches after all hearing about these careers is what it’s all about. Right? It was great meeting you.