On March 10, 2003 the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted the new class: The Righteous Brothers, AC/DC, The Clash, The Police and Elvis Costello. The induction dinner is airing on VH1. Check their schedule for repeat viewings.
This was one of the more satisfying awards ceremonies I've seen. Partly this is because they are lifetime achievement awards, so rarely do any truly bad acts get into the list. I'm afraid there'll be no spot here for Milli Vanilli.
This show had a much greater sense of intimacy than most awards shows. It was a few hundred people setting at dinner tables. It came off that people were speaking and performing for their immediate audience rather than posturing for the cameras. It seemed much more like we were dealing with human beings rather than some plasticized media spectacle.
The Righteous Brothers opened the show with "You've Lost That Loving Feeling." Those guys can really sing. When they lay up the combination with the full orchestration, they really put it on us. I obviously need to listen to more Righteous Brothers.
Elvis Costello and the Attractions found themselves being inducted by Elton John with a speech that climaxes with a discussion of his tastes in homosexual pornography. It was a tasteful display of pure English class.
Elvis made a quick litany of favorite musicians, finishing up with "and especially Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell." Dylan is obvious, but citing Joni Mitchell as his co-favorite seems odd. The influence of Joni Mitchell on his music is not obvious to me. Nor do I recall ever hearing him mention her before. Nor do I recall him ever covering any of her songs live. Most curious.
He also had curious choices in song. Obviously he had to do "Peace, Love and Understanding." OK, fair enough. No cheap shots at the microphone, but instead he made the point with an impassioned rendition of one of his classics. This is the right approach to a musician expressing political opinions: let your guitar do the talking. It's what you do.
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Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
Excellent recap Al - I couldn't bring myself to watch it becuase this was the first year they didn't do a live simulcast in Cleveland and I was pissed. Now I'll have to check it out - thanks a lot dude.
The only I may disagreee with is the across-the-board greatness of Elvis, and sandanista, which, oddly, is my favorite Clash album. I didn't say it's their best, just my favorite. I love "Charlie Don't Surf" and "Lose This Skin" to an unreasonable degree.
Great job, once again!!
2 - Mark Saleski
dang, now i've gotta watch too. just loved The Police.
say al, being the Elvis Costello lover that you are you may want to check out Griel Marcus' In The Fascist Bathroom. it's got a lot of his early writing...with lots of stuff about Elvis 'back in the day'.
3 - Garrett
Vote for your favorite deserving but overlooked artists into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame here
or
here
The top 20 vote-getters at this point are:
1. Joan Jett
2. Rush
3. Van Halen
4. Black Sabbath
5. Doobie Brothers
6. Lynyrd Skynyrd
7. Dire Straits
8. Def Leppard
9. Yes
10. Peter Gabriel (solo)
11. Heart
12. Chicago
13. Genesis
14. Deep Purple
15. Journey
16. Alice Cooper
17. John Mellencamp
18. Pete Townshend (solo)
19. Duran Duran
20. Pat Benatar
4 - Al Barger
Garrett, let's make that a convenient hyperlink, shall we? CLICK HERE
So many outstanding choices there, starting with the most exalted potentates of Lynyrd Skynyrd, but I just dropped in a humble vote for Captain Beefheart.