1
"I'm gonna add some bottom
So that the dancers just won't hide"
Awards shows never run on schedule. Even when they're taped for TV. There are stops and starts. After all, it's all about what the home viewer sees on their flat screen.
But that was not the case last night. The show started on time because it was simulcast on Disney+. And there were no breaks, no retakes, because not only was the show live, there were no commercials.
So we were jolted alive when the lights came up and Stevie Wonder and the assembled multitude launched into "Dance to the Music."
The power of the original cannot be denied. And the funny thing was last night IT WAS JUST AS POWERFUL! I've seen tribute covers, too often it's about going through the motions, doing your bit and getting out, another notch in the belt of celebration that is ultimately meaningless.
But not last night.
"You might like to hear my organ
I said ride, Sally ride"
How many times have you heard this on the radio? You know the flourishes by heart, the beat, the sound...and they were all replicated last night. A better performance than I've EVER seen on the Grammys. Not that they're competing. But when the Grammys created those "moments," the mashup of stars, one and one often yielded less than two.
But not last night.
So Stevie, yes, Stevie Wonder, who was eclipsed by Sly Stone at this point in time, Stevie didn't really come into his own until the seventies, when he burst into a supernova, is sitting at the keyboard like he's in a bar earning his keep for the night. There was a horn section... It was positively MESMERIZING!
And it was clear that it was Flea in the back, playing his bass, noodling around as he does with the Chili Peppers. And you know it's coming, you wonder how it's going to go down, but then Michael Balzary runs up to the microphone and utters the words atop this screed and then plays those fat, distorted notes on his bass and it was positively transcendent.
We live in an era where the script has flipped. When it's all about live as opposed to recordings. It's about the experience, feeling it. And I'm a jaded f*ck sitting right down front marveling that Lenny Waronker is at my table and I'm positively jolted, my legs spring me up to attention, the power was unbelievable. And from "Dance to the Music" it went into "Everyday People" and then "Thank You (Falletinme Be Mice Elf Agin"," finishing with Stevie and Jennifer Hudson imploring us to take it HIGHER!
The sixties flashed through my brain. Not only the energy, the music, but the spirit, the optimism, the hope. Music was lighting the fuse that blasted the younger generation into the stratosphere. Sly Stone melded rock and soul and who knows what to create this amalgam of sound you couldn't get anywhere else. He and the Family Stone were totally original. For a few minutes last night time stopped, nothing else mattered other than being there in the moment, AND WHAT MORE CAN YOU ASK FOR?
2
I know, I know, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame gets a ton of sh*t. And I don't want to defend it, I've got my own complaints. Then again, the fact that Bad Company was finally inducted...an honor way overdue to the point where even though alive, Paul Rodgerrs is too compromised to come out and sing and teach the audience a lesson, show them what true pipes, what true singing ability and nuance are all about. But, but, BUT...Simon Kirke was pounding the drums, and Joe Perry, in all his splendor, was throwing off those Mick Ralphs riffs...
"Feel like makin' LOVE"
I can't write the sound of the machine gun fire that echoes that line, but you could feel it in the building last night. A power...the power of rock and roll.
And then Chris Robinson came out and sang the breakthrough hit, "Can't Get Enough," illustrating he's a better rock frontman than seemingly anybody plying the boards today.
And... You knew that everybody on stage had lived through it, had driven in their car with these Bad Company songs pounding out of the dashboard. This was like making your bones in the garage, turning it up and letting it wail, believing you're on the road to stardom.
Not that every performance was as good, but there was only one bad one, and it was Chris Cornell's daughter. There, I said it.
But what I'm really saying here is the show was amazing in that no one was phoning it in, everybody was delivering and there were no down moments when you got up and spoke with your neighbor...I didn't even want to get up and go to the bathroom, I didn't want to miss anything. That's for home, when you pause the show and take a break, but live you're in the moment, and it's only the moment that counts.
The big surprise, two of the other great performances of the night, were by acts you might question being in the Hall.
Salt-N-Pepa... Nineties MTV flashed in front of my eyes. And that's what that era was about, hip-hop... Sure, it started with grunge, but then rap dominated. And these women had something to prove, three decades ago and last night. They spit out the lyrics, it was beyond a victory lap, it was a demand for attention, and they got it.
And then came OutKast...
Who doesn't like OutKast?
They'll come out and do their hit numbers and...
They did eventually, but...
Big Boi strode up to the stage in a big fur coat and shorts...talk about the rock and roll ethos. And then he and André 3000 started to take over the entire building. Shouting out to their friends and family in the audience, then demanding they come up on stage! There are about a dozen people up there, even a kid in a tux who couldn't have even been six. And André 3000 is talking about the village that allowed them to create this music, how they were a product of their environment, how everybody helped... And we white guys are now sitting there as outsiders, it's no longer our Hall, our ceremony, it's been totally hijacked. It was palpable. It was both jarring and impressive. How did they do this? How did they make the show their own? And they did it without being overly dramatic or rehearsed and then...
The assembled multitude started to play the hits and...
If you've ever doubted that hip-hop could work live, if you were there you were proved wrong.
I'm standing there wondering how this looks on TV. The screen flattens. Removes the energy. You're removed, but in the presence of the performance... This was rock and roll, this was the only place you could get it, not on YouTube, nowhere else, you had to BE THERE!
And funny it was in the Peacock Theater, a barn with an echo, made me yearn for the Universal Amphitheatre of old, but when music is played outside...it's a different experience, you don't feel it. But when the notes bounce off the walls...you're all in the pressure cooker, caught up in the sound, you cannot remove yourself, you're involved, and you love it!
3
Jack White gave a heartfelt speech... It seemed like he was fighting back tears. He exuded a normalness, the guy next door who made it big, he had the outfit but none of the airs, it was endearing.
But he, never mind Meg, a no-show, didn't play. And as good as the tributes to him were, his act is unique, only he can really do it.
Ditto with Warren Zevon. The Killers and Waddy gave it their all, but the real star of Warren's segment was David Letterman. This guy just couldn't help being funny. It made you miss him. He's in another league from today's late night hosts. He's quick and self-deprecating and above it all at the same time. And you could tell he loved Warren. And they played the famous clip where Zevon said to enjoy every sandwich.
Listen, the performances, other than the aforementioned clunker, were all good. It was a treat to see Derek Trucks sting the leads on the Joe Cocker songs. But there were two other highlights, HIGHLIGHTS!
4
The first one was Cyndi Lauper...
Now Cyndi has just come off a long tour, so she decided to perform herself. And she held the audience in her hands.
She starts with "True Colours" and then two-thirds of the way through, she gets to the line...
SO DON'T BE AFRAID!
And she stopped, cold, and thrust her arm in the air. This was a moment of protest, of meaning, that is absent from not only the new generation, but the public in general. This is the power of music. Wow. Goosebumps.
And the band...
Everybody was so well-rehearsed, every act, there were no clunkers. I've never seen performances this seamless at an awards show... But they were all firing at 10, they weren't just going through the motions, they felt it.
Even that rhythmic drum coda at the end of "True Colours," that was there...
And Cyndi's speech was good too, but the other highlight of the night for me...
5
Brian Wilson... You just can't say enough. If you lived through it... It's why I live in California. I just had to get CLOSER!
And I was not the only one.
So the lights come up to Elton in front of his keyboard and Reg is telling a story. And Reg has been everywhere and done everything. So he saw no need to amp it up. He spoke about going up the hill to meet Brian when he first came to L.A.
And then he started playing "God Only Knows."
Only this wasn't the version we all know. It was slowed down. So that the words had added meaning.
And Elton is singing...
No one can sing like Carl Wilson. And even Elton doesn't sound like he used to. But he gave the performance I'd say of a lifetime, but he's given so many of them. But let's just say this one...Elton was as good, if not better than he's been all century. He's making the song his own. And ultimately the key line resonated:
"God only knows what I'd be without you"
Not only Elton, but me and so many more. It was a different era. The youth started to take over the narrative when the establishment was unaware. What the hell was going on on the west coast? The girls and the beach and the fun, yet Brian could sing about being in his room with the gravitas of the most dyed-in-the-wool New Yorker on a rainy day.
Now the funny thing is so much time has passed that...
A lot of the people, or members of bands they're honoring, are dead. You only wish they were alive to see it, to experience it.
But they're not the only ones.
And the acts up on stage are thanking record executives those in the audience have never heard of, but were players around town back in the day. Soundgarden thanked Jim Guerinot, as they should have, Jim turned me on to the band, but Jim was not in attendance. The business has shifted, evolved, there were some record execs there, some other heavyweights, but this was not the clusterf*ck of yore. I'd say the only ones who'd survived intact, who still meant anything, were the musicians, the acts themselves. But really, it comes down to the music. The music survives.
Will today's music survive?
We can debate that all day long, but one thing is for sure...
They created the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame to honor an era, an unforeseen era. No one knew rock and roll was going to take over the world, become the dominant sound. And it was more than that, it was a cultural movement. This wasn't the music business of yore. The acts now wrote their own songs, straight from the heart, and ultimately played their own instruments, and they were all about pushing the envelope...you dropped the needle on a new record wondering where you'd be taken, the musicians were leaders.
And they were musicians. Sure, a lot were stars, but they were not brands. They sold t-shirts, but the music came first.
And the funny thing is despite the image...you'd be surprised, a lot of these people who cut these legendary tracks are broke, or close to it. They've got to work for a living. Or did before they died. You need to put food on the table. The execs end up comfortable, the musicians not necessarily so.
But the sound, the power.
It remains.
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