A Review of Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 2013 Induction Class
After a long day of work and mind numbing traffic on the 10 Freeway, we make it to Downtown LA and the glorious bum infested streets that call her home. My dad and I walk to the Staple's Center and I show him the new Kareem statue and he's totally stoked (we're a Laker's house FYI). So we stand in line at the Nokia Theatre and just stare at all the music industry types all self-obsorbed and egotistic like the world revolves around them. I'm just like, "Hey we're here to see Rush!" and the lines outside explode with "RUUUUUUSSSSSHHHHH!" Much to our surprise some of these stuffy looking suits were die-hard fans of Rush. Hell yeah it was gonna be a damn good night!
So we forge our way through all the crowds and find our seats for $500 a ticket we had some pretty good seats but nothing really spectacular. I forget that music is hurting with all this piracy business, or so they claim but still I had heard to get a table in front of the stage it'd cost you $3,000. Yeah I'm good on that my seats were now "awesome". So the first induction was Randy Newman, of course you have to know the song "I Love LA". He also had a jam my dad called out earlier when they announced him "SHORT PEOPLE!". Randy came out on his piano and opened with "I love LA" he also had backing help from Tom Petty and a few other rockstars of past times. It was great hearing about his life and the good times he had back in the day. He also did a lot of work writing film scores for "The Natural" and "Ragtime". It was also pretty funny finding out most of his songs were satire, so Randy's "love" for LA may not be all that it's cracked up to be.
After Randy Newman's set a spotlight is fixed on two figures standing at a podium. Who else but Cheech and Chong, my dad immediatly started busting up and they didn't even say anything yet. I mean come on, who's not going to applaud these two stoner rock & rollers? Up in Smoke is all you need! They began to speak about Lou Adler a recording engineer and producer from the 60's or more notably "the dude that sitts next to Jack Nicholson at Laker's games." Lou Adler did a lot of work with The Mamas & The Papas, Cheech & Chong, Carole King, Sam Cooke, Johnny Rivers, The Grassroots, and Scott McKenzie. After he accepted his award we were graced with a performance by Carole King. According to my dad she sounded exactly the same as the albums. Her voice was still strong as ever and they say you lose it after the years, bullshit you got it, flaunt it.
After Miss King got down another spotlight appears fixed on a single woman, standing there in all her glory we saw Operah. Operah?! Hell yeah I wasn't seeing things she was really there and introducing Quincy Jones to the stage. I guess Quincy had discovered Operah from the film "The Color Purple" and she was distraught when she was turned down for a role in a movie. She said he held her hands and said, "Baby, your future is so bright it hurts my eyes." and now Operah's one of the richest women in the world. Quincy Jones just has a gift and an ear for sure. He has the most grammys and awards in history, he didn't do it alone you know this little teenager named Micheal Jackson approached him about making a solo album and it was kind of a big deal, then some albums like "Off The Wall" and a tiny album called "Thriller" would be the most popular album of all time, who knew?
Donna Summers was the next to be inducted and introducing her was Kelly Rowland, damn she looked good. Sheer black dress all see through, Kelly is badass all around. I wasn't ready for that jelly but I'd give it a try for sure! Jennifer Hudson came out and belted out some "Last Dance" and she kicked major ass! She sounded so close to Donna it was crazy and she didn't look too bad either. Let's just say my eyes were into it.
Next was Albert King's induction a clean cut John Mayer was standing at a podium with a Gibson Flying V in hand. He began to talk about how when he was kid he heard Albert King and his playing just blew him away, he modled a lot of his early playing after Mr. King. John then started talking about the different styles of blues players and how they all just had a distinct bend or feel for each note they put out. Albert King wasn't a little guy either, he could bend the shit out of a string with ease, he was also a tractor operator before he started playing music full time. He was a super humble guy by a lot of accounts and pretty much felt that if he didn't make it in music hey, I'll just go back to running my tractor. John Mayer went on to do a super cool blues jam and just tore the song apart. His bends were wailing so hard the PA started giving feedback and it couldn't handle the output. FUCK.
One of favorite bands was up next but who else but Chris Cornell would introduce them. My favorite ladies of rock Heart were next to be inducted and I couldn't wait. Chris said that he had played his first show with some cheap ass band and the show was something awful. He walked out back of the club and was in an alley loading gear up feeling like a loser when he saw a garage to a studio open up and smokin' red head with a gang of guitars in the backseat drove away playing Led Zeppelin loud. He thought to himself, "Damn. She knows what she's doing." and that pushed him to step up his game and start moving in the right direction. Anne and Nancy Wilson the dynamic duo that formed Heart are like the first ladies of hard rock on some accounts. To me they're just bad asses that love Zeppelin. The music is what got them here though, no gimic, no bullshit, just the love of rocking and rock is what they do best. They got on stage and played "Crazy on You" slowed the mood down and played some "Dreamboat Annie". That was a great experience to behold, I had no idea Anne could play flute and she nailed a solo in the middle of the song. At least it wasn't Jazz flute right? Lastly they brought the band back out and closed it with some "Barracuda". Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains came out and jammed with them on it, handling the solo duties like a boss, like Jerry does.
Now for the main event everyone was waiting for RUSH! Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins were standing there with the usual smirks on their faces like always. It was like little kids talking up their superheroes I don't even they believed they were there introducing Rush. It came time for the performance and we saw three figures dressed in white togas ready to jam. The intro to 2112 started playing and what do you know it started going down. The first notes hit and the lights went up and it was Dave, Taylor, and another dude jamming, when the solo hit Rush came out and smashed on it! They then jumped into "Tom Sawyer" and "Spirit of the Radio". They sounded fresh as ever almost like age hadn't even touch them. All in all it was a great show and a great time. Hope you enjoyed my ramblings I know I do. -Wes
