Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
It was one of the great nights in rock & roll history. As 1,200 selected guests clapped, cheered and even danced atop their tables, three generations of rock legends took to the stage to praise their peers, celebrate their music and, at the end, join together in an all-stops-out jam session. The lineup was a virtual who’s who of classic rock: Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Bruce Springsteen, Jeff Beck, Elton John, the Beach Boys, Neil Young, Billy Joel, John Fogerty and Dave Edmunds, among many others.
But apart from the sheer star wattage, the real magic in the air at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame‘s third-annual induction dinner — held on January 20th at New York City’s Waldorf-Astoria hotel — was the palpable sense of what Pete Seeger, one of the evening’s inductors, called “the long, long chain” of American music. “I love it,” said John Fogerty, pointing to a nearby chair. “I mean, Little Richard is sitting right there.”
Most of the crowd was seated by the time Elton John made his way into the ballroom, accompanied by his wife, Renate, and his longtime songwriting partner, Bernie Taupin. John jauntily made his way toward the table in the center of the room, where he and his party were to join George Harrison and Ringo Starr. Unfortunately, Harrison had already invited Bob Dylan to join him at the table, leaving no room for Taupin. Taking offense, the jet-lagged John stormed out of the room and headed back to his Waldorf suite, leaving Starr’s wife, Barbara Bach, to explain: “I think he’s had some sort of disagreement with George.”
Across the room, the squabble was noted by Mick Jagger, who had not only the dubious honor of being seated at a table overrun by Little Richard’s unusually large retinue but the misfortune of being situated near a serving area, where he was constant prey to the jostlings of waiters bearing big silver platters of sausages and mashed potatoes. Jagger unobtrusively made his way out of the room to the elevator and headed for Elton John’s suite.
The ceremonies got under way with a fanfare by Paul Shaffer and the World’s Most Dangerous Band, the house band for the night; they romped through a medley of music associated with the evening’s inductees.
Next, the masters of ceremonies — Atlantic Records chairman Ahmet Ertegun and Rolling Stone editor and publisher Jann Wenner — took the stage. Ertegun first introduced the noted architect I.M. Pei and displayed a slide of Pei’s preliminary design for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame building, to be built in Cleveland, Ohio; he proceeded to set the generous tone for the evening with his introduction of the first inductee, Berry Gordy Jr., the founder of Motown Records. Ertegun spoke of his reaction to the great early Motown records, saying, “It was the only music I couldn’t copy.” He continued by reading a telegram addressed to Gordy: Congratulations. You deserve it. You are the father of fine music. Love always, Your son, Michael Jackson. Finally, describing Gordy as “the record man of our time,” Ertegun brought on the reclusive Motown mastermind himself.
Gordy, all smiles, seemed genuinely moved. “My life has been an embarrassment of riches,” he said. “Every day for thirty years, I’ve had the luxury of doing what I love to do. Tonight, I’m being honored for it. . . . Thank God for rock & roll.”
The late Huddie Ledbetter — the great Leadbelly — was next in line to be honored. Ertegun recalled seeing Leadbelly perform at an antifascist benefit concert in the early Forties. Then, to induct Leadbelly, Ertegun brought on the singer, folklorist and longtime social activist Pete Seeger. Seeger was not wearing a tuxedo, but he struck the strongest political chord of the night. He started off by softly reciting a few lines from a poem by García Lorca (“All our art is but water, drawn from the well of the people”) and then built to a fiery peroration. “If we realize that we are but links in a long, long chain,” Seeger said, “then, by God, there will be links to come. And the people who’d wipe the human race off the map with their goddamn atom bombs and their goddamn toxic chemicals will be fooled. Because love and music are gonna bring us together!”
Tiny Robinson, Leadbelly’s niece, accepted his award. “I don’t know if this was one of Leadbelly’s dreams,” she said, “but I’m so glad it came true.”
The induction of Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly’s former concert partner, followed. Neil Young, the inductor, began his speech by reflecting on how torn he had been in his youth. He wanted to be a rock star. But, Young said, “I wanted to be that other guy, too — to have a guitar and sing a few songs about things that I really felt inside myself, things I saw going on around me.” And singer-songwriters, he discovered, “all seemed to go back and start with Woody Guthrie.”
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