Music: Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 2012
“People who make music together cannot be enemies, at least while the music lasts.” Paul Hindemith
Music: Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 2012… Beastie Boys
The Beastie Boys – (You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)
Music: Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 2012… Guns N Roses
Guns N’ Roses – Sweet Child O’ Mine
HBO hosted a special event tonight: The 27th annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony which honored the artistic and musical contributions of the following inductees: Guns N’ Roses, Beastie Boys, Donovan, Laura Nyro, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Small Faces/Faces, Freddie King, Don Kirshner, Cosimo Matassa, Tom Dowd, Glyn Johns, The Crickets, The Famous Flames, The Midnighters, The Comets, The Blue Caps, and The Miracles. If you have never heard the music of any of these brilliant artistes, now is not a bad time to look them up and check out their sounds. Personally, I have a few favorites on the list and I’ll share some songs.
“Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music” Sergei Rachmaninov
Music: Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 2012… Laura Nyro
Laura Nyro – Stoney End (Censored Single Version)
Music: Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 2012… Freddie King
Freddie King – Hideaway – excellent version
The show had its share of zany musicians, great speeches and stellar performances. I have to say that Ledisi did a brilliant rendition of Etta James song “At Last” as pictures of all the great musicians who passed away this year scrolled down a large screen. Bitter sweet to see Whitney Houston, Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys, and a number of others on it. There were lots of moving, passionate speeches; Rappers Chuck D and LL Cool J and several others did a brilliant job when they paid tribute to the late Adam Yauch of The Beastie Boys. Bette Midler gave a very emotional and touching speech about the brilliant work and life of Laura Nyro. ZZ Top paid a great homage to Freddie King. John Mellencamp, in his tribute, admitted to stealing material from Donovan.
A funny moment was when Chris Rock cracked a joke that if Axl Rose of Guns N’ Roses was going to show up for the event, he would still be on his way… Axl Rose had declined to be inducted into the Hall of Fame for reasons he explained in a letter he wrote to the RRHF. I applaud his gumption. You can read the letter at end of this post explaining why. Meanwhile, Slash thanked everyone including the kitchen sink… just kidding. Ron Wood of The Rolling Stones was inducted again for his gig as a member, back in the day, of The Small Faces/Faces. He was inducted with fellow former band members Rod Stewart and Kenney Jones of The Who. Like Axl Rose, Rod was a no show…The Red Hot Chili Peppers wrapped up the evening performing Stevie Wonder’s ‘Higher Ground.’ with Ron Wood, Slash and George Clinton jumping in to bring the event to an energetic conclusion. Get a recap here: Ultimate classicrock. More below! 😉
“To study music, we must learn the rules. To create music, we must break them.” Nadia Boulanger
Music: Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 2012… Red Hot Chili Pepper
Red Hot Chili Peppers – By The Way [Official Music Video]
Music: Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 2012… Donovan
Presenters were Green Day for Guns n Roses, Chris Rock for Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Stevie Van Zant for The Small Faces/Faces, Chuck D for the Beastie Boys, Bette Midler for Laura Nyro, John Mellencamp (confessed to stealing Donovan’s music) for Donovan, Billy Gibbons & Dusty Hill (ZZ Top) for Freddie King, Carole King for publisher/promoter Don Kirshner, Robbie Robertson for producers Cosimo Matassa, Tom Dowd, Glyn Johns, and Smokey Robinson for a number of bands/groups; The Crickets, The Famous Flames (James Brown’s backup singers), The Midnighters, The Comets, The Blue Caps and The Miracles (his band). It was a good show with many high moments and I’ll recommend catching an HBO re-run.
Stay Inspired! What are your thoughts? Did you watch the HBO show? What music are you listening to this weekend? Do you have any favorites you’d like to share? What new tunes would you recommend? Do share! Thank you. 🙂
This post was inspired by a prompt from WP Plinky: Name your favorite rock album of all time.
*Please bear with me as I continue to catch up on your blogs and commenting… Thank you all for your patience! 🙂
Positive Motivation Tip: Music heals and showers us with happy feelings… Find your song and sing it.
PHOTO CREDITS/ATTRIBUTIONS: All Photos Laura Nyro, Guns n Roses, Beastie Boys, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Freddie King, via Wikipedia.
Until Next Time…
Ask. Believe. Receive. ©
Elizabeth Obih-Frank
Mirth and Motivation
Positive Kismet
To: Cleveland, Ohio, Guns N’ Roses Fans and everyone who’s shown support for my decision regarding the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.
I seriously didn’t plan on or expect the overwhelmingly positive response and public support for my decision regarding the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. With such a generous outpouring of solidarity from fans, media outlets, writers and other artists, I’m truly humbled, blown away and unbelievably relieved! To be honest, I thought it would go the other way and was just hoping to weather the storm. As I said, I sincerely didn’t want to disappoint anyone. It gets old being the outlaw even if “it’s only rock and roll”.
It took a lot of focus and soul searching to be sincere and informative while making a genuine effort to be somewhat diplomatic. We made, what I feel, are real efforts to learn about the Hall and the Board, spoke as I said with the president and various members, and though I inducted Elton John and Bernie Taupin in ’94 saying something to the effect of “I’m learning what the Hall’s about…”
I still don’t exactly know or understand what the Hall is or how or why it makes money, where the money goes, who chooses the voters and why anyone or this board decides who, out of all the artists in the world that have contributed to this genre, officially “rock” enough to be in the Hall?
This isn’t an attack. These are genuine issues I don’t have enough verified information on to have more than rough ideas. Certainly not enough information to make any judgments about.
I would like to apologize to Cleveland, Ohio for not apologizing to them beforehand for not attending [the ceremony] in their city. I think they know how much I genuinely love performing there. Cleveland does in fact Rock!!
Now that the smoke’s cleared a little, any desperate, misguided attacks have been just that, a pathetic stab at gossip, some lame vindictiveness, the usual entitlement crap, he’s obsessed, crazy, volatile, a hater. I once bought a homeless woman a slice of pizza who yelled at me she wanted soup. We got her the soup. You can get your own.
Again: HUGE thanks to the fans and to everyone for the incredible public support. My congratulations to the other artists inducted. And my apologies to the city and people of Cleveland, Ohio. I hope you’ll forgive me and we hope to see you again soon!
Keep Rockin’,
Axl
Unlike my open letter to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, Guns N’ Roses Fans and Whom It May Concern this was written for GNR’s official website, Facebook account and my personal twitter account and not intended as a press release. If anyone does choose to pick this up as has been done previously I’d appreciate if you’d run in full including this paragraph so as not to give a partial picture, have things taken out of context or to imply or inadvertently give the impression this was intended for other outlets. Axl Rose’s letter via GnR Website
Related articles
- Tonight’s HBO ‘Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’ special is a fitting eulogy for Beastie Boys’ Adam Yauch: A review (thefirstdark.wordpress.com)
- Axl Rose Declines Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction (thehollywoodgossip.com)
- Guns N’ Roses, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Beastie Boys Inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (eonline.com)
- Guns N Roses, Others in Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame (theepochtimes.com)
- Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Responds to Axl Rose (jdjournal.com)
- Beastie Boys’ Adam Yauch Dead at 47 (newser.com)
- 2012 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony Set To Air This Saturday On HBO (wncx.radio.com)
- Music: Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 2012 (eof737.wordpress.com)
I’d never hear of Laura Nyro so I had to look her up after reading this post. Given her record I can’t imagine how I missed her career given that I’m a registered music fanatic
She was a talented musician who shunned the limelight and didn’t play that whole power game. Her music is well known even though many don’t know her name… Glad you found her work entertaining. 🙂
OMG, Mellow Yellow takes me back years and years…thanks for the memories! 🙂
Me too! When I heard it, it took me way, way back. 😉
Good old Axl Rose – I’m impressed.
Same here… I like Axl and applaud his gumption. 🙂
I’m a big GNR fan and as a guitarist myself Slash is my favorite guitarist. I was hoping to see the original line up, but not surprised that I didn’t. I think that was one of the best Slash performances I’ve seen on TV in a while, and letting Steve Adler play both songs shows Matt Sorum’s integrity
I can tell you’re a big GNR fan and TY for breaking it down. I love their music and I wish people who claim to hate Rock and Roll will just take a minute to hear music from the genre before judging it. 🙂
I enjoyed the light heartedness of this post. I love rock and roll music for all the eccentric characters in it. I love the way you shared this piece in the same casual spirit of the genre. Rock on!
B
TY for picking up on the casualness of it all. The HBO show didn’t hold back and while it might be too salty for some, I enjoyed it. 😉
Thanks for the highlights! I never seem to watch award shows and such, but the RRHF is awesome. Good coverage my dear! Thanks for visiting my blog regularly and letting me know you’ve been there. I really, really appreciate it. Margie
I loved the show and had many good laughs… It was good and those rock and rollers are so real!
I’m still behind Margie but working every day to fix the issue… TY! 🙂
I love the Chillis!
Same here…. and their music is really good. TY! 🙂
Donovan!! and I do not care if I am showing my age!
I’m right there with you. TY! 🙂
Great post! Music, where would we be without it . . . goes right to the heart. Thanks again! 🙂
Sure does… Life would be drab without it. 🙂
For sure! 🙂
Pretty ballsy move, if you ask me. Takes guts to be honest and upfront. Good for Axl Rose, not sure many people would do what he did. Lots of courage there. Very impressive move. Hope the RRHF will consider some of the points he made.
Exactly… I hope they do take it into consideration down the road… They responded to him but in a diplomatic way… The usual tame lines. TY! 😉
Good stuff. Brings back memories.
Yes, same here. 🙂
Thanks for the highlights. I’m way behind on visiting blogs and trying to catch up.
You are not alone as I’m still wading through them. TY! 🙂
Lovely post with some great music!
Glad you enjoyed it. TY for checking in! 😉
Cleveland rocks, that’s for sure. 🙂 I didn’t see the HBO special, but we get to experience a lot of the hoopla just watching the local news. I’m so glad they started holding the inductions in Cleveland instead of NYC. Makes so much more sense to me (and it’s great for Cleveland). The Rock Hall is an interesting place to visit.
Good for Cleveland and I’m happy for them too. Maybe one day, I’ll go out and visit the Rock Hall. TY! 🙂
I love watching this show every year. The camaraderie between the musicians is always so fun to watch. I hope HBO replays it since I missed the original airing.
I hope they do too as I’d love to catch it again. 😉
So happy to see Donovan there. I saw his interview the other day on one of those shows.
Excellent. It is good to know he is still performing. 😉
Yes!!! Donovan
TY Brenda, I’m curious… How come you comment on my older posts not my current ones? Is that what WP sends you or you visit my blog and click on what interests you? Just curious. TY! 🙂
WP included this post in an email
Interesting… TY! Brenda. 😉
Wondering whether you’ve ever been to the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix? Would love to hear about your experience once you get a chance to explore it!
No I haven’t been there at all… If I ever get there I’d be happy to share my thoughts. TY for your feedback!
Laura Nyro. Yes!!
One of my fave composers – Stoney End, Wedding Bell Blues (popularized by the Fifth Dimension), Flim Flam Man, Up On The Roof (Carol King), and many more. First time I came across this censored version of Stoney. I only have the regular radio version. Thanks for this!
She did come out with an album recently with a remake of her old songs but I still prefer the buoyancy of her original versions.
Glad you connected with the artistes! I had fun revisiting the music and really need to do another music post.
TY for your enthusiasm and will visit you back. 🙂