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How can you celebrate rock and roll greats without real rock or roll?
Photo: AP / Shutterstock
This year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony was supposed to take place in Cleveland in May. Due to the coronavirus it was postponed to November with the hope that it would still happen in person. Then, inevitably, it was transformed into a completely virtual event, which will air Saturday night on HBO.
The transmission arrives with a pre-established sense of loss; watching the two-hour ceremony, you feel it immediately. One of the central pleasures of watching induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, besides complaining aloud about which artists were inexplicably excluded: inducing the Duran Duran, cowards! – it’s seeing live performances by the recruits themselves or others paying their respects (not to mention occasionally revived old dramas). Last year, there wasn’t as much of it as usual; Radiohead nominees and Janet Jackson did not organize mini-concerts, nor did anyone else for them. But this year, given the virtual constraints and the Hall’s belief that virtual exhibitions could be “boring” – note: not necessarily! – the performance element was completely cut. That absence, as has happened in other awards this year, is deeply felt, to the point of not being ignorable. How can you celebrate rock and roll greats without real rock or roll?
The answer provided by the two-hour program is: with lots of montages and some nice pre-recorded greetings and acceptance speeches. Which is … okay, but not as fun and uplifting as a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony should be. It’s not as fun or uplifting as it should be – this is 2020 in a nutshell.
The salute to this year’s group of recruits – the Doobie Brothers, Nine Inch Nails, The Notorious BIG, Depeche Mode, T. Rex, Whitney Houston, legendary manager Irving Azoff and critic-turned-producer Jon Landau – was already tinged with sadness even before the pandemic. Three of the award-winning artists, Biggie, Houston and Marc Bolan, founder, frontman and heart of T. Rex, died young and their awards are being received on their behalf by their children or other loved ones. It is especially touching to see Houston’s 87-year-old mother, Cissy, and her sister-in-law, Pat Houston, speak on behalf of the “Greatest Love of All” singer and emphasize how much she wanted to be inducted into the Hall of Fame before she died in 2012. “If I talk too much about long, I’ll cry, “says Cissy Houston in one of the last moments of the show,” but thank you. “
Fans of Notorious BIG, who was shot and killed in 1997, might also find a tear or two in their eyes when Sean Combs introduces the friend whose career he defended at Bad Boy Records. “They say time heals all wounds,” Combs says. “I’m waiting for that day. But I also think time doesn’t heal all wounds. There are some things you have to live with. “
As the last ceremony aired in April 2019, the segment in memoriam is a doozy, only aggravating the underlying air of grief. Artists who died last year, including The Cars’ Ric Ocasek and Cream drummer Ginger Baker, are recognized alongside those who died more recently, such as the legendary Little Richard and Eddie Van Halen, who receives a greeting longer than the others. (Slash, Metallica’s Kirk Hammett, and Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello, whom he calls Van Halen “the Mozart of our generation,” sing all the praises of the guitar master.)
While it’s hard to overlook the lingering feeling that something is missing, the ceremony still has its delightful moments. There’s the one in the Doobie Brothers tribute that returns to the classic What is happening episode in which Rerun tried to record a counterfeit copy of a Doobies concert by hiding a tiny house-sized tape recorder in his coat; “You must see the Doobie Brothers act“Says director Judd Apatow, identified in the special exclusively as a” Doobie Brothers fanatic; St. Vincent has the chance to show off Nine Inch Nails. “‘Head Like a Hole’ has two fucking choruses,” he observes, clearly his mind continues to blow; Charlize Theron is enthusiastic about Depeche Mode and calls their music the “soundtrack of my adolescence” as she introduced the band New Wave into the Hall; and national treasure / best officer Eagle Joe Walsh honors Azoff by stating, “Irving is the only manager I’ve ever known who said to Daivd Geffen, ‘Hey David,'” at which point Walsh blows a greasy, moist raspberry.
The love so many feel for rock, pop and hip-hop is still present in this year’s unusual induction ceremony. Unfortunately, we can’t hear any of this to the extent or volume it deserves to be heard. When so many other virtual awards and events have been able to find ways to make musical performances work in a socially distant environment, it is strange that the place in America dedicated specifically to the celebration of music has failed to find a creative solution to that. problem. If Rock Hall, as an institution, is proof that rock and roll is not dead, they should have done more to make sure its ceremony kept it alive.
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