Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductions, 2017

The 2017 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions got off to a spirited start with an excellently made tribute video for Chuck Berry, the very first person inducted into the hall in 1986. From there, the curtains parted for Electric Light Orchestra playing Chuck’s “Roll Over Beethoven” (which ELO had a hit cover with).  Then, Jeff Lynne and company played a note-perfect three-song set, which sounds better than it is: rock isn’t about recreating overblown studio records!

Dhani Harrison (George’s son) came out next to tell of tagging along with his father to see ELO at age 7, and then befriending Jeff Lynne.  As moody and mysterious as George seemed, Dhani is like the cool, animated, funny guy in your group of friends.  I like him.  At one point he said ELO looked like “the Cantina Band from ‘Star Wars,’ but with more hair.”

Next up, a stirring video of Joan Baez’s work as an activist (from the 1960s right up through this year) was followed by Jackson Browne (looking somewhat dazed) saying that the first record he bought growing up was Joan Baez’s second album.  He lauded her “spellbinding effect” before bringing Baez onstage.  She thanked him – calling him a “compatriot and troublemaker” – and said the Rock Hall honor was “really cool” (and graciously did not call it “long overdue”).

She then told of how young people may not know who she is, and that even her granddaughter didn’t know until Baez took her backstage at a Taylor Swift concert, “where she got a selfie, and autograph, and newfound respect for her grandmother.”  She also thanked the musicians she listened to “on vinyl to digital to everything in-between and now back to vinyl.”  Baez was joined part-way through her set by The Indigo Girls and Mary Chapin-Carpenter.

Yes exploded from the screen next.  The band has been nominated before – even getting a big boost from one of Rick Santorum’s political strategists, who had as much luck getting Yes inducted in 2013 as he did with the former presidential candidate.  The band was inducted by Geddy Lee and Alex Liefson of Rush, who said “and we thought WE waited a long time to get in!”  (Rush was eligible from 1998, and was inducted in 2013; Yes has been eligible since 1994).  The inductees were band’s 1960s-1970s lineup(s): Steve Howe, Alan White, Bill Bruford, Tony Kaye, Jon Anderson, Rick Wakeman and Chris Squire… plus Trevor Rabin, who helped resurrect the band in 1980.  Strangely, keyboardist Patrick Moraz (1974-1976) and original guitarist Peter Banks (1968-70) were not included, though Banks (who died in 2013) got a shoutout from Jon Anderson.

Rick Wakeman brought down the house with a ribald speech including lines about his first sexual experience (“it wasn’t any good… never is when you’re alone”), his wife (“I think she’s in a coma… the sex is the same but the washing’s piling up”) and his prostate (“the doctor said it was normal to get an erection during the exam… I said I didn’t have one, and the doctor said, ‘but I have’”).  Strangely, he finished by introducing Chris Squire’s widow and daughter, but the lights immediately went out and the band took the stage for their set.  (It also seems Bill Bruford lost his chance to speak as well).

Next up, Journey was warmly received by fans, while Steve Perry got deafening applause.  The hermit of rock has been largely out of the public eye since 1996, when the band reunited for a hit album and then didn’t tour because Perry injured his hip while hiking in Hawaii.  Apparently, he vowed never to since with the band again after they gave him an ultimatum in 1998: get hip surgery (which Perry was still deciding on), or we’ll go on tour without you.  On stage at the Barclays Center, though, they all seemed to be friends again.  Perry may not have taken the stage since Arnel Pineda has been the lead singer for 10 years, and the two tweeted a photo backstage of Pineda bowing down to his predecessor.  Classy all around (something you wouldn’t normally say about Journey, I think, thanks to Neal Schon).

I have read in the past that Journey fans refuse to accept Pineda since he’s Filipino.  However, Steve Perry is of Portuguese descent, and original drummer Aynsley Dunbar is British!  So Journey has never been about race (in the last two years of the original group, “American Idol” judge Randy Jackson was their bass player).  You can see their induction speeches here (for now).

(NOTE: I was unable to view the rest of the ceremony, so I will move through this quickly).

After Journey, Nile Rogers was inducted for his work as a producer and songwriter, which should finally put the arguments for and against Chic to bed (nominated for a decade and still not in!).

Tupac was inducted by Snoop Dog and honored with a performance by YG.

David Letterman (who, along with Lorne Michaels, belongs in the Rock Hall himself) gave a hilarious speech inducting Pearl Jam, even saying the balcony was full of former Pearl Jam drummers.  And then everyone went home.