Six More in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

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Six More in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Postby jon » Sun Apr 09, 2017 9:06 am

Pearl Jam, Tupac and Joan Baez join Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
BBC
8 April 2017

The late rapper Tupac Shakur, 1960s protest singer Joan Baez and grunge legends Pearl Jam have all entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

They were inducted alongside the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), Journey and Yes during a concert in New York.

However, it was not just a celebration: a number of artists chose to use the occasion to make impassioned pleas and remember lost friends.

Tupac's award was collected by his friend, fellow rapper Snoop Dogg.

Folk singer Baez - as known for her activism as her singing - made a rallying call for resistance in the face of "the new political cultural reality".

The 76-year-old, who admitted most younger people had never heard her work, made a return to the spotlight this week when her song Nasty Man went viral.

Baez - imitating Donald Trump's particular way of speaking - told the audience gathered at Brooklyn's Barclays Center: "Let us together repeal and replace brutality and make compassion a priority. Let us build a great bridge, a beautiful bridge, to welcome the tired and the poor."

Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder tackled climate change, saying: "We cannot be the generation that history will look back upon and wonder, why didn't they do everything humanly possible to solve this biggest crisis of our time?"

Snoop Dogg was on hand to collect Tupac's trophy, more than two decades after he was shot dead in Las Vegas.

Calling Tupac "the greatest rapper of all time", he recalled how they were just "two black boys struggling to become men", adding: "To be human is to be many things at once: strong and vulnerable, hard-headed and intellectual, courageous and afraid, loving and vengeful, revolutionary and, oh yeah... gangsta!"

Tributes were also paid to 1986 Hall of Fame inductee Chuck Berry. who died last month aged 90, with ELO playing one of his best known hits - Roll Over Beethoven.

Meanwhile, Nile Rodgers - lead guitarist of disco band Chic - was recognised for his contribution to production.
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Re: Six More in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Postby Richard Skelly » Wed Apr 12, 2017 1:33 pm

Hope the show airs on HBO Canada. I sometimes disagree with inductees and deserving acts that are perpetually snubbed (it's way past time for The Guess Who or Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman jointly to enter for their combined work in The Guess Who, Randy's fame in BTO and Burton's solo work).

Maybe in order to make the cut, bands must agree to perform together during the ceremony. Year after year there's usually an inductee whose veteran members are either blacklisting a former star (Chicago and Peter Cetera) or vice versa (John Fogerty and CCR). Jeez, Louise...we're not talking about negotiating world peace or having lions lie down with lambs. For fans, the thrill of seeing even a 10-minute "reunion" is a big part of caring about the Hall of Fame ceremony.

From what I gather, Yes allowed former frontman Jon Anderson to perform with them during this weekend's show (Geddy Lee of Rush subbed for the late Chris Squire on bass), Good on current Yes name owner Steve Howe for including Jon. As for Journey, they could only abide ex-singer Steve Perry being alongside them during the actual induction and granting him a few moments to say thanks to voters, fans and current band leader Neil "Fast Fingers" Schon. When it came time to perform, however, it was Perry clone Arnell Pinada leading the band through Don't Stop Believing. Steve and Arnell had hugged backstage. But couldn't Schon have been big enough to have both singers perform?

I remember when The Eagles were inducted back in the late '90s. Despite their checkered history of fights, including punchouts, all seven past and present members were able to appear together and play as a septet. It was a great moment of reconciliation and a truly memorable broadcast.
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