R&RHOF25AC, Part 1

Unintentional Comedy + Rock Legends = The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary Concert

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame recently payed tribute to itself and the music it honors at Madison Square Garden with a veritable "who's who" of pop music legends. HBO broadcast much of the proceedings (the actual concert spanned two nights), in both a four-hour version and a condensed two-hour cut. I'm not going to claim to have watched every second, but I did see most of it when it debuted (opposite the Steeler/Ravens game) and it's been replayed often and I've tuned in occasionally to those as well.

The show proved highly, highly entertaining as it was simultaneously hilarious and awesome. It was funny to see many of these creaky legends, devoid of any sense of cool. At the same time, watching these combinations of rock gods and demigods bust through their classic numbers provided more than a few goosebumps-type moments. I would recommend getting to see some of this show for both reasons.

Here are my thoughts on the concert in chronological order:

- Tom Hanks kicked it off with a rousing monologue about the romanticism and importance of rock and roll. He was a great choice (he was also the producer I believe) to deliver the opening remarks--an American everyman* praising the music of the American everyman.

* Well, among billionaire Hollywood celebrities. He at least plays a lot of everymen.

- Jerry Lee Lewis comes out and absolutely kills all the momentum from Hanks' speech. Yikes. I've got nothing against JLL. He's tremendously important, an icon...but...wow. He can't even keep time anymore. It was awkward how old and uninspiring he was. He luckily didn't play too long. Let's just move on.

- Crosby, Stills, and Nash took the stage next and were periodically joined by such contemporaries as Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, and Jackson Browne. Raitt's "Love Has No Pride" was the highlight of the set.

- David Crosby was one of the few performers who looks like he's transitioned well with his age. He's enormous and is mostly bald with a long white ponytail, but still manages to look cool because he looks like an old hippie should look in 2009. He sounded great too, which didn't hurt. Graham Nash sounded great too, but is so ridiculously over-the-top with his facial expressions and arm movements that he looks like he's trying to spoof an enthusiastic singer. Good grief.

- Speaking of singers who have no idea how to look when they're singing, Paul Simon was up next. Paul Simon is one of my all-time favorites and has written some of the best songs ever, but if there isn't a guitar occupying his hands...holy crap. Is there a more awkward performer than Paul Simon? His moves (pointing, half-dancing) during "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes" were so distracting and goofy. He sounded fine, but he is utterly clueless as a performer. I suspected as much after watching the Graceland concert DVD a couple years ago, but he's only gotten worse with age.

- Thankfully, once Paul got a guitar in his hands it was smooth sailing. Which I could've predicted knowing that he is responsible for one of the all-time best live music performances on TV: A stunning rendition of "The Boxer" on SNL after 9/11 with Giuliani and NYC firefighters and police on stage. What a moment. I wish I could link to it but apparently it's been taken off Youtube. This is about the 5th time (on this blog) I've wanted to link to a video I know I've seen online but doesn't exist there anymore. Anyway, now that Simon had his hands busy with a guitar, I was able to become genuinely hooked into the set.

- Crosby and Nash came back on stage and joined Simon for a pretty, acoustic rendition of "Here Comes the Sun", which Graham Nash clumsily closed with a, "That was for George!" Pretty silly and already pretty obvious. Maybe we can get him to come out after every Michael Jackson cover and remind the audience, "That was for Michael!"

- Art Garfunkel (who still sounds amazing) joined Paul Simon on the stage and they played beautiful renditions of "The Boxer" and "Bridge Over Troubled Water," among a few others. As someone who listened to a lot of Paul Simon (both with and sans Garfunkel) when I was younger, it made me feel good to see that they've still got some magic left. The audience really loved them too, as I think they may have been the only act to earn an encore--but I could be wrong, again I didn't see 100% of this.

- Next up: Stevie Wonder! Good times. While Wonder obviously has his infamous later work from the 80s and 90s to sully his resume, I will argue that his peak was superior to all but a select handful of artists. I would rank Wonder's peak even above Michael Jackson's (this might deserve its own entry later). Anyway, on this night, Wonder was in high spirits and sounded fantastic, hitting old favorites like "Uptight," "For Once in My Life," and "Signed, Sealed, Delivered," to start off.

- Smokey Robinson--who looks downright crazy these days, both in a dazed, drugged out kind of way and in a plastic surgery kind of way--came on for what I think is one of the best songs ever written: "Tracks of My Tears." From the opening guitar part, the beautiful harmonies, the great horn line under the vocals on the chorus, and even the simple but powerful lyrics, I think this song is tremendously underrated. Unfortunately, this performance of it didn't help its reputation as they played it too slow and way, way, way too schmaltzy. While searching to see if youtube had a good version I instead stumbling upon Adam Lambert's rendition of this song ... sigh. This song has seen better days.

- Stevie's set closed out strong though, first with Sting coming on for a "Higher Ground"/"Roxanne" medley and then with Jeff Beck coming on for "Superstition," home of the funkiest horn line ever. Sting held his own with Wonder, playing some bass and rocking a pretty excellent bushy beard. The last number in particular was a goosebumps moment as that song is just too good for it not to be. It's easy to take songs like that for granted but thinking that once upon a time he actually wrote that, made that horn line out of nothing, that's tough to top.

- Aretha Franklin was next (though in reality was on the second night while Wonder was on the first) and belted out her numbers with her predictable bravado. I didn't catch all of her set (I missed "Respect" for example) but I would be remiss if I didn't mention the Queen of Soul. She was briefly joined by Annie Lennox, who sounded fine but I will mostly remember for her "HIV POSITIVE" t-shirt--which I thought clashed inappropriately with the suits/dresses that everyone else on stage was wearing.

- Metallica and their "look-how-badass-we-are" music followed and I skipped most of this set as I do not find them "badass" at all and instead lean towards "goofy." I did catch a bit of "Enter Sandman" and was disappointed they couldn't get Mariano Rivera to run out on stage for that one (it was in NYC after all). I, unfortunately, missed the great Lou Reed joining them but did catch an embarrassingly past-his-prime Ray Davies (of Kinks fame) stumble through "All Day and All of the Night." It's a shame to see a singer not be able to pull off a song that he wrote and made famous. Davies also didn't look too happy to have been paired with Metallica, though I may have just misread him and he was instead upset about his own performance. Either way, probably not Davies' favorite night. I had to go listen to "Waterloo Sunset" just so I didn't feel bad for him.

I'll be back for Part 2--U2, The Boss, Jeff Beck, Mick Jagger--in a couple of days. Until then...