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Rock Hall festivity fun

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Rock Hall festivity fun
As much of a dinosaur as this makes me, I have to admit it was rather fun to catch the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony last night on VH1 Classic (TiVOed, of course, so as to flip through the lame stuff--as in anything to do with Van Halen). An all grown up, mellowed out, demure, and visibly nervous Zach de la Rocha gave the speech for Patti Smith, focusing on how her remake of "Gloria" is some of the best few minutes in all of rock. Smith accepted the accolades with a very rambling diatribe of her own. She's a much better performer than speaker. Then, backed by a band that included longtime axeman Lenny Kaye and her own son, Smith covered the Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter," toned things down for "Because the Night," then ramped them way back up for "Rock and Roll Ni**er." She had to explain her reasoning behind that last one to the press backstage, seeing as New York City recently "banned" the word.
Man of the modern age Jay-Z, unlike other inductors de la Rocha or Eddie Vedder who read their speeches off paper, used a PDA to recite his. He thanked Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five for blazing a trail that lead all the way to the possibility of a rap artist becoming the CEO of a major record company. Flash than showed off his still-formidable mixing prowess, weaving in material way old school and brand new, as four of the Furious Five traded lines with each other, a cowboy hat adorning one mic stand in honor of deceased member Cowboy.
Vedder promised his speech for R.E.M. wouldn't be as long as the one he gave a few years back for the Ramones. But still he got off on random tangents, calling out Michael Stipe for his marble-mouthed '80s lyrics and Mike Mills for his shiny cowboy suits in the '90s. Stipe, in a glaring white suit, avoided too much pomposity accepting the award. The band then ran through "Begin the Begin," "Gardening at Night," and "Man on the Moon," for the last song joined by Vedder on vocals.
The grand finale jam found Smith and Kaye joining R.E.M. for a take on Stooges' classic "I Wanna Be Your Dog." Then pretty much everyone who'd been on stage joined back up for Smith's "People Have the Power."
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Rock Hall of Fame

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