Thought I would try this again. It was so much fun to do it for that dress-up-show. Late. Drunkyish. One and a half hours into the show, here I go. Maybe someone else can chime in on the first one and half hours. Please jump in and explain what I missed.
Leonard Cohen: Phoning it in, but when he reads his own writing, I could only imagine Madonna showing up next to read some lyrics from her songs. Those words from that song are just amazing. Damien Rice digs up the corpse of Buckley nicely. People will remember you, Leonard Cohen, and not just because you’re from Canada.
Obituary Montage: I had no idea all these people died. Very good to see the beautiful smiling face of Dave Day. Sweet human.
Madonna: Sorry about how easy this is to hate. Icky montage. Justin Timberlake abducting or inducting. Super cute boy-man, reading from cards.
You are no old museum piece … having a singular impact, making our culture a more provacative and interesting place … singing dancing acheiving superstar … Bay City, Michigan … tracks have always been fresh … transcendant message of hope and empowerment … ordered you to express yourself … familiar friend and beautiful stranger … bravely mixed and matched the sacred and profane … the shot in the ass when we really needed it.
She receives the award and feels a great honor and reflects on things in her life that are not finite. Actually, some nice insight on songwriting, a bit of honesty nestled in there. Have to admit it. People calling her "M," which reminds me of so many other music freaks. The Talmud is briefly brought out, then Tom Hanks claps. She thanks not only the holder-uppers, but also the keeper-downers and nay-sayers. She’s good. I’m feeling sad and choked up, and I never liked her music. I guess Willem Dafoe was right. The lady can act. While I’m contemplating this, she continues to list members of the Jewish Entertainment Mafia (JEM), all of them, legends. No. Seriously. She is basically listing all the lawyers and managers and publicists of her career. Man. No more indictment of all of this is needed. Wow. Suddenly feeling icky. Ickier. Feeling so gross as she lists even more helpers and lawyers and managers and publicists.
I feel a sick sense of Jihad in my pants watching this, and I’ve always liked Jewish people, but it is a weird basket of semitic representation.
So, then a quick mention is made of the people actually making the music with / for her. It’s all about the music, she be saying, then we gets some Iggy Pop. Somehow, in my middle age I want him to be skinnier. Ah, immortality. Ah, Bartleby!
Wait. Angie just brought some sweet food out here. Must eat and stop and just exist.
Post-sandwich now. Weird Spinal Tap backstage Iggy Pop and Madonna moment. Watched some Led Zep with Steven Tyler and Joe Perry from maybe last year? I don’t know, but it was alright for filler and pretty good, if it was live.
John Mellencamp: His montage contained the most self-effacing and accurate quote of the night: "It’s never been cool to like John Mellencamp, but somehow I keep making these songs …" Joel soon reminds everyone about the condition of musicians in modern world, "People don’t like you when you get old." He ends the introduction with the following sweet observation about getting old: "The record industry died before you did. Congratulations, John, you outlived the music business."
Mellencamp on Joel: "In the midwest, we don’t know from Jewish people. We all thought he was Italian."
Full catastrophe of the music industry unfolds, but he starts with talk of spina bifida. He had it, when he was born in 1951 to 20-year old parents. Like my own daughter, he was operated on at birht, but many many years earlier. I hope that my sweet baby gets to be known as a little bastard. I really do.
He mostly thanked his band and the people who have recorded his music. Most of them have spent 20-30 years in the band. His studio is run by his college roommate. They have now known each other for 35 years. Noticed that no one really claps much for the agents, etc. Beyond a weird icky tip of the hat to Jann Wenner, his speech to the folken was pretty well done.
Never cared about money, but I always wanted to get paid. Never cared about fame, but I always wanted to hear my songs on the radio. Never cared about critics, but I alway read everything they say.
Some Pink Houses / Small Town / Authority Song ensues, fiddlin’ around. Despite the obvious nature of this choice, I’m kind of left wanting that crazy tight-jawed bastard, John Fogerty, to join him. I’m blaming the grape. Spanish wine, you are as sexy as your southern coastline, and if that is not a fine bit of innuendo, I promise to sleep alone tonight. Jann Wenner’s sexy southern coastline lures pirates to their doom, when they sail too close to the polyps of his outer Barelona. Lost. Lost in the suits and ties and motions gone through for the sake of making it happen. This is ickier, now. I don’t know why. The forced dancing by tuxedo people. Maybe that’s it. I guess that’s like four of five layers of irony layered on top in a kind of irony pie, deep and Creemy. They are all fighting authority together in a hotel ballroom, in suits, as representatives of major media outlets! Che Diddle Diddle!
The Dave Clark Five: All of it sounds so damned good. That is the first thing you notice, the PROduction! I am so biased here, because one of those old British dudes (brain is fried, don’t remember who) said that my (our) band (F&M) reminded him of The Dave Clark Five "back in the day." He used words like "power" and "fucking energy." So, I am biased. Also, Tom Hanks is a better actor than Justin Timberlake, so I’m a bit biased. Maybe someone in the F&M band can help me remember who said those nice words. Meanwhile, Hanks rallies.
Lust lasts a thousand days, but joy is eternal.
"Turn up the radio, dad!" Sweetie boys. Man. They are all spot-on kind and good and just lovely. Seriously, smart and wonderful, straight and honest and real. I feel so much more proud having heard their words. I’m tired, though. When is Kid Rock gonna sing "Any Way You Want It" with Fergie? Oh. Holy Crap. Joan Jett? Man. That is big-time casino money talking now. Wait. Mellencamp drums. Lisa Germano on the magical fiddle. Is that Paul Schafer? Uh oh. An awkward pause again with some footage. I think everyone may be drunk at this point. Maybe I am too. Wait. There’s Fogerty. Was he "inducted" tonight? Is that what I missed? "Glad All Over" is brought home for the troops. Well. I need to be kissing a pretty girl now. Good night, America.
Much love from Michigan.
Nathan
missed it, but now I didn't!
That the band most directly influenced by the original rock’n’rollers is the one that came across most genuine is telling. Generally, I haven’t been interested in the RRHF ceremonies in years… lots of pioneers getting the shaft while everyone waits impatiently for the Nirvana induction.
Nice that a few acts close to the source are still getting recognition - ridiculous the focus is now on “25”.
Nice Recap
I didn’t even know they showed the induction ceremony.
"Spanish wine, you are as sexy as your southern coastline, and if that is not a fine bit of innuendo, I promise to sleep alone tonight." - that is a great line Nathan. I will for sure be violating that copyright.
What about the
What about the Ventures?????
No mention of them.
RE: The Ventures
As I stated in my opening paragraph, I started watching the show one and a half hours into it. I had and still have no idea who else was abducted by the Cleveland Plain Dealers.
So, I missed a bunch at the beginning.
Aging Gracefully
What the HELL is wrong with Ms. Ciccione’s face? Is she refusing to age gracefully, like Iggy?
—your radio friend, Bat Guano
you were looking at her face?
Check out Madge’s biceps! Who’d win the arm-wrestling contest between her and Iggy? Whose songs are featured in more commercials?
work.
She has had a little work done, but actually, not much. If you’ve been looking for her aging, over the years, you can see that she is in fact aging well. It is possible to take extremely good care of your self and of your skin, if you’re obsessed with it, and have it pay off. Also, you almost always see here with profesionally airbrushed-on makeup that a professional applied over the course of 3 hours, plus good lighting.
ech
The work that she’s had done is enough that she’s starting to get that freakish edge that all face-lifters suffer from eventually. Spoooooky. Yep. Gimme Iggy anytime. Sure, he looks a bit like a moccasin. That’s cool. I intend to cultivate a patina-d suede look myself as I age. We’re drawing (gimme danger)ously near the time when Iggy needs to start wearing a top, though.
Like that dream...
Like that dream where it was Thanksgiving with the family, and I was naked, and I didn’t really care, untill someone pointed it out.
We should never be ashamed, Iggy, never.
—your radio friend, Bat Guano
Iggy v. "Madge"
OK, I hate Madonna and mostly always have. And I totally would throw a rock through Iggy Pop’s window if he so much as looked up the number of a plastic surgeon. (In a rented car, no plates.) But. I have to say that her recent (past couple months, as far as I know) work in the eye area (you can see in some photos that she does still have some minor eye wrinkles) does not, in my lame opinion, make her a candidate for Madamism. I know from looking at my mom, for one example, who has not had the brutal workout regimen or money for exotic skin products or extremely healthy (restrictive-bordering-on-anorexic) diet that Madonna has had since she was 25, that it is possible to age well, looks-wise. Genetics helps. If I may use Dingey as an example, I would like to point out that she still basically has the face of a 12 year old (except for the haunted eyes of a woman who has experienced a lifetime of lovelessness and lack of being sweet and funny). (Does it go without saying that that’s sarcasm?) Also, if I may use myself as an example of collagen loss, having seen old pictures of myself looking no much different thn I am now, when you lose collagen (and weight—Madonna did use to be a little soft [read: sexier] before she was a crazy workout addict), as you age, you lose collagen in your face, and your face loses that softness and becomes more angular. Your bones show more. Unless weight gain makes up for it, and that does help. Fuck, I don’t have any idea why I care about even commenting on this, but I guess I do. I guess if I ever quit living la vida drink-n-smoka and end up with good skin when I’m 45 because I was religiously using eye cream since I was 24, I don’t want my friends (or my enemies) thinking I let someone peel my face off and put it back on tighter so you’d like me better. And that, my friends, right there, is possibly as vain as having my face replaced anyways. Oh, and did anyone see Meg Ryan at that R-n-R awards show last night? Stop it, woman! Even if you’re a guy, wouldn’t you rather tongue kiss Tom Hanks than that mess?! OK, this is your favorite aggravation signing off!
Ciccone Youth
As you know, Madonna invited Iggy to play some songs at the RR Hall of Fame show. At the end of this video, it shows Iggy introducing Madonna to the Stooges, which now includes Mike Watt.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGhclW5CDTU
minute 5:04 of the video… Mike Watt meets Madonna, and he bows. Ciccone Youth indeed.
Gonna Dress You Up In My Love!
Hold on here.... how the
Hold on here…. how the fuck did Iggy get in without a shirt? Maybe he forfeited the service to go topless? Anyway, are we sure that’s Iggy and Madonna, not Iggy dressed as Madonna with Purple D@ve as Iggy’s stand in? Where did this event take place, in Butt Town?
Yes.
Cleveland is Butt Town.
—your radio friend, Bat Guano
I am with you, sister.
Fuck, I don’t have any idea why I care about even commenting on this, but I guess I do. I guess if I ever quit living la vida drink-n-smoka and end up with good skin when I’m 45 because I was religiously using eye cream since I was 24, I don’t want my friends (or my enemies) thinking I let someone peel my face off and put it back on tighter so you’d like me better.
I was hoping Madge was just making a funny face…. a funny, hard face, maybe goofing around with the Ig, despite the fact I’m not particularly fond of her either.
Monday night, we decided to watch The Blues Brothers on one of the movie channels. I haven’t seen it without comercials for a long time, if I ever have (there is no way I saw that one in a theater in 1980, as the parents were still clinging to the bohemian Amish idea). Now my dad loves that movie, and will periodically call me to tell me when it’s on.
Speaking of hopelessly vain divas, Aretha was actually a pretty good actress. The look on her face when Matt Guitar Murphy (?) takes off with the Blues brothers is awesome in anger and vulnerability. It’s hard to imagine now that they got her to wear a stained waitress dress with slippers.
hard to say
She IS a little crazy. Neil got to see her live a couple of times, and reported that the first time she played outside in, like, 90-degree heat in full feather and furs. The next time he saw her, she wore a sweat suit. God love her, I wish she’d retire so i could stop cringing when she goes on award shows and sings opera. The woman had some of the greatest pipes ever anywhere ever ever in the world ever (it’s like her lungs are open church steeples) but it’s failing on her now.
Boot got to drive by her house once and he kept telling me there was a smokehouse out back. Boot’s boyfriend at the time: "It was a GAZEBO!"
Boot: (whispering) "TOTAL smokehouse!"
Anyway, yeah, you’re right Wiz. That is the most beautiful and perfect moment of that whole silly movie.
And Angie, no need to point out sarcasm when something is so devastatingly TRUE (sob).
And yet, funny you mention it....
Boot got to drive by her house once and he kept telling me there was a smokehouse out back. Boot’s boyfriend at the time: "It was a GAZEBO!"
Boot: (whispering) "TOTAL smokehouse!"
Let’s get the band back together and save Aretha’s house! I don’t care, whichever band will get back together. I’ll meet you in the electrical tunnel with a bazooka.
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