POV: Acrimony, Infighting, and General Bad Vibes at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony

If they hooked up with the WWE, and they could bring back enough artists, I'm sure they could manage at least one good Royal Rumble/Smackdown Pay-per view event out of the whole thing. Debbie Harry v. Frank Infante v. Gary Valentine in Triple Threat Cage match, etc. (Debbie would probably win...)

John Paul Jones chiding Jimmy Page and Robert Plant (completely justifiable) for ignoring him in the fiasco that was the shortlived Page & Plant reunion.

The Blondie thing.

http://www.arf.ru/Notes/Woiftm/app.html

Doug Yule also mentioned this in an interview on PSF:

"Doug:...They put the Mothers out first (and held back the Velvet's album), that's why it was very funny to watch Lou accept Frank Zappa's award recently. For as long as I knew him, he hated Frank, he would say the worst things about him, he wouldn't have anything to do with him, Lou just despised the man. Just because Frank kept Lou's album off the market for a year..."

then, when Zappa was inducted some years after his death, Reed inducted him, saying "I liked Frank and I know he liked me" = revisionism. Zappa's children, if memory serves, didn't dig this.

Says his widow Gail Zappa: 'Ten days before the actual ceremony, we still hadn't received invitations; the producer said, "Oh, that¹s unconscionable! We can give you two free tickets and arrange for two of you to fly from LA to New York." Well, there's five of us, of course. . . He said, "Well, we can sell you additional tickets at $1,500 a piece. . . but you can't sit together." I just laughed. He said something about non-profit organizations, but they can kiss my ass about non-profit organizations, especially when they were going to exploit it this year as a TV show!

'But Moon had expressed interest in going, so we decided she'd accept the award. A week before the ceremony, they called me and said Edward Van Halen - who would have been perfect - had turned down their offer to induct Frank because he doesn't do these things. So, I suggested Johnny 'Guitar' Watson, who Frank knew, loved, and had worked with. They said, "No." I won't say why, because I don't want to hurt Johnny, but I did tell them that Johnny was one of the most lucid and articulate people I've ever heard interviewed.

'I suggested Aerosmith, but was told they were going to induct Led Zeppelin. So, I suggested Led Zeppelin. Again, they said no.

'I asked them who chooses these things, and I was told "the Board." I asked if there were any musicians on the board, and, more importantly, are there any black musicians? They had to call me back, and they replied: "Yes. One. Berry Gordy."

That would be totally awesome.

"I WAS INTO TRUCKER CAPS BEFORE YOU BORN, HIPSTER BITCHEZ. FEEL THE LOVE."

MIKE 'N' BRUCE SAY: GET LEI'D

Then how would we know what musical acts are good and which ones aren't?

And I've just decided that "I'd let _______ induct me into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame anytime" is my new favorite euphemism.

A theory about this (not to get too off-topic): if they brought Jones on, they'd have to call it Led Zeppelin. And they could only call it Led Zeppelin with the blessing of all four partners...including Jason Bonham, John's executor (or at least estate-controller...same thing?), who would no doubt insist on playing in "Led Zeppelin." Since he sucks, P&P just decided, fuck it, we'd rather play without Jones than with Jason Bonham.

$/2 > $/3

My take (top to bottom):
-announcer at Altamont
-cowboy emcee at rodeo event
-Ron Howard's debonair, cold-as-ice older brother (doubles as CIA assassin)
-Irish professor in between classes
-Golf pro
-Wedding band charmer
-Jimmy Buffett concert attendee with pal

and would you apread that first ballot over the decades or concentrate on the 1950's and 60's firstly?

oops

That Lou Reed/Frank Zappa thing is still mysterious. Why did Lou do it? Why did anyone ask him to do it? Why?

My guess: they asked Vaclav Havel to do it and he suggested Lou instead.

Hmm, yeah that is a good guess. Lou didn't have the guts to say "But we hated each other!" I mean, maybe he didn't care at that point, but back in the day, the VU kinda went on and on about how much they hated Zappa.