HAIL, HAIL ROCK AND ROLL

You know you’re getting older; when you know everyone of the Rock and Roll hall of fame inductees. Monday night’s induction ceremony included some of the major names of the 60's, 70’s and 80’s.

Inducted on Monday were George Harrison, Jackson Browne, Bob Seger, Prince, Traffic, ZZ Top and the Dells. Showcasing an amazing combination, for the class of 2004. Each inductee providing a definitive sound or genre of rock for their era.

The singer songwriter probably best identifies the first four inductees.

George Harrison of course is a legend in rock, from his days as a Beatle through to his solo projects and his travels with the Wilburys. There have been so many high moments, so many songs for which he will be remembered. His My Sweet Lord the one that quickly comes to my mind as a signature tune for him. The first big success for him after the Beatles went their separate ways.

Jackson Browne was part of the California wave of music in the early seventies, a number of albums setting his sound on the newly created FM radio waves, The Pretender and Running on Empty most likely his most well know albums. Best known as a songwriter and political activist, Browne has had a lengthy if slightly unheralded career. One listen to the title track from Running on Empty will give you a sense of his accomplishment though. That song just pounding out of car radios showed that the introspective writer, could rock out with the best of them. And when Stay came on the radio, you would pound the dashboard trying to get every last little ounce of music out of those speakers, wishing the song would last just a little longer.

Bob Seger, the pride of the motor city. Forever it seemed chasing the shadow of Bruce Springsteen whom he shared an era with. The musician who expressed the hopes, dashed dreams and desires of mid America, his music one part Detroit auto line and one part rural farmland. Seger’s hard driving rock standards and ballads were also part of the staple of the seventies FM explosion. When you think of Seger you think of Rock and Roll Never Forgets, Night Moves and Feel like a Number to name a few.

Prince would change his name, turn into a symbol and redefine funk for us. His monster album 1999 gave us a ride in his Little Red Corvette, baby you were much to fast! The title track had us looking forward to the end of the world, giving us an infectious hook of music and the forever immortalized lyrics, “ Party’s over, ooops out of time, tonight we’re going to party like it’s 1999”, we all made it through to the other side. It’s 2004, while never going away Prince is back, no longer an unpronounceable symbol still testing the limits of the music. Film star with Purple Rain, he is the somewhat eccentric minstrel who unlocked our sensual side, he’s given us many changes over the years, managing to keep his sound fresh every time.

Traffic, was a frequently overlooked band that gave us some of the true geniuses in rock for the next three decades. Steve Winwood cut his teeth with the band, he, Jim Capaldi and Dave Mason combining to bring the ever evolving band to life. They were the core of the group that sometimes numbered as many as seven, sometimes as few as three. From their start in 1967 through the breakups, reunions and feuds, the raw energy of the group fueled the bands tenure through the sixties and seventies. Eventually the weight of it all brought the band to an end in 1974. Born into the progressive period of British rock music they were contemporaries of Jimi Hendrix and Cream, but never conquered the top 40 charts of the era so essential to commercial success. Probably their best known song was Feelin’ All right, which was more successful for Joe Cocker on the radio than for Traffic. Which while a great moment for Cocker, stands as a sad epitaph for a creative force such as Traffic.

Fifty years strong and still going, the heritage induction belongs to The Dells. Formed in a Chicago suburb in 1952 they managed to rack up 46 R & B hits through the years. Best known being Stay in My Corner and Oh what a Night. Starting out as a doo wop band they went on to become one of the most prolific of the harmony groups of the era. The current flavors of the day in soul, pop and rap can thank The Dells for blazing the trail they follow today.


ZZ Top had the sound, the videos, the look, the beards and the babes, everyone wanted to tool around town with them in the Eliminator. The bluesy Tex-Mex sound blaring out of a car radio had you doing some Texas Boogie. With such monster hits as Legs, TV Dinner, Tush and Cheap Sunglasses they capitalized on the emergence of MTV as a cultural force. The driving sound of Texas had everyone wanting to be a Sharp Dressed Man. They brought a love of the Blues to a whole new generation of disciples, doing it their way with a sense of irreverence, tied in with a faithful reproduction of the sound. A combination that keeps their fans coming back for more to this day.

The class of 2004 has a provided us with some terrific grads over the years, this years inductees made music stronger for their efforts, and helped to shape the power of radio and television in the music industry.