HBO will telecast the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction ceremonies on May 18, but you can get a snippet of what you”ll see then-and what you missed when the class of 2013 was inducted on April 18 in Los Angeles-in our wrap-up of the evening”s proceedings. This year’s inductees were Albert King, Heart, Rush, Donna Summer, Randy Newman, Public Enemy, Lou Adler, and Quincy Jones.
The actual program lasted nearly 4 1/2 hours, some of it glorious, some of it painful:
Among the glorious to watch for on the HBO special:
*Gary Clark Jr./John Mayer/Booker T Jones salute to Albert King, including their performance of Jones” “Born Under a Bad Sign,” which he co-wrote for King when he was 19.
*Heart”s ferocious performance of “Crazy On You,” including Ann Wilson”s vocals, which only seem to get stronger.
*Foo Fighters Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins” hilarious salute to Rush
*Rush”s “Tom Sawyer” performance: if for nothing else, the great aerial shots of Neil Peart”s drum set up.
Not so glorious:
*Flavor Flav”s 15-minute rambling speech that had everyone in the room started to wish an extremely patient Chuck D would point to Flav”s clock and tell him his time is up
*Quincy Jones”s similarly rambling speech–although he has earned the right to drift and sail through his speech however he sees fit.
*Usher”s strangely lounge-like performance of Michael Jackson”s “Rock With You” (although he makes up for it with his dance moves