IT WAS INEVITABLE that there would one day be a Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame. Surely this uniquely American art form deserved to stand shoulder to shoulder with all of the other major cultural and financial “leisure-time-activity” institutions in the country. It happened in the mid-’80s. By virtue of my associations with WNEW-FM and K-ROCK, I was pleased and honored to attend the first six Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremonies, which were all held in New York City. Every one of them had touching and memorable moments and that certainly includes the January 1989 event in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Why?
Here are nine good reasons: Dion, the Ink Spots, Otis Redding, the Rolling Stones, Bessie Smith, the Soul Stirrers, Phil Spector, the Temptations, and Stevie Wonder.
Those were the newest additions to the Hall, and I was thrilled to be there to watch the spectacle unfold. I took great personal pride in Dion’s selection because we were both Italian-Americans from the same Bronx neighborhood and had become quite friendly over the course of my years on the radio. He was always an inspiration to me and certainly deserved this recognition as one of the finest male vocalists that rock ’n’ roll has ever produced.
Then there were the Rolling Stones—as close to a sure thing for this honor as you could imagine. Right up there with Elvis and Chuck Berry and the Beach Boys and the Beatles. The only question left to be answered was how would these titans of irreverence handle this potentially solemn elevation to sainthood?
Not to worry. Another rock legend set the proper tone in his induction speech.
PETE TOWNSHEND: Rock ’n’ roll has quite obviously been around for a lot longer than I thought . . . Keith Richards once told me that I think too much. The truth is that I think, generally, that I talk too much. But I don’t think first. And faced with injecting the Rolling Stones this evening, I realized that thinking isn’t going to help me very much . . . I can’t analyze what I feel about the Stones, because I’m really an absolute stone fan of the Stones, and always have been. Their early shows were just shocking, and absolutely riveting and stunning and moving, and they changed my life completely. The Beatles were fun . . . I’m not demeaning them in any way. But the Stones were really what made me wake up. At the Beatles’ shows, there were lots of screaming girls, and at the Stones’—I think the Stones were the first to have a screaming boy. And the sheer force of the Stones on stage, and that perfectly balanced audience—a thousand girls, and me—it kind of singled them out. They’re the only group I’ve ever really been unashamed about idolizing . . . and each of them in their own way has given me something as an artist, as a person, and as a fan. And it would be crazy to suggest that any of the things they gave me were wholesome, practical, or useful.
Then Pete went into full-on roast mode:
PETE TOWNSHEND: Even Bill Wyman hurt me—and not really because I’m jealous of the female company he keeps, no. He got such a big advance for this book he’s doing about the Stones’ life that the book is obviously expected to sell more copies than the last couple of Stones albums. You’ve heard how much he got? You’ve heard how much they sold. It’s a wonder Ahmet even bothered, really. Charlie wounded me in the last year by having a much more dramatic drug problem than mine. Keith had a much more dramatic cure.
Then he went back to serious mode . . . briefly.
PETE TOWNSHEND: And Brian Jones hurt me by not bothering to take a cure. Because I loved him a lot. He was very, very important to me. He was the first real star who befriended me in a real way . . . I’ve missed him terribly, and I always felt that when he finally did collapse, that the Stones were a very different group. Mick gave me something too. A bad case of VD. Sorry, that’s wrong. Mick’s mix CD had a bad case . . . And Ronnie Wood of course is now a Rolling Stone; I can’t help but think of him as the new boy. And it’s wonderful to note that, due to his tender age, he still has his own teeth. But I did notice that tonight, they’ve been set into what looks like someone else’s face.
Townshend’s speech wouldn’t have been complete without a comment about the problems the various band members were having with Mick:
PETE TOWNSHEND: Will the Stones ever work again? On an early British TV show the producer took Andrew Loog Oldham . . . and advised him to sack the singer . . . I’m glad that after all these years, the lads in the group have finally seen fit to take his advice.