DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Contributors

ALEX STRACHAN

MIKE HUGHES

KIM AKASS

MONIQUE NAZARETH

ROGER CATLIN

GARY EDGERTON

TOM BRINKMOELLER

GERALD JORDAN

NOEL HOLSTON

 
 
 
 
 
2014 ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME INDUCTION CEREMONY
May 31, 2014  | By David Bianculli

HBO, 8:00 p.m. ET

 

Held last month in Brooklyn, rather than in the Hall of Fame’s Cleveland home, the 29th annual Rock and Roll Fall of Fame Induction ceremony is an exercise in panning for gold: There’s a lot of worthless stuff to sift through, but there is gold in them thar hills. Even NBC’s three-hour cut-down of the April 10 event is a long slog, but watch for certain highlights. There’s Bruce Springsteen, giving the night’s best induction speech by honoring (before playing with) his own newly inducted E Street Band. And the artist known as Cat Stevens, performing “Father and Son,” “Wild World” and “Peace Train.” But mostly, it’s ladies’ night, as a tag-team roster of female singers (Joan Lett, Kim Gordon, St. Vincent and Lorde) fill in for Kurt Cobain with the surviving members of Nirvana, and Linda Ronstadt is saluted by Carrie Underwood, Emmylou Harris, Bonnie Raitt, Sheryl Crow and Stevie Nicks. Underwood kicks things off with an impressively solid and sassy version of “Different Drum,” Harris and Raitt join her for “Blue Bayou,” Crow belts “You’re No Good” with an all-star lineup of backup singers, and everyone joins in for “When Will I Be Loved.” Definitely worth watching – and recording.

 
 
 
 
 
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