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Metallica makes some noise at Rock Hall of Fame induction
By Jerry Shriver, USA TODAY
CLEVELAND — Yes, the heaviest metal music can be played sublimely by guys in ties and formal wear who aren't ashamed to group-hug and make tender speeches in public.
Metallica proved as much as they blasted their classics Master of Puppets and Enter Sandman into a packed and newly renovated Public Hall, minutes after being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Saturday night.
The metal pioneers, who were joined in the 24th class of inductees by Jeff Beck, Little Anthony & the Imperials, Bobby Womack, Run-D.M.C., Wanda Jackson, Spooner Oldham and former Elvis Presley sidemen D.J. Fontana and Bill Black, also proved they can play well with others: The group provided the evening's musical highlight by closing the 3½-hour show with a furious rendition of the rockabilly staple Train Kept 'a Rollin', backed by Beck, Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood, Aerosmith's Joe Perry, and an aqua-haired Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
That historic grouping of guitar slingers was just one of several milestones for the induction ceremonies, which were held in the Rock Hall's home of Cleveland for only the second time (1997 was the first) after a long residency in New York. For the first time, the public was allowed to attend, and the hall's foundation said all 5,000 tickets had been sold out. In another first, the show was broadcast and streamed live, on the Fuse channel.
But the true history resided in the musical performances that followed the moving speeches and tributes to the departed:
• Rockabilly queen Jackson, 71 (and playing 80 dates a year), thanked two Elvises — Presley and Costello — for boosting her career, then strapped on a hot pink guitar and tore into Mean, Mean Man and her 1960 signature hit, Let's Have a Party.
• Cleveland native Womack recalled growing up on the mean streets and struggling with racial discrimination. Noting Barack Obama's election, he beseeched his late mentor Sam Cooke in heaven to "let all the soul singers know and give them the news." Womack then was joined by Wood, who had inducted him, on a rousing version of It's All Over Now, a hit for both him and the Stones.
• After Beck, clad all in white from boots to sleeveless vest, was inducted by Page, the two jammed on a free-form instrumental number that included snatches of Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song, sending the crowd into a frenzy.
Afterward, Beck noted that his induction as a solo artist (he had been inducted before as a member of The Yardbirds) was far more satisfying. "Call it selfish, but it feels a lot better to be recognized on my own rather than as part of a pop-rock band."
Although they didn't perform, Run-D.M.C.'s Darryl "D.M.C." McDaniels and Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons paid tribute to their slain partner, Jason "Jam-Master Jay" Mizell (represented on stage by his mother and widow), and made the case for rap music's inclusion in the Hall of Fame.
"People saw us and they saw themselves," McDaniels said. "We appealed to everybody at a time when people said rap is black ghetto music. We saw a bigger picture. Plus, we were good!"
Between childhood, boyhood,
adolescence
& manhood (maturity) there
should be sharp lines drawn w/
Tests, deaths, feats, rites
stories, songs & judgements
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