Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Concert questions

My roomies and I are watching the R & R Hall of Fame show on HBO, and we have two questions – the websites for the Hall of Fame, and for HBO, are poorly set-up. We can’t find out the following:

  1. Who was the incredibly cute and debonair guy who sang, “Mercy Mercy Me?” and

  2. Who was that gorgeous girl singing the infamous “just a shot away” part on “Gimme Shelter?”

As far as I can tell, the woman is part of Black Eyed Peas.

Also, John Legend was the guy singing Mercy Mercy Me and playing piano.

Thanks, Chefguy. You rock. I love the “Imponderables” thread, you have some great ones!

Not bad for a geezer, eh?

The woman from BEP would be Fergie.

Since this thread is about the ARTS, let’s adjourn to Cafe Society. Moved.

samclem MOderator, General Questions

Okay, how 'bout the cutie pie playing bass with Jeff Beck & Billy Gibbon on “Purple Haze?”

Tal Wilkenfeld

Not just a cutie pie, but one helluva good bass player. She’s in Jeff’s band.

That would be Tal Wilkenfeld. She is Australian.

No, not just a cutie pie; but probably one of the cutest folks I’ve ever seen on a bass — and I’m a straight chick!

Let’s see… We could get her on bass, Joan Jett on guitar, Norah Jones on piano & vocals… and take over the world!!! Bwa-ha-ha-ha-haaaaa!

I {heart} her. Anyone who can keep up with Beck has to be at the top of the heap. I really need to see how they did with Let Me Love You, which he doesn’t play that often anymore but is my favorite song of his…

I know one guy who was at the second night concert who said it was wonderful (well, he’s not a fan of Metallica and so they put him off). It sounds like it would’ve been a solid show. I heard Aretha was a bit too diva-ish in her song selection, but what can you do about the Queen? :wink:

Annie Lennox gave her a run for the money, but nobody upstages Aretha. At the end of the song, when Annie was wailing, Aretha took a deep breath, put a growl in her voice, and shattered glass in the back of the Garden.

So true. Did you know Einstein tried to use the inability to upstage Aretha as the universal constant, but opted for the speed of light instead? Turns out Aretha hadn’t authorized it - and you don’t cross the Queen anymore than you can upstage her. Einstein folded; clear evidence of his intelligence.

With the lineup they had over the two nights of the event, only having to deal with Aretha being a little bit diva would be a best-case scenario.

The only sour notes (ha!) for me, as noted in the thread I started a few days ago, were Lou Reed, who looked like a deer in the headlights and sounded like he gargled with Drano; and Billy Joel, whose pipes have clearly rusted. While I’m not a fan of Metallica (or most metal bands), they were enthusiastic and enjoying themselves, providing great backup music for other musicians like the aforementioned Reed, Ozzie, and Ray Davies.

Notably missing: tributes to Joplin and any mention of Carol King or Joni Mitchell.

Yes, it’s a zombie thread, but the concert just came out on blu-ray earlier this month, and I just spent the day watching the whole glorious two-disc set, so I felt compelled to comment.

First of all, I haven’t seen more than bits and pieces of the previous Hall of Fame concerts, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect - I mean, sure, the cover blurbs touted this particular “25[sup]th[/sup] Anniversary” set as the best ever, but who trusts cover blurbs? But then, the Rolling Stone write-up on the concert published a year ago did shower praise on these performances, but then again, it was a Rolling Stone production.

But.

This set completely lived up to all the hype. This is a two-night series of performances from some of the most legendary artists in Rock & Roll history, and they all seem to be at or near the top of their form, and what’s more - having a lot of fun (and it shows). So many great moments - Stevie Wonder doing “Superstition” with Jeff Beck on guitar, Bruce Springsteen and John Fogerty paying tribute to Roy Orbison with “Pretty Woman”, Aretha Franklin and Annie Lennox on “Chain of Fools”, Jeff Beck’s “instrumental detonation” of The Beatles’ “A Day in the Life”, Metallica with Ozzy. And lots more.

But the highlight of the entire thing for me had to be U2’s set. After a couple of their own tracks (“Vertigo” and “Magnificent”), they go into “Because the Night” with both Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith, and follow that up with “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” with Bruce Springsteen. Then comes “Gimme Shelter”, which starts innocently enough, Fergie singing background from behind the drum riser as the band plays the spooky intro. And just as they launch into the song proper, Mick Jagger struts onto the stage to deliver the lead vocal (his appearance was an audience surprise). The band plays the song well, but the zenith is Fergie taking on Merry Clayton’s part - holy hell did she nail it. Fergie’s performance in that song is hot as hell and sexy as fuck. U2 continues with “Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of”, with Mick Jagger and Bono trading the accusatory vocals. Their set ends on the disc with “Beautiful Day”.

Had to chuckle when I found this thread, as I’d also wondered about Jeff Beck’s bassist, and looked it up as I was watching (Beck mentions her in the RS article). The discs also include a bunch of stuff HBO didn’t air (like U2’s “Mysterious Ways” and “Where is the Love” with the Black-Eyed Peas, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band and a whole cast of luminaries performing “(Your Love Keeps Lifing Me) Higher and Higher”, and a couple of Jeff Beck jams wherein you can see even more of Tal Wilkenfeld’s remarkable abilities).

Anyway, didn’t mean to sound like a commercial, but hell, if you like Rock & Roll at all, this is at least worth a listen. Was anybody else blown away by this?