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It was well past 1:00 a.m. when the first night of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 25th anniversary celebration began winding down. For six hours, a capacity crowd at New York’s Madison Square Garden had been dancing in the aisles to a superstar lineup only the Hall of Fame could produce: Bruce Springsteen, Simon & Garfunkel, Stevie Wonder, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Dion, Sting, Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, John Fogerty, Jackson Browne and many others. It seemed like Springsteen and surprise guest Billy Joel swapping verses on “Born to Run” was the finale, but then many of the night’s acts took the stage with the E Street Band and kicked into Jackie Wilson’s “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher And Higher.” Nobody seemed to want the party to end, curfews be damned.
See the Rock Hall concerts’ most epic moments and special guests.
The evening began with a speech by Tom Hanks, whose production company is turning the two concerts into a four-hour HBO special that airs November 29th. “When we were confused, rock & roll gave us purpose,” he said. “Hail, hail rock & roll.” Jerry Lee Lewis then kicked into his 1957 hit “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin On” — a track he played at the first Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 1986. After a five-minute film highlighting American bands of the 1960s, Crosby, Stills and Nash began their set with “Woodstock,” which featured incredible guitar work by Stephen Stills. Other highlights of their 10-song set were “Almost Cut My Hair,” and the Buffalo Springfield classic “Rock and Roll Woman.”
CSN’s first guest was their longtime friend Bonnie Raitt, who Crosby called “my favorite singer in the whole world.” She did an acoustic version of ...
Article Source: Rolling Stone : Rock and Roll Daily