Rock hall inductions preview 2015

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

The Class of 2015 Ringo Starr, inducted by Paul McCartney | Bill Withers, inducted by Stevie Wonder Lou Reed, inducted by Patti Smith | The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, inducted by Peter Wolf Green Day, inducted by Fall Out Boy | Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble, inducted by John Mayer The “5” Royales, inducted by Steve Cropper | Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, inducted by Miley Cyrus ABOVE: EVERY MEMBER OF THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME | ILLUSTRATION BY CHRIS MORRIS | THE PLAIN DEALER

SUNDAY, APRIL 12, 2015 | 20 PAGES | SECTION S | CLEVELAND.COM/ROCKHALL

Joining the band

Eight acts who shaped rock ’n’ roll in their own distinct ways — from roadhouses to sold-out arenas to the top of the charts — head to Cleveland to accept rock’s biggest honor and become part of rock’s biggest jam.

S4

The Plain Dealer | cleveland.com

cleveland.com/rockhall ILLUSTRATION BY TED CROW | THE PLAIN DEALER

MN

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Sunday, April 12, 2015

The Plain Dealer | cleveland.com

MN

S5

2015 ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME INDUCTIONS

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts | Performer Chuck Yarborough | cyarborough@plaind.com Joan Jett loves that she and her band, the Blackhearts, will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame when the ceremonies are here on Saturday. She and the city are intertwined like the fingers of lovers’ hands. ¶ “Where else should it be?’’ Jett said in a call to her New York office to discuss her induction into the Rock Hall at Public Auditorium. ¶ “If I’m going to be inducted, Cleveland is where it should be,’’ she said of the city and its people, for whom she feels such a connection. ¶ “I guess I’m like them,’’ Jett said. “I don’t find Cleveland to be a kind of place that puts on any airs, and I don’t either.’’

THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME AND MUSEUM

Plus, there’s that history thing.

“We played in Cleveland with the Runaways at the Agora Ballroom many times. We found that people seemed to really like us there.

“I have warm feelings about Ohio and rock ’n’ roll and how they really love it,’’ she said.

Of course, it’s not possible to talk to Jett about her Cleveland days without mentioning the 1987 flick “Light of Day,’’ filmed here at the Euclid Tavern with Jett and Michael J. Fox starring as sibling rockers.

“To do ‘Light of Day’ with Michael J. Fox there was an awesome thing,’’ Jett said, the smile at the memory evident in her voice. “We got together a band — Michael plays, and we had other instruments, so the actors could get a sense of what it’s like to play in a band. That is a great thing to be able to do that.’’

It sort of helped her relive the feelings she had when, as a teenager (accounts vary as to whether she was 15, 16 or 17), she and drummer Sandy West founded the Runaways in the early 1970s with help from producer and mentor Kim Fowley.

Fowley died of bladder cancer in January, barely a month after the Rock Hall named Jett part of the Class of 2015. Blackhearts bassist Gary Ryan, drummer Lee Crystal and guitarist Ricky Byrd will be joining Jett on the induction stage.

That Fowley, who introduced West to Jett and helped recruit Runaways Lita Ford, Cherie Currie and Jackie Fox, lived to see her induction with the Blackhearts was special to Jett.

“It means a lot that he was alive to hear about it,’’ said Jett, who believes her former band also should have a spot in the Rock Hall. “I don’t know what he thought, though.

“It’s just new to me because it just happened,’’ said Jett in the interview, which took place only four days after the death of the Runaways’ former manager and producer. “He taught me a lot and was a great songwriting partner, and I got a real kick out of him.’’

Jett isn’t the first or only woman in the Rock Hall, and she won’t be the last. But the numbers are decidedly Y-chromosome-heavy.

The thought back then and even today is that rock is a man’s world.

“You can’t take anything for granted,’’ Jett said. “You just have to put your head down and work.

Even knowing the female thing has affected it, I can’t be bitching.

“Look at the music scene today,’’ she said. “It hasn’t really changed for women playing rock ’n’ roll.’’

Kenny Laguna, the producer, manager and friend who is today’s version of the Kim Fowley support system, was part of the call and added his observations on the uphill battle women in rock face.

“We’ve seen statistics about women that, in alternative radio,

Top 40 if they added Paula Abdul.

“We tore it down with touring,’’ he said.

You expect those kinds of comments from Laguna, who is a key part of Jett’s support system. It was he, as a matter of fact, who confirmed to her that she’d actually been tapped for induction into the Rock Hall after several nominations.

“Obviously, Kenny is first and foremost,’’ Jett said when asked about some of the people who’ve made her success possible. “Then there’s the man we discussed earlier, Kim Fowley. Who knows where I’d be if I hadn’t ever had a conversation with him about want-

‘It hasn’t really changed for women playing rock ’n’ roll’ it’s 92 percent men,’’ Laguna said.

“In rock radio, this classic rock/oldies format that used to be cuttingedge is in the 90th percentile, too.

“They don’t play two women in a row,’’ Laguna said. “They’ll play Janis Joplin once a month, Pat Benatar once or twice month.

That’s what we’re dealing with as a starting point.’’

But rock itself is struggling, gender aside, Jett and Laguna agreed.

“Rock ’n’ roll’s not the super hip music that’s being played,’’ Jett said. “It’s a struggle for ANY rock band to get attention.

“It’s so entrenched,’’ Jett said. “I don’t know if you CAN fix it. How do you change what peoples’ tastes and styles are, or change a whole trend of where music’s going? How do you shift back to rock ’n’ roll?’’

Laguna has an idea, and it’s not surprising that it involves his friend, Jett.

“When you look at Joan’s career, two times we blazed through the rock ’n’ roll ceiling,’’ said Laguna.

“When ‘I Love Rock ’n’ Roll’ came in, rock ’n’ roll was being dismissed at Top 40 radio,’’ Laguna said. “In the late ’80s, when ‘Hate Myself for Loving You’ was out, we would be blocked from

ing to start a rock ’n’ roll band.’’

But the foundation was there even before that, said Jett, who was born Joan Marie Larkin to James Larkin and Dorothy Jett Larkin and took her mother’s maiden name as her professional name after her parents divorced.

“They enabled me to entertain the thought of being in a rock band or playing guitar,’’ she said. “By not saying no, they were saying yes, and for me, that was very important.’’

Though neither parent played an instrument, they did have a gift that they passed along to their daughter that was a key character trait: tenacity.

“I always saw my parents work hard and not let on how tough it was,’’ Jett said.

Most of all, though, is a headstrong aspect born of that tenacity that meant quitting in the face of naysayers and such was just not an option.

“It’s not in my nature to be told what I can do,’’ Jett said. “If you’re not hurting anybody and you want to play rock ’n’ roll, well, a lot of people would tell me that girls can’t play guitar. They should be playing Beethoven, not rock ’n’ roll, because rock ’n’ roll is sexual,

and up till now, girls weren’t allowed to own their sexuality.

“Before long, I was in it so deep I didn’t want to do anything else,’’ she said.

But it’s not like Jett is looking to change careers “I do still enjoy it,’’ she said. “The part that feels like a job is the traveling aspect, but getting onstage never feels like a job to me. It’s an honor to be able to do this.

“People seem so stressed, but when they come to a show, I see people smiling, and it’s a cathartic experience,’’ Jett said. “I’ve been told all my life what my songs have gotten people through, and being able to be all those things for people is an incredible honor.’’

Jett has more than 40 years in the business, an incredible feat for someone who is only 56.

That makes her an elder stateswoman of the rock ’n’ roll world, and implies she’s had a bit of influence over the course of that long career.

One such band is going in alongside her in Saturday’s ceremonies: Green Day. Another is one she helped induct last year in New York: Nirvana. It was Jett who stepped up to the microphone, filling in for the late Kurt Cobain, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, and belted out Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.’’

Her performance was one of the highlights of a long evening.

“I’d like to think so,’’ she said when asked if she thought she’d been an influence on the guys in Nirvana — Cobain, bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl, as well as guitarist Pat Smear. “But I’d never presume those guys were inspired by me.

“I think to a degree, we’re all fans of each other,’’ she said. “I’ve been lucky enough to work with the Foo Fighters [Grohl’s current band] and Dave and talk about all this stuff.

Obviously, working with those guys for the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame was an incredible honor.’’

Cleveland will welcome her.

She’s the one who sings “I Love Rock and Roll,’’ so it’s only natural that the home of rock ’n’ roll loves Joan Jett.

Meet the Blackhearts Gary Ryan

Ryan, a fan of the Runaways growing up, joined the Blackhearts after answering an ad in L.A. Weekly. He was just 15 years old when he auditioned.

Ryan was essential to some of the group’s biggest hits, including “I Love Rock ’n’ Roll” and the cover of “Crimson and Clover.” It’s hard to find anything on Ryan these days. He left Joan Jett and the Blackhearts in 1986. Ryan, whose real name is Gary Moss, said he decided to leave the music scene after the globe-trotting tours that followed the band’s success. He is an elementary school teacher in rural Pennsylvania.

Ricky Byrd

The formation of the classic four-piece that became Joan Jett and the Blackhearts can be traced back to Byrd replacing original guitarist Eric Ambel after the first recording session for “I Love Rock ’n’ Roll.” Byrd brought the big power riffs the song needed. Byrd played with Joan Jett for 12 years, collaborating on all of her major hits. He went on to become guitarist for Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes, and play with the likes of Roger Daltrey and Ian Hunter. Byrd released a solo album, “Lifer,” in 2013.

Lee Crystal

Drummer Lee Crystal joined Joan Jett and the Blackhearts after the band’s first European tour in 1981 and stayed onboard until in 1986. During his time with Jett, Crystal’s memorable drumming sets the tone for the albums “I Love Rock ’n’ Roll” and “Album.” Post-Blackhearts, Crystal and Ryan played together in bands in New York City for a brief time. Crystal was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1993. He died in 2013.

— Troy L. Smith, tsmith@cleveland.com

Essential songs Five from Joan Jett and the Blackhearts’ catalog that fans can’t do without “I Love Playin’ With Fire” Jett wrote the Runaways’ crisp guitar anthem, from “Queens of Noise,” but the band added oomph to it. The song features a sinful theme, driven home by an infectious hook and an amazing guitar solo by Lita Ford. Jett re-recorded the song later in her career, but the Runaways’ version remains the standard. ¶ “I Hate Myself for Loving You” By the end of the 1980s it had been a few years since Jett scored a Top-10 pop hit. That changed with this brilliant arena anthem. ¶ “I Love Rock ’n’ Roll” It’s easy to forget that Jett’s biggest hit is a cover song. Rock band Arrows originally recorded the song in 1975. However, when Joan Jett and the Blackhearts took hold of it in 1982, the song took on a new life and became an epic pop-rock anthem. ¶ “Cherry Bomb” The success of Jett’s solo career has perhaps overshadowed the impact of her first group, the Runaways. Yet “Cherry Bomb,” a song Jett still performs live, is one of the most influential hard-rock songs. ¶ “Bad Reputation” The title track from Jett’s 1980 album set the stage for everything to come. Channeling the Ramones on a scathing track that lasts less than three minutes, this song finds Jett at her most punk rock. The song became a rebellious anthem for future generations. — Troy L. Smith, tsmith@cleveland.com

S6

The Plain Dealer | cleveland.com

cleveland.com/rockhall ILLUSTRATION BY TED CROW | THE PLAIN DEALER

MN

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Sunday, April 12, 2015

The Plain Dealer | cleveland.com

S7 2015 ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME INDUCTIONS

Lou Reed | Performer John Petkovic | jpetkovic@plaind.com It’s a cliche to say you may not have heard the Velvet Underground, but you’ve heard the bands they influenced. ¶ Well, you are likely to have heard Lou Reed. After all, the leader of the Velvet Underground did have one hit. ¶ “Walk on the Wild Side” reached No. 16 on the Billboard singles charts in 1972. The only Top 100 hit in Reed’s 49-year career, the song still goes out for a spin once in a while on classic-rock radio. ¶ Reed had a lot of other songs. Hundreds of them. Songs that didn’t fare so well on the commercial charts, where position is measured by sales. ¶ In another world, however, Lou Reed towered over all others, which makes his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame a bit complicated.

KEVIN MAZUR | WNET VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS

You see, to mainstream rock audiences he’s a guy with one hit and a load of respect. But to the underground, he is a king no less important than Elvis or the Beatles or Bob Dylan.

Reed introduced rock ’n’ roll to the avant-garde. He was the lyricist who broke down taboos and insisted that rock ’n’ roll tell the truth, even if it was a dark truth.

He influenced generations of noise-mongering bands.

“He was our youthful introduction to a Beat culture, Warhol glam and the subsequent nihilism of punk-rock alienation,” said Thurston Moore, the co-founder of Sonic Youth — one of thousands of underground-rock bands influenced by Reed.

Moore credits Reed for New York’s rock renaissance of the 1970s, which spawned the Ramones, Talking Heads, Suicide, Television, Blondie, Richard Hell & the Voidoids and the No Wave movement.

“Lou Reed, more than any other artist, was the calling card for all of us 1970s freaks to move to the city and live on the edge of expression and danger,” added Moore, referring to New York’s groundbreaking art and music scenes.

Reed, who died in 2013 at age 71, was also the guardian angel, er, make that devil of Cleveland’s 1970s underground-rock scene.

His hand first touched the scene in the late 1960s, when Cleveland became the home away from home for the Velvet Underground, which was inducted in the Rock Hall in 1996.

While the Velvet Underground had massive influence, it struggled in its time to attract an audience around the country.

Except in Cleveland.

The Velvets couldn’t get booked around the country, but played 24 shows in 1967 and ’68 at the legendary Euclid Avenue club La Cave.

Many a Clevelander loved Reed,

and many of his fans went on to start bands.

He had an acute influence on the city’s much-lauded 1970s music scene, inspiring bands such as Pere Ubu, the Dead Boys, Devo, Electric Eels, Rocket From the Tombs and Peter Laughner.

“Those Velvets shows were very important to a lot of musicians,” said La Cave manager Larry Bruner, in an interview with The Plain Dealer in 2013. “Peter was at all of the Velvets shows and they got to be friends.”

“Lou’s career was dead in the water,” said Mick Rock, the renowned rock photographer and Reed’s longtime friend. “His record label was about to drop him, and it didn’t seem like he was going to do much of anything anymore.”

That is, until Ziggy Stardust landed from Mars.

“David Bowie was a big fan of Lou’s and would cover Velvets songs live,” said Rock, via phone from Manhattan. “So when Bowie’s career took off, he used his power to save Lou’s career.”

Underground’s king comes home again Laughner went on to co-found Pere Ubu and Rocket From the Tombs. Another Cleveland musician — Jamie Klimek — went on to found the pioneering band Mirrors.

Klimek also turned Velvets live shows into legend. He taped performances at La Cave that found their way around the world on a number of stellar bootlegs.

The story of the Velvets became rock ’n’ roll legend. The problem is, legend isn’t a bank account and doesn’t pay the bills.

By 1970, the band was over and Reed was working at his dad’s tax accounting office as a typist.

The following year, Reed embarked on a solo career that seemed as much about closing a door on the past as opening one to the future. The self-titled debut consisted almost entirely of rerecorded Velvets outtakes, played by slick studio musicians that included members of Yes. “No” was the response: The album received less-than-glowing reviews and bombed commercially.

Bowie helped resurrect the career of Mott the Hoople in May 1972, penning the hit song “All the Young Dudes” for Ian Hunter & Co. He injected life in Reed’s career by going into the studio with guitarist Mick Ronson to produce Reed’s glam-rock breakthrough, “Transformer.”

The album yielded Reed’s lone hit, “Walk on the Wild Side.” But it was stocked with other kinds of hits — the ones that are beloved staples in the secret canon of underground rock ’n’ roll: “Satellite of Love,” “Perfect Day,” “Vicious” and “I’m So Free.”

Rock was there for some of the recordings; he got to know Bowie after taking a number of iconic shots of the Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars tour.

Rock also took the iconic album cover shot of “Transformer.”

“Lou came to England to play a show before heading into the studio,” said Rock. “I was so excited to see him that I took a bunch of photos and developed them right away.”

One came out a bit out of focus, but Rock liked the effect it produced.

“I showed him all the photos, and finally I pulled that one out,” says Rock. “And he loved it and made it the cover, because he was transforming, always.”

Reed transformed on his next record, “Berlin.” It’s a quasi-concept record full of orchestrated songs full of melancholy and melodramatic explorations of suicide, depression, drugs and prostitution.

It was a commercial failure and received mixed reviews. Years later, it’s among the most cherished albums by Lou Reed fans.

“Rock and Roll Animal” provided another about-face: a live record featuring cranked-up arena-rock versions of Velvet Underground songs such as “Rock ’n’ Roll,” “Sweet Jane” and “Heroin.”

He also donned leather and blond hair and would pretend to shoot up heroin onstage as he sang: “Heroin, be the death of me Heroin, it’s my wife and it’s my life Because a mainline into my vein Leads to a center in my head And then I’m better off than dead Because when the smack begins to flow I really don’t care anymore About all the Jim-Jims in this town And all the politicians making crazy sounds And everybody putting everybody else down And all the dead bodies piled up in mounds” The success of the new Lou was accompanied with a new aloof pose and confrontational rockstar attitude and, let’s be honest, a public perception that Reed was a total [expletive].

Not so, says Rick Bell.

The Cleveland native played saxophone with Reed from 1986 to 1988 — in the studio and on tour.

“He was fantastic, very easygoing and relaxed,” said Bell, who

moved to New York in the mid1980s. “I know that’s at odds with how people saw him, but he couldn’t have been more generous or kind to me.”

(Personal injection: I met Reed twice, and he was very cordial both times. The first time we talked briefly about music and he was warm and gracious, asking me about a band I was playing in.)

Bell also found Reed to be easygoing musically.

“When he called to see if I wanted to go on tour with him, it was just a guy in a band talking to another guy in a band,” said Bell. “And he gave me freedom to do whatever I wanted most of the time — he encouraged me to do my thing.”

“He was musically spontaneous and always wanted to play something new,” says Bell. “If you came up to him and started talking about the old days or wanted him to explain some song or the past, he was not into that at all. But if you approached him about how his guitar sounded that night, he couldn’t be a nicer person.”

Reed might not have enjoyed living in the past, but he never forgot the way the Velvets were treated in Cleveland — when the rest of America couldn’t have cared less.

“Man, he loved Cleveland — coming back to play there was like a homecoming to him,” said Bell. “He would talk about how the Velvets loved playing La Cave and appreciated that Cleveland couldn’t have been nicer to him.”

It’s apropos that Reed’s career found refuge in a gritty town far from the pop charts, where success is measured by the devotion of the cult rather than the number of units shipped.

Lou Reed had only one hit.

But the dark prince of the underground left behind a canon of songs that will forever keep the tribes dancing.

Essential songs Seven from Lou Reed’s catalog that fans can’t do without “Ostrich” Reed wrote “Ostrich,” a parody song about a fictional dance craze, after college. It was enough to catch the ear of emerging bassist/keyboardist John Cale, planting the seeds for what would become the Velvet Underground. ¶ “Over You” was never featured on a proper studio album, but instead popped up on the band’s “1969: The Velvet Underground Live” album. ¶ “Ocean” Most fans will recognize this song from Reed’s solo debut. However, a more subtle, mesmerizing version was originally recorded with Velvet Underground a few years earlier. It puts much more emphasis on his stellar songwriting skills. ¶ “The Blue Mask” The hard-hitting title track features a doozy of a guitar solo at its conclusion. ¶ “Images” is the standout track from “Songs for Drella,” a 1987 concept album Reed and Cale dedicated to mentor Andy Warhol. The song is essentially an essay (backed by guitar riffs) in which Reed talks about the power of images. ¶ “Ecstasy” Reed was past his heyday by 2000, but his collection of emotionally deep tunes were still pleasing fans. The title track from Reed’s final solo rock album, is perhaps the legend's last great song. ¶ “Junior Dad” The song could give Johnny Cash’s late career work a run for its money (and that’s saying a lot). — Troy L. Smith, tsmith@cleveland.com

S8

The Plain Dealer | cleveland.com

cleveland.com/rockhall ILLUSTRATION BY TED CROW | THE PLAIN DEALER

MN

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Sunday, April 12, 2015

The Plain Dealer | cleveland.com

MN

S9

2015 ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME INDUCTIONS

The “5” Royales | Early Influence Chuck Yarborough | cyarborough@plaind.com Though they’d never admit it, from time to time, the folks who pick the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees have used the designation “Early Influence’’ because “Dang it, we goofed and they should’ve been in a long time ago’’ was a bit incriminating. ¶ But in the case of the “5’’ Royales, it’s absolutely accurate. It’s why the band wholeheartedly deserves to be in the Rock Hall’s Class of 2015. ¶ The band, formed in the 1940s in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, began life as a gospel group called the Royal Sons Quintet, which paradoxically featured six members. The original band included three brothers — Lowman, Curtis and Clarence Pauling — plus Johnny Tanner, William Samuels and Otto “Jeff’’ Jeffries, according to the website rockabilly.nl.

JIMMY BAYNES COLLECTION AT THE ROCK HALL ARCHIVES

By the time the band released their first record in 1951, Jimmy Moore had replaced Clarence Pauling and Obadiah “Scoop’’ Ca r t e r h ad repl a ced Cur ti s Pauling.

The band at that time included Lowman Pauling, Johnny Tanner, Jimmy Moore, William S a m u e l s , O b a d i a h “ S c o o p’ ’ Carter and Otto “Jeff ” Jefferies, according to the website.

But Samuels was drafted into the Army, and his original replacement, Johnny Hodges, was a pure gospel singer who refused to sing secular music. That led to the addition of Johnny Tanner’s younger brother, Eugene, as a featured tenor.

It’s Eugene Tanner who sings lead on one of the band’s biggest hits, “Dedicated to the One I Love,’’ which also became a monster smash for the Shirelles.

Thus, the “5’’ Royales who will be inducted — all posthumously — are Pauling, Moore, Carter and the Tanner brothers. Jeffries remained with the group throughout its existence, but as their manager, according to Lisa O’Donnell, the music writer for the WinstonSalem (North Carolina) Journal, the band’s “hometown’’ newspaper. O’Donnell, who has written extensively about the group, said Jeffries sang with the band in the studio but, as he was older by 10 to 15 years, wasn’t able to keep up physically with the stage shows.

O’Donnell had this to say about them in an emailed interview: Born from Winston-Salem’s fertile gospel scene of the 1930s, the “5” Royales, with prodding from Apollo Records, ventured into

R&B and quickly gained a following with “Baby Don’t Do It” and “Help Me Somebody,” both of which became No. 1 hits on Billboard’s R&B charts in 1953.

The band’s style was unique, a melding of gospel and R&B that distinguished it from the smooth singing of such contemporaries as the Clovers and the Orioles. Later, Lowman Pauling, who wrote most of the band’s songs, began to add his own guitar parts, stinging

The band’s sound comes through in their earliest recordings, giving validity to the “early influence’’ designation. Songs like “Dedicated to the One I Love,’’ “Think,’’ “Catch That Teardrop,’’ “Too Much Lovin’ (Much Too Much)’’ provided inspiration for artists who followed, including the great James Brown and the Flames.

“The ‘5’ Royales were one of the most influential R&B groups of the 1950 s,’’ said the Rock

R&B royalty definitely an ‘early influence’ bursts of color that caught the attention of Steve Cropper and Jimi Hendrix, among others.

The Royales’ soulful singing style and Pauling’s guitar both played important roles in laying the groundwork for rock and roll.

In highly segregated WinstonSalem, the Royales were beloved within the black community but largely ignored by white society, with little mention of their achievements in the mainstream press. Indeed, Pauling’s death in 1973 was a blurb in the back pages of the Winston-Salem Journal.

Today, many older members of the black community remember the band with fondness, recalling the excitement of seeing their station wagon pull into the neighborhood after weeks on the road.

Hall’s vice president of education and public programs, Lauren Onkey. “They mixed vocal harmony, gospel and blues into unique and exciting songs about grownup romance. Lowman Pauling’s bluesy guitar lines brought an edge to their records that made a lasting impact on many guitar players.

“If you want to hear what ‘rock and roll’ sounded like before it was called that, listen to the ‘5’ Royales,” she said.

Interestingly, the band’s first label — Apollo — signed them in an effort to compete with the doowop groups like the Dominoes, the Orioles and the Cardinals, according to rockabilly.nl.

Biographers say that the group was hesitant to leave behind the gospel roots, which led to the

changing of the name from the Royal Sons to the Royals and eventually to the “5’’ Royales.

By the way, even though the band, which eventually signed to Cincinnati label King Records — was a sextet for some of its existence, the “5’’ was included in the name, and the quote marks were on purpose, in part to help differentiate the North Carolinians from two other groups named the Royals who’d released albums in the early ‘50s.

Their sound comes through on that cover of “Dedicated to the One I Love’’ — the Shirelles’ version is almost a carbon copy, right down to tempo. Ray Charles, with whom they often shared the stage, did a version of the “5’’ Royales’ “Tell the Truth’’ and Brown and his backing group, the Famous Flames, covered “Think,’’ as did the Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger years later.

But it’s the tune “The Slummer The Slum’’ that may be the signature sound of the “5’’ Royales, with its distinct vocal harmonies and the guitar work of Lowman Pauling, who was the group’s primary songwriter as well as its bass voice.

In an era of guitarists like Bo Diddley, Freddie King, Chuck Berry and the like, it was Pauling who set the tone for what the sixstring could be.

And, in reprising a theme that’s emerging from this year’s series of inductions, the band has a strong Cleveland connection. They’re to be enshrined at the very place where they played their first Cleveland concert, according to the Rock Hall’s Onkey.

“The ‘5’ Royales first played Cleveland in March of 1953 at Public Hall at a dance; it was at the same time as their No.1 R&B hit ‘Baby Don’t Do It’ was on the charts,’’ Onkey said. “They next returned to Cleveland in October of ’53 for a run of shows at Gleason’s. There’s great ads for those shows in the Call & Post.’’

Sadly, none of the members of the band, which broke up in 1965, has survived for their induction.

Fittingly, though, it will be Lowman Pauling disciple Steve Cropper of Booker T. and the MG’s, which served as the house band for legendary Stax Records, who will present the band for induction.

Cropper has said he first saw the band in 1960, and in 2011, put out an album called “Dedicated: A Salute to the 5 Royales.’’

It was, as a review in the Wall Street Journal said, his chance to at last pay homage to the band, especially Pauling.

Here’s an excerpt from that review: Fresh out of high school at the time and already a professional musician, Cropper was captivated

by The “5” Royales’ guitaristsinger Pauling, whose extra-long strap let him hold his instrument at knee level.

“I couldn’t get enough of Lowman Pauling’s stinging melodic guitar fills,” Cropper said. “They still amaze me.”

As Cropper’s own credits date from 1962 through today, on some of the most iconic songs in rock ‘n’ roll, it is clear that the “5” Royales truly deserve the title “early influence.’’

Essential songs Five from the ‘5’ Royales’ catalog to sum up their influence on R&B music “Baby Don’t Do It” Early songs from The “5” Royales kept Lowman Pauling’s guitar work (later a highlight of the group) in the background, putting the emphasis on traditional soul vocals. But songs like “Baby Don’t Do It” were far from typical. Even without Pauling’s guitar sound, there’s a hit of blues and jazz that helped the group build a name for itself during the 1950s on Apollo Records. ¶ “Tears of Joy” Perhaps no song better showcases the vocal capabilities of The “5” Royales than “Tears of Joy.” The song was just as influential to early Motown acts as it was to 1960s blues bands. It also hinted at things to come, as Pauling gives a brief guitar solo two-thirds of the way through. You can’t help but beg for more of Pauling’s unique style. ¶ “Dedicated to the One I Love” You’ve certainly heard the soul classic, just maybe not by The “5” Royales. The group’s 1957 trademark song also became a huge hit for The Shirelles in 1959 and The Mamas & The Papas in 1967. Despite being classified as a soul song, the Royales’ original version of “Dedicated to the One I Love” became highly influential thanks to Pauling’s guitar work, which finally came to the forefront. His style went on to influence the likes of Eric Clapton, Steve Cropper and others. ¶ “Think” Pauling’s guitar was also a driving force on the opening of The “5” Royale’s “Think,” a song that centers on traditional R&B with touches of blues and a beautiful saxophone. James Brown & The Famous Flames’ cover version kicked things up a notch with a full band and Brown’s unmatched showmanship. ¶ “The Summer the Slum” The group’s 1958 hit is noteworthy. Some critics have asserted that it features the very first use of intentional guitar feedback ever to be recorded. The technique would later become a mainstay for acts like the Yardbirds and the Beatles. — Troy L. Smith, tsmith@cleveland.com

S10 | Sunday, April 12, 2015

The Plain Dealer | cleveland.com

Sunday, April 12, 2015 | S11

Paul Butterfield Blues Band | Performer

2015 ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME INDUCTIONS

Chuck Yarborough | cyarborough@plaind.com When Sam Lay comes to Cleveland to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, it’ll be a homecoming of sorts. ¶ “I started in Cleveland,’’ the 79-year-old Lay said in a call to his Chicago home. “The first time I ever sat behind a set of drums playing with a band.’’ ¶ The band is among eight inductees in the 30th class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which will be enshrined in ceremonies at Public Auditorium on Saturday. ¶ Alabamaborn Lay had come to Cleveland in the mid-1950s to be with his sister, Eloise, who had moved here. “I followed her everywhere she went,’’ he said. ¶ “It was during that time that that Emmett Till mess was on the newsstand,’’ he said, referring to the brutal murder of a black teenager in Mississippi who was accused of flirting with a 21-year-old married white woman.”I left home that same night,’’ he said. “I was on my way OUT of Birmingham’’ and the South, he said. ¶ A friend took him to a club to hear some music, and lo and behold, there was no drummer, for the simple reason that the drummer had killed himself.

“I never played drums before,’’ he said. “I bought a set because I liked them, on Prospect Avenue at Epstein Music Store.’’

“Unfortunately, that kit won’t be part of the Butterfield exhibit,’’ said the friendly Lay. “Everybody wants them in the museum, but it’s a silver set I don’t have no more,’’ he said.

Lay, who was the guy on the kit when Bob Dylan went electric at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1965, backed by members of Butterfield band, also played in a group with Cleveland’s own Robert Lockwood Jr. on guitar, Little Walter on harmonica and Roosevelt Sykes on piano.

Clearly, those Cleveland ties are strong. So strong, as a matter of fact, that the first time the Butterfield band played here, the group stayed in the home of one of Lay’s family members.

“I told them, ‘We have somewhere to stay,’ ‘’ Lay said. “My wife’s sisters and her family are there, so I had the whole band at my sister-in-law’s house. We

had Paul, Mike Bloomfield, Elvin Bishop — all of us stayed there on Wade Park.

“That way, we didn’t have to pay no hotel bill,’’ said the pragmatic — and quick-witted — Lay.

enport and Bloomfield will be inducted posthumously.

Lay said he never had trouble along racial lines, but why that’s so is a disquieting — perhaps painful — look at the times.

Blues united members of early interracial band

cleveland.com/rockhall

He had joined the band, which featured Butterfield on harp and vocals, Bishop and Bloomfield on guitar, Jerome Arnold on bass and Mark Naftalin on organ, in the early 1960s. Lay and Arnold are black; the rest of the band is white. It was a concept unheard of at the time. All of them, including Billy Davenport, who filled in for Lay when he became ill for a portion of the band’s heyday, will be inducted into the Hall. Butterfield, Dav-

“As for the racial issue, I didn’t have no problem,’’ Lay said. “I didn’t go where I wasn’t wanted. I didn’t go where I was told not to go. I just managed to avoid that.

“I’ve gotten along with everybody I’ve come in contact with,’’ he said. “The racial thing? That don’t even come before me. I was really never involved in stuff like that, because I stayed where I was supposed to have been.’’

His bandmate, Bishop, had a sort of reverse problem with the racial mores of the era. A white kid born in California and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, he ended up in Chicago as a National Merit Scholarship Finalist, ostensibly to study physics.

“When I left Tulsa on the Greyhound bus to go to Chicago, there were white and colored restrooms, white and colored waiting rooms, white and colored water fountains.

“B.B. King talks more than he plays now,’’ said Bishop in a call from his in Northern California, lapsing into storytelling mode.

“The last time I saw him, he was telling a story about one time in his hometown, he snuck across the tracks to drink out of the white drinking fountain to see what it was like.’’ “‘I got me a bellyful of that white water,’” King told his audience, according to Bishop. “ ‘And you know what? It didn’t taste any better than our colored drinking fountain.’”

Despite his parents’ protestations that he needed to make his education “Plan A,’’ the music was first on Bishop’s mind and in his heart.

“I didn’t spend much time in class,’’ Bishop said. “I spent it in the ghetto.’’

At that time, the legends of Chicago blues played the hundreds of clubs that dotted the city’s West and South sides.

“Blues is like hip-hop now,’’ he said. “It’s the living music of the black people.

“But a white kid in a black club just wasn’t done, and you had to watch your back,’’ Bishop said. “So the first thing I did when I got to Chicago was make friends with the black guys who worked in the cafeteria at the college. We’d go to the clubs as a group, so I’d go with a bunch of big black guys. That worked out good.’’

Through it all, the blues were the unifying factor.

“Blues was invented and created by people living in an impossible situation,’’ he said. “No amount of singing or playing would change the situation, but if you sing it and play it well enough, it cleans you out and makes you able to handle it.’’

THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME AND MUSEUM

From left, Billy Davenport, Mike Bloomfield, Mark Naftalin, Paul Butterfield, Jerome Arnold and Elvin Bishop.

Essential songs Four from the Paul Butterfield Blues Band’s catalog fans can’t do without “Born in Chicago” The opening track from the eponymous 1965 debut abum is a blues standard written

by Nick “The Greek” Gravenites. Mike Bloomfield’s sharp guitar playing stands out on the Butterfield Blues Band’s version of the song. But it’s Butterfield’s voice that takes center stage with forceful harmonies. ¶ “East-West” The song from the album of the same name is a monumental exploration of music. The song begins with brilliant guitar riffs and is anchored by new drummer Billy Davenport’s jazz playing, which brought a fantastic element to the group. “East-West” is easily the band’s most epic track and one that showcases the talents of each of its members. ¶ “Shake Your Money Maker” Butterfield’s cover of Elmore James’ classic is the best party starter the band ever recorded. James’ version is a simple, bluesy classic. The Butterfield Blues Band adds a full band to it, while maintaining a polished vibe that’s true to the original. ¶ “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright” Arguably, the band's most celebrated live performance ever came at Woodstock in 1969. The nine-minute version of “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright” was absolutely brilliant, and was on compilations and bootlegs. — Troy L. Smith, tsmith@cleveland.com

Bishop said he met band founder Butterfield the day he arrived in Chicago.

“He was sitting on the steps, drinking a quart of beer and playing blues on a guitar,’’ Bishop said. “Shortly after that, he took up the harmonica, and was a natural genius.’’

Butterfield died at the age of 44 from an accidental overdose of the heroin he was using to try to combat the pain of his chronic peritonitis.

That Butterfield and Bloomfield, who also died of a drug overdose ( in 1981, when he was 37), won’t be at the ceremonies is heartbreaking to Bishop and Lay. Probably that’s because of what they went through as a racially mixed band.

Their dream was to introduce a genre of music they loved to a cross section of the public — including the white public.

“We wanted to be good enough to get across to this huge white public this beautiful form of blues they’d never to any extent met,’’ Bishop said. “One of the things I’m proudest of was being able to help cross it over.

“And the other thing is that we were able to demonstrate that this interracial thing could work.”

There were challenges.

“When we traveled, we stayed in black hotels,’’ Bishop said.

“We were on the road in ’68, and every place we went we got ‘lucky’ and got right into the middle of a riot.

“The black guys had to go out and get us sandwiches,’’ he said.

“It just wasn’t safe. But it made us closer.’’

Though they haven’t played together in years, Bishop and Lay have managed to stay in touch.

“I saw Sam last year in Chicago,’’ Bishop said. “We did a gig together. He’s gotten to be a pretty good guitar player. Does Lightnin’ Hopkins and John Lee Hooker.’’

“I was never interested in guitar,’’ said Lay in his separate interview.

“I wondered how people could play a guitar and sing at the same time.’’

But those days have changed, and he plays guitar almost as much as drums.

“I kind of love a guitar equal to a certain degree,’’ Lay conceded.

“But I have to stick with drums, because that’s what everybody knows me by — the Sam Lay double shuffle.

“I couldn’t exactly explain it to you, but I can do it,’’ he said. “The average person, he plays a shuffle and they play a shuffle just like you normally hear. I got a double sound, like two drummers playing at one time.’’

And he’ll have his sticks with him when the band is inducted, said Lay, who’s also in the halls of fame for blues and jazz.

“I’ve been excited about all of them, but not THIS excited,’’ Lay said on comparing those ceremonies to the news of the Butterfield induction. “I feel like Redd Foxx,’’ he said, echoing the comedian’s trademark line: “‘This is the big one!’”

And it ’s happening right back where it started, here in Cleveland.

ILLUSTRATION BY TED CROW | THE PLAIN DEALER

S12

The Plain Dealer | cleveland.com

MN

Sunday, April 12, 2015

b V b in t a h R

V d b li

d V

a w S b

t m

R t w V a t g

y w w s p

J V t r a C

f p it

cleveland.com/rockhall ILLUSTRATION BY TED CROW | THE PLAIN DEALER

“ I D t S o m w t a

Sunday, April 12, 2015

The Plain Dealer | cleveland.com

S13 2015 ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME INDUCTIONS

Stevie Ray Vaughan | Performer Chuck Yarborough | cyarborough@plaind.com Stevie Ray Vaughan’s music made him a public figure and obviously is what led to his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with his band, Double Trouble. ¶ But what we forget sometimes is that there was a man who held that Stratocaster and blew us all away with such songs as “Pride and Joy,’’ “Cold Shot,’’ “Love Struck Baby’’ and more. ¶ So while music lost a superstar who was at the top of his game when his helicopter crashed into a mountain in Wisconsin in 1990 after a gig alongside Eric Clapton, his family lost much more. ¶ “He was my little brother,’’ Jimmie Vaughan said simply. “Anybody who has a little brother or little sister knows what that means. ¶ “I know he was a great musician, and I know people love his music and think about him that way, but I miss my little brother,’’ said Vaughan, who may one day join his brother in the Rock Hall, either as a solo act or as a member of Austin’s groundbreaking blues band the Fabulous Thunderbirds.

THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME AND MUSEUM

Stevie’s induction will be a bittersweet moment for Jimmie Vaughan. The pride and joy, to borrow a phrase, will be in seeing his little brother inducted. But there will also be remembrance, as it was Jimmie Vaughan who had to identify 35-year-old Stevie Ray’s body after the crash.

“I’ll never get over it,’’ Jimmie Vaughan said. “The whole thing still doesn’t seem real. That’s really the best way I can explain it. It seems like he’s off somewhere on tour.

“But there’s nothing I can do about it except accept it,’’ Vaughan said.

Like a lot of little brothers, Stevie always wanted to do what Jimmie was doing. It was Jimmie who gave Stevie his first toy guitar when the boys were growing up in Texas.

“It’s normal for little brothers to do what big brothers do,’’ Jimmie said.

“I think the thing about Stevie Ray Vaughan that always shone through was his enthusiasm for whatever it was he was doing,’’ Vaughan said. “Even when I was a little kid — I’m four years older than him — he always wanted to go with me.

“If you knew him as a person, you knew he was a special person with wonderful enthusiasm, and was very loving, and that’s what shone through when he would play guitar,’’ Vaughan said.

The boys were the sons of Jimmie “Big Jim’’ and Martha Vaughan. “Big Jim’’ was an asbestos worker whose job pretty much required the family to move quite a bit before settling in the Oak Cliff region of Dallas.

Oak Cliff is not one of Dallas’ finer neighborhoods, but it has produced a lot of musicians and its own share of history. T-Bone

Walker was living in Oak Cliff when he debuted with Columbia Records in 1929. Other musicians who have called the area home are Edie Brickell (Paul Simon’s wife and Steve Martin’s Grammywinning roots music partner) and singer-songwriters Michael Martin Murphey, B.W. Stevenson and Ray Wylie Hubbard.

Historically, the neighborhood is home to the theater where John F. Kennedy’s assassin, Lee Harvey

“We have all kinds of music there, from polkas to blues and everything in between,’’ he said, and that diversity led Texans like the Vaughans to create their own sort of blues.

“There are a lot of great guitar players that came from Texas, but in general, a lot of the Mississippi guys went to Chicago and a lot of the Texas guys went to California,’’ he said.

Texas blues guitarists often played with horns, and the pres-

A brother pays tribute to his pride and joy Oswald, hid from police in 1963.

“We grew up in [Oak Cliff ],’’ said Vaughan. “But I went to first grade in Jackson, Mississippi, and we lived all over the South.

“Dad was a hardworking guy, and we would all pull up and go with him wherever the job led,’’ Vaughan said.

“We were on the road a long time before we ever started playing,’’ Vaughan said, laughing. “In actuality, we had the perfect kind of parents for growing up and being musicians. They taught us how to go on the road.’’

But it’s those Texas roots that are crucial to the sound both Vaughan brothers developed.

“It’s hard to explain — or even to understand — Texas,’’ Vaughan said. “One thing is that Texas is so big, so there are a lot of people there and a lot of different influences, a lot of different ethnic backgrounds.

ence of a saxophone put a different twist on the music. Indeed the first incarnation of Double Trouble, a band called Triple Threat Revue, featured Johnny Reno on sax.

Like their father, the Vaughan boys had their own issues with alcohol and substance abuse. Doyle Bramhall, who played keys with Stevie but is not being inducted as a member of Double Trouble — that’s just bassist Tommy Shannon, drummer Chris Layton and keyboardist Reese Wynans — talked about that with biographer Craig Hopkins, author of “Stevie Ray Vaughan — Day by Day, Night After Night: His Final Years, 19831990.’’

Bramhall talked of seeing “mounds of cocaine’’ on the keyboard and told Hopkins, “Where I was doing a lot, Stevie was doing five times, ten times more than I was doing.”

In 1979, Stevie Ray was charged with cocaine possession and eventually sentenced to probation in a Houston courtroom.

During a European tour in 1986, Vaughan’s drug and alcohol use almost killed him. He collapsed after suffering a near-fatal bout with dehydration and ended up hospitalized. That year, he entered rehab, but came out of it worried that he might have lost his “edge.’’

“Speaking personally for myself, everybody that has a drinking problem or a drug problem and does something about it — whether you’re a house painter or a musician or whatever — everybody when they come off of drugs or booze is going to have issues like that,’’ said Jimmie Vaughan. “Not just Stevie or me.’’

But it turned out that Vaughan was far from done. Bassist — and likewise reformed drinking buddy — Shannon called “In Step,’’ the album that followed his release from rehab, and one of only four studio LPs featuring Vaughan, “our best ever.’’

And even that album, good as it was, might be eclipsed by “Family Style,’’ Stevie’s album with Jimmie as the Vaughan Brothers.

“We had a wonderful time,’’ Jimmie said. But it turns out the album was pretty much preordained.

“When I was a kid — even before Stevie started playing — my father would have company and say, ‘Jim, go get your guitar, and you, too, Stevie. Go play a song for our guests.’

“And then he’d say, ‘You’re pretty good, boys. Maybe you should make a record together,’ ” Vaughan said.

“So the seed was planted pretty early on,’’ he said, laughing at the memory.

“Family Style’’ was released in September 1990, just weeks after Stevie, three members of Eric Clapton’s crew and the helicopter

pilot died in that Aug. 27 crash in East Troy, Wisconsin.

“We were just thinking we were going to go on tour,’’ Jimmie said.

It’s something they had done before, both with Double Trouble and with Jimmie’s band, the Fabulous Thunderbirds.

Stevie Ray might still be with his band, his brother said. “ He p i c k e d t h o s e g u y s ,’ ’ Vaughan said. “They spent a lot of time working on their thing, and they loved it.

“He picked guys he thought would really love the music or they wouldn’t have been with him,’’ Vaughan said.

One reason is the thing nobody talks about when it comes to the life of a star: You start as nobodies, and there are a LOT of dues to be paid en route.

“As a musician, you go through a lot of stuff that’s not necessarily fun, like riding in a van all night long, going on and doing a show when you’re sick,’’ he said.

But the affection Stevie Ray and his Double Trouble bandmates had was such that his brother believes they’d still be playing together today.

“I think about it, but there’s no way to really know,’’ he said. “I do know he would still be playing, still learning, still changing and still having fun.’’

Vaughan will be at the ceremonies Saturday and has already been announced as one of the performers. Naturally, the question arose as to what he thought his own chances of induction are.

And in typical brotherly fashion, he deflected the question.

“Well, anybody would enjoy something like that, but I don’t want to think about that,’’ he said.

“This is all about Stevie.’’

Essential songs Five from Stevie Ray Vaughan’s catalog that fans can’t do without “Crossfire” It’s the song that truly launched Vaughan into the mainstream. Blues fans knew about SRV for a long time, but this 1989 No.1 rock hit showcased Vaughan’s pop-sensibilities.

It’s as if someone gave Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer” a blues makeover. ¶ “Look at Little Sister” Stevie Ray Vaughan isn’t getting inducted into the Rock Hall alone. His band Double Trouble will join him. This is a song that showcases what Vaughan was capable of with the help of his backing crew. The band takes Hank Ballard’s song and adds depth to it with saxophone and piano keys. ¶ “Little Wing” Just about everyone is familiar with Vaughan’s cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Chile (Slight Return),” but that’s not even SRV’s best Hendrix cover. That crown goes to this Hendrix song Vaughan flipped into a more than six-minute instrumental. The cover earned the latter a Grammy and is considered one of the best instrumental tracks of all time. ¶ “Texas Flood” Any guitarist trying to emulate Stevie Ray Vaughan probably puts this cover at the top of their lists. The fiveminute-plus blues classic opens with staggering guitar solo before SRV starts singing. But it’s the two-minute solo that comes later on that leaves the listener breathless. The track was a favorite on video games like “Guitar Hero,” for good reason. ¶ “Pride and Joy” Stevie Ray Vaughan’s first hit on the rock charts is the song that proves he’s much more than just a great guitarist. Sure, guitar riffs in this song are unmistakable, but the song’s simplistic and catchy structure showcases an artist capable of righting a brilliant chorus; and its stunning solo served as a gateway for many SRV fans. — Troy L. Smith, tsmith@cleveland.com

S14

The Plain Dealer | cleveland.com

cleveland.com/rockhall ILLUSTRATION BY TED CROW | THE PLAIN DEALER

MN

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Sunday, April 12, 2015

The Plain Dealer | cleveland.com

MN

S15

2015 ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME INDUCTIONS

Bill Withers | Performer Chuck Yarborough | cyarborough@plaind.com One of the biggest surprises in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2015 has to be Bill Withers. The writer and singer behind such classics as “Ain’t No Sunshine,’’ “Use Me’’ and especially “Lean on Me’’ had never even been nominated before. ¶ Some might consider him a one-, two- or even three-hit wonder. But the truth is that Withers was so much more than that. He was 33 years old before his first album, “Just As I Am,’’ was released in 1971. ¶ A native of Slab Fork, West Virginia, the youngest of 13 children developed an interest in writing and performing songs during nine years in the Navy — a path he chose because he felt it was his only way to avoid the coal mines.

THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME AND MUSEUM

Now 76, he lives in California with his second wife, Marcia, to whom he has been married for 40 years. He was previously married to Denise Nicholas, the star of television’s “Room 222.’’

A very private man, Withers rarely does interviews. He consented to answer our emailed questions for this profile, and what came out of it is proof that he’s right when he says he considers himself a poet whose verses are merely packaged in song.

THE PLAIN DEALER: Where are you as you answer these?

Bill Withers: At my home in Los Angeles.

PD: Nine years in the Navy. That was three hitches back then. What did you go in for, and why did you decide to get out? What was your rate when you got out?

BW: Actually, two hitches. I did three years and re-enlisted for six.

I went in because it was one of the few options I had. I wasn’t going to go in the coal mines and it seemed like the best option for me. I got out because when I got to California, I thought, “OK, I can do California.” It was the first place I had been where I felt I could transition out of the Navy and have a decent chance at something interesting.

That and the fact that I was just ready to take a shot at life with no constraints. I was an ADJ-1 when I got out of the Navy, or to the uninitiated, a First Class Petty Officer.

Emphasis on the “Petty.”

PD: What ships did you serve on and do you have any special memories — pro or con — of your Navy service?

BW: I was in aviation, so I only served on the USS Hancock for three months. I have many memories, pro and con, of my Navy service. None of which I would call special. If you can stand the humor, I was just trying to be enough of a pro to get through the cons. Poetically speaking: “It is always an honor, to honorably serve Sometimes you get by, sometimes it gets on your nerves.”

PD: For a kid from West Virginia, the service and the world it showed you had to be a bit of a

culture shock. Are there any similarities in that to what you found in the music business?

BW: No. In the Navy, you listen to orders and follow the yellow lines painted on the floor. In the music business, hopefully, you listen to your instincts, paint your own lines and follow your muse and your heart. You get to invent yourself out of your own imagination.

PD: Because of your military service, you were older than a lot of the artists trying to make it then.

which of them do YOU like most?

Was there one that you KNEW the minute you wrote it could be a hit if only you got a chance to share it?

BW: My favorite depends on what kind of day I’m having. It changes. Only one song I KNEW would be a hit IF I got a chance to share IN it. When Ralph MacDonald and Grover Washington sent me their demo of “Just The Two of Us,” I told them, “This song could be a hit if you let me rewrite these words. You guys got overalls on it

‘I am far more poet than player,’ says Bill Withers Did you feel any extra pressure?

BW: No. When you go cliff diving, the water doesn’t check your ID. You either hit it right or you don’t.

PD: You came right out off the bat with “Ain’t No Sunshine,’’ one of the greatest songs ever written.

Can you describe the origin/back story of the song?

BW: I was watching the movie “The Days of Wine and Roses,” looked out the window and it crossed my mind. Probably some girl had left me, but ego preservation has taught me to avoid inconvenient truths.

PD: Like a lot of your music, it’s been covered and sampled by scores of artists. I still put your version at the top of the heap, but is there someone’s that you think compares?

BW: I love this question because it affords me the opportunity to give my favorite and most honest answer: Do you think I’m dumb enough to answer that question and piss off all but one person who has re-recorded this song?

Thanks for putting my version at the top, but I’m just flattered that the song even mattered.

PD: You have a great discography of songs, from “Sunshine” to “Lean on Me’’ to “Use Me’’ to “Just the Two of Us.’’ It’s probably not fair to ask, but

and it needs a tuxedo! Let me put a tuxedo on it!” Well, they did, I did, we did and it did!

PD: Is there a “B-side’’ Withers tune that you particularly like?

BW: “Ain’t No Sunshine” was the “B-side” to “Harlem” until the DJ’s turned it over, so let’s give that distinction to my first copyrighted song, originally entitled, “Three Nights and a Morning,” and retitled “Harlem.”

PD: One of your quotes on your website essentially says that if you have talent, you know it at age 5, that it just takes a while for the world to figure it out. Were you ever frustrated that that wasn’t going to happen?

BW: Talent is one thing. Talent status is another. “Just because you ain’t in the NBA, don’t mean that you can’t play.” The question to be answered is where does my talent fall on the scale of evaluation that decides whether I’m going to be able to sing or play recreationally or professionally. In that regard, everyone’s been frustrated. There is no entitlement to personal service careers like music or sports. It’s a worldwide competition. The most you can do is the best you can, and if you get in the game, they just might call your name. Frustration is an

unavoidable stop on the path to progress and success. The final, cruel word is “Get Out The Way If You Can’t Play!”

PD: You got out of the Navy during the civil rights movement era.

What sort of challenges did you face, and how did you overcome them?

BW: The first job I had after the Navy, I was the first black milkman in Santa Clara County, California. Now, I had nine years experience as an aircraft mechanic in the Navy. At least half of that time, I was in charge of engine shops. Somebody thought it was a big deal that I could become a damned milkman?! Mind you, this was only four months after the Bloody Sunday March in Selma, Alabama. They acted like I was Jackie Robinson or something. It was funny when kids would run to my truck to buy an ice cream bar and some parents would try and yell loud enough for the kids to hear but not loud enough for me to hear, “Not that milkman!”

Let’s be clear and candid here, the civil rights movement wasn’t the beginning nor the end of any challenges I or anyone like me had or have to face. I faced challenges before the Navy, in the Navy, after the Navy, in the record business and after I moved to Beverly Hills.

Please! Hell, if Obama could become president of the Harvard Law Review AND then president of the United States and STILL have people looking for college transcripts and proof of citizenship (which, incidentally, still isn’t good enough in some circles), what kind of challenges do you think I’ve faced?

My father was born in Virginia in 1891, my mother in 1897. My brother would have been 101 years old this year. Don’t get me started!

Challenges?!! The best way I know to overcome challenges to my wellbeing and to my humanity is to not let someone else’s opinion of me (however low or exalted) become my opinion of myself. To not let someone else’s failures steal the joys of my successes.

To borrow from the wisdom of Tolliver’s Barbershop here in L.A., “Even if you walk on water, some-

body’s gonna say, ‘See, I told you he couldn’t swim.’ ” Challenges and overcoming them have been and will be the standard by which I, and anyone like me (or anyone period), is judged. “Because of ” and “In spite of” ... have been the primary determinants in how I survive or thrive. Bottom line; I think I did all right.

PD: You play guitar and piano.

I’ve talked to artists who tell me different instruments “sing’’ different songs to them. Do you get different music from the instruments?

BW: You flatter me by saying I play guitar and piano. I actually am only able to make enough noises on them to form the package in which to wrap my poetry.

I am far more poet than player.

The average person could buy their first piano or a guitar in the morning and learn to play all that I can play before going to bed that night.

PD: Which is your primary instrument — guitar, piano, your voice or your pen?

BW: My imagination and my voice. It’s a combination of efforts. Instruments, because of my limits, are only one of the audio components of the package. Virtuoso musicians have always been a challenge for me to keep within the confines of the package of the poetry. The most comprehensible of all forms of anything is simplicity. I write simple songs that work best when all of the components complement rather than compete with each other.

PD: You also spent time in the studio as a producer. What itch did that scratch that performing did not?

BW: The studio is creation. Performing is re-creation or duplication. It’s the contrast between the exhilarating new and the delight of flexible redundancy.

PD: Are you still writing?

BW: When an urge strikes or a need arises. Bill Russell asked me to write a song for the unveiling of the statue of him in Boston. At his request, I wrote “I Am My Father’s Son,” which Johnny Mathis sang at the unveiling.

Essential songs Five from Bill Withers’ catalog that fans can’t do without (other than “Ain’t No Sunshine” and “Lean on Me”) “Grandma’s Hands” Withers’ best and most successful songs featured him wearing his emotions on his sleeve. What always kept them grounded was Withers’ stunning voice.

This is a perfect example. The song starts off like a gospel hymn, but quickly morphs into a soulful gem with a touch of blues, as Withers sings about the “simple old lady” who taught him how to love. ¶ “Lovely Day” One of Withers’ most recognizable songs. But there’s a good chance you’ve heard someone else’s version. The song has been covered or sampled more than 40 times. Still, no one has ever come close to topping Withers’ 1977 funk and R&B hybrid, which was as good as anything Stevie Wonder and Earth, Wind & Fire were doing at the time. ¶ “Just the Two of Us” Save for “Lean on Me” and “Ain’t No Sunshine,” this is Withers’ most popular hit. The 1981 original is a duet with Grover Washington Jr. and earned a Grammy for Best R&B song. ¶ “Use Me” Withers’ fourth single came at the perfect time. “Soul Train” was in full blast and Withers had yet to record a dance hit. This one did the trick, going gold and landing as high as No.2 on the Billboard pop charts. Withers performed the song on “Soul Train” in November 1972 and it has been used in several films, including “American Beauty,” “Boogie Nights” and “Anchorman.” ¶ “Who Is He (And What Is He to You)” Withers never released this as a single, but the song instantly became a fan favorite from Withers’ 1972 sophomore album, “Still Bill.” — Troy L. Smith, tsmith@cleveland.com

S16

The Plain Dealer | cleveland.com

cleveland.com/rockhall ILLUSTRATION BY TED CROW | THE PLAIN DEALER

MN

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Sunday, April 12, 2015

The Plain Dealer | cleveland.com

MN

S17

2015 ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME INDUCTIONS

Ringo Starr | The Award for Musical Excellence Chuck Yarborough | cyarborough@plaind.com With a few notable exceptions, drummers usually are not that great as frontmen. ¶ Not that they don’t WANT to be frontmen; it’s just that for the most part, their singing voices are like the feet of dancing bears, where the wonder of a dancing bear isn’t how well it dances, but that it dances at all. ¶ Ringo Starr may have become a frontman by default when the Beatles broke up in 1970, but make no mistake, the 74-year-old former Beatle who is entering the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo act on Saturday deserves the honor. ¶ “It’s great,’’ Starr said of stepping out from behind the kit and actually being THE GUY. ¶ “Like you said, I always wanted to be out front,’’ he said, calling from his home in California. Not that he didn’t love his time with the Beatles — “I loved that front line.’’ ¶ But there were options.

CAPITOL RECORDS ARCHIVE

“I was offered a job to be a bass player with Gerry and the Pacemakers,’’ Starr said, that sardonic Liverpudlian accent just dripping humor. “Standing in front? That sounds pretty cool.

“The only drawback is, I never played bass.’’

Rimshot!

Of course, frontman probably was in Starr’s destiny. After all, his first solo album, “Sentimental Journey,’’ came out before Paul McCartney announced he was leaving the iconic band. Oh, and it predated any solo album by the man now known as Sir Paul, even if John Lennon and George Harrison did beat him to it with their solo efforts.

“Sentimental Journey’’ was almost a vanity project — the album was a collection of standards.

The man born Richard Starkey Jr. said, “I did it for my mum,’’ and indeed it appears the idea really was to say thank you for the support of his mother, Elsie, and his stepfather, Harry Greaves.

Not many vanity projects, though, sell 500,000 copies in their first two weeks. Of course, not many vanity projects feature someone as famous as the Beatles were then — and remain today.

Starr didn’t stop after that.

He moved on ... and challenged himself. His newest studio effort, “Postcards From Paradise,’’ came out on March 31 of this year. It’s his 18th project as a solo act.

Lennon, who was murdered in New York in 1980, had 11 solo projects. Harrison, who died of cancer in 2001, had 12. McCartney — as a solo act and with Wings — has had 24 studio albums in his post-Beatles career.

For a guy who was supposed to be relegated to the background and instead defined the position of rock ’n’ roll drummer, 18 studio albums, 10 live albums and five compilation albums — beyond the

20 studio LPs and countless compilations and live albums from the Beatles — represents a prolific artist with a healthy work ethic.

And it almost didn’t happen.

As a 6-year-old, he developed appendicitis and subsequently peritonitis. His convalescence took a full year, and that put him far behind academically. At 8, he couldn’t read and had little understanding of mathematics. A family friend had almost tutored him back to the level of his schoolmates, but at 13, in 1953, he was

and eventually found himself with a group that came to be known as Rory and the Hurricanes.

He was with the band when he met John, Paul, George and their then-drummer, Pete Best.

Indeed, the lead cut on the new album is “Rory and the Hurricanes’’ and is an homage to those days in the late 1950s. A particular line — kind of funny when we think of the Beatles being multimillionaires — talks about existing on “jam and bread’’ and “sleeping on floors,” and not

The underrated Beatle deserves solo induction stricken with tuberculosis and spent two years in a sanatorium.

But that worked in his favor.

“When I was in hospital — we were all in bed in those days — this woman came in with miraculous triangles, little drums, all percussive things,” Starr said.

“That first day, by chance I was given a drum,’’ he said. “And from that moment on, I wanted to be a drummer.

“I’d go to music stores and look at drums in the window,’’ Starr said. His stepfather actually gave him his first set.

“He went to a funeral and bought the kit from the guy,’’ Starr said. “Well, not from the guy, because he was dead.’’

Rimshot!

With that $30 set as his starting point, Starr went on to join several skiffle bands — the music, popular at the time, combines several genres and usually is played with homemade instruments —

minding one bit because they were making music.

Once, Best had fallen ill and was unable to make a recording session, so Starr filled in, just because he and the Hurricanes were playing a gig on the same bill with the Beatles. Three songs set the stage for history.

The other three Beatles journeyed to a resort where Rory and the Hurricanes had a summerlong job and asked Starr to join them. Loyal to a fault — I can’t remember Starr ever saying a bad word about anyone — he waited till the end of the season, when Rory could find a replacement.

The sweetness — and again, loyalty — that is Starr comes through in that cut, and in much of the music on the newest album, especially the title song, “Postcards From Paradise.’’ Its lyrics reference more than 20 Beatles songs.

“I had a track, a sheet of paper, really, with words on it,’’ he said. “I came across it by accident. I was try-

ing to write another love song and trying to have the words ‘Mr. Moonlight,’ that John Lennon track.’’

When “Eight Days a Week’’ and other tunes worked their way into the lyrics, Starr realized he was onto something.

“I carried it on to 10 titles and finished most of the mixing on the album when I was on tour with the All-Starrs,’’ he said. “I had this track, this sheet of paper, and I gave it to Todd [Rundgren, a longtime member of Starr’s annual touring band of great players]. I said, ‘See if you can put this together,’ and he did a great job.’’

It really IS a career retrospective of some of the Beatles’ biggest hits, but because of the way Starr delivers it, it’s got a simplicity that turns it from a novelty song into an homage.

Not that Starr has any issue with novelty songs. His Beatles days had him covering Buck Owens with “Act Naturally,’’ and his solo career gave us the “No No Song’’ and “You’re Sixteen.’’

But he has moved far beyond that, mainly by remaining true to himself. When we saw Beatles movies, we couldn’t help but wonder if the lads were playing roles instead of themselves.

But Starr always gave the impression of being the most genuine. His cuts as lead vocalist on Beatles albums —“A Little Help From My Friends,’’ “Octopus’s Garden,’’ “Act Naturally’’ and “Yellow Submarine,’’ among others — are devoid of gussied-up tracks or vocal calisthenics. They’re real, honest music.

He’s a family man — his son, Zak, one of three children with his first wife, Maureen — has become a celebrated drummer himself, having toured with the Who and Oasis as well as his father. Ringo has been married to actress Barbara Bach for 35 years now, and you don’t find him in the tabloids.

Starr was often severely underrated as a musician.

Indeed, it was his ability to play odd time signatures that made for groundbreaking music. “All You Need Is Love,’’ for example, is in 7/4 time, and “Here Come the Sun’’ has time signatures of 1⅛ and the traditional 4/4 and ⅞, according to writer John Bryant in a post called “Thirteen Reasons to Give Ringo Some Respect.’’

Bryant also points out what should be obvious to anyone — that Starr really was a human metronome. Yes, he could do the fancy-schmancy beats. But his ability to repeat take after take at the same pace in the days before digital recording and Pro Tools had to give producer George Martin some unbelievable options.

And yet, he remains humble.

He’s not Sir Ringo — all four Beatles were designated Members of the Order of the British Empire, but only Sir Paul has been knighted, back in 1997.

That may come for Starr, who is now the last Beatle to go into the Rock Hall as a solo act.

“I think it’s a cool thing, but I wasn’t searching for it,’’ he said when asked if going into the Rock Hall as an Award for Musical Excellence winner validated his post-Beatles career.

“Suddenly, I got this message from Paul saying, ‘Would [you] accept it?’’’ he said. “It’s the business I’m in. I mean, I was in the biggest pop group in history, and now I’m going in as a solo.’’

When asked if he knew who was going to play with him after his induction Starr was quick on the draw: “I know EXACTLY who’s going to play with me ... but I’m not going to tell YOU,’’ he said, laughing. Not that it matters because, fittingly, Ringo Starr will be right out front.

As he should be.

Essential songs Five from Ringo Starr’s catalog that fans can’t do without “It Don’t Come Easy” The other Beatles may have gotten more attention for their solo careers, but Ringo Starr was really the first one to break out in the 1970s with a run of pop hits.

“It Don’t Come Easy” is probably Ringo’s best post-Beatles song. It is produced by George Harrison and is the Ringo solo track that sounds most like a Beatles track. “It Don’t Come Easy” stands tall in the top tier of the group member’s solo songs. ¶ “Back Off Boogaloo” Ringo followed up “It Don’t Come Easy” with “Back Off Boogaloo,” another Top 10 hit that serves as this first rock stomper. Like most of Ringo’s early solo work, the song showcases his love affair with glam rock. “Back Off Boogaloo” features some of the best guitar work of any Ringo classic. I’ll let you guess who played the ax on this one. ¶ “Photograph” Ringo’s first No.1 solo hit in the U.S. is a beautiful anthem for lost love. The track may be a sad love song, but it had a bit of 1970s glam to it, a signature of Ringo’s 1970s work with Harrison. The duo had quite the chemistry. “Photograph” also features great saxophone work from Bobby Keys, best known for his solo on the Rolling Stones’ “Brown Sugar.” ¶ “You’re Sixteen” Ringo’s cover of Johnny Burnette’s 1960 hit was proof that Ringo, at times, could do a better version of Paul McCartney than McCartney himself. The upbeat pop-tune showcases the fun-loving style Ringo was known for. The video features Carrie Fisher, aka Princess Leia, as Ringo’s love interest. ¶ “No No Song” Ringo’s last Top 10 hit in the U.S. is a classic rock track originally written by Hoyt Axton about illegal substances. Despite its subject matter, “No No Song,” which has a bit of an “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” melody, was a big hit, making it all the way to No.3 on the pop charts. — Troy L. Smith, tsmith@cleveland.com

S18

The Plain Dealer | cleveland.com

cleveland.com/rockhall ILLUSTRATION BY TED CROW | THE PLAIN DEALER

MN

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Sunday, April 12, 2015

The Plain Dealer | cleveland.com

MN

S19

2015 ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME INDUCTIONS

Green Day | Performer Chuck Yarborough | cyarborough@plaind.com Years ago, probably around the time “Dookie’’ came out, Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong performed a feat both amazing and disgusting at Cleveland State University’s Wolstein Center. ¶ The band was on a double bill with White Zombie, as I recall, and I was looking forward to a pretty diverse night of music, what with Green Day’s pop punk and the heavy metal of Rob Zombie’s band. ¶ During Green Day’s set, right in the middle of a guitar riff, Armstrong leaned back and — hold your stomachs — hawked a loogie at least 10 feet in the air, and caught it on the way down. In his mouth. ¶ Half of me went ewwwww! And the other half?

Well, it went ewwwww! as well. ¶ But now, Armstrong and his bandmates — bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tre Cool — have done something equally amazing and, thankfully, not nearly as disgusting.

From left, Mike Dirnt, Billie Joe Armstrong and Tre Cool.

In their very first year of eligibility, the punksters from California are being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Saturday.

Why is it so amazing? Well, think about it this way: Their fellow members of the Class of 2015 include the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Lou Reed, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, Bill Withers, the “5’’ Royales and Ringo Starr.

Armstrong, 43, wasn’t even born when most of those acts had their first hits. Shoot, he was only 3 years old when Joan Jett was part of the Runaways, and Ringo and the Beatles had parted ways two years before he put on his first pair of Pampers.

Despite repeated requests via email and by phone, none of the members of the band was available for an interview for this story. But this much we know: Green Day actually began with Armstrong and Dirnt, who met as 10-year-olds in elementary school in Rodeo, California.

The two formed their first band, Sweet Children, as 15-year-olds, and cut their teeth as performers in what’s now the legendary 924 Gilman Street Club in Berkeley, a sort of do-it-yourself venue founded in 1986 to offer an outlet for the region’s burgeoning punk and metal scene.

Like most bands, they went through several permutations before they were signed by Larry Livermore, who owned Lookout!

Records, in 1988. A year later, the now-defunct label released the band’s first EP, “1,000 Hours.’’

That was followed by the band’s debut studio album, “39/Smooth,’’ which came out in April 1990.

You could easily argue that the

THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME AND MUSEUM

band really owes its success to its third album, “Dookie,’’ which came out in 1994. But Armstrong and his bandmates did it the old-fashioned way: by working their tails off to build a fan base through touring.

That was courtesy of “Dookie’s’’ predecessor, “Kerplunk,’’ the 1992 release that was the first to feature Tre Cool on drums.

Their success has sometimes worked against the band, as punk purists have been known to take shots at their pop leanings.

One of the most famous is from John Lydon, who sang with the Sex Pistols under the name Johnny Rotten.

“Many of the punk bands are cop-outs and imitators and have made it easy for the likes

What kind of punks do they think they are?

The trio debuted “Kerplunk’’ for their fans at the Berkeley spot, then headed east in a converted bookmobile for the East Coast, playing gigs wherever they could get them up and down the East Coast.

That became the first national exposure for the signature Green Day sound, one that relies more on pop and melody, fueled by catchy, hook-laden choruses, than on the angry rant of punk’s originators, like the Sex Pistols, MC5 and the like.

“Kerplunk’’ morphed into an underground sensation, and its sales — more than 1 million units in the United States alone so far, drew the attention of major label Reprise Records.

“Dookie,’’ which won the Grammy for best alternative album — one of four tiny Victrolas the band has won — was Green Day’s first LP for Reprise and remains the band’s top-selling album, with U.S. sales of more than 10 million, and worldwide sales exceeding 20 million.

of Green Peace — Green Day, who I hate,’’ Lydon said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.

Armstrong and Cool took defended their second-generation punk bona fides in an interview with the British magazine Kerrang! during a 2005 stop in Australia: “I think the whole ‘rebirth’ of punk rock is a load of [expletive],” [Armstrong] scowls.

“Six or seven years ago, people were afraid to say the ‘P’ word, and now ever yone claims to have seen the Jam back in ’77, when they probably opened up for Pink Floyd and everybody hated them.” “ T hose people missed the ’80s, when punk rock was underground,” argues Cool. “That was when great bands like Nomeansno, Minor Threat and the Dead Kennedys were traveling around the world in vans.

Punk was a four-letter word for a long time.”

“Sometimes I think because we’re this big band now, because we’ve made a lot of money, we’ve become totally redundant — we’re not punk rock anymore,’’ Armstrong said. “But then I think about it and just say, ‘you can take us out of our punk rock environment, but you can’t take the punk rock out of us,’ you know what I mean?”

Going off on a tirade has become somewhat of an Armstrong trait. In 2012, at an iHeart Radio festival, he had an obscenity-laced meltdown when he thought — incorrectly, as it turned out — that Green Day’s set was being shortened to accommodate a song by Usher.

He and Dirnt smashed their instruments and stormed off the stage. The band eventually issued an apology.

The charismatic singer ended up going to rehab, which he told Rolling Stone was a “grues o m e’ ’ e x p e r i e n c e . T h o u g h clean now, Armstrong, who described himself as “a blackout drinker,’’ told the magazine he still struggles with an “obsession with alcohol.”

Those weren’t the things we saw when Green Day ruled MTV, back when MTV was about music and not reality shows.

Songs such as “Basket Case,’’ with its “Do you have the time to listen to me whine?’’ opening line, seemed to jump out of the speakers and into the collective DNA of Generation X when “Dookie’’ came out.

But it could be “American Idiot,’’ released in 2004, that set the stage for where the band in general and Armstrong in particular are headed.

A rock opera that follows the life of “Jesus of Suburbia,’’ the concept album pretty much told

the story of American youth growing up in the George W. Bush presidency . . . and it was not a happy story.

The album became the basis for a Broadway production of the same name that earned two Tony Awards — one for best scenic design for a musical and another for best lighting design for a musical — and was nominated for best musical. It also earned a Grammy Award for best musical show album.

Later this year, another musical from Armstrong is destined for a New York stage. “These Paper Bullets!’’ is slated to open in November at the Atlantic Theater Broadway stage. The show, with songs by Armstrong and book by “Weeds’’ writer Rolin James, is a modern retelling of Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing.’’

No word on whether Armstrong will actually appear in it, but he did do several turns as St. Jimmy in “American Idiot’’ during its 422-show run, which ended in April 2011.

Right now, it looks like he may have time, as the only concert on Green Day’s schedule right now is the surprise show at the House of Blues here on Thursday, two days before the band’s induction into the Rock Hall.

But the rumor going around is that the HOB gig, while billed as a fan-appreciation show, actually is the precursor to both a new studio album — their last was the 2012 trilogy, “Uno!,’’ “Dos!’’ and “Tre!”— and a new tour.

There’s been no confirmation on that. But one thing is certain, if Armstrong does announce a new album or tour from the Cleveland stage, no one is going to do a spit take.

Essential songs Five from Green Day’s catalog that fans can’t do without “1,000 Hours” The EP that started it all for Green Day. ¶ “Basket Case” became well known for its video, which featured a wide-eyed Armstrong belting out lyrics in a psych ward. ¶ “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” The acoustic ballad was jarring for fans of Green Day’s edgier music, but it catapulted the guys to new heights. It also became the graduation anthem of its time. ¶ “American Idiot” You couldn’t really blame people for thinking Green Day had peaked by 2004. Of course, they were wrong. The fiery titletrack from their hit album became a political anthem for a generation that was simply fed up. ¶ “21 Guns” The gut-wrenching track about war, politics and lost love is a crowd pleaser built on the band’s ability to write very catchy hooks. It’s the embodiment of everything Green Day has been about for the past 25 years. — Troy L. Smith, tsmith@cleveland.com

S2

The Plain Dealer | cleveland.com

MN

Sunday, April 12, 2015

2015 ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME INDUCTIONS

Greatness on the lake

LONNIE TIMMONS III | PLAIN DEALER FILE PHOTOGRAPH

Twenty years ago, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation opened the doors to its much-anticipated museum on the shores of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland. What could have been a glorified monument to rock nostalgia has proved to be the vibrant home for the history of rock ’n’ roll music as well as its evolution. The museum fulfills its mission to educate visitors, fans and scholars from around the world every day. Once every three years the induction ceremony returns home. This coming week, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and the City of Cleveland will have the eyes of the world upon them with the induction of eight truly deserving artists into the Rock Hall’s Class of 2015.

Rock Hall events

Interesting facts about the inductees

7:30 p.m. today: T he Rock Hall will honor se ven-time Grammy winner Andraé Crouch in a tribute to rock’s gospel roots called “Rock My Soul: A G os p e l Mus ic Ce l ebration.”

Performers will include Marvin Winans, CeCe Winans and Donnie McClurkin. The show is sold out but will be streamed live on rockhall.com.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2015 features a diverse mix of acts that have certainly left their impression on the music industry.

They range from well-known acts such as Green Day to lesserknown influencers the Paul Butterfield Blues Band.

7 p.m. Tuesday: A s par t of the Rock Hall’s 20 th anniversary, the museum is staging a regular music showcase that highlights up-and-coming artists from around the world.

This particular show will f e a t u r e Fo x y g e n , a n i n d i e rock duo from California, with opener Alex Cameron. Tickets, $5.50, are available at rockhall .com.

1:30 p.m. Friday: The Rock Hall will open the 2015 inductee exhibit with a ribbon-cutting and dedication. This is a media-only event.

6 p.m. Friday: It’s red carpet season with guests and celebrities heading to the Rock Hall’s private, invitation-only “Induction Eve’’ party. The public and media are welcome at the red carpet.

8 p.m. Saturday: The 30th annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony returns to Cleveland’s Public Auditorium.

The show is sold out.

The Official Simulcast Party is also sold out.

— Chuck Yarborough, cyarborough@plaind.com

Bill Withers is on a unique list: Only nine songs in history have reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with versions by two different artists. One of those songs originates with one of this year’s inductees. Bill Withers’ “Lean On Me” reached No. 1 in 1972 and then again when Club Nouveau covered it in 1987 (that version also won a Grammy).

David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” was a big moment for guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan: Vaughan is closely associated with one of David Bowie’s bestselling albums. The guitarist played lead on several tracks for “Let’s Dance.” Interestingly, Chic’s Niles Rodgers (one of this year’s nominees) co-produced the album with Bowie, which features songs “China Girl” and “Modern Love.”

Green Day’s biggest hit is one of its oldest songs: Green Day’s highest selling single, “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life),” appeared on the band’s fifth album, “Nimrod.” But Billie Joe Armstrong wrote the song in 1990. It sat around for several years before the group decided to release it.

It wasn’t the last time Green Day held back a song: The same goes for “Wake Me Up When September Ends.” The moving track was a successful hit for Green Day from the 2004 album “American Idiot.” However, Armstrong had the song for quite some time before that. It was written about his father, who died in September 1982. The song was initially intended to be a bonus track on the band’s 2002 rarities collection, “Shenanigans,” but Armstrong changed his mind.

Joan Jett had to create her own record label: After leaving The Runaways, Jett was notoriously rejected by 23 record labels when trying to embark on a solo career. She eventually formed her own label, Blackheart Records, to release her 1980 self-titled debut, which was re-released in 1981 by Boardwalk Records with the title “Bad Reputation.”

The Paul Butterfield Blues Band helped Bob Dylan plug in: By 1965, Dylan had become a very popular fixture at national folk festivals, performing his early singles and his first major hit “Like a Rolling Stone.” However, Dylan caught the ire of purists at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 when his backing band plugged in to deliver blues-rock. That backing band was the Paul Butterfield Blues Band.

Lou Reed’s career as a solo artist began as a flop: While highly influential, The Velvet Underground wasn’t a big commercial success. So it was never a given that Reed would make it big as a solo artist. In fact, his 1972 selftitled debut flopped, peaking at No. 189 on the Billboard charts. Its follow-up, “Transformer,” served as a breakthrough for Reed, thanks to the single “Walk on the Wild Side.”

Ringo Starr furthers the Beatles’ Rock Hall supremacy: Fewer than 25 acts have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall twice as performers (that list now includes Lou Reed). Three of those acts were members of the Beatles (John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison). Ringo Starr will enter the Rock Hall for a second time with the latest class when he receives the Award for Musical Excellence.

The Paul Butterfield Blues Band waited a long time: The Paul Butterfield Blues Band was first nominated for the Rock Hall in 2006, but has been eligible since 1988. That’s one year after Green Day formed as a band and one year before Billie Joe Armstrong and company released their first official recording.

Bill Withers wrote “Ain’t No Sunshine” in between making toilets: Withers’ 1971 R&B soulful jam was a breakthrough hit for the singer-songwriter.

When he recorded it, Withers was working full-time at a factory that made toilets for airplanes.

You may not have heard of The “5” Royales, but you’ve heard their songs: The 1950s R&B group released several catchy songs, including “Dedicated to the One I Love,” which was covered as a top-five hit by both The Shirelles and The Mamas & the Papas, and “Think,” which James Brown & The Famous Flames rode to a top-10 R&B hit.

— Troy L. Smith, tsmith@cleveland.com

The Performers Performers will include Stevie Ray Vaughan’s guitar-playing older brother, Jimmie Vaughan, as well as Beck, Dave Grohl (a Hall of Famer for Nirvana and likely a future one for his current band, the Foo Fighters), Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, country sensation Zac Brown, guitar whiz Gary Clark Jr., Yeah Yeah Yeahs lead singer Karen O., Fun frontman Nate Ruess, Eagle and former James Gang member Joe Walsh and smooth-voiced R&B singer-songwriter John Legend. More performers are likely to take the stage, but the Rock Hall is keeping those names close to the proverbial vest. — Chuck Yarborough, cyarborough@plaind.com

plaindealer.com/pdstore WANT TO BUY OUR POSTERS? THE PLAIN DEALER’S 2015 ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE POSTERS ARE AVAILABLE ON GLOSSY, HIGH-QUALITY PAPER.