Gamble, Huff add Philly soul to Rock Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony last night at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York got a shot of Philadelphia soul.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony last night at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York got a shot of Philadelphia soul.
In an evening that saw the induction of Material mum Madonna, Midwestern rocker John Mellencamp, British Invasion greats the Dave Clark Five, surf-rock ensemble the Ventures, Canadian poet Leonard Cohen, and the late blues-harp legend Little Walter, festivities also saw the entrance into the hallowed hall of Philadelphia International Records founders Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff.
Jann Wenner, the Rolling Stone magazine chief and hall chairman, kicked off the evening by noting that in recognizing Little Walter, "we remind ourselves that what we call rock and roll came from the blues, and it's the music of black people."
A tribute followed to Gamble and Huff, with Patti LaBelle joining the Paul Schaffer-led World's Most Dangerous Band (from Late Night With David Letterman) in an over-the-top rendition of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes' "If You Don't Know Me By Now," before Jerry Butler came out to bring on the honorees.
The duo, honored in the nonperformer category that has been renamed for the late Atlantic Records cofounder Ahmet Ertegun, took the stage to "TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)" by MFSB, the Philadelphia International house band. Gamble reminded the attendees that the acronym stood for "Mother, Father, Sister, Brother," even though "a lot of people thought that it stood for something else."
Huff called the duo's meeting, in an elevator in the Shubert Building on South Broad Street in 1963, "destiny" and said, "This is beyond my wildest dream." Gamble thanked radio station WDAS (105.3-FM) and got the crowd to shout out the word peace, which he said was "exactly what our music represented."
And before paying tribute to Ertegun, Gamble noted that he and Huff wrote the sneakin'-around classic "Me and Mrs. Jones" for Billy Paul.
"There's a little 'Me and Mrs. Jones' going on right here in New York today," he said with a grin, drawing laughs from the crowd over an allusion to the news of New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's being linked to a prostitution ring.
Madonna was inducted by Justin Timberlake, who told a story about Madonna recently injecting him with a B-12 shot in the buttocks as a pick-me-up, and then called her "the shot in the [butt] we all need."
She then thanked "the naysayers who said I was chubby, that I couldn't sing, that I was a one-hit wonder. They helped me, too, because they pushed me to be better."
Lou Reed inducted Cohen, reciting lyrics by his fellow songsmith. Cohen thanked Reed "for reminding me that I once wrote a couple of good lines," before reading a few more about the enduring power of music from his "Tower of Song": "You'll be hearing from me baby, long after I'm gone/I'll be speaking to you sweetly from the Tower of Song."
