it was a good night....

Just got home last night from visiting Emily over in Vancouver and got lots to get done today...but look at what happened last night...two of my heroes, who also just happen to be musicians, made it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Leonard Cohen and John Mellencamp. Sweet! *Lou Reed inducted Leonard Cohen, reading selections from his lyrics. “We are so lucky to be alive at the same time Leonard Cohen is,” he said. Of all the honorees, Cohen seemed most surprised to be there. “This is a very unlikely occasion for me. It is not a distinction that I coveted or even dared dream about,” he said, adding a joke that played off a famous quote about Bruce Springsteen: “So I’m reminded of the prophetic statement of Jon Landau in the early Seventies: I have seen the future of rock and roll and it is not Leonard Cohen.”

* In his affectionate induction speech for Mellencamp, Billy Joel celebrated him as an American rebel at a time when the nation needs one. “This country has been hijacked,” Joel said. “People need to hear a voice like yours to echo the discontent in the heartland … Someone’s got to tell ‘em don’t take any shit, and John, you do that very well.”
Mellencamp traced his fighting spirit to his youth, beginning with surviving spinal bifida as an infant. “I’m lucky to be standing here for any number of reasons,” said Mellencamp, who choked up as he thanked his mom and dad, who both attended the ceremony. Before kicking into a fierce version of “Authority Song” (backed by a band that included his teenage son, Speck, on guitar), which he turned into an audience sing-along, Mellencamp said, “I still feel the same way today as I did when I wrote it twenty-five years ago.”

Congratulations Mr. Cohen, Mr. Mellencamp. Rock on.

Read about the whole night *here.

And I will catch up with you all later, k?