Rock Hall of Fame Brings Medley of Melancholy, Joy : Pop music: The ceremony mixes moving tributes to posthumous inductees and invigorating, celebratory jams.

How’s this for a rock ‘n’ roll memory?

Start with the Isley Brothers leading an all-star cast of Keith Richards, Neil Young, Little Richard, John Fogerty, Jimmy Page, Johnny Cash, Carlos Santana, Booker T. & the MGs and U2’s the Edge through a heart-stirring treatment of the Isleys’ “Shout,” one of the most joyous songs of the modern pop era.

And then picture Young stepping to the microphone to sing lead on a blistering version of Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” with Page and Richards taking turns on guitar solos.

These back-to-back performances, which highlighted the seventh annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction dinner Wednesday night at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, once again demonstrated the cleansing and uplifting power of music.

It was a year ago in the same ballroom that 1,000 guests at rock’s most colorful annual party sat numbly through much of the ceremony after learning that the Persian Gulf War had just begun.

On that anxious, uncertain night when many in the audience were still trying to sort out their feelings about the allied strike, the Byrds, one of the evening’s inductees, stepped forward during the closing jam to play “Turn, Turn, Turn.” The warmly philosophical song filled the room with much of the same reassurance and hope that it brought to the pop world in the ‘60s.

The tone at this year’s party was understated but for a different reason--the deep sense of loss surrounding the deaths of so many of the inductees. Among those honored posthumously were Jimi Hendrix of the Jimi Hendrix Experience and David Prater of Sam & Dave, as well as all three inductees in the non-performer category: concert promoter Bill Graham, guitar manufacturer Leo Fender and songwriter Doc Pomus, each of whom died within the last year.

It has been more than 20 years since Hendrix died of drug-related suffocation at age 27, but it is still hard to listen to his dazzling guitar work or watch the video of him that was shown during the dinner and not be moved by the tragic loss of such a masterful young talent.

Ahmet Ertegun, chairman of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, described Hendrix as the most “original and explosive” guitarist ever in rock, and Neil Young, who gave the induction speech, called him a “legend and a ground-breaker.”

Accepting the Hall of Fame statuette along with Experience members Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell, the guitarist’s father, Al Hendrix, fought back tears as he thanked the Hall of Fame voters and directors for not forgetting his son.

In the long evening’s most moving induction speech, record producer Phil Spector spoke about the courage of Doc Pomus, who co-wrote such hits as “Save the Last Dance for Me” and “Little Sister.” Though Pomus was unable to walk after a childhood case of polio, Spector said, the New York writer lived life to the fullest. He said Pomus had also been an inspiration to Spector’s 9-year-old son, Phillip Jr., who died this past Christmas day after a long struggle against leukemia.

“I know love comes from the heart, but I have no idea where love goes when the heart dies,” he said, referring to the deaths of both Pomus and his son. “Nor do I know what it is within the heart that breaks so badly that it’s impossible to repair.”

Sam & Dave’s Sam Moore also used the induction ceremony to end what had been perceived as a bitter and longstanding feud between the members of the duo, which stopped performing together in 1981, seven years before Prater’s death in an auto accident. “I loved him and . . . I miss him,” Moore said Wednesday, and underscored his affection by bringing Prater’s sons on stage with him to accept the Hall of Fame salute.

However, it was Graham’s death last October in a helicopter crash in Northern California that cast the greatest shadow over the evening. The San Francisco concert promoter was among the most respected business figures in the pop world and he had contributed greatly to the tone of the annual dinners by organizing the closing musical jams.

In his induction speech for Graham, Fogerty, the chief creative force behind Creedence Clearwater Revival in the ‘60s and ‘70s, described the promoter as “simply the best man I ever met,” someone who “brought a consciousness to the whole (rock) field. . . . He made us all better.”

A few minutes later, guitarist Carlos Santana, who worked closely with Graham for years, played “I Love You Much Too Much,” a traditional Jewish song that he learned from Graham. Backed only by a keyboardist initially, Santana played in a sweet, disarming style that made the song a benediction for Graham and all the others honored posthumously on this melancholy evening.

Midway through the four-minute tune, Santana injected fury and fire into the song, turning it into a salute to his friend’s passion and zest. It was such a moving moment that it was easy to imagine the Hall of Fame directors ending the dinner on the high note. After all, it was late--nearly 1 a.m.--and the audience seemed drained.

But some two dozen musicians gathered on the stage and began a slow, smoldering version of “Green Onions,” the ‘60s instrumental hit by Booker T. & the MGs, another of the evening’s seven performer inductees. Also inducted: Bobby (Blue) Bland, Johnny Cash, the Isley Brothers and the Yardbirds. Blues guitarist Elmore James and New Orleans pianist Professor Longhair were inducted in the “early influences” category.

The large cast on stage then went into Sam & Dave’s “Soul Man,” with Moore handling the lead vocal and Fogerty taking Prater’s part. Cash followed with two of his early Sun Records recordings, “Big River” and “Get Rhythm,” with Fogerty and Keith Richards leading the way on guitar.

After Rufus Thomas sang Elmore James’ “Dust My Broom,” the Isleys took command with “Shout,” an expression of gospel-edged release. Young then followed with a tenacious version of “All Along the Watchtower,” turning the song--identified with Hendrix as well as Dylan--into a statement of angry exorcism.

By this point, most of the black-tie audience, which had paid up to $1,250 a seat, had moved down to the front of the stage, much the way crowds once did at Graham’s old Fillmore East a few blocks away. The musicians went through two more songs, but the numbers were anti-climactic. The burden, at least for this night, had been lifted.

If death was the inescapable major theme of the evening, the role of the guitar as rock’s most celebrated instrument was the sub-theme, as reflected in the inductions of Fender, Hendrix, James and the Yardbirds, the ‘60s British band that gave rock Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck. But hopes for a Yardbirds guitar-summit reunion were derailed when Clapton stayed in London to tape an edition of MTV’s “Unplugged” series.

In inducting the Anaheim-born Fender, whose guitar designs remain the standard in rock, Richards called him the man who gave rock guitarists their “armor.”

Accepting the award, his widow, Phyllis, said: “He would have been so proud if he could have been here, but he would have been the most surprised of all because he never thought he was doing anything unusual. He just loved musicians. He felt they were special envoys from God to make our lives a little better, and he was put here to make the very best instruments that ever could be made.”

Though some critics have questioned the decision to put country star Johnny Cash in the Rock Hall of Fame, Cash received one of the evening’s warmest ovations. Country singer-songwriter Lyle Lovett saluted Cash as a man who helped show the world what happens when “rural sensibilities and values mix with an urban environment.”

Next year’s Hall of Fame dinner will be held for the first time in Los Angeles. Among the artists eligible: the Doors, Bob Marley, the Grateful Dead, Cream, David Bowie, the Velvet Underground, Rod Stewart and the Jefferson Airplane.

Ertegun said construction on the first building in the long-delayed Rock and Roll Hall of Fame complex in Cleveland is expected to begin late this year.