New Sounds for Hall of Fame

Robbie Robertson came away from his first Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction dinner last January with some strong views about what he believed was wrong with the night’s music--so he was asked to do something about it.

When the annual dinner takes place for the first time in Los Angeles on Jan. 12 at the Century Plaza Hotel, the acclaimed singer-songwriter will be the evening’s music producer.

“Until now everyone would go up and (give speeches) until you dropped and at the end, when everyone was either too tired or too drunk to pay attention, they’d have a jam session,” says Robertson, who is

considered an odds-on favorite to be inducted into the Hall of Fame himself in 1994 as a member of the Band.

“I thought, ‘This is a tremendous waste of all this talent being together at one time.’ So I opened my big mouth, said something special should be done, and they said, ‘Oh yeah? Help us do it next year.’ ”

Robertson--who is collaborating with Eric Clapton on an album--plans to incorporate music by inductees into the ceremony itself rather than hold all the music until the end of the evening.

He is also licking his chops over putting some of the inductees together for once-in-a-life-time pairings. He’s mum on the exact program, but we can only dream.

How about Van Morrison, John Fogerty and Etta James on stage together?

Or what about Clapton and Cream joining with the surviving members of the Doors?

Or maybe a reunion of the surviving members of Creedence Clearwater Revival? (Other inductees will be Sly & the Family Stone and Ruth Brown.)

“These are people who have admiration for one another and want to do something special together,” says Robertson, who has recruited Don Was to be the evening’s music director and bandleader.

If this sounds like something you can’t miss, there is a limited number of tickets available. Don’t whip out your checkbook quite yet, though: the bottom ticket price is $750 a seat.

If that’s a bit steep, look forward to seeing part of the event on television some day, probably in 1993. Jann Wenner, editor and publisher of Rolling Stone magazine and vice chairman of the Hall of Fame Foundation, says a network special of highlights from the events which began in 1986 is in the works.

The Foundation is still against a live induction telecast.

“We don’t want this to be show-biz stuff,” he says. “This is meant to be an intimate and affectionate dinner where artists talk about other artists.”