Big news came out this week in the music world.
Joe Cocker — the singer who first came to prominence with his hit cover of the Beatles‘ „With a Little Help From My Friends“ and delivered a memorable manic performance at Woodstock in 1969 — is going to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Cocker died Dec. 22, 2014, of lung cancer. He was 70.
Roughly two months after the Rolling Stones played Sir Morgan’s Cove, Cocker played in the very same venue on Nov. 17, 1981.
Not only that, four of his longtime bandmates — guitarist Cliff Goodwin, keyboardist Mitch Chakour, saxophonist Deric Dyer and bassist Howie Hersch — live or once lived in Worcester.
“Joe was an unbelievably special singer,” Goodwin said. “And, Joe, basically, taught us, me, how to serve the song.”
“You see what the mantra of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame truly is,” Dyer said. “And if you apply those necessary categories to get in there, whether you like Joe Cocker or you don’t like, he’s checked all the boxes and more.”
“Joe was the most unassuming, underrated genius of his time that I’ve worked with,” Chakour said. “He was kind and gentle and let the music organically work. And he would not say blaah, blaah, blaah, blaah, blaah. He would try to fit himself into whatever was happening at the time. As I get older and I work on the stuff more I see more of his accidental brilliance. It was just who he was.”
When Goodwin heard the news that his former bandleader was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he said he felt “spiritually vindicated.”
“Now I don’t have to continue to wear black because there is justice in the world,” Goodwin joked. “In my eyes, in our eyes, my circle of people from my vintage, Joe never did not warrant the Hall of Fame. It was never a question. So, to me, literally, an injustice has been corrected.”
When Dyer heard the news, he said he felt “very excited” and let out a sigh of relief, while Chakour shrugged that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame voters finally came around to state the obvious.
“We had our fingers crossed,” Dyer said. “I wasn’t 100 percent sure. I was like, yeah, OK, I think we’re going in but, you know, they can do some weird things from time to time”
“I’m so excited but I’m more like, of course,” Chakour said. “Joe always had the recognition. He always, always had it. So this is like, OK, finally, the people who are doing this voting finally said, ok, yeah, it’s cool. I already knew that and I’m so glad you all finally figured it out.”
Goodwin credits Paul McCartney and Billy Joel lobbying for Cocker’s inclusion to be the tipping point this year.
“I could very easily see Billy Joel inducting Joe, saying on camera, ‘Let me tell you about the first time I heard Joe Cocker,” Goodwin said. “And, people would go, ‘Wow! Billy Joel is saying that about Joe Cocker?”
As a bandmate, Goodwin, Dyer and Chakour are in complete agreement. Cocker was “unbelievable.”
“Even when times were tough, Joe did not cop an attitude. He never canceled a show, even when he had almost no voice. He was pushing air,” Goodwin said, “So that dedication to the work is monumental, especially these days when you got people who want to cancel a show because of which way the wind’s blowing. And, the old-school guys, they just dig in and go for it. And that was Joe all the way.”
“Joe was different because you really felt like a bandmember,” Dyer said. “Joe, he wanted to be a bandmember and he made us feel that way. And the better we played, the better he sang. That was his game.”
“Joe is so beyond Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. There’s a different level of who this human being was on earth,” Chakour said. “It’s pretty amazing. I’m so glad. And if more people get to know him and get to know his beauty and his power, it’s going to be lucky for them.”
If Cocker was still around, Goodwin said his former bandleader would accept the honor with “classic humility.”
When he heard the news, Dyer reached out to Joe Cocker’s brother, Vick, to congratulate him.
“Vick, in his gracious way, which is much like Joe, simply said that Joe would be very happy and probably most happy about being in the Hall of Fame with all of his heroes,” Dyer said. “Joe could be a wild man. There’s no doubt about it. But, Joe was a nice man. He was a nice, goodhearted man. And, I think that’s the way he would react.”
Chakour thinks Cocker would have taken the news of his induction with polite aloofness.
“I think part of him would say, ‘Right, right then, yeah.’ And then there would be a part of him that says, ‘Oh, OK, that’s cool,’” Chakour said. “I know Joe would be pleased and honored and would be humbled and would take it for what it was … He might say this should be going to Howling Wolf instead, but thank you.”
Joe Cocker is not the only one of the new inductees who has a Worcester.
Chubby Checker played at the Worcester Memorial Auditorium on Feb. 16, 1962, as well as various places over the years around the area, including the old Sheraton Lincoln Hotel at 500 Lincoln St., Worcester.
Bad Company never played Worcester per se, but Bad Company’s singer Paul Rodgers played the Worcester Centrum (now the DCU Center) on May 7, 1985, as part of the short-lived rock ‘n’ roll super-merger The Firm with Led Zeppelin’s guitarist Jimmy Page played the Centrum on May 7, 1985 and took over the Freddie Mercury spot front the three remaining original members of Queen on March 10, 2006, prior to Adam Lambert taking over the front man duties.
Cyndi Lauper played the Centrum on Dec. 4, 1986.
Soundgarden played the Centrum on Dec. 6, 1991; the Palladium on May 15, 2013 and Soundgarden’s singer Chris Cornell played a solo show on June 28, 2016 at the Hanover Theatre and Conservatory for the Performing Arts.
As part of the “I Love the ‘90s Tour,” Salt-N-Pepa, who played the DCU Center on Oct. 29, 2016, is being honored with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s “Musical Influence Award” this year, along with Warren Zevon, who played E.M. Loew’s (now the Worcester Palladium) on Feb. 27, 1983 and Oct., 4, 1984. Nicky Hopkins, who played with Joe Cocker and the Rolling Stones, but never in Worcester, is also being honored by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for “Musical Excellence.”
Joe Cocker, who once played Sir Morgan's Cove and had Worcester ties, set for Rock Hall – Worcester Telegram
