Is Bruce Springsteen a man or a machine? Is he Superman? These are the questions that ran through my mind last night as Springsteen and his E Street Band literally picked up the six-hour Rock and Roll Hall of Fame anniversary show at Madison Square Garden and breathed life into it.

The show, which started at 7:30, lived on a weird mix of sedation, old fights, and punctuations of soul for its first four hours. It was divided into sections after Jerry Lee Lewis emerged to play  “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On.” Crosby, Stills & Nash commanded a deadly hour with Bonnie Raitt — the only featured female of the night, plus James Taylor and Jackson Browne. It wasn’t the artists’ fault but it was too much of the same thing, and — coupled with the 98% all white audience — they lent a creepy start to the history of rock and roll. I kept expecting Pat Boone to come out and join them in an acapella “Tutti Frutti.”

Instead, it was time for “Family Feud” with Simon & Garfunkel. After Paul Simon (who is really a devastatingly good songwriter, if not the best) delivered a couple of his solo hits, he brought out Little Anthony and the Imperials. They were the first black artists on stage after two hours. For some reason, Anthony chose “Two Kinds of People,” a little obscure, instead of “Hurts So Bad.” Still, the audience loved them as much as they adored Dion DiMucci on “The Wanderer.” Simon’s guests actually related to the roots of rock and roll, and were authentic.

Adding Art Garfunkel was good for gossip and harmony — the vocal kind only. How these two make such beautiful music and are so awful to each other is beyond me. “The Sound of Silence” was exquisite. “Mrs. Robinson” was playfully woven into Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away.” “The Boxer” was sublime and moving. But then came “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” Garfunkel sang the first verse. But Simon cut him off, it seemed, to croak the second verse. This was a mistake. Garfunkel looked pissed, and Simon sounded like Burt Bacharach on a bad day. When Garfunkel took over to begin, “Sail on Silver Girl,” Simon just huffed away. He should have just let Garfunkel sing the song. Anyway, Garfunkel brought it to an emotional and satisfying close.

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Tony Bennett and Stevie Wonder are going to make their album together, at long last.

I wrote in my old column back on February 18th that this was going to happen. The legendary Quincy Jones will produce. Recording should start this fall.

Last night, Bennett signed an unprecdented new contract with Sony. He’s been on Columbia Records since McKinley was president. But recently the contract expired. I’m not sure Sony even knew that for a while. Tony could have gone anywhere. But the 83 year-old Bennett must have figured it’s one of those Devil You Know scenarios.

Anyway, we love Tony Bennett, we love Stevie Wonder, and Quincy Jones is the greatest, even if the Rock Hall of Fame won’t induct him. Who cares! This should be a landmark recording. And it’s going to be full of classics, although I do hope Stevie throws a couple of his own songs in there, too.

$100,000 — one hundred thousand dollars — that’s what the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is soliciting from big names, VIPs and rock stars for their big Madison Square Garden shows on Oct. 29 and 30. The shows — billed as the 25th Anniversary Concerts for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, not the I.M.Pei-designed Museum in Cleveland — feature Bruce Springsteen, U2, Metallica, Simon and/or Garfunkel, Eric Clapton, Crosby Stills Nash & Friends and, in a nod to soul music, Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin.

The Rock Hall is offering four VIP packages priced at $100,000, $50,000, $25,000 and $5,000.

This is all “to support the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation” in New York, run by Rolling Stone magazine publisher Jann Wenner. There is no mention on the solicitation of the Museum in Cleveland, except to include one-year memberships as part of all the packages.

The $100,000 package is the best. It includes 10 premium seats for each night located either on the floor or in the loge — no guarantees, though. Just best seats available. But it also buys an invitation to Wenner’s private dinner on Oct. 28, another pre-concert dinner for VIPs, and rehearsal tickets. The best thing in the package: “Exclusive gift items and collectible laminates.” The total deductible amount is $84,750.

That the Rock Hall has become big business is no secret to readers of this column. The Foundation lists $14 million in assets already, and pays its chief staffer, Joel Peresman, a former exec at Madison Square Garden, more than $350,000 a year in salary.

But the foundation has come under fire in recent years for who it inducts into the Hall of Fame and who has been left out. That’s a list that begins with Chubby Checker, inventor of the the Twist, to artists like Neil Diamond, the Hollies, Neil Sedaka, Rufus & Carla Thomas, Donovan, Carole King, Chicago, Dionne Warwick, Hall & Oates, the late Billy Preston, Linda Ronstadt, Carly Simon, the Moody Blues, Cliff Richard & the Shadows, and dozens more who for some reason Wenner and his nominating committee don’t consider “hip.” Two years ago the Foundation was embroiled in a voting scandal when Wenner ripped up a ballot inducting the Dave Clark Five so he could include Grandmaster Flash instead.

For years, the Rock Hall also paid close attention to rock’s roots, mostly because of the presence of Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun. But insiders agree that since Ertegun’s death in December 2006, Wenner is working without anyone to modify his behavior. Most of the nominating committee consists of rock writers who have either worked for him in the past for work for him now. It’s funny to think that the original 1986 committee included ’60s deejay Norm N. Nite and the blues musician John Hammond, giving it ties to rock’s origins. That notion must seem quaint now.