The usual R&R Hall o' Fame nominee nonsense begins again. Another list of obvious and questionable contenders. Never know what the 500 person voting committee will do.
There are certain folks past and present (Seymour Stein, Amhet Ertegun) who have held a lot of influence and have gotten perhaps some less deserving people in while other, seminal artists remain shut out. Alice Cooper, The Stooges, The New York Dolls not in Hall, but Percy Sledge and Ritchie Valens are? I am always baffled by exactly what the criteria is to get into this goofy museum. It seems having the right lobbyists helps.
Would love to see such cult-ish types as Love and The Zombies in there, but I am probably dreaming.
The list:
KISS-- Love em' or hate em', they should have been in there long ago.
Genesis-- Same as above.
Stooges-- The godfathers of punk not in Hall, but Sex Pistols and Ramones (both directly influnenced by Iggy and co.) are? C'mon, dummies!
Laura Nyro-- Great songwriter. Cult-ish type artist who is certainly worthy, but not exactly rock and roll. If she makes it, then where is Harry Nilsson?
The Chantels-- Output is pretty slight, even by girl group standards, though they are credited with being R&R's first great female group.
The Hollies-- Great and underappreciated 60's pop group who had tons of hits. If they make it, well deserved.
Donna Summer-- This is disco or R&B, but the "Rock and Roll" moniker hardly seems to apply for this organisation. Miles Davis is in there, for god sakes! Miss Summer certainly sold a ton of disco records in her time.
ABBA-- Again, not what one would call Rock and Roll, but considering they have sold more records than anyone but the Beatles and the fact they cranked out a string of pop classics that for better and worse continue to influence pop music, they should be a shoo-in. If Madonna is in there, then ABBA should definitely be in there.
Red Hot Chili Peppers-- This one may ruffle a few feathers too, but they have had a 25 year career of critical and commercial success. I know, there are those who hate them with a passion, but I have liked some of their stuff and the musicianship from Flea, John Frusciante and Chad Smith is phenomenal. Now if the voting committee can just forget about the socks on cocks episodes or some of Anthony Kiedis' raps, they should be in there.
LL Cool J-- WTF. Another example of the East Coast bias of this organisation. How many rap acts are you going to include in this thing? And if I had to pick 5 or 10 of them for inclusion, I don't think Ladies Love (who has had his moments) would be one of them. Grandmaster Flash and Run DMC are in. Wouldn't The Beastie Boys or Public Enemy be the most obvious next choice?
Darlene Love-- Great girl group singer. Not sure she has accomplished enough to get in, but you never know.
Jimmy Cliff-- This would make reggae artist number two in the hall behind you-know-who. If called upon to induct another reggae artist,would not be my next logical pick. That would probably be Toots & the Maytals. He had a few gems in the early 70's and helped to popularize reggae on an international level, but I just don't think his work warrants inclusion here.
Why should we care? Isn't this just a tourist trap that honors a very populist history of, well if not exactly rock and roll, at least popular music of the last 50-odd years. At least the Hall serves the functions of taking this music seriously and commemorates some of the old-timers. You and I know who Little Richard, Chuck Berry,Jerry Lee Lewis and so on are, but future generations may need some gudiance.
Will these future generations care about these artists or will they be relevant years from now or will they be like those old Baseball Hall of Fame players like Pie Traynor and Tris Speaker whom fewer and fewer people remember seeing and whose careers are only important to historians? At least these Hall of Fame members have something that can always be experienced in the here and now: their music.
