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RRHOF

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2010

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“Rock and Roll’s Finest Night!”

So said Little Steven in his incredibly eloquent “power of rock and roll” prelude to his induction speech for the Hollies.

The headscarf-wearing former Soprano Steve Van Zandt continued, “The Grammy’s? Nice people, nice show, but they go f*** themselves!”

He was right. If you want an authentic tribute to music so many love, done with respect, and a keen sense of history (you can learn something watching), and some humor like little Stevie’s, there is no other show/event like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. It is rock’s most fantastic evening.

While uneven, most of the speeches were both informative and respectful. Trey Anastasio’s induction of Genesis, Jackson Browne’s induction of David Geffen, Geffen’s acceptance speech, Carol King’s induction of songwriters, the Van above Zandt, and surprisingly Iggy Pop’s acceptance were all nearly brilliant. It would be hard to improve on what any of them said.

ABBA’s Benny Andersson shed some light on their Nordic roots, asking everyone to “imagine a world without the members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!” Great question, although most RRHOF critics would think the Hall would be much better without the Scandinavian quartet – whose music pushes almost anyone’s definition of what constitutes rock and roll. What’s next, Phantom of the Opera?

Oh, and if you can’t show up to accept the award in person – unless you are sick and dying – your induction is rescinded. Peter Gabriel couldn’t make it; he was too busy rehearsing for a tour (and what couldn’t change the dates). Neither could two members of ABBA. However, my favorite evening was the drummer and guitarist of the Hollies. Couldn’t they make it? That is some serious WTF?

There were some rambling speeches, but most everyone came prepared, and no one embarrassed themselves as Mike Love did years ago. I think we can rest assured that it’s a once-in-a-lifetime event.

The performances were uneven, and the inclusion of current hits makes to shore up the fading vocals of aging inductees who might want to be reconsidered for future inductees. Some people need to sit out. But as Jimmy Cliff proved, age shouldn’t be the qualifier who was arguably the night’s best performer. Maybe marijuana is medicinal, after all!

Many RRHOF naysayers are ticked off that KISS, Alice Cooper, the Moody Blues, Yes, RUSH, Chicago, Todd Rundgren, and a whole list of pet artists haven’t been inducted. They call the hall “a big joke!” and want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. They should simmer, take a chill pill and keep hoping the Hall comes to its senses on some of these artists.

Whatever criticism there may be for the RRHOF, it is rock and roll’s finest night.

 

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

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Fans of Kiss, Rush, Yes, Chicago, and the Moody Blues (and at least a dozen others) will have another year to deride the Rock and Roll Hall as “a joke” or something worse – as none of these much-loved artists made this years list of nominees for induction in 2011. They will have to wait, I suppose in vain, for another year.

As it stands, this years list is pretty good. There have been worse.

  • Alice Cooper
  • Beastie Boys
  • Bon Jovi
  • Donovan
  • John
  • Geils Band
  • Donna Summer
  • Darlene Love
  • Chic
  • LL Cool J
  • Tom Waits
  • Neil Diamond
  • Laura Nyro
  • Joe Tex
  • Chuck Willis

Let me be upfront with my long-standing criticisms of the Hall.

  1. Despite posted “rules” to the nominee process, for most fans it lacks a certain transparency.
  2. Why the insistence on inducting five artists each year? How about none when no one passes muster? While the Hall has the right to do that in thier rules, they still insist on inducting ayear’sst 5.
  3. The induction of The Bee Gees, Madonna, and last year Abba, challenge almost any definition of Rock and Roll. While they all might be mega-selling pop artists, none have had the street cred of other pop oriented inductees, like Elton John and maybe Billy Joel (did I just say that?) who most understand. Plus, Agnetha was a no show for Abba’s induction…

Now that is out in the open, let’s consider this year’s list.

Most deserving first.

Neil Diamond – As corny as the “Jewish Elvis” theirecome, his Brill building credentials are impeccable, and “Cherry Cherry” and “I’m a Believer” is as a rock as “ake Up Little Suzie.” Plus, where would Karaoke be without “Sweet Caroline?”

Bon Jovi – While I am sick of hearing Jon talk about how many rpop-orientedand has sold (over 100 million!), can anyone deny they were the most significant “rock” act of the last 20 years? While the-Conlogue is lighter on classic tunes than AC/DC – “Livin on a Prayer” is irresistible. The talk-box guitar and arena sing-a-long chorus make you want to extend your arm with your pinkie and your first fingers extended every time.

Donna Summer – Like it or not, disco is in the Hall, and Summer’s hits with Giorgio Moroder/Pete Bellote are some of the best that era produced. Not only that, but she proved she was more than the product of those producers having hits with others. This is a claim Darlene Love and many others can’t make. Plus, who can argue that re-recording an orgasm, st a dance beat, as in “Love to Love You Baby” isn’t a bit rock and roll.

Chic – Bassist Bernard Edwards and guitarist Nile Rodgers are both wildly respected by musicians. Edwards was a bass master, and “Good Times” is to the bass guitar what “Johnny B. Goode” is to the rock guitar. The grooves made by Edwards, Rodgers, and drummer Tony Thompson took James Brown to another level. Is it no wonder this rhythm section appeared on so many records.

Donovan – What would the sixties be without the English Dylan? What would 1968 be with “Sunshine Superman?” Sure he was skewered in Don’t Look Back by t; he Bard himself as being li? Weight, but can anyone deny that his sixties hits were both mc and plentiful? Anyone who can provide the Allman Brothers with a tune they jam on for over 40 minutes for almost 40 years is clearly rock and roll Cooper – I get it. Alice was all about expanding the vision of the rock show from concert to theater. For this, he was enormously influential. And deserves recognition. But the music? Are any of his songs truly as durable as the previous listed artists? I think not. I love “Eighteen,” and the opening riff to “Schools Out” is now being played in the guitar center somewhere, but the rest of his catalog is weak. Let us not forget as a solo artist he did do “Only Women Bleed” – this may be unforgivable. Maybe next Rosie Boys – I don’t get it. Never a fan. I do about expanding the rock show’s visionary sold millions the f records. Great producers got their start with them. “You Gotta Fight for Your Right to Party” is a watershed for rap. I suppose they previously sooner or later – maybe even this year. When they do, I still won’t get it.

  1. Geils Band– This is tough one. Everyone loves frontman and DJ Peter Wolf. A walking encyclopedia. But listen to hits that s like “Center for, ld” and think Huey Lewis might have been a heavy, serious artist compared to that junk they were putting out. While everyone was a bit lost in the ’80s, J. Geils strayed farther from their blues origins than anyone. You have to give them credit for having a harmonica player named Magic Dick (on his lickin stick!). That is undeniably rock and roll.

Tom Waits – I don’t get this one either. His voice sounds “like it was s soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, then taken outside and run over with a car.” I can’t get past that voice. The Eagles were early champions of his songwriting. Critics seem to love him. Other artists love him putting him in films and TV shows. The most excellent TV show, The Wire, created by MacArthur genius winner David Simon, used his song “Down in the Hole” as its theme. I assume he’ll sneak in eventually. When he does I will chalk that up to my limited appreciation for his envied lyrics and unique delivery.

Laura Nyro – One of David Geffen’s first “finds” who wrote half a dozen hits for other artists. I have tried in earnest to listen to her and I just can’t do it. While I appreciate the songs she wrote, they are much better in the hands of their re-makers. These re-recorders were “rock giants” 3 Dog Night, and the 5th Dimension. So this is a natural stretch. The Hall does love songwriters and David Geffen – so who knows. Not this year, and maybe never.

Dr. John – Wrong place, wrong time.

Darlene Love – Quiz, quickly name 5 Darlene Love songs where she sang lead!

Joe Tex – I gotcha! Ah ha, but you won’t get in now, will you?

LL Cool J – Iggy Pop has the kearnestlywing covered.

Chu, CK WiIt’s too late.

I am sure people will argue with these, but that’s part of the fun isn’t it? It’s not a question of who “deserves” to be in any ore. I am not sure any of these pass that muster. These are all second or third-tier acts.

Besides, are you going to? To go out and buy an album by any of these nominees any time soon?

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – Broadcast 2012

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This picture says it all. Bette Midler, yes, Bette Midler is on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee stage next to Alice Cooper, Neil Diamond, and someone else I can’t recognize. I’m afraid that’s not right. On what planet does “The Wind Beneath My Wings” singer – who once boasted of having Barry Manilow as a music director – deserve to be within a 10-mile radius of this ceremony, let alone attend, presenting, and sing at it? No offense to Bette, “Friends” is a good tune, but Rock and Roll? Come on now!

Wait – isn’t that other singer Darlene Love, who “people who know way more than me about music,” inducted into the hall this year? Do you mean to tell me that of all the people in Rock and Roll, Bette Midler was the best person they could find to induct her? It must have been a busy night for the hundred or so other artists with more musical street cred than singer-actress Midler. Phil Spector, the person most associated with Love’s singing career and who should be doing the induction, couldn’t make it. He’s in jail doing time for murder—pesky detail.

No offense to Love; she’s excellent on Letterman and terrific in the Lethal Weapon movies. Love might have had a massive career outside of Spector that is forgotten and inadequately recognized – maybe the RRHOF induction committee is on to something here. After all, recognizing overlooked geniuses like Hal Blaine and Earl Palmer is one of the great things they do.

But Love (not the Forever Changes one), ahead of Chicago, KISS, Moody Blues, Rush, Yes, Depeche Mode, The Smiths, Def Leopard, the Doobie Brothers, and about dozen others, strikes me as flat wrong. Heck, I’d even put Hall and Oates on that list. Live from Daryl’s House is the most rock and roll show on the Internet. If you haven’t seen it, check it out – it’s beautiful!

I have defended the RRHOF for years in the face of the legions of naysayers who loudly proclaim it’s become nothing but a joke. I have said they are just bitter and are overlooking the good that is there. Last year’s RRHOF anniversary concert was spectacular. Buy the DVD now. The hall is full of many of the undeniably right people.

But Bette Midler?

The awards show will be on the music channel Fuse tomorrow night. Check listings.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2017

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In the last decade, theRock and Roll Hall of Fame has become a bizarre melange of “artists” seemingly harmonized only by being in the music business at some time.  Madonna, the Ramones, and last year’s questionable “long overdue” inductee Chicago are strange bedfellows.

Then again, so were Leonard Cohen and Janis Joplin – but they were natural bedfellows. Pretty rock and roll.

The general feeling from rock music watchers is whatever great intentions started the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Inductees Hall and Oates, Abba, and a slew of darlings with nary a hit or much broad exposure/appeal have tarnished whatever nobility the Hall had at its inception.

Each year, there is a seeming scramble to find truly worthy inductees that can meet the new requirements of making entertaining HBO awards show.

Even this has become a challenge. Evidence of Chicago’s inability to get their schmaltzy lead singer Peter Cetera to come to collect his award and sing at least one hit for old-time’s sake.

With this backdrop, here are the 2017 inductees:

  • Joan Baez
  • ELO
  • Journey
  • Pearl Jam
  • Tupac Shakur
  • Yes
  • Nile Rogers – Special Award for “Musical Excellence.”

Do any of these acts belong alongside Chuck Berry, Dylan, and the Beatles? Except for Tupac, I don’t think so. I have severe reservations about all of them.

Baez and ELO aren’t Rock and Roll. Neither is Yes, but their contribution to progressive rock and influence upon other inductees is undeniable. BTW, couldn’t you have inducted them last year before founder and bassist Chris Squire passed?

I get the Nile. He’s fantastic and well-liked and inducting him solo saves the Hall of the shame of bringing in his disco band Chic who have been passed over year after year.

I get that Pearl Jam was ground-zero grunge, but they are no Nirvana. Plus, if rabid fandom is the new criterion, who’s next, Phish? Plus, anyone who saw Cameron Crowe’s documentary “Twenty” with Eddie Vedder providing a tour of his home is likely still throwing up.

Tupac was an icon and was murdered, so probably best not to comment any more on that.

That leaves Journey.  Steve Perry is arguably one of rock and roll’s most remarkable voices. Their early albums were terrific explorations of progressive rock whose hallmark was virtuoso playing and good songwriting. When Perry joined, however, the band began a slow turn to bathos. Before crap like “Be Good to Yourself” and “I’ll be Alright Without You” was coming out, Journey pioneered “arena rock,” effectively walking the tightrope between rock and pop. Songs like “Wheel in the Sky” and “Separate Ways” have absolute gems and roll bona fides.  But hits like “Don’t Stop Believing” and “Open Arms” are more Celine Dion anthems than rock and roll.

So what to do? How about tapping David Foster to build a new wing of the Hall, where Perry can sit alongside Cetera, Abba, Hall and Oates, Billy Joel, Madonna, and other not-yet-inducted mega-sellers like Dion and Mariah Carey?  ELO might fit in there too. See, everyone can be happy.

The good news for this year is that tributes to Prince and Bowie have the potential for a great HBO show.