OFF: R&RHoF voting

[Keith Henderson]

Hi Folks...

Boy, it sure has been quiet here lately.  I figure that'll change when the
BOC album comes out.

I was just looking through the latest Goldmine, and they had the results of
a reader's poll aimed towards the (completely lame) Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame.  I'm beginning to understand now why it *is* so completely lame.
Apparently, each year there are 15 nominees (presumably designated by some
sort of committee) that are then voted on by some larger group/organization.
This past year, the top 6 were inducted.  The problem is, the nominees suck,
and so the real voters have nothing to choose from (IMHO), not that they'd
be any better necessarily.

Anyway, the Goldmine readers were given the list of 15, plus a slot for
write-ins, and were allowed to choose up to 8.  (I would've written in all 8.)

Here are the 15 official nominees...

1.  Fleetwood Mac*    58.1%
2.  Mamas & Papas*    55.2%
3.  Eagles*           52.1%
4.  Santana*          51.9%
5.  Del Shannon       51.8%
6.  Gene Vincent*     50.8%
7.  Billy Joel        39.3%
8.  Gene Pitney       39.2%
9.  Lloyd Price*      35.1%
10. Dusty Springfield 29.3%
11. The Moonglows     24.8%
12. Earth, Wind, Fire 22.0%
13. Solmon Burke      20.2%
14. The Stooges       17.5%
15. Joe Tex           14.7%

The *'s indicate the ones actually inducted, and the numbers given are the
percentages of Goldmine readers who chose them on their ballots.

Now, first of all, I've never even heard of 5 of these artists, and every
time I see the name Gene Vincent, I think of Kiss (but of course, that's
wrong isn't it?).  Secondly, I've got over 1000 CD's, which cover a pretty
significant spectrum of rock music since 1966 (that's part of the problem I
see...so many of these seem to be 1950-1965).  But I own only 1 CD by all of
these artists combined, a Santana - Greatest Hits.

But even more dismaying was the response from the Goldmine readers.  I
would've thought that the majority would be 70's classic rock fans, and as
such would have put Deep Purple, Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath,
Yes, BOC, etc. at the top as write-ins.  Of course, these artists were all
there (with the exception of BOC, who was made no mention of at all!), but
way down the list.  Here are the top 10 write-ins...

1.  Moody Blues (third year in a row)
2.  Paul McCartney
3.  The Ventures
4.  Connie Francis
    The Monkees
    Yes
7.  Brenda Lee
8.  Black Sabbath
    Jethro Tull
10. Alice Cooper
    Lovin' Spoonful

Others....
tied for 12th...Deep Purple
tied for 21st...Pink Floyd (can you believe that!?!)

Again, three of these artists are completely unfamiliar to me.  But still,
people think the Monkees should be inducted??  For what?  Lame slapstick
comedy?  Or cheesy renditions of other people's songs?  Take your pick.  And
while I quite like some of the Moody Blues albums from 1967-72, they went on
to produce some seriously cheesy 'adult contemporary' shlock.  I'm quite
surprised at their support.  Ignoring Go Now, they really only produced two
songs that are commonly heard these days (both from the same album), which
seems to be an important criterion to voters.

Goldmine mentions that over 200 artists were given as write-ins.  They
printed a selection of 80 of these including Hawkwind, Uriah Heep, 13th
floor Elevators, Roxy Music, etc., but still no BOC!

Boy, this is depressing.  I try not to get too worked up over this, since
I've come to realize that no matter what you do, most people are too lazy to
bother with finding something to listen to, that isn't simply force-fed to
them.  But this goes beyond taste....artists like Billy Joel (for instance)
really *do* suck, and people shouldn't ever think otherwise...there should
be a law against it!

Enough ranting.

Keith H. (FAA)

P.S. What the hell are the Stooges' doing in that list of 15?  I've never
listened to them ever, but I would vote for them second (behind Santana)
just because of my perception of their importance (that being as proto-punk
artists).  They seem oddly out-of-place...i.e., not lame enough.  :)