OFF: Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame

[Stephen Swann]

Well, I already had my say about the RNRHoF a couple of years ago, but
this latest trend just adds "sanctimoniousness" to their list of crimes.

They'll probably induct Clapton 25 more times before they ever get
to a band that I really like.

Steve
swann at plutonia.com

On Fri, Apr 07, 2000 at 11:07:05PM +0800, William Duffy wrote:
> Hi there
>
> Someone on another newsgroup found the following item, which is an
> interesting read, so I thought I'd forward it on.
>
> William
>
>
> ROCK HALL SNUBS ARTISTS OF '70S
> The Plain Dealer
> Cleveland, Ohio
> March 5, 2000
> by Clint O'Connor
>
> It's only fitting that the decade known for Nixon's ruin and really
> bad haircuts is being largely ignored by the Rock and Roll Hall of
> Fame and Museum. The rock hall's all-powerful New York foundation and
> its nominating committee regularly snub early '70s artists from
> induction into that weird building on the lake with no parking.
>
> The New York nominators look at the '60s and see the Beatles, the
> Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix. They look at the '70s and see a vast
> wasteland of initials: BTO, REO, ELO.
>
> But the big rock clock is ticking. The hall which holds its annual
> induction ceremony tomorrow in New York faces a dilemma: What to do
> now that it's running out of seminal '60s artists? The prerequisite
> for induction, that you must have released your first record at least
> 25 years ago, has brought us to 1975.
>
> Potential inductees are nominated by a committee at the New York
> Foundation. Ballots are then sent to about 1,000 "rock experts." The
> rock hall has done a wonderful job of recognizing rock's early
> influences and nonperformers, and honoring a bevy of solid-gold R&B
> talent. But now, going by the minus-25 rule, they are knee-deep in
> the album-rock era, while ignoring some of its most prolific
> purveyors. They have repeatedly shunned early-'70s bands and singers,
> or artists who started out in the '60s but made their biggest mark in
> the '70s:
>
> Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Steely Dan, Jethro Tull, Little Feat,
> War, Yes, Alice Cooper, King Crimson, Mott the Hoople, Roxy Music,
> Boz Scaggs, Ry Cooder and Bob Seger, to name a few.
>
> Singer-songwriters like Jackson Browne and Cat Stevens have also been
> ostracized, as have '70s siren Linda Ronstadt, rock heavyweight Leon
> Russell, and writer-producer-performer-engineer (he'd probably change
> your tires if you asked) Todd Rundgren. There's also Canton's the
> O'Jays, Chicago, the Marshall Tucker Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and the
> everlasting Texas trio ZZ Top.
>
> All are eligible. Only four have been nominated: the O'Jays, Lynyrd
> Skynyrd, Steely Dan, and Black Sabbath, which has been on the ballot
> three times. (Last year, Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne grew weary of
> the process and asked that the band's name be withdrawn.) Most of
> them will probably never make it because their decade is utterly
> overshadowed by the '60s. And there are still plenty of performers
> from the '60s waiting for the nod: Joe Cocker, the Moody Blues,
> Traffic, Procol Harum, the Turtles, Neil Diamond, Judy Collins.
>
> Cocker is a likely addition. The Moody Blues have lost points because
> they look kind of old and annoying now on their PBS specials. The
> rest don't have much of a chance, except perhaps Traffic. The rock
> hall has to figure out some way to get the multitalented Steve
> Winwood inducted, and it might as well be with the innovative Traffic.
>
> One fact in favor of early '70s artists is that the rock hall has
> already lowered the bar. The Mamas and the Papas are enshrined. The
> Lovin' Spoonful goes in tomorrow. Translation: Everyone, including
> Uncle Ernie's Skiffle Flaggers, is now eligible. The rock hall can no
> longer posture about the sanctity of its honorees, not with the Young
> Rascals and Four Seasons
> taking up space.
>
> The good news: The rock hall has already inducted Led Zeppelin, David
> Bowie, Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Bob Marley, Pink Floyd, the
> Allman Brothers Band, Carlos Santana, the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac,
> artists with enormous effect on the '70s and beyond. James Taylor,
> Bonnie Raitt and Earth, Wind & Fire will be added tomorrow. So the
> nominators are far from blind. It's more like tunnel vision. They
> seem so caught up in rock-righteous explanations of "importance" and
> "influence" that they have forgotten which performers people were
> going to see in concert back then, what albums they were listening to.
>
> The hall also needs more women. Now that Raitt is going in, does that
> help Linda Ronstadt's chances? If she is voted in, will that open the
> doors for Carly Simon, Roberta Flack, Emmylou Harris, Janis Ian and
> Joan Armatrading?
>
> They could languish for years, dismissed as too soft (Simon and
> Flack), too country (Harris), too Joan Baezish (Ian) or, like
> Armatrading, too removed from the mainstream.
>
> Still, they need bodies. Somebody has to bridge the gap between the
> '60s superstars and the late-'70s/early '80s critics' darlings like
> the Sex
> Pistols, Talking Heads, Police, the Clash, U2 and R.E.M. Those New
> York gatekeepers are going to have to break down and invite some '70s
> album-rockers. But who, and when?
>
> (c)2000 The Plain Dealer
>
>
>                                  **********