A great post from TLRHB: his list of who should be inducted into Rock & Roll Hall of Fame I love posts like that. One man’s opinion, sure – but that’s the whole point. I love his comments on some of the people/bands he wants to be inducted:
On Alice Cooper:
But even more than the songs, he made glam rock and cross-dressing and snake chic acceptable for a whole generation of white-bread, ’70s suburban teens.
On Billy Preston:
Now, we’re getting into the Twilight Zone of Rock Hall inscrutability. What more do you need on a resume working in the ’50s with Little Richard and Ray Charles, being the only artist to share billing on a single with the frickin’ Beatles!, and a great solo career in the ’70s That’s The Way God Planned It (the highlight of the Bangladesh concert), Nothing From Nothing, Will It Go Round In Circles, Outta Space. Right up to his death last year, he was recording deeply soulful, spiritual music. As Gnarls Barkley says: Crazy.
And I loved this:
Peter Cetera should not be allowed to speak if they were inducted.
And Amen to his comments on The Replacements.
Great post – a lot of fun – a plea to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Ironically, Billy Preston and Alice Cooper were ALSO in that Sgt. Pepper movie. (In fact, I believe that Billy Preston played the character of Sgt. Pepper). IT’S A CONSPIRACY!!!
As I read that page, I was thinking “Where the heck is Rush?” Same thing I think every year at this time.
A couple of other items to add to the Billy Preston resume: played keyboards for the Stones during their 70s tours, and played a great piano on the last Johnny Cash album released before his death, American IV.
And amen to the Blasters, X and Warren Zevon – three sides of Los Angeles you didn’t often hear in the Eagles big hits (which is not a knock on the Eagles).
Great post that. I got to Dire Straits and had a WTF moment–I just took for granted that they were already in.
And yes, +’leventy million on The Replacements. And just to establish some rock geek cred, I’ll go as far as to say that Big Star ought to be in, just to prove it ain’t always about record sales.
I’ve just stopped caring about the RRHOF – the absurdities have piled up way too high. They induct rap acts and pop acts and who knows what else that sold a lot of records and/or had hipster cred, but shut their doors to the likes of Wanda Jackson, The Replacements, The Blasters and Darlene Love? It’s too aggravating – ignoring those imbeciles is the only viable option…
I wonder if that asswipe anonymous reader over there who got all bitchy about “poseur hipsters” came from my link. It sounds a bit like some of my defensive anti-intellectual readers – (why those people continue to torture themselves by reading me I will never know) – they’re the ones I keep hoping will go away because I despise them and their defensive little bitchy attitudes.
Sorry, TLRHB, if I sent you that troll. What a maroon.
Miker – too weird. I was listening to Best of Wanda Jackson this morning. I looooove her.
Thanks for reminding me about Wanda Jackson, who definitely deserves inclusion. Her “Funnel Of Love,” featuring some great guitar work from Roy Clark, is one of the great B-sides of rock history (the flip of her country-oriented 1961 hit “Right Or Wrong”). As for some of the others mentioned:
Yes on the Guess Who — especially if you’ve heard the definitive recorded version of “Shakin’ All Over,” cut a few years before “These Eyes,” “Laughing,” etc.
Yes on Nick Lowe — “Pure Pop For Now People” is one of the coolest albums ever made — but let’s get Dave Edmunds in there, too, plus Rockpile as a band.
Yes to Jackie DeShannon, who has a great body of work as both an artist and songwriter.
Yes to the Hollies, whose 1960s stuff like “I’m Alive,” “Pay You Back With Interest” and “Bus Stop” hold up well. And “Long Cool Woman” wasn’t really mock Creedence — for that, you want the early Doobie Brothers.
Yes to Randy Newman, who could go from the sardonic “Political Science” (let’s drop the big one and see what happens) to the romantic “I’ll Be Home” (the spare version on “Live” is better than that on “Little Criminals” a few years later).
And finally, yes to Neil Diamond — but only if there’s a legal guarantee that “Sweet Caroline” will never be played in a ballpark or arena again.