Well, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame published their nominees this morning. As usual, they throw out some red meat to the classic rockers like me, who don't exactly like some of the choices they've made along the way. Sure, the fans get A vote. No matter how many thousands of us vote, our vote counts as much as a guy like Dave Marsh, a one-time Rolling Stone contributor whose acerbic opinions on musicians he doesn't like colors his world like technicolor vomit. His view on Led Zeppelin was that they had an "insurmountable flaw" in John Bonham, a factor that marred EVERY Led Zeppelin album.
In 78, Marsh referred to Queen as a "fascist rock band" wondering "why anyone would indulge these creeps and their polluting ideas." In 1980, Bob Seger's Against the Wind album was tagged "absolutely cowardly." The Grateful Dead was deemed the "worst band in creation" in 1989.
As for KISS, his words were simple. "Kiss is not a great band, Kiss was never a great band, Kiss never will be a great band, and I have done my share to keep them off the ballot." "Musically, I was done with them before I ever turned the first album over to the second side." Now I'll admit, I've had my issues with KISS along the way and mostly they center around Gene Simmons' choice of words at times. I've never really had a huge issue with the members as I'm more into a band as a whole rather than the fact that they remain composed ONLY of the original members. That's a discussion for another time.
So anyway, as we discussed on the podcast once upon a time I would be ALL FOR the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame being redesigned, giving it wings. There could be the core Rock Hall, a Prog Hall, the Soul Hall, the Rap Hall, a Singer/Songwriter Hall, the Metal Hall, the Pop Hall and whatever they needed. But to lump EVERYTHING under Rock & Roll makes me a little twitchy. I mean, Madonna? NWA? Abba? The Bee Gees? There are a TON of bands who I personally think should get in there before those were even given a chance. Here's just a sample of them.
I get it, you can't please everyone. I see the Hall differently than Marsh does and probably than you do. I think Bon Jovi should wait their turn and folks like Foghat, Grand Funk Railroad, Three Dog Night and ELP should have their names enshrined while there are still a few of their members on earth to appreciate the honor.
Anyway, here's the list.
Bands I think should go in NOW
•The Cars
•J. Geils Band
•Judas Priest
•Moody Blues
•Dire Straits
•The Zombies
Bands I think should go in eventually but can wait 'til some other bands are in
•MC5
•Bon Jovi
•Kate Bush
•Link Wray
•Rage Against the Machine
•Radiohead
No
•The Meters
•Depeche Mode
•Eurythmics
•LL Cool J
•Rufus featuring Chaka Khan
•Nina Simone
•Sister Rosetta Tharpe