2021 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Nominees POLL

‘OG punks for the win!’ The Go-Go’s on their Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2021-05-12/the-go-gos-rock-hall-of-fame-induction

Think it’s nice that Dionne got in on Burt’s birthday.

um, wait

Did anybody mention yet that there will be not one but two Germs in the RRHOF now? This year is definitely the covert vindication of L.A. punk for the Go-Go’s alone, but Pat Smear sneaking in there too is a lagniappe.

Also it would be wonderful if the Go-Go’s are a bellwether for the HOF honoring 80s/90s indie rock, but I fear it’s not to be. Amidst the voting body it appears “disco sucks” is alive and well. Still. After 40 fucking years! If gold and platinum sellers like Chic and Chaka can’t get in, what hope is there for the Dü?

The people who vote now are not the same people who voted (or met) 20 years ago

A lot of them are. This is the exact problem.

Did anybody mention yet that there will be not one but two Germs in the RRHOF now?

Me! Charlotte Caffey told Rolling Stone that they should play "Forming" during the all-star jam w/Belinda singing and doing things with peanut butter.

(xpost) The half-dozen people I know who vote have all been added in the last few years, and my assumption is that that's just the tip of the iceberg. I'm pretty sure there was one year in there where they added a few hundred voters. So there's undoubtedly carryover, yes, but I have to believe there's a big difference over 20 years.

this fucking guy

https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/awards/9571422/todd-rundgren-rock-hall-interview/

"I'm a big Dionne Warwick fan, but name me one Dionne Warwick rock n' roll song," he explained earlier in 2021, citing one of this year's other nominees. "While I'm aware of Fela Kuti, I can't name a single musician who's ever cited him as a principal influence. Year by year it makes even less sense, so why would I be more excited about it or suddenly change my mind? Why don't they just start inducting blues guys? Why do they have to go to Dionne Warwick or Mary J. Blige?"

We clowned on that interview way upthread (tho that quote could always use more clowning).

XP ...and some folks are even whiter than him!

Ah, got it. As I posted I thought, wait, this surely has already been posted?

xp

Never change, Todd. Have to find that one XTC quote about him.

For all the years that had passed since his arrogance rubbed the Band and Badfinger the wrong way, little had changed in his modus operandi. Even those visitors who loved the location were treated with veiled disdain by their host. “His people skills are like Hermann Goering’s,” said Andy Partridge, for whose band XTC Rundgren produced the brilliant Skylarking (1986). “I remember talking briefly to a couple of the Psychedelic Furs,” says John Holbrook. “They were like, ‘That fucking guy, we’re never going to work with him again.’ With Todd it was always like, ‘That sucks, let me do it.’”

Hoskyns, Barney. Small Town Talk (p. 289). Hachette Books.

Take up the Rundgren
Such a twat as this becomes the HOF
But here shows much amiss

i assumed that picture of him dressed like luke skywalker playing a toy space guitar was a joke until i saw he is the one who tweeted it

As I said way above--even as one of Rundgren's advocates on here--that quote is bizarrely clueless, especially "Why don't they just start inducting blues guys?" And I count '60s Dionne Warwick as right there with the Shangri-Las as the most egregious current non-inductee.

Warwick and Dusty Springfield are probably Bacharach (and David)'s two greatest and best known interpreters, and it's bewildering that Warwick's still waiting while Springfield's been in for over 20 years.

Is it?

I know DS has one famous album and DW doesn't, but that's where you have to embrace that some artists are just much more suited to compilations: for me, '60s DW has easily has the better body of work.

(minus one "has")

xpost yeah djp otm

I think there's validity to that, yes, but the HOF hasn't really been bad at inducting deserving African-Americans for the most part (especially early on); overlooking women seems to be what's on the mind of voters right now. I honestly think the DS/DW question has a lot to do with Dusty in Memphis vs. whatever DW greatest-hits you prefer. There is a strong album-vs.-singles/compilation bias at work (why the Shangri-Las and Tommy James aren't in).

Again, I'm not discounting your point, I just think there's more to it than that.

Another obvious example to me: the Zombies are in because they made a famous album (a "real" album, not a compilation). I'm not kidding when I say the Guess Who and Three Dog Night were responsible for many more great songs, but they'll never get near the HOF.

otm -- it's true about the anti-singles bias

There is a strong album-vs.-singles/compilation bias at work (why the Shangri-Las and Tommy James aren't in).

i'm sure you're right on this, but it's pretty absurd as it's the ROCK N ROLL hall of fame, a genre that was completely tied to the 45 format in its early days

It is, totally agree--the Sgt. Pepper hangover.

The opposite side of this valuation of LPs over singles is insisting that certain acts DID in fact make great albums, like that Pitchfork 60s list where they listed studio albums instead of compilations for acts much better represented by the latter.

...like having a compilation be your best album is something to be ashamed of.

It worked for the Eagles!

Two words--someone has to post two small words right now.

Go poo.

The anti-singles bias reminds me of one of the recent Zoom panels that’s part of an ongoing tribute to Dave Marsh. Everyone on the panel — John Sinclair, Wayne Kramer, historian/activist Marsha Music — expressed disgust and bewilderment that Mitch Ryder isn’t in the HoF.

I seem to remember some people on this borad sniffing their noses at compilations, JW maybe.

I'd have to dig them up, but I think both Bangs and Christgau wrote reviews of The Best of the Guess Who that made note of this bias in 1970; it got worse and worse through the '70s.

Is LL Cool J thought of more as a singles or an album artist? I was wondering if he might be hurt by the same bias, but looking at his Wikipedia discography, he seems to do about equally well on the charts in both categories.

definitely both

like I said, unless you feel like hip hop is inherently a lesser genre, there's absolutely no argument against LL being in.

I thought he was a sure thing the first time he was nominated. He's got pretty much every box checked: sales, chart success, critical acclaim at various points in his career, and he seems to have elder stateman status. I don't know if he's considered influential. (Meaning I actually don't know.)

historically, I consider him a "bridge" between the Run DMC type rhyming and the more rhythmically complex new school, Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Kool G Rap etc

also just a stone cold fox

My around the way dude

LL absolutely should be in. So should Salt-N-Pepa, imo

That'd be a good choice too. But, in keeping with my idea that this singles/albums bias exists, I bet Lauryn Hill goes in first.

I love Salt N Pepa, and am not arguing against them being in, but LL is at least 9x better than them as a decision-making musician and writer, and 11x better a rapper than either of them.

(The one time I saw him, m/l past the point when he still dropped a great single every two years just to prove he still had it, he had Bobcat AND Cut Creator as DJs. Cheryl & Sandy can't even treat one Spinderella well enough that their firings aren't traumatic.)

Question: Well, And I have to tell you some bad music related news. The New York Dolls did not get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame –

Mayor; That’s wrong. I want to condemn them for that, Jillian. I am condemning them.

Question: It's wrong. These bands – they're considered alt-rock bands, would not have existed without the New York Dolls. It's just wrong. It's a travesty and I'm not even a big Dolls fan anyway.

Mayor: You and I are in total agreement. I'm outraged. I'm going to storm off the set right now in outrage.

Question: You're not going to storm off with all that Shake Shack stuff around?

Mayor: No, I'm actually – I would take it with me, that's it.

https://www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/358-21/transcript-mayor-de-blasio-holds-media-availability

!

I thought you might have made that up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbEigfx3lQ4

LL was in the dorm room with Rick Rubin, of course he should be in.

I thought you might have made that up.

haha the real question is how i found it. (was googling ny dolls news to see if johansen made a statement about not getting in. if he did i couldn't find it.)