2021 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Nominees POLL

While I'm aware of Fela Kuti, I can't name a single musician who's ever cited him as a principal influence

...

i really really really hate rundgren i hate him, hate his smug face, hate his shitty music

^^^

I admit no-one needs Todd to say anything about anything.

It reminds me a bit of Clapton, in the ugly racial underpinnings (not even underpinnings, actually) and the cluelessness about what were supposedly his own influences: in the two or three year window around Something/Anything, when Rundgren made his greatest music, he was routinely thought to be heavily borrowing from Philadelphia soul.

"I'm too busy working to worry about my legacy"

but I thought Todd didn't want to work!?

I think Tom Waits had the best take on the HOF, which he gave right after he found out he was inducted.

“I never really cared about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame…but now I am surprised to discover how much I DO care.”

The HOF is kind of like the Grammys or the Oscars or any other high-profile "prestige" honor, there's a lot to knock about it. But it does mean a LOT to quite a few winners or inductees. In the case of the Oscars et al, it should be easy to understand because it's more or less their peers voting for them, but Greil Marcus got right to the point and I think he's right - if you can see it obviously means that much to someone, who are we or anyone else to shit all over it? I'm looking at a doo wop group or someone old enough to retire who barely got their royalties, in some cases still on the road trying to make a living without any of the glamor, and to them it feels like they've gotten their due. In some cases like Otis Redding, you have their widows still grieving over their deaths, and they're actually moved when they see how much they still mean to people. It ain't the same with someone like Journey and Bon Jovi, but I'm not going to take anything away from someone who gets to go up to the podium.

Johansen interviewed at Billboard:

Congrats on the Rock Hall nomination. When you heard about it, what was your immediate reaction?

"I have mixed feelings about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I don’t know. It's funny because as I was sleeping this morning, I was getting so many texts and messages. People in my coterie seemed excited about it."

Is it at least validating?

"To me the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame appears to be a racket. (laughs) I don't know what to think about it, I guess it'll sink in eventually."

If you get in, would you show up? Perform?

"I'm like, 'Well, what's the deal? We're nominated, but we're not inducted? We're not indictable?' I'm not even gonna think about that. I think about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as some homeless guy who comes in with a raincoat and a bottle of Sneaky Pete in his pocket. These guys have shaken him upside down till all the coins came out of his pocket over the years, and now they're gonna give him an award? 'Why don't you sing that old song you sang?' 'OK, sir.'"

lol <3

i really really really hate rundgren i hate him, hate his smug face, hate his shitty music

ugh there’s an awful ugly lyric in there I didn’t catch there before. sorry, folks, don’t listen to that :-(

upper miss otm I guess :-/ wtf todd

No way, Rundgren is great.

I don't agree that wishing the RRHOF would induct blues artists instead of R&B singers is comparable to Clapton wishing that immigration would stop before England became a black country, although it seems misguided.

It may not be comparable, but as noted above, there are in fact blues artists in the hall. He seems to think of Black artists as a single category. I don’t see him saying “let’s induct more old rock ‘n’ rollers before the Foo Fighters.”

thanks brimstead just another example of our cerebral pop genius at work

yeah, it’s like.. I was listening to “love of the common man” last night and it really is one of my favorite songs of all time... but ugh wtf todd

anyway, voted for the Go-Gos

I don't agree that wishing the RRHOF would induct blues artists instead of R&B singers is comparable to Clapton

I made the comparison in terms of their influences, not seriousness of what they said.

Todd Rundgren produced some records I really like and got Sparks their first recording contract. And...that's kinda all I want or care to think about re him.

I don't see what's wrong with "Love of the Common Man" other than perhaps vague humanism, and incitement to dive off ivory towers?

Oh, I guess you were disappointed with his comments above.

I hate what he said, but as an artist, "Hello It's Me," "I Saw the Light," "We Gotta Get You a Woman," and The Ballad of Todd Rundgren mean as much to me as anything from the era. And, to repeat, I hate what he said.

That's a good point, morrisp.

i was just mentioning "love as a common man" offhand, my disgust was at a certin lyric in "is it my name?", the video of which i had posted earlier in a failed attempt at lord alfred-style "reply to post about artist with lyrics by said artist". havent heard what todd said about the hall. i'll leave now.

i mean, i didn't know about the offending lyrics before posting the youtube. actually leaving thread now.

I thought those offending lyrics were meant as parody of the macho rock scene, as is the whole song, but I'll defer to anyone who doesn't approve.

D'oh! I'm such a blinky, would def have voted Fela if seen the name on there. He's been compared to James Brown and Ellinton and George Clinton, guess the latter could stretch toward the zings of Nigerian authoritah, that got him in so much trouble---so: Lenny Bruce as major band leader-? Later for all Western comparisons, but I found The Best Best of Fela Kuti to be an exemplary gateway, reining in/guiding the epic excursions to fit 2 CDs---still long, cos that's what he did, but the right ones in the right sequence for about 2.6 hrs, over the pulsating mf rainbow (they call it Afropop)
But I blinked to the Dolls, voted their own doll shop plastic meld of oldies from David Jo's collection---"Stranded In The Jungle," which has encourged lively ILM discussions, "Gonna Be A Showdown," and "Pills," speaking of crucial gateways:
While I was laying in a hospital bed
A rock and roll nurse went through my head
She says, hold out your arm, stick out you tongue
I got some pills, boy, I'm going to give you one, Hey Bo Diddley---bleeding all over their originals and it's a group effect, not quite the same even on his best solo albums: so, r&b and Bo and glam and punk and maybe some other stuff; anyway they did it, like nobody else quite did, ever, that I can think of.

Well kind of a VU effect at times, but not that cool with it, more of a caveman glam.

"Caveman" also part of the appeal, as w Sir Lord Baltimore, Blue Cheer, early Sabs, most of the metal I like.

Have Big Star ever been nominated?

Halfway there but for you at 2:10 13 Feb 21

I thought those offending lyrics were meant as parody of the macho rock scene, as is the whole song, but I'll defer to anyone who doesn't approve

ah the Zappa defense

or just edgelords in general

"Is It My Name" is really explicitly a parody, though.

Idk, is the song regarded as offensive among the gay community? I agree with Halfway there that I'll totally defer to members of that community if so.

assuming that "my voice goes so high you would think I was gay/But I play my guitar in such a man-cock way" is what brimstead was referring to?

Sorry sund4r, we're "edgelords" for explaining a dumb joke in a 48 year-old cock-rock parody.

I would say that "You Don't Have to Camp Around" on the same album is a lot more dubious.

Have Big Star ever been nominated?

I just checked - apparently never. They should be in, and they should at least be inducted while Stephens is around.

I thought Rundgren always had a reputation for being an ass - he even admitted his regrets for the way he treated or talked to people in his younger days. But he's produced or engineered a lot of great work, even for artists I don't particularly care for (namely Grand Funk). "Dancing Barefoot," The New York Dolls, Stage Fright, and for my money XTC's greatest album (and I love a lot of their earlier stuff) - that alone is an impressive body of work.

On his own or with Nazz or Utopia, I think he made only one truly great album, Something/Anything?, but it's a double LP where he played nearly all of the instruments. He was so ridiculously prolific that even after you clear out all the dross, there's still a boatload of gems leftover. I'm sure there's a lot of dreck that I've forgotten about, but I don't waste my time with any of it - I just listen to the stuff I like, and his work seems all the more impressive when I just focus on that.

Something/Anything has brilliant highs, but I think The Ballad of Todd Rundgren is better song for song.

Up the Irons.

yeah that was the lyric i was thinking of, sund4r.. there's also "you don't have to camp around" on the same album :-/

Rundgren not being aware of any musician who’s ever cited the influence of Fela Kuti, one of the 3 or 5 most influential musicians of the last 50 years, is honestly 100% believable

Something/Anything has brilliant highs, but I think The Ballad of Todd Rundgren is better song for song.

Yeah, I remember Tal Rosenberg made the case for that one in The Chicago Reader - what he wrote five years ago:

"While his career hasn't been nearly as consistent or as rich as Eno's, Rundgren nonetheless made a significant mark on pop music, particularly with his first few solo albums in the early 1970s. This is especially true of the boundary-dissolving trifecta of futuristic FM radio that are 1971's Runt: The Ballad of Todd Rundgren, 1972's Something/Anything, and 1973's A Wizard, a True Star. All three of these albums are gooey, rainbow-colored mishmashes of mid-to-late-60s Beach Boys, Tin Pan Alley, glam, soft rock, and proto-power pop. On these albums Rundgren plays most of the instruments, and at times mixes sounds and effects at different levels to explicitly showcase the studio at work (check out "Intro/Breathless" on Something/Anything, in which Rundgren points out various studio sounds before launching into a layered, dew-speckled electronic-pop instrumental)."

Those other two are fine albums, and I prefer Runt for its consistency over Wizard, but they never grew on me to the same degree as Something/Anything?. I'll give Runt another try - I do like "Wailing Wall," "Be Nice to Me" and "Parole," they're excellent tracks.

All the 70s Rundgren albums are good imo but tbh Very Best of is what I come back to most.

That two-CD set Rhino put out would be perfect if they had included some Utopia cuts (like Very Best Of). But I don't think you're wrong - outside of Something/Anything?, I think The Very Best of is the most listenable Rundgren album you can get.

Got into some back-and-forth about the Foo Fighters with a friend the other night, and while I still wouldn't put them in myself, I've got to say, I had no idea they were as popular as they are (as measured by chart success).

It's gotta be Fela Kuti.

Clemenza, The Edge 102.1 has probably played them twice so far today.

OK, I just checked - they've played them three times since midnight: https://edge.ca/music/

They're definitely a famous rock band but "Everlong" is their only essential song afaic.

I stopped paying attention to the charts in the late '90s, so I remember them as a niche "modern rock" (a really wonderful term that I hope has long been retired) band and not much beyond that. Starting in 2002, they had an album run that went 3/2/3/1/2/1 on Billboard's main album chart. I missed Foomania.