It’s an accurate characterization of most of the acts who allegedly covered her songs.
Do I have to actually diagram how you are wrong?
[ul]
[li]Diogenes the Cynic said Laura Nyro wrote songs covered by artists that Diogenes the Cynic does not respect. Through some bizarre leap of logic, being covered by these artists is supposed to make Laura Nyro somehow less worthy.[/li]
[li]Gaffa pointed out (though apparently not clearly enough) that any artist can cover any song by any other artist. All they have to do is pay the correct performance rights society.[/li][/ul]
I could cover Bruce Springsteen’s “Born To Run” on kazoo and the result would have no bearing on the quality of the original songwriting. She did not “write for” them, she wrote songs, other artists covered them. As Joe Bob Briggs said “I’m surprised I have to explain these things.”
Laura Nyro is highly respected by her peers, and her peers are the ones who nominate people for the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame. She (and Carol King) pretty much invented the “confessional singer/songwriter” genre.
[quote=“gaffa, post:82, topic:555486”]
Do I have to actually diagram how you are wrong?
[LIST]
[li]Diogenes the Cynic said Laura Nyro wrote songs covered by artists that Diogenes the Cynic does not respect. Through some bizarre leap of logic, being covered by these artists is supposed to make Laura Nyro somehow less worthy.[/li][/quote]
It’s all I have to go on. She was covered by bland, easy listening pop acts in the late 60’/early 70’s. Without knowing anything else about her, I would have to conclude that she wrote easy listening pop songs.
Well, that tells me something about why she’s considered influential, at least.
No, that was Ozzie*. Alice Cooper threw a live chicken out into the audience, after someone threw it up on stage. He threw it back out, and then the audience tore it apart.
*Like what happened with Alice, some woman threw it on stage, and Ozzie, being a dumbass, thought it was rubber. He ended up needing rabies shots. (And this was in 1982, so I assume he would have had to have them in the stomach?)
Please explain how Kiss was important. Seriously, as a kid, when they were popular, I knew they sucked. Musicianship? No. Talented lyricists? No. They were a freaking novelty act, opportunists in ridiculous make-up. A bigger rock and roll ripoff than the Sex Pistols.
Do you remember the song Smoking in the Boys Room? That was musical brilliance compared to Kiss.
Kiss were awesome… that time they went disco.
Totally agree.
And Rush truly are a non-entity outside of North America. In Australia, we had AOR radio (Triple M, for example) and Rush never even got a look-in.
Also, Alice Cooper has to be inducted before Kiss. It’d be a travesty otherwise.
Ahhhh! Now we’re getting somewhere.
It’s not that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame voters have anything any Rush, in particular. It’s that they hate the entire art-rock/prog-rock genre.
Look through the acts in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and ask yourself… where are the Moody Blues? Where’s King Crimson? Where’s Yes?
Only one true prog-rock act (Genesis) and a handful of kinda-sorta prog-rock acts (Zappa, Pink Floyd, Queen) have been inducted.
The voters tend to be critics, and critics are the types who believe all but unanimously that prog-rock is the worst music ever made.
Apart from the prog-rockers, the most conspicuous absence, for me, is Deep Purple.
Aren’t they big in South America, too? Hence the Rush in Rio DVD, and next month’s gigs in Brazil, Argentina, and Chile.
Rock and roll is rock and roll. It is not hip hop, R&B, pop, funk, easy listening or disco. Those things are hip hop, R&B, pop, funk, easy listening and disco. If everything is rock and roll, then nothing is.
If acts as diverse as these should be in this museum, the museum should be named, and organized around, the concept of the Popular Music Hall of Fame. I would have no problem with Madonna being in the pop music wing of the Popular Music Hall of Fame, and LL Cool J being in the rap/hip hop wing. I suspect the problem there is that the Popular Music Hall of Fame lacks some cachet.
As for Rush, well, there’s just not one single metric you could name that would justify keeping them out of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Not one. I defy anyone to try.
Where are the songs? Here’s wikipedia’s list: Rush discography - Wikipedia
You can see that they’ve routinely charted on Billboard’s mainstream rock charts ever since the category was created. Isn’t that reflective of Rock and Roll popularity and longevity? Others have already mentioned the huge numbers of gold and platinum albums. Popular songs that still get airplay on mainstream stations? Off the top of my head: Tom Sawyer, Fly by Night, Subdivisions, Freewill, Spirit of Radio, Closer to the Heart, Working Man, Limelight… Hell, a car company used Tom Sawyer in a commercial just a year or two ago, and that song is 30 years old. Back when Connie Chung had her newsmagazine show, she used a Rush song as the theme music. KSHE in St. Louis plays In The Mood every Saturday evening. Various artists got together and put out a tribute album, covering Rush tunes, just a few years ago.
I can’t think of any other band that has been touring and putting out new albums without ever breaking up as a band nearly as long as they have. Certainly the Stones have a longer history and greater popularity, and perhaps they’ve been together more consistently than I recall. Nevertheless, if Rush is second to the Rolling Stones in terms of selling albums and touring longevity, well, that speaks for itself.
Unheard of around the world? Rush’s largest concert was a show in Sao Paolo, Brazil, where 60,000 fans attended – their tour of Brazil was in fact a huge success. Listen to the CD Rush in Rio and you can hear legions of Brazilians singing along with all the songs. They’ve always had success in England – they still sell out Wembley Stadium when they tour there. If you’ve never heard of Rush, you must be familiar with a very small sliver of music over the past 40 years. If you’ve never heard of Rush, you might think that Donna Summer should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
ETA: I completely forgot to mention the movie I Love You, Man. Great movie, and Rush features in it prominently.
Huerta88 vastly overstates the role of Objectivism in Rush’s music. He probably does this because he tends toward the right wing and would like Objectivism to be popular in some fashion, but the truth is that Neil Peart had a relatively passing affiliation with Objectivism in the 70s, most prominently manifesting in the album 2112. Otherwise, there are more than ample examples of principles and philosophy that are counter to Objectivism throughout Rush’s lyrics. They told Rand Paul to cease and desist using their music to prop up his campaign, for example.
I don’t think you can separate rock and roll from its “guilty pleasure” aspects–style, theatricality, etc. Say what you want about KISS as musicians or songwriters (I won’t disagree), but they were the biggest band in the world for a long time and were one of the biggest influences on the rock from the mid-70s until Nirvana changed the game in the early 90s. They’re one of the few rock bands that your grandmother can name on sight.
I’m not much of a KISS fan, myself, and the last thing Gene Simmons needs is an ego stroke. But the RRHOF is a joke until they’re inducted. I’d probably vote for Bon Jovi on this year’s ballot for similar reasons.
I agree that Rush should have at least been nominated by now. They’re not the first band I’d pick, but far less worthy acts have been inducted.
Can anyone sell me on why the J. Geils Band deserves an entry? My impression is that they were a good band with a couple of memorable hits, but I don’t think of them as especially important or influential.
I’ve always wondered if this story wasn’t the inspiration for the bit in WKRP with the turkeys. According to Mr. Cooper, he swears he thought chickens could fly.
I like almost everyone on that list, but I freakin’ love Alice Cooper*, so I’m too biased to give an opinion. I’d love to see both Cooper and Donovan inducted, and then see the two of them try to sing “Billion Dollar Babies” together. I believe Cooper has said several times that even he doesn’t know the words to that one anymore.
*This tends to freak a lot of my friends out, since my next favorite groups are the Monkees, Barenaked Ladies, and Weird Al.
Seriously? By what metric?
I grew up in the 1970s and KISS were extremely popular, but you might hear “Detroit Rock City” or “Beth” on a classic rock station today. I was an R&B/pop kid and I can only name “I Was Made For Lovin’ You” as a song I actually heard on the radio. Later I heard “Rock 'N Roll All Night” so I know that’s a staple. But everyone knows KISS were opportunist dreck-masters and it only got worse as it went on.
Yeah, that’s a pretty bold statement about a band that never had a #1 charting single or album.
Balderdash.
There were at least two other bands that were far bigger during the time frame that I assume you’re referencing, and both have had far more influence on rock and roll music than KISS ever has. You may even have heard of them: The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin. Those bands, along with maybe The Who, were well and truly the most massive bands in the world at that time.
I remember the Kiss era as being a phenomenon (for a brief time) comparable to the Beatles. They weren’t a pop band, so singles sales are really neither here nor there, but they did have several platinum albums, were a hugely successful live act and made a ton of money from merchandising. They were, for a time (according to Gallup) the most popular band in the world, and in their entire history have sold more than 100 million records. How many did Laura Nyro sell?
In addition to financial success, Kiss’s theatricality had a huge impact on other hard rock and metal bands. They are a very significant band in rock history. Certainly more so than J. Geils Band.
That explains why you never heard of Joe Tex. Here he is, for the enjoyment of grownups with real PC’s. His music was played on rock & roll radio, back in the day. As was Laura Nyro’s.
Not deep at all. Pretty shallow.
I’m sure I would remember some Rush tunes if I heard them; never got into the hair bands.
Kiss sucked.
I’m not much of a Kiss fan, but they had a far more significant impact on the industry than Joe Tex or Laura Nyro.
Well, I’m more interested in music than “the industry.”
Me too, but that’s not what the RARHOF has ever been about. Also Kiss is way better than most of the shit acts that covered this Nyro person’s songs. She was in the Carole King mode, huh? Well that’s nice, but it ain’t rock and roll.