I think the Hall should call his bluff. They should have a public ceremony where Steven Adler, Duff McKagan, Slash, and Izzy Stradlin are all inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But not Axl Rose.
But then he’d get inducted to the WWE Hall of Fame and be right back in this mess again.
Yeah, but how is that fair to his former bandmates? It wasn’t just Axl Rose – Izzy, Duff, Steve, and Slash were all a part of the band, so why should they have to suffer just because Axl wants to be a little drama queen? Guns ‘N’ Roses wouldn’t have existed without them, despite what Axl tells himself. Maybe it’s a business NOW. But it wouldn’t be today if it were for the rest of the musicians. Axl’s a dick.
It will be interesting to see how all this plays out. I hope Slash, Duff, Izzy and Steve take the high road when they make their speech.
I don’t know or care much about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. However I am surprised to learn it is disrespected and held in low regard.
Honestly I don’t know how a composite roll of artists can be constructed. GNR were ok, I like a bit of their stuff but they weren’t exactly seminal.
I note Rush are omitted. Odd. Indeed where are Jethro Tull, Iron Butterfly, Yes, and Emerson Lake and Palmer??
Prog rock in general has gotten passed over by the RRHOF. I suspect that that kind of music is not considered commercially viable these days. You don’t hear it in commercials or movie soundtracks, and the Grammies were roundly mocked for giving a rock award to Jethro Tull in 1989.
Also, ELP sux. 
Weren’t Iron Butterfly more psychadelic, ala the Doors, or Airplane?
Curious…why loose your venom on The Monkees and Kiss?
Well, the Monkees I can understand – they didn’t really play any of their own instruments, and they were basically more commedians than actual musicians.
The reason so few people respect the RRHOF is because it has become little more than Jann Wenner’s (the publisher of Rolling Stone) personal prejudices. Jann and his favorite critics like Dave Marsh and Jon Landau basically believe the whole purpose of rock and roll was to influence Bruce Springsteen and that colors their entire view of rock history. That means entire genres like hardcore punk, prog, and extreme metal have no shot of getting in. Other acts only get in because they’re the “safe” version of a genre (why U2 gets in but the Smiths and the Cure haven’t) or are so culturally unavoidable (like Madonna) they have to put them in.
Take a quick look at the nominating committee. Notice they’re almost all critics and execs, and of the performers only Robbie Robertson could be considered a great artist. Why arent’ Carole King or Jimmy Page or George Clinton voting? Because they’d break up the old boys network that is the committee.
Whereas Kiss were forced to record the occasional track in order to support their thriving poster business.
Interesting, thanks for the heads-up.
I have never understood the Springsteen phenomenon. I recall in 1977 when he was angry because Peter Frampton became the biggest concert name (for a short time). Darkness On The Edge Of Town is a seminal album and I’ll even concede that Born In the USA is enjoyable. But Bruce, like Eric Clapton in his latter days, has become a creature of advertising puff IMHO.
So no prog rock in the RRHF? No punk? I had no idea.
But really who cares? Rock music speaks for itself.
As for prog rock not being played - true but I’m trying to pursuade my 14yr daughter to play some ELP on her guitar. Songs such as Lucky Man and From The Beginning. Weirdly she prefers Adele and Katy Perry. Who knew??!!
LOL yeah I’ve seen that comment before but it belies the fact Trilogy was a multi-million seller and Emerson Lake and Palmer were the most successful prog-rock band of the early 70s. To be fair they weren’t big in the USA so maybe people on SDMB aren’t so aware of them.
Funny old thing music. Exquisitely personal. My car contains CDs (how old-fashioned :D) of Joe Satriani, Black Sabbath, Pearl Jam, Led Zeppelin - and ELP and Yes. On rare occasions Kansas (Leftoverture) makes an appearance too.
How many instruments has Madonna played on her songs? It’s still their real voices, moreso than a lot of music these days with the autotune and shit. And they really did pave the way for MTV (hell, Mike Nesmith basically invented MTV with Popclips) and music videos in general. Oh, they used studio musicians, boo fucking hoo, it’s not like they’re the only group of the era to do that.
I notice that Styx even got rejected from the list of rejects.
Mike Nesmith thinks he invented country-rock, video and integrity. His head is so big that he thought it was beneath him to make an appearance with the other Monkees at Davey Jones’ memorial in NYC. The only reason he always had that hat on during the TV show is that his head had inflated to such an extent that it couldn’t be removed.
It’s about 35% too long, but it seems sincere.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame presents a nearly impossible conundrum for Axl Rose or, really, almost anyone who gets inducted. On one hand, the entire enterprise is fucking absurd. It’s the ultimate Boomerization of rock music (by which I include all forms of popular rock-originated music - pop, rap, whatever) and a complete reversal of one of the central, cultural touchstones of rock, which is that it is young and rebellious and even more young. Having a bunch of out-of-touch 57-year-olds who write Beatles articles for “Rolling Stone” vote on who should be in the RRHOF is so preposterous on the face of it, so hopelessly old and sold-out and, well, incredibly white, that I’m mildly surprised it hasn’t ripped a hole in the space-time continuum and caused Cleveland to be sucked into a vortex of lame. If any artist were to come out and say “you have got to be fucking kidding me,” who could blame them? Now, granted, that is not precisely what Axl Rose is saying; his refusal appears to be in part, or maybe mostly, because of one of those intraband feuds that normal people don’t give a flying fuck about.
On the other hand, turning down induction is inherently selfish, because of course the place is just a museum and so refusing induction is in part saying “you shouldn’t be including me in a history of rock and roll,” something you gave up the right to say when you started performing for people.
As to the fact that Rush, or Barry White, or Chicago or Warren Zevon, King Crimson, Kae Bush etc. etc. haven’t been inducted, I’m of two minds on that. On one hand many of the exclusions are obviously ridiculous, as are many of the inclusions (including Guns N’ Roses, who had a great album and all but probably were not one of the 100 best or more influential acts awaiting induction.)
But on the other I don’t think that’s the problem. It’s interesting to contrast the R&RHOF with, say, the Halls of Fame for various sports. Speaking as a baseball fan I an, with no problem at all, cite 15-20 Baseball Hall of Fame inductions that are ridiculous, and 15-20 people on the outside looking in that are outrageous, and any other fan can say the same. But that doesn’t really seem to damage the Hall’s usefulness, because while we might argue as to whether Travis Jackson should be out or Tim Raines should be in, the purpose of the Baseball Hall of Fame is essentially sound; to celebrate the history of the game and honor its great players. Having a place designed for the upper middle class to look at the enshrinement of old people who once participated in a rebellious, constantly renewing, youth-oriented art form is inherently stupid. IT’s NOT stpid in the case of baseball or hockey or football because those things don’t have the same cultural meaning.
So the problem isn’t, really, that Rush isn’t in. The problem is that it’s fricking stupid either way.
Both the Monkees and Kiss were/are about crass commercialism, done with an ironic wink.
In Rock n’ Roll, that’s a valid contribution. That’s what the great Rock n’ Roll swindle is.
Also, they both had/have fucking great stage presence.
And the Monkees did play all tracks on Headquarters and did most of Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones, though admittedly, that’s not what garners their being deserving of a place in the hall of fame.
Minor nitpick: Cleveland is already a vortex of lame.
Cleveland is great.