If I cared, I would rant about how Costello kicks major arse. But its just a freakin award, it doesnt really matter.
Them’s fightin’ words, pardner.
Please keep in mind that, yes, industry execs and artists alike do the voting, but there are criteria to even get on the ballot, not the least of which is the band or artist has to have been contributing steadily (or influencing steadily in the case of artists like Hendrix who did three albums, then croaked) for at least 25 years. (Or maybe it’s 20). Therefore, Metallica, QoTSA and Soundgarden have not been around long enough to even qualify. Metallica, maybe. IIRC the first album came out in the very early 80’s. (I could look it up, but too lazy). By that standard – and please don’t take this as any assertion of talent – Madonna should be eligible before Soundgarden. Prince should have been eligible in the last couple years – his first album came out circa 1978.
There are so many artists and bands that are overdue… just remember they’re not all going to be inducted at once, the second they are eligible.
So I give your rant a 2 for un-inform-ed-ness.
I got erection.
2 people have already pointed out what rib-eye was saying in regards to Soundgarden, QOTSA etc. Do you guys just post after reading the OP without seeing if your point was already covered?
In case anyone is interested here is the (a?) site for the RnR Hall of Fame.
I don’t know that I really have terribly strong feelings about who hasn’t been inducted and should, but what bugs me a bit is that it’s the ROCK and ROLL hall of fame.
Okay, color me old and all, but shouldn’t they be sticking to actual Rock and Roll artists? In the original sense of the term I mean?
I realize that anything that’s “popular music” today tends to get lumped all together under the misnomer “Rock and Roll”.
But I noticed a few performers on the inductee list that I thought “rrrUUHhhh?” what’s HE/SHE doing there?
Yup, Coldie, Rush belongs in there.
…and fuck you, cornflakes.
Ack, sorry HERE it is, really
No, no, he’s just confessing that Rush is part of an elobrate plot for Canada to invade the US. And if part of Canada’s program for ruling the US includes legalized drugs and prostitution, then I, for one, welcome our new overlords!
Uh, cornflakes?
Heh, actually I should have included a 
with that “fuck you,” since it’s just musical taste and all. Didn’t mean anything but to get a chuckle.
I guess you’ve only heard the silences between his songs. There’s more “melody, hooks and riffs” on Get Happy!! alone than the Police or AC/DC ever managed.
(And I would think an English-speaking person who uses the word “sans” would love Elvis Costello.)
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Someone get this guy a copy of London Calling, stat!
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It’s not because you’re dissing them, it’s because you clearly have no clue about their music. You sound like a 12-year-old making fun of Beethoven, and when you ask him what works he’s familiar with, he yells “Duh duh duh DUH! Duh duh duh DUH!”
There’s nothing objectively wrong with thinking Costello is boring, or the Clash couldn’t write songs. But you better back it up with specific examples if you want to be taken seriously.
Sorry, London Calling gets The Clash in all by itself.
And cornflakes? I say The Ramones started it all, not the Sex Pistols.
I’d like to make a point about AC/DC, as so many here have been hard pressed to figure out how they got into the hall.
First of all, in order to discuss AC/DC’s sound, one must realize that they are a one-of-a-kind band. In 1981, their raw and raunchy theme was very new to the rock scene. In fact, most of the hard rock-heavy metal world owes just as much to the breakthrough of AC/DC’s Back in Black album as it does to the emergence of The Who in the 1960’s and Black Sabbath in the early '70’s.
The songs of AC/DC lack any real intracacy. They tend to stick to simple riffs combined with basic guitar solos with an occasioinal display of finger speed by lead guitarist Angus Young. The masses may say what they want about Young…he really is not Jimi Hendrix, after all. However, one must realize that he has come through tremendous adversity to get to where he is.
The overall feel of an AC/DC song, though, is something that is not gleened from any other band. Despite all of the raw power chords that tend to punctuate their songs, they are, after all, just a 12-bar blues band.
Let us not also forget that the success of AC/DC is an international success.
It is impossible to listen to any rock radio station in this area without getting an hourly dose of AC/DC. There aren’t many bands that get that much airplay…and there are virtually none who have gotten such airplay for as long as AC/DC has. Do they belong in the hall? I don’t see any reason why not.
Okay, I lied. I must have missed this part, thanks to the later poster for pointing it out.
You see, if I were to base my opinion of Costello on what I had heard from the radio I , too would have thought that. But its a proven fact that they NEVER, and I mean NEVER, release the best song from a Costello record! In fact, sometimes they release the worst tracks as singles (“Pump it up” and “Veronica” come to mind.)
A friend of mine insisted that I pick up “This Years Model”, and I was sort of :dubious:. I thought early costello would be a lot like “Watchin the detectives” and “Alison”, but I was blown away by it. 7 albums later for me and I am amazed both at his songwriting and singing ability and the capriciousness with which singles are picked.
It is a little puzzling. I like Elvis Costello but don’t consider him one of the greats. I guess it’s like a previous poster said “it’s just an award.” And apparently a fairly bullshit one.
(I also second Sabbath and Rush)
I’m not sure longevity of HOF calibre career is a consideration. Elvis Costello and The Attractions were a fantastic, tight little combo that probably did as much as anyone to get RnR back to its core values and strip away all the overproduction that had been going on up to then. The first two or three albums exemplified this beautifully.
He, among others, put the “roll” back in rock’n’roll. Other Ancient Dopers will remember, as I do, that the very phrase “rock-n-roll” had become a term almost of derision, connoting ‘greasy teenage music’ from the 1950s. Hipper-than-thou fans and critics preferred the term “rock music”. But Costello happened, along with many others, and we now have the Rock’n’Roll Hall Of Fame, rather than the Rock Hall Of Fame.
I know, I’m nitpicking here, but I think the “rock music” period was, with some exception overly characterized by self conscious efforts to be hip, and had lost the feeling of the music.
When discussing the legitimacy of the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame, one cannot overlook the fact that it is located in Cleveland.
Cleveland, Ohio. There ain’t nuthin’ rock’n’roll about Cleveland, Ohio.
That’s all I have to say, but Frankenstein’s Monster wants to contribute the following opinions:
Clash good. Elvis Costello good. Rush BAD!
I wouldn’t argue with him, he looks angry.
OK, Frankenstein’s Monster:
Clash = defunct
Elvis Costello = boring
Rush = Still putting out energetic, well-played music after about, oh, thirty fucking years.
Neil Young wrote that “It’s better to burn out than to fade away.” Well. I don’t think Rush will do either.
Like it or not, these three hosers have quite a large audience, many of which are now getting their footsies wet in the music biz. They have influenced more than a few of the bands that are popular today, as they were influenced by others.
I think Coldfire and I have to get out a can of whoop-ass on you losers.
Rush, by any reasonable standard, is one of the most influential bands in recent memory. If only because so many different bands have admitted to being influenced by them. I’ve seen bands from Cowboy Mouth to Smashing Pumpkins to Barenaked Ladies to Quiet Riot to Soundgarden to The Tragically Hip acknowledge the fact that they all grew up wanting to be Rush when they were young. An entire generation of musicians (mostly male…mostly white) who came of age in the late 70s and early 80s were impacted by Moving Pictures, Signals, and Permanent Waves.
Trust me, hearing Billy Corgan perform ‘Limelight’ a capella is something weird. Hearing a morning guy the next day declare it one of the signs of the apocalypse is something annoying.
Or sitting in the drum room of Veneman’s music on Rockville Pike (I was 17) to hear Steve Gadd give a lecture and when he asked for questions three guys sang out with ‘What do you think of Neal Peart?’ That’s influence.
Hell, they even got a mention in the Love & Rockets comic book once.
Let me get a hold of myself here…
Anyway…in what bearded-Spock alternate universe are we living where Elvis Costello is ‘non-melodic’ and Black Sabbath is? I think I got aphasia or something there.
Oh, and I might note that the phrase ‘rock and roll’ was popularized by Alan Freed in Cleveland.
Cleveland has produced some cool roots music over the years. Don’t knock it. Where would you have put it? Los Angeles? NYC?
I shudder at the thought.