My first thread here, inspired by my recent visit to the Rock & Roll HOF in Cleveland while driving across the country. A lot of people are in, and it looks as if the Hall will admit 5-7 acts per year.
Some of those will be newly elibigle (acts that made their debut recording in 1979 will be eligible in 2004), but every year also includes singers or groups previously overlooked. I’m wondering which passed-over musicians are likely to get the nod in the future.
Here are some excerpts from the HOF slection process:
**Artists become eligible for induction 25 years after the release of their first record. Criteria include the influence and significance of the artist’s contributions to the development and perpetuation of rock and roll.
The Foundation’s nominating committee, composed of rock and roll historians, selects nominees each year in the Performer category. Ballots are then sent to an international voting body of about 1,000 rock experts. Those performers who receive the highest number of votes, and more than 50 percent of the vote, are inducted. The Foundation generally inducts five to seven performers each year. **
The problem is, a lot of the big-name acts from the 50s and 60s are already in and fragmentation of the music scend in the 70s makes it harder to achieve the consensus needed to get votes on 50% of the ballots (much less get out of the nominating committee).
Looking at previous classes of inductees, plus the fact that the votes are cast by “rock experts”, it seems that roots acts, critically acclaimed acts, and acts more influential on musicians than the general public have a better shot of getting in than progressive rockers, power-balladeers, and stadium-filling hitmakers (unless they are so big or consistently successful over time to be ignored.)
With that in mind, my list of possible future inductees will follow shortly in my next post. I was born in 1970, but I grew up listening to oldies and have a decent knowledge of earlier eras, but since the big names are already in, I had to reach somewhat to think of 50s/60s acts, especially ones that have a legacy beyond one or two hits. Feel free to add suggestions.
Note: A performer followed by a group name in parentheses means that the performer is already in for their work with the group and are now beng considered for solo induction.
ABBA
Big Star
Black Sabbath
Blondie
Gary U.S. Bonds
Jackson Browne
The Cars
Chubby Checker
Patsy Cline (I’m shocked that she’s not in, especially since Brenda Lee is.)
Joe Cocker
The Commodores
The Crystals
Devo
Dick Dale
Neil Diamond
Dire Straits
The Dixie Hummingbirds
Dr. John
Lee Dorsey
ELO
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Fairport Convention/Richard Thompson
Connie Francis
Genesis/Peter Gabriel
George Harrsion (Beatles)
Tommy James & the Shondells
Jan & Dean
Jethro Tull
Junior Walker
Ben E. King (Drifters)
Little Feat
Lynyrd Skynyrd
The MC5
The Meters/Neville Brothers
Steve Miller
The Monkees
The Moody Blues
The O’Jays
Gram Parsons (Birds)
The Pretenders
Lou Reed (Velvet Underground)
Linda Rondstadt
Roxy Music/Brian Eno (probably as producer)
Todd Rundgren
Rush
Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band
The Sex Pistols
Huey “Piano” Smith
Patti Smith
The Stooges/Iggy Pop
Joe Tex
T-Rex/Marc Bolan
Traffic/Steve Winwood
The Ventures
The Wailers/Peter Tosh (Bob’s in, but the Wailers were more than just a one-man group.)
Dionne Warwick
Mary Wells (Supremes)
Barry White
Yes
Warren Zevon
ZZ Top
Well, those are the acts that I think have a chance of getting into the HOF. Some have much greater chances than others, and I tried to cover all my bases genre-wise. Realisitically, less than half of them will even come close.
Feel free to add in comments,additions, queries, and condemnations of my musical taste/knowledge because I left your favorite band off the list.
bmoak- Mary Wells was a solo artist- maybe you meant Mary Wilson. My vote is Johnny Maestro. He is one of the very few late 50’s doo wop singers (Crests) who had a late 60’s -early 70’s career-lead of Brooklyn Bridge. Also-he STILL sounds fantastic.
Dixie Hummingbirds- not rock & roll, great ,but gospel. Checker- many hits & was responsible for a rock craze in 1960-the Twist-followed by others’ Mashed Potato,Watusi, Bristol Stomp ,etc etc. I agree, not much voice for Checker ,but does trend setting count?
Let’s be clear on who deserves to go into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year: Warren Zevon. If they don’t induct him this year, it’ll be a travesty.
I’d also have to vote for Lynyrd Skynyrd. They were a monster influence on southern rock - perhaps as much as the Allman Brothers.
Someone else they could put in the RRHOF (although he might fit in the country hall of fame better) is John Prine.
I have little sympathy for Zevon as he admitted that he hadn’t seen a doctor in over 20 years, and he continued to smoke even after his diagnosis.
Also, I find it more then a little hypocritical that there was only this burst of attention and acclaim and calls for him to be elected to the Hall after he was diagnosed.
Just because you are suddenly diagnosed with a terminal illness doesn’t make you worthy of election to a Hall of Fame.
A huge omission: XTC. First LP came out in 1977. Discography includes: Drums & Wires, Black Sea, English Settlement, The Big Express, Skylarking, the Dukes material, Oranges & Lemons, and Apple Venus Vol. 1, as well as a host of generally-regarded lesser albums that nevertheless have lots of good songs on them.
A palindromic band who recorded S.O.S. I always imaged a telegram appealing to the government for help with this song as
DC SOS ABBA SOS CD.
ABBA was the first non-English speaking group to make it huge in the English speaking market. That should count for something. And they have amazing staying power.
