I know they have the whole Southern Good Ol’ Boy thing working against them, and they were/are rednecks to the bone, but those boys could/can play, write and sing with the best of them. They are truly icons in every sense of the word, and NOBODY else can hold a candle to their crash and burn (literally) backstory. Many current rockers have named them as inpirations. I am not even that big a fan, and even I can see this isn’t right.
I know they aren’t politically correct, but that’s what R&R is all about, right?
From what I understand, they get nominated practically every year, but they never make the final cut. I know it is merely a popularity contest, but it still seems horribly unfair.
I guess it is just like the Oscars, in that who actually wins doesn’t truly say anything about talent.
Yep - it stinks. But an even bigger crime is Black Sabbath - they invented a whole new genre of music that is vital and thriving to this day and they haven’t been inducted. :rolleyes:
It’s a mystery. One of the most influential bands of the 70s, they gave us one of rock and roll’s most memorable riffs (opening riff of “Sweet Home Alabama”) and one of rock and roll’s all-time enduring cliches (yelling “Freebird” at live concerts).
Thanks for that link, spoke! I read through that thread, and it still kills me that so many people don’t know that whole Neil Young reference in SHA was a joke. Neil Young and Ronnie Van Zant were actually friendly. The whole thing was a good-natured swipe from what I have been told. It seems it still comes off as Southern ignorance to some.
And Rolling Stone magazine? That rag has sucked for years. Once you couldn’t buy bongs from the back pages anymore it became pretty useless, IMHO.
I have redeveloped a new appreciation for them in the last few years. I grew up in the “pit of the Peach state” and was force-fed a steady diet of LS, Allmans, and Hank Williams, Jr. as a teenager in the 70’s. All my dates blasted it constantly, and at the time I wanted nothing to with it… I was into Fleetwood Mac and Linda Roundstadt, but now I see my disdain of it had more to with my fear of winding up as some peanut farmer’s wife than the music itself.
My favorites are not Freebird and SHA. It doesn’t get any better than Curtis Loew and You Got That Right.
As someone else said, maybe they will get in before thay are all dead, but even if they don’t, they rock.
Skynyrd was hugely influential - at least as much as the Allman Brothers were. They kicked off a revival in Southern Rock that led to a huge boom in that kind of music. Artists as wide ranging as Molly Hatchet and Willie Nelson benefited from Skynyrd’s influence.
And they wrote some damned fine songs. They should have been in the hall of fame a long time ago.
But then, Warren Zevon isn’t in either. This is a travesty at least as big.
This isn’t the Pit, so I’ll take a deep breath first.
OK. Looking through who is in, I’m seeing a lot of people/groups that weren’t known mainly for rock and roll. They are all good performers, but they don’t scream rock in my mind’s eye. Included are:
The Temptations
Stevie Wonder
Bob Marley
Parliament-Funkadelic
Isaac Hayes (But no Barry White?)
Again, all good performers, but not really what I think of when I think rock and roll.
The ones not included?
Rush
STYX
REO Speedwagon
Warren Zevon
Black Sabbath
Joe Satriani
Steve Vai
And of course, LS.
RnR HoF seems to be filled with a bunch of pretentious uptight twits that require some ass-kissing to consider you. What a sham. :mad:
Both still too recent. You’re eligible 25 years after the release of your first album.
If not thinking of Styx or REO Speedwagon as Hall of Fame bands makes you a pretentious uptight twit, well . . . . . . . . . I can’t even think of a way to end that sentence.
Styx and REO I included based on not only commercial success, but longevity and sentimental reasons. Granted, there aren’t any new albums, but they’re still touring and selling tickets, so the fan base is still there. And either way, they were much more r’n’r bands than, say, The Jackson 5.
Omit 'em from the list if you wish. Maybe it’s a big reason I don’t get to vote. :shrug:
Reggae is a form of rock-and-roll, as far as I know…Bob Marley’s also been seriously influential to several rock bands who’ve adopted the “reggae style” (think 311). If they’re going to include reggae artists…I wonder if Peter Tosh is in there as well?
You could make a case for early Stevie Wonder being rock-and-roll, as well as Parliament-Funkadelic…funk is still rock.
Anyway, if reggae, early R&B (which was simultaneous, was influenced by, and influenced early rock-and-roll) aren’t “real” rock, then Steve Vai and Joe Satriani aren’t. They’re good at what they do, but if you’re looking for staying “true” to rock-and-roll…well they don’t. However, if it was only “true” rock and roll, then nobody should’ve been admitted after the early 60s. YMMV.
