And the "Class of 2022" is ...

Okay, I've probably taken this RRHoF business more seriously than anyone on this board -- and believe me, I don't say that in order to pat myself on the back in any way. While my peers have written it off as a bad joke, or come up with sage, insightful explanations as to why it's become what it is, I've clung vaingloriously to my insistence that the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame can and should do better -- that its selection of inductees truly should reflect great rock 'n' roll, and should do that by being limited to great rock 'n' roll artists.

I know, I know ... it's a dumb choice of windmill to attack. And I've heard all the argued/arguable points of view: Who decides who/what really is "rock 'n' roll"? How do you measure that greatness? Fame versus influence? And so on. We don't need to revisit it here, at least not for my sake.

But this year's selection of inductees?

Pat Benatar
Duran Duran
Eminem
Eurythmics
Dolly Parton
Lionel Richie
Carly Simon

Three rock artists whom I do love, two who really are more accurately called pop music stars, one who's unabashedly a country singer, and one who's a rapper.

Well, that's about par for the course. But after all that talk about Dolly Parton, what gets me choked up about this year's list isn't who's being welcomed in through wide open doors. It's more about who's getting snuck in through the side door.

Judas Priest also is being inducted ... with the award for "Musical Excellence."

Those other seven artists all are being inducted as Performers. And yes, granted, they all do fit into that category. (Or do they? I seem to recall that Simon seldom performed live, because her stage fright got to be too much for her. She even pre-taped her appearance on Saturday Night Live.) What makes Judas Priest any less a performing entity than those other seven? Given the earlier situation, why not give Dolly the ME award and induct Priest as a Performer?

Yeah, I know ... better in the Hall, by any means, than left out. That's how such performers as Nile Rodgers, Ringo Starr and Kraftwerk got in. But to give the full honors to a country artist such as Dolly, yet give JP the "also-ran" award ... that just doesn't seem right.

Dolly was, for so many people, a conceptual non-starter for the Hall, but has there ever been a less likely inductee than Lionel Richie? I mean, even Kenny Rogers would have to be ahead of him in line for bland, schmaltzy pop successes, and he actually fronted a rock band back in the day.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/04/2022 05:51AM by ira.

The Commodores' very early albums included a lot of hard funk, but Richie went the schlocky pop route quickly.

and the Commodores are not being inducted, he is.

The Commodores would deserve the honor. They have material not sung as ballads by LR that positively cook. Can't say that about Lionel. Not much of a Metal fan, but I'm also cheesed off about Judas Priest not getting in as performers. They're only the band* that pulled HM kicking and screaming [for vengeance…while we're at it] out of being white boy overwrought blues into something more intense and driven. Without Judas Priest no NWOBHM. Without NWOBHM, almost none of the vast array of metal subgenres of the last 45 years.

* Well, with Motorhead, as well…

Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

[postpunkmonk.com]
For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/05/2022 03:44AM by Post-Punk Monk.

Also, "Nightshift" is a beautiful song, far better than solo Ritchie from the same era.

The Commodores?
Check out Machine Gun.

Warren Cuccurullo being inducted as part of Duran Duran pisses me off on Doug Yule's behalf all over again.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/05/2022 10:42AM by ira.

breno Wrote:
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> Warren Cuccurullo being inducted as part of Duran Duran pisses me off on Doug Yule's behalf all over again.

I get that he's not considered part of the classic lineup, but according to Wikipedia, which I'm going to guess is probably pretty accurate on this one:

Andy Taylor – guitars, backing vocals (1980–1986, 2001–2006)
Warren Cuccurullo – guitars, backing vocals (1989–2001; session/touring 1986–1989); bass (1997–2001)

Looks like he was with the band for quite a few years and he did play on the massively successful "Wedding" album. It could go either way in my book. Which gets me thinking, who decides which members get in? The "Hall" or the band?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/06/2022 03:09AM by zoo.

My objection is not really with Cuccurullo being inducted, but with Yule not being.

I really don't know where the responsibility for that lies. If it was the Hall's decision, it was the product of shortsightedness and/or lack of knowledge of a band it seemed like they had to have their arm twisted to induct in the first place.

If it was the band's decision, it was a monumental act of petty shittiness, most likely on the parts of Reed & Cale, since Mo and Sterling never seemed to have any major gripes with Yule that I've ever read about.

If you’ve never been, the actual Hall of Fame is worth seeing if you’re in Cleveland. I saw things like Prince’s little spike-shouldered purple jacket, a letter written from Simon ro Garfunkel as teens, Lennon’s blood-stained glasses…it’s really an awe-inspiring visit.

That said, Dolly and Lionel being ‘in’ over NY Dolls, MC5, Devo or Priest is absolute BULL.

Makes me think of RRHOF like I do the Grammys….. WHO CARES?!?

> Makes me think of RRHOF like I do the Grammys….. WHO CARES?!?

That's exactly how I feel, Bip! I can't remember the last time I tuned in for any portion of the Grammys. I honestly can't remember the last time I watched an entire Grammy Awards ceremony, from start to finish. Long before I started caring about punk and new wave, it was apparent that an awards ceremony that could honor Starland Vocal Band, America, Debby Boone and their ilk had little to offer the likes of me.

When the RRHoF began, it felt vastly different at first -- an awards ceremony that honored true rock 'n' roll artists. And for the first fifteen or twenty years, it continued to feel that way. Even as the nomination/induction process began to degenerate, I still maintained an interest, because at least there always was an artist or two that I could look forward to seeing inducted.

But this year's selections feel like the last straw for me. Inducting Eminem, Dolly Parton, Carly Simon and Lionel fuckin' Richie, while making Judas Priest settle for the "Award for Musical Excellence"? We've all realized by now, the AME is a consolation prize. It's the Hall's way of saying, "Our voters didn't actually like you enough to induct you as a genuine honest-to-goodness performer, even though any wantwit can see how much you deserve it. But we don't want you to go away empty-handed." If the Hall can treat Judas Priest that way, while giving the full honors to an überwuss like Lionel Richie -- or to a country singer who actually asked to be removed from the ballot -- then the institution clearly has drifted irredeemably far from its moorings.

Steven Hyden's Uproxx piece points out the R&RHOF's lack of interest in indie rock: [uproxx.com]

I suspect Carly Simon and Lionel Richie are getting in for the same reason that I've always suspected Cat Stevens kept getting nominated year after year until he finally got inducted: people always have a soft spot for whatever music was playing when they first got laid.

Delvin Wrote:
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> I suspect Carly Simon and Lionel Richie are
> getting in for the same reason that I've always
> suspected Cat Stevens kept getting nominated year
> after year until he finally got inducted: people
> always have a soft spot for whatever music was
> playing when they first got laid.

Did anyone get laid with Lionel Richie on the stereo?!

> Did anyone get laid with Lionel Richie on the stereo?!

Well, his first three post-Commodores albums offer plenty of soft mush that some people might find romantic. Those albums sold a combined 30 million copies; clearly, somebody must've liked them ... possibly enough to have included selections from them on their favorite candlelight/romance tapes, back in the day.

I'd like to think that Lionel Ritchie's induction was supposed to be "ironic" based solely on the cheesiness of the "Hello" video, but I know better.

And I'm resigned to Link Wray only getting in via the "Award for Musical Excellence" route. If that.

Too bad Kate Bush's TV-fueled US surge didn't happen in time for voters to think better of her than the mediocrity that is Pat Benatar.

If it's not enough of a boost to get her in next year, I suspect it will be enough to set her off down the "Hallelujah" road to induction, with enough b-listers and singing competition goons leaping out with "Running Up That Hill" covers in vain attempts to appropriate someone else's soulfulness as their own to make the song ubiquitous enough that voters who haven't listened to anything new since Mama Cass died become aware of it and check the box next to Kate's name.

It's a grim path, but one I won't be surprised to see transpire. Countdown to Jon Bon Jovi's "Running Up That Hill" cover starts now.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/06/2022 02:25AM by breno.

Ugh. This may be true.

If having one of your 40 year old songs played on a current Netflix episode is the deciding factor on your inclusion in the RRHOF, that says something pretty crummy about the quality of the institution… certainly not the artist.

It doesn't bother me overmuch that it's taken this to finally get her attention in America. She's never toured here, records infrequently, only had one minor hit in 1985 and took 4 years to follow that up, doesn't license her music very often and only did so in this case because she was actually a fan of Stranger Things. If success in America was ever a priority for her, she never pursued it very vigorously - she didn't even like touring the UK, and given that she has an inner ear condition that makes air travel very painful for her, dragging herself to America to play the promotional game had to be even less appealing. (And the fact that one of her crew members was killed on her only UK tour probably added a whole PTSD angle to it. When you're 20 years old and someone dies so you can sing and dance, that's got to fuck with your head.) We can gripe about "our" music not being accepted by the masses in America, but it gets a little harder to gripe about it when the artist in question looks at America and basically says, eh whatever.

So yeah, it took a TV show to finally get her a top 10 hit in the US with a 37 year old song and it's easy to grumble about that. But the other way of looking at it is, 40+ years into her career, millions of people in America were finally, very belatedly introduced to Kate Bush, and they've said yes, please. And I think that's pretty swell.

For the folks introduced to that song via Stranger Things, I wonder how many think it's about the singer wanting to swap places with God? 90% of what you hear is the line "If I only could, I'd make a deal with God, and get him to swap our places." They play other bits, but not enough for you to know what the song is really about. I had to explain it all to my wife and daughter.

Oh breno, I have no qualm with Bush getting a top 10 song decades after the fact due to a tv show. In fact it’s pretty cool that kids would dig it now.

But if the RRHOF were to only put her in now BECAUSE of that, I’d find that pretty disappointing. I’d respect them more for leaving her out…
…..if they can’t include her based on her established musical output, don’t put her in JUST because she had a song on a recent show.

And really, I’ve got no skin in the game anyway… I’m a casual Kate bush fan at best.

My speculation is that Kate would be more likely to receive the Award for Musical Excellence. Come to think of it, considering the most recent recipients, that award may end up carrying more actual prestige than a Performer induction.

Except that is distinctly a consolation prize, which makes it a second-rate honor. An appointment rather than an election.

True, but compare the artistic level of some of those who've been "consoled" with that also-ran prize lately to the merits of those actually awarded as performers.