OFF: Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame

William Duffy xl5 at IINET.NET.AU
Fri Apr 7 11:07:05 EDT 2000


Hi there

Someone on another newsgroup found the following item, which is an
interesting read, so I thought I'd forward it on.

William


ROCK HALL SNUBS ARTISTS OF '70S
The Plain Dealer
Cleveland, Ohio
March 5, 2000
by Clint O'Connor

It's only fitting that the decade known for Nixon's ruin and really
bad haircuts is being largely ignored by the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame and Museum. The rock hall's all-powerful New York foundation and
its nominating committee regularly snub early '70s artists from
induction into that weird building on the lake with no parking.

The New York nominators look at the '60s and see the Beatles, the
Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix. They look at the '70s and see a vast
wasteland of initials: BTO, REO, ELO.

But the big rock clock is ticking. The hall which holds its annual
induction ceremony tomorrow in New York faces a dilemma: What to do
now that it's running out of seminal '60s artists? The prerequisite
for induction, that you must have released your first record at least
25 years ago, has brought us to 1975.

Potential inductees are nominated by a committee at the New York
Foundation. Ballots are then sent to about 1,000 "rock experts." The
rock hall has done a wonderful job of recognizing rock's early
influences and nonperformers, and honoring a bevy of solid-gold R&B
talent. But now, going by the minus-25 rule, they are knee-deep in
the album-rock era, while ignoring some of its most prolific
purveyors. They have repeatedly shunned early-'70s bands and singers,
or artists who started out in the '60s but made their biggest mark in
the '70s:

Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Steely Dan, Jethro Tull, Little Feat,
War, Yes, Alice Cooper, King Crimson, Mott the Hoople, Roxy Music,
Boz Scaggs, Ry Cooder and Bob Seger, to name a few.

Singer-songwriters like Jackson Browne and Cat Stevens have also been
ostracized, as have '70s siren Linda Ronstadt, rock heavyweight Leon
Russell, and writer-producer-performer-engineer (he'd probably change
your tires if you asked) Todd Rundgren. There's also Canton's the
O'Jays, Chicago, the Marshall Tucker Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and the
everlasting Texas trio ZZ Top.

All are eligible. Only four have been nominated: the O'Jays, Lynyrd
Skynyrd, Steely Dan, and Black Sabbath, which has been on the ballot
three times. (Last year, Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne grew weary of
the process and asked that the band's name be withdrawn.) Most of
them will probably never make it because their decade is utterly
overshadowed by the '60s. And there are still plenty of performers
from the '60s waiting for the nod: Joe Cocker, the Moody Blues,
Traffic, Procol Harum, the Turtles, Neil Diamond, Judy Collins.

Cocker is a likely addition. The Moody Blues have lost points because
they look kind of old and annoying now on their PBS specials. The
rest don't have much of a chance, except perhaps Traffic. The rock
hall has to figure out some way to get the multitalented Steve
Winwood inducted, and it might as well be with the innovative Traffic.

One fact in favor of early '70s artists is that the rock hall has
already lowered the bar. The Mamas and the Papas are enshrined. The
Lovin' Spoonful goes in tomorrow. Translation: Everyone, including
Uncle Ernie's Skiffle Flaggers, is now eligible. The rock hall can no
longer posture about the sanctity of its honorees, not with the Young
Rascals and Four Seasons
taking up space.

The good news: The rock hall has already inducted Led Zeppelin, David
Bowie, Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Bob Marley, Pink Floyd, the
Allman Brothers Band, Carlos Santana, the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac,
artists with enormous effect on the '70s and beyond. James Taylor,
Bonnie Raitt and Earth, Wind & Fire will be added tomorrow. So the
nominators are far from blind. It's more like tunnel vision. They
seem so caught up in rock-righteous explanations of "importance" and
"influence" that they have forgotten which performers people were
going to see in concert back then, what albums they were listening to.

The hall also needs more women. Now that Raitt is going in, does that
help Linda Ronstadt's chances? If she is voted in, will that open the
doors for Carly Simon, Roberta Flack, Emmylou Harris, Janis Ian and
Joan Armatrading?

They could languish for years, dismissed as too soft (Simon and
Flack), too country (Harris), too Joan Baezish (Ian) or, like
Armatrading, too removed from the mainstream.

Still, they need bodies. Somebody has to bridge the gap between the
'60s superstars and the late-'70s/early '80s critics' darlings like
the Sex
Pistols, Talking Heads, Police, the Clash, U2 and R.E.M. Those New
York gatekeepers are going to have to break down and invite some '70s
album-rockers. But who, and when?

(c)2000 The Plain Dealer


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