2015 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Nominees

If you're going to have something called a Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, then it needs to include Joan Jett.

This is pretty tough between Chic, Kraftwerk and NWA.

I know very little Kraftwerk music myself, but they should of course go in for their influence. Chic should go in. (Nothing to do with them, but I am starting to find some of their most vocal supporters as shrill as Bert Blyleven's towards the end.) I've always thought the Spinners are an easy yes. NWA possibly, although really it's Dre who should go in. Reed, obviously. The Smiths belong in a British Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, alongside Nick Drake, the Jam, and others.

Sadly, Green Day--who are one giant "Ugh" after "Walking Contradiction"--will probably go in.

No Judas Priest, No Iron Maiden, No cred - seriously, fuck the HOF ...

No Caetano Veloso, no Fela Kuti, no Serge Gainsburg.

Green Day and Sting aside, there aren't a whole lot of landmine nominees this year.

But clearly, it's Blyleven's time.

Chic deserve it. The most criminal omission IMHO is Wire but I understand record sales factor in.

I almost want to say yes to War--"The World Is a Ghetto," "Summer," and "Slipping Into Darkness" are all brilliant, and they had bigger hits than that--but five or six songs isn't, or at least shouldn't be, enough.

I'd put Wire in in a second.

Lou vs. Withers vs. Spinners. I voted Bill.

Green Day a more embarrasing nominee than Sting, imho.

"Galaxy," "Cinco De Mayo," "Cisco Kid," "Low Rider." War are awesome.

Probably should take Lou Reed out in terms of the poll.

Why, because you think he'll win in a landslide?

1. The Spinners
2. Chic
3. Bill Withers
4. Marvelettes
5. Joan Jett

The Spinners and the Marvelettes are this year's "they weren't already in?!"

Also sad that Link Wray wasn't nominated again.

Bill Withers. Coulda been Chic though.

Hard to argue with most of these, for once. Even Sting makes some sense. Not Green Day, but you know, kids and young people and record sales. Could be an awesome all-star jam clusterfuck.

Definitely one of those polls where I wish we could put our 1st, 2nd & 3rd choices -- Kraftwerk/Spinners/War.

jaymc: that's what I meant. Not a huge fan personally, but I assumed he'd win this going away. Maybe Lou Reed solo isn't actually all that strong, I don't know.

Any of these 8 get my vote:

Chic
Joan Jett & the Blackhearts
Kraftwerk
Marvelettes
N.W.A
Spinners
War
Bill Withers

Pretty much my list too, although I'd objectively make room for Reed, wouldn't put Bill Withers in, and...people won't agree, but I wouldn't put in Joan Jett. The Runaways were a story, and I suppose they were influential, and there's a movie about them, but their music? Joan Jett had one huge album and a couple of good singles. I don't see it. In baseball terms, she's a compiler--she's been around a long time.

Deep Purple?

I could make a quality/quantity case for Joan, but I also think that she is a sort of pure emobodiment of "rock n roll" and if you're going to have a Hall of Fame for something you should include people like that.

And I know she was not the first woman in rock or anything, but I think she's an important figure in that sense too.

Speaking of women in rock, we're only five years out from Sleater Kinney eligibility. If they're not a first-ballot band I'm going to boycott Cleveland even more than I already do.

top 3:

War
Lou Reed
Kraftwerk

I'm cool with all of these except Green Day who are the worst

And I know she was not the first woman in rock or anything, but I think she's an important figure in that sense too.

Actually, along these lines, she was a vital template for independent musicians. She started Blackheart records in ... 1980? One of the first indie labels owned by an artist and the first (I think) owned by a woman.

Get ready to step up your boycott, TM. No way they go in first time--even getting in will be a challenge, unless things change quite a bit. I feel the same way about Husker Du, the Replacements, Wire, a few others.

If Public Enemy can get in on the first ballot, so can Sleater-Kinney (not that I won't be surprised if they don't).

If Public Enemy can get in on the first ballot, so can Sleater-Kinney (not that I won't be surprised if they don't).

Which Hall of Fame are you thinking of? I'll be shocked if S-K even gets nominated.

In the 90s I was convinced this whole hall of fame bs would go away. Surely it's one of the dumbest things in existence. But it's 2014 and this is still a thing?

Voting Sting to immolate this whole HoF thing inside out.

blow it up before Sting makes a speech

\m/

blow it up before as Sting makes a speech

In my world the R&RHOF mercifully puts itself out of commission and this actually took off (and didn't honor lame stuff): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance_Music_Hall_of_Fame

Which Hall of Fame are you thinking of? I'll be shocked if S-K even gets nominated.

― ƋППṍӮɨ∏ğڵșěᶉᶇдM℮ (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Thursday, October 9, 2014 11:27 AM (41 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Obviously it depends a lot on who else would be eligible that year (and how many voters get butthurt about this or that nominee not being "rock" "enough"), but yeah, I can see it happening.

Then again, I assumed the 'mats would at least be nominated this year.

A lot of these are clearly nominated for clickbait/controversy/the lolz , and it''s pretty clear that the voters aren't always very serious about it either. It's also pretty obvious they're holding back some obvious winners in order to not to shoot their load in one go and keep ppl excited. Priest, Motorhead, Thin Lizzy, Maiden, Slayer, Deep Purple - as soon as they're nominated, they're in.

voting withers

Sleater-Kinney? That's not happening. That band is more famous for having a member that is now on a sketch comedy show, than for the records it put out. What part of the country did you grow up in that this even seems like a feasible idea?

http://www.dvdizzy.com/images/q-s/spaceghostdinoboy-04.jpg

hey thats an angry brontosaurus. Fair point.

i'm not even going to hate on the idea of s-k one day being in this thing (they're def going to be hard-up for "rock" acts once S-K will be eligible if there's actually still a hall of fame at that point) but i AM going to hate on the idea that a group as successful, hailed and iconic as public enemy is any logical bellweather for s-k getting in.

aaaand upon checking to see if i was using the word correctly, i learned its spelled "bellwether". the more you know.

they're rightly exploiting the early 90s to get some still-popular headliners but it's gonna thin out fast

2015 right-outta-the-gate headliners: Green Day, Nine Inch Nails
2016: Pearl Jam
2017: Stone Temple Pilots?
2018: ?
2019: ?
2020: If not canceled due to water shortage/nuclear war/massive indifference...FOO FIGHTERS!!!!

so yeah the r'n'r hall of fame gathering held on the elysium satellite in 2023 could well feature s-k

out of indie crit faves that never got a platinum plaque, Sonic Youth seems like they could get a nom someday. maybe Flaming Lips? if we start seeing noms for acts like that every year, then Sleater-Kinney could have a shot, but until that happens i'm skeptical.

the Velvet Underground got into the HOF because there was only one VU of their generation. there's a shitload more cult canon bands for later generations and they ain't all getting the establishment co-sign.

honestly once you get past lollapalooza II headliners this thing is either going to focus on cult canon shit, forgotten fogeys or get all KID ROCK up your shit or change its name

woops, i meant woodstock ii, same difference

May we live to see a 2030 with creed, sheryl crow, chicago, the wu-tang clan and sleater-kinney getting their due

my thought on sleater-kinney is they were such an enormous critical success that a HOF finalist slot (at least) seems inevitable. they weren't some band championed by only a few critical voices, really. but I might be underestimating the ability of this partic voting bloc to ignore everyone but the gold and platinum acts.

no maiden no priest no purple then go fuck yourself spinners - sounds like a Fall song.

If it was a Fall song, it would be "go fuck yourself DETROIT Spinners" unless Mark E. has issues with the British Spinners (and he probably does).

A band I've never heard, nor heard of, should not be in an institution I don't care about.

There are clearly better acts here, but NIN are the most important to my personal musical history, so I'm voting for them.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_N7bCQXgoFWM/TStHmd1nazI/AAAAAAAAABg/w9ilXX81nNk/s1600/stevie-ray-vaughn-ken-meyer-jr.jpg

No one voting for SRV?

http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/61/69/c4/6169c48f814c2a613db221b22ed19e73.jpg

I'm voting for the Smiths just because I'd like to see Mozz and Johnny Marr together in a stage exchanging uncomfortable looks. Anyway Reed will get in eventually, and even though I like NIN, I'm not really interested in extending Reznor's upcoming award ceromony tour.

Kraftwerk
Chic
The Smiths
Bill Withers
NWA

Re the S-K talk, I mostly meant it in the context of Joan Jett -- and I wouldn't be surprised if they at least get nominated for similar token-lady-rockers reasons. But yeah who knows.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

At least this thread got Sleater-Kinney to reform.

lol

The objective was to get Sting to reform. That's fine, though.

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3160/3101735410_e1ca959bd2_z.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDU8BrIhHvw

Aren't Radiohead eligible in the next few years? They seem like a shoe-in. Is Jann Wenner still the main person behind who gets in? I doubt he's even heard of S-K.

Dont see why the Bangles arent in there in the mix

I will personally upper deck the toilet of anybody who claims to love Maiden more than me but the Spinners kick ass and deserve the hall whether Maiden's in or not. fuck anybody who doesn't love the Spinners more than life itself

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/green-day-lou-reed-joan-jett-ringo-starr-lead-2015-rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame-20141216

Still no Chic, to save you the click.

I bet Johnny Marr breathed a sigh of relief now he knows he won't have to put up with Mozz for another uncomfortable evening

at first I was bummed nine inch nails didn't get in, despite being nominated...then I thought about it and was like "wait why would I be bummed about that"

Chic and Kraftwerk are OK I guess but they're no Paul Butterfield Blues Band.

i have never heard of paul butterfield blues band or double trouble. i fail as a fan of rock and roll?

While several generations of geniuses vie for SRV's guitar god crown on stage, Bill Withers will sip neat single malt scotch at the bar.

You guys have heard Butterfield Blues Band, that's the version of "Mary Mary" that Run DMC sample

They also back Dylan on his first electric show at Newport

Their guitarist Mike Bloomfield is way better than Clapton and he's in there like 3 times

Green Day is in. Deep Purple and BOC are not. THis whole thing is hilarious, I love it.

goddamnit I forgot that Blue Oyster Cult wasn't in yet....forget my measured tone upthread, i'mma roll up and str8 Magill these motherfucks in the turning lane

As contentious as baseball HOF arguments are, at least you have some ground beneath you--there are numbers there that shape the arguments. Arguing about the Rock and Roll HOF, there are no numbers, and any complaints just anger fans. I could say that Joan Jett and Stevie Ray Vaughn and Green Day and Bill Withers shouldn't be in there--especially Bill Withers over the Spinners--but it's not an argument you can really have.

as long as i'm cap'n save a butterfield i will say i think that the sidelong title track to "east west" is p influential in the development of 60s psych/raga/free rock jams, released all the way back in 66 and written in 65 after bloomfield did acid, pretty ahead of the curve

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaV-S5ivX3E

Well, that is probably true, but I'd equally argue some Kraftwerk tracks were pretty influential and ahead of the curve ;)

And yeah, complaining about the RaRHoF is silly, but their choices do seem especially silly this year. Oh well.

Kraftwerk should totally be in, as should Deep Purple and Chic and BOC and a bunch of other artists! I'm not necessarily even arguing that hard for Butterfield Blues, but ppl seemed to be clowning them for no reason other than they aren't that famous outside of trv classic rock headz

The first three butterfield blues band albums are genuinely classic. Some of the later stuff isn't bad either.

I don't have much of a problem with green day but their inclusion seems like a joke and it makes me realize foo fighters will be in the hall for fifty years before thin Lizzy or blue oyster cult or deep purple even get a decent shot.

I don't mind PBB…but you gotta chuckle that this crop seems to reinforce the cynical view of the Hall. SRV and PBB = white bands, blues scales played on guitars (not on "East-west," but did SRV and dubba-trubba ever deviate as such? doubtful) moanin' about women done 'em wrong…through someone's else's FB RRHoF thread a few years ago, I saw the grizzled boomer likes of Goldmine's Jeff tamarkin complaining that they would never EVER respect the Hall unless the PBB is in.

Lou? you die, you get in the next year (see: R. Asheton). As for Bill Withers, never fucked with him. always had the sense that he seemed to be the kind of african-american artist that, like, the james taylor/cat stevens/jackson Browne cohort could ride for. like, he's a singer-songwriter, not "commercial" the way that Afr-Am exponents like say the Spinners were. and as much as everyone likes Joan, her thing is not based on, like, a deep bench of music. It's based on a need for a woman to stand up for rockist values.

butterfield blues band had african american members fyi

yeah, Sam Lay and Jerome arnold (are those the right names for the rhythm section?), but surely YST/YSI (UMS) you wouldn't deny that those were sidemen brought in by Butterfield and Bloomfield to reinforce/inoculate vis-a-vis "authenticity" bona fides. Repping for PBB is about as pure a distillation of the RRHoF old guard as they have left.

but surely YST/YSI (UMS) you wouldn't deny that those were sidemen brought in by Butterfield and Bloomfield to reinforce/inoculate vis-a-vis "authenticity" bona fides.

not really buying this tbh

from everything i know butterfield was regarded by the old school chicago bluesmen of his era as the real deal and not a tourist lacking in authenticity

also that rhythm section was amazing

OK, fellas, I defer! but for real, that band as well as the rest of this crop is a course correction for the Crawdaddy cohort…and I'm sure D. marsh is pleased, in that I've heard him on his Sirius Show talking conspicuously about his friendship with Joan Jett, who pretty much comports her career in the manner that Marsh, landau and their aesthetic/ideological heir Grohl require

yeah i mean i see what you're saying and obviously it sucks that butterfield getting in comes at the expense of an act like kraftwerk who is obviously much more important on a number of levels, but in the scheme of things i don't really see the harm in a scrappy vinyl collector dork blues band with a guitarist as hot shit as bloomfield (who i really do feel is one of the great 60s players) getting in (in a vacuum)

http://observer.com/2015/06/rock-and-roll-hof-dumps-16-nominating-members-proving-its-irrelevance-yet-again/

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6605497/rock-roll-hall-fame-dismisses-nominating-members

On Thursday, Jon Landau -- the head of the nominating committee for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame -- emailed an undisclosed number of committee members telling them their services are no longer needed. Sources suggest that as many as 16 of the 42 nominating committee have been given their walking papers. But what's got some worried is that the move has wiped out more than half of the Hall's Early Rock and R&B Influencers subcommittee, as at least four of the seven subcommittee members were among those given the heave-ho. They are veteran A&R executive Joe McEwen, a blues and R&B expert; Greg Geller, a label executive specializing in reissues; Arthur Levy, a senior writer at a number of major record labels; and Bob Merlis, one of the industry's most renowned publicists who is now independent but was at Warner Bros. Records from the early 1970s through the 1990s.

"They just got rid of the guys who have all the histories of thousands of artists in their heads," says one longtime music industry participant. "That's like letting go the intent of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame."

Joe McEwen's name is very familiar...the first (red) Rolling Stone record guide? Can't quite place him.

Just looked him up and came upon a bunch of his reviews from 70s Rolling Stone on Rock's Backpages - mostly funk and R&B stuff. I know nothing about the other dudes Landau canned and the Hall sorely needs new blood, but it looks like McEwen at least had pretty good taste. His dismissal might not bode too well for a group like the Meters - a group that's as worthy of induction as Chic - but who knows.

IIRC,He wrote the Little Willie John essay in Stranded.

That's what I was thinking of, thanks.

I know this looks terrible from a PR standpoint, and I know I won't get much agreement here, but this doesn't seem that wrongheaded in view of the fact that they've already done a pretty good job with the early people. That was the easy part--what's going to continue to be a real mess (and outside of Rolling Stone's comfort zone, to a degree, at least through the '80s and '90s), is how they deal with post-punk, hip-hop, etc. I don't know if those guys were going to help them much as they work through the Replacements and De La Soul and whoever else.

Which is kind of irrelevant, because that's not why they were let go--they're just unfortunately viewed as relics.

Kraftwerk are both too good for the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame and have absolutely nothing to do with rock'n'roll anyway.

Joe McEwen's name is very familiar...the first (red) Rolling Stone record guide? Can't quite place him.

Wrote Jackie Wilson and "The Sound Of Chicago" essays in Rolling Stone Illustrated History Of Rock & Roll for starters -- also maybe the original Motown one; in the 1992 edition I have he's listed as co-writer with Jim Miller. (My 1980 edition's in a box somewhere; can't access it right now.)

And right, Little Willie John in Stranded (among many other things, I'm sure.)

Yes--I would have been thinking about the Illustrated pieces too, them and Stranded. I might even have some liner notes by him.