2015 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Nominees

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.