three weeks pass...
three weeks pass...
lefsetz waxes rhapsodic on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees - Lefsetz in extremis, a document to be parsed by future generations
Hallelujah, they finally get it right.
I’m not saying Yes doesn’t belong inside, and Deep Purple for the riff to “Smoke On The Water” alone, but it’s been years since there was no controversy and everyone agreed.
Except for maybe Kiss.
But the point is there’s no hip-hop, no jazz, no Madonna, no questionables like Patti Smith, everyone is deserving and it’s about time.
NIRVANA
No questions asked. An automatic.
Let this be a lesson to the industry, that we should focus on individuals as opposed to money and commitments. If so, Kurt Cobain would be alive today.
Just try going on the road. Playing to an adoring throng and then getting in the bus with the same dudes you’ve known since high school, trying to come down to do it all over again. It takes drugs. And if you’re doing drugs it’s just a matter of time until you die.
Kurt was pushed too hard. And felt so alone. That’s the conundrum of stardom, oftentimes you’re the only one left inside, the world spins around you and you’re frequently oblivious.
I know nothing about his death you don’t, but I will say this guy had an ability to fuse melody and punk in a way that the public just could not resist. Add in the ability to emote with his voice and you have possibly the last rock superstar.
Not that Krist and Dave didn’t help. But there are only a few true superstars, and Kurt Cobain was one of them.
Come as you are. Please. Don’t dress up. Don’t make a deal with a fashion house. Don’t do endorsements. Keep it punk.
That’s why we believed in Nirvana. Because Kurt believed in rock and roll. Too bad he won’t be at the induction ceremony.
CAT STEVENS
And where do the children play?
He wrote “The First Cut Is The Deepest” before anybody knew who he was.
Ditto “Trouble,” featured in the classic “Harold and Maude.”
And if you didn’t play “Tea For The Tillerman” incessantly, you weren’t alive. Back when rock was a state of mind more than a sound. Yes, Cat Stevens was truly rock and roll.
As for becoming a Muslim… Story is he committed himself to God after nearly drowning. Near-death experiences will change you. And at least he’s still alive.
The albums got worse as time went on. But there were so many hits, such a sound, that this guy would be successful in any era.
He might not have found that “Hard Headed Woman,” but we were enraptured by his search.
The hit was “Wild World,” but “Sad Lisa” was so seventies, so great, when you didn’t have to boast and play to the last row, but could be intimate, to the point where we were all leaning in.
But my favorite track on “Tea For The Tillerman” is the closer, the title cut, only a bit longer than a minute, you had no choice but to drop the needle on the LP and listen to it again.
PETER GABRIEL
The road less taken.
He quit Genesis just when the band was getting traction.
And the third solo album is the best, with “Biko,” but he’s never done anything you can shrug your shoulders at and say NEXT!
Too much talent, it’s too bad he’s not still making new, original music. But the problem is the audience is not ready for it. But Gabriel has got a hard core of fans possibly exceeding those of any other act on this list, in intensity if not numbers. Proving you can shoot high instead of dumbing it down.
Wanna tip? Listen to “Secret World Live,” one of the top ten live albums ever, one which no one seems to know about. Especially the extended versions of “Secret World” and “In Your Eyes.”
But it all comes down to “Solsbury Hill.”
I was feeling part of the scenery
Alienation. It’s the essence of rock and roll. If these people could fit in, play on the football team, date a cheerleader, we’d never have this exquisite greatness.
I walked right out of the machinery
That’s what we all did. We weren’t best friends with our parents, they were clueless, we were forging our own path.
My heart going boom, boom, boom
Do you feel alive? Too many are somnambulant. But the best music wakes us up.
Hey,’ he said ‘Grab your things
I’ve come to take you home’
Here we go! Pack up your old kit bag. We’re gonna go down the rabbit hole of rock and roll. To the Fillmore, to Woodstock, to the arena, to the stadium, not every once in a while, but all the time, because rock and roll was the most important thing in our lives, superior to our automobiles, more important than technology.
We’re going home.
Just put on the record and…LISTEN!
LINDA RONSTADT
Oh baby don’t it feel like heaven right now
Don’t it feel like something from a dream
The waiting truly is the hardest part. The fact that Linda Ronstadt wasn’t inducted upon initial eligibility is a travesty. That she had to get sick for these moribund men to vote her in… These same men who jerked off to her, who didn’t even need a picture, who could just close their eyes, because she was just that ubiquitous, everyone knew the cute style icon the men wanted to impress and the girls wanted to befriend. Linda Ronstadt was the seventies’ biggest female rock star. Hell, only Zeppelin and the Eagles were in her league. But men hate letting the women inside. Then again, Linda never begged. She snorted cocaine and screwed the desirable people just like the guys. Which is why she was always an insider and the idiots on this committee are not. Because musicians comprise a club, and the fans are not included, not the critics, only the writers, players and singers. They’re who we want to be. And inside the inner sanctum…it’s all jokes and references and life in a lane so fast only the strong survive.
If I were Linda Ronstadt I’d give the R&RHOF the middle finger and refuse to show up.
But she will.
And I know she won’t be conciliatory. I know she’ll tell it like it is. She’s not afraid to be three dimensional, to speak her truth, which is why she’s a star and you’re not.
HALL & OATES
You’re a rich girl, and you’ve gone too far
‘Cause you know it don’t matter anyway
You can rely on the old man’s money
You can rely on the old man’s money
It’s a bitch girl, but it’s gone too far
To hear this sound emanating from the radio was…enough to make you drive immediately to buy the album, “Bigger Than Both Of Us,” which it truly was. Hall & Oates went from obscurity to superstardom. Even better, after falling all the way back down, even having to play clubs, they came all the way back, with the infectious “You Make My Dreams” and so much more…
It was the “Royals” of yesteryear. You only had to hear a few notes.
What I want you’ve got
Though it might be hard to handle
Yes, it was hard for the wannabes of the twenty first century to admit how much talent the band actually had, how good a voice Daryl Hall possessed. This isn’t yacht rock, unless the term represents something so good it rains down money to the point where you can buy one!
Hall & Oates are so good.
Come on, who had that many hits.
And now they’ve got this victory lap. This inclusion. Just when they’d given up on it.
Because the sound has been burgeoning, become deafening. Hell, who wouldn’t want to be invited to Daryl’s house?
KISS
Induct Bill Aucoin. Come on, if you’re including Brian Epstein and my buddy Andrew Loog Oldham, without whom there’d be no Beatles or Stones, Aucoin deserves to be in too, for without him there’d be no Kiss.
Which might be okay.
But still, even I will admit I liked “Rock And Roll All Nite.” It was a band for those who missed the sixties. And despite Gene Simmons being the number one blowhard in music, the guy with no sense of humor about himself, they had a string of hits.
My favorite?
LICK IT UP!
Don’t wanna wait ’til you know me better
This is the ESSENCE of Motley Crue, which played Kiss’s role in the MTV eighties. Come on, let’s throw off our inhibitions, take off our clothes in this pre-AIDs era and have some fun!
You gotta live like you’re on vacation
Before the baby boomers, life was boring. A sentence. But rock and roll said NO MAS! Fun is the one thing that money can’t buy. Except a ticket to the show. Where the amps are big and powerful and the songs are known by heart and you’re amongst your brethren and there’s nowhere you’d rather be.
So…LICK IT UP!
Come on. Life is short. Discover what you’re into, and go full bore, to the max. This is what all of the above inductees did. They didn’t play it safe, have a fall back position, they just went for greatness.
And we followed them.
P.S. The E Street Band. My only point is if we’re gonna induct them, how about the rest of the backup bands? This is b.s., evidence that the R&RHOF is east coast-centric, driven by Jann Wenner and Jon Landau and the holier than thou who think we’re listening.
We are not. You don’t have to be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame to mean something to people. You just have to reach deep down inside and throw your innermost feelings down on wax. Do it right, and it’s life itself.
That’s rock and roll.
Rock ain’t money… Unless you’re peeling off hundreds to pay hotel damages.
Rock ain’t awards… If you need a Grammy to justify your existence, you lead a sorry little life.
Rock is about ATTITUDE! And SOUND!
Are you willing to do it your way? Not worried about what anybody says? Whether it be Simon Cowell or Doug Morris or Dr. Luke? Are you willing to piss all over the powers-that-be, stand up and lead?
Then you’re ready to rock and roll.
And I’ve only got one message for you. Go straight down to Guitar Center, buy that Les Paul or Stratocaster, and plug it into that Marshall or Fender and TURN IT UP!
Drive your parents crazy.
It’s not about tattoos.
It’s not about clothing.
It’s about what’s inside!
It’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock and roll.
But if you do…we wanna party with you all night and every day.
You show us everything you’ve got
You keep on dancing and the room gets hot
You drive us wild, we’ll drive you crazy
Yes, there’s no rock and roll without an audience.
You keep on shouting, you keep on shouting
I wanna rock and roll all night and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all night and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all night and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all night and party every day
I certainly do. And so do you.
And there’s no better place to start than with the above inductees. If you’re not happy with these acts, if you don’t want to listen to their music, I FEEL SORRY FOR YOU!