Fela Kuti, MC5, New York Dolls and Kate Bush were passed over in favor of Lionel Richie, Carly Simon, Eurythmics, Duran Duran, Eminem and Dolly Parton, who had declined her nomination. Judas Priest were tossed a table scrap.
Okay this is ridiculous. Aside from a table scrap thrown (in an insulting “special category” called “Musical Excellence”) to heavy metal pioneers/gods Judas Priest, almost the worst possible nominees were inducted. No offense to Dolly Parton, but she specifically declined her nomination, and they ignored her wishes. She originally declined because she knows what rock ‘n’ roll is, and she knows that she is not even remotely an influence on the genre, no matter how radically you stretch the definition. “…it was always my belief that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was for the people in rock music, and I have found out lately that it’s not necessarily that. But if they can’t go there to be recognized, where do they go? So I just felt like I would be taking away from someone that maybe deserved it, certainly more than me, because I never considered myself a rock artist.” Too bad the Hall of Fame can’t tell what R&R is if it came up and licked them in the eyeball.
The others on my ballot Fela Kuti, MC5, New York Dolls and Kate Bush, remain unrecognized. As do Devo, A Tribe Called Quest, Rage Against The Machine and Beck, all of whom are more deserving than any of the inductees except for Pat Benatar. I suppose worst case scenario would have been if Dionne Warwick got in over her or Priest.
It’s just another indicator at what a garbage era the 2020s is turning out to be. Rock and roll has never been less fashionable and popular since parents complained in the 50s that Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis have nothing on Guy Lombardo, Perry Como and Pat Boone. By the early 1960s, it seems that the parents won the culture war, as nearly all the R&R innovators were swept under the rug aside from Elvis and Roy Orbison. The charts were whitewashed by Percy Faith, Jim Reeves, Lawrence Welk, Neil Sedaka, Bobby Vinton and Andy Williams. Had The Beatles and Motown not revived things in 1964, those are the names that would have likely dominated the Hall of Fame.
Despite pop culture resembling a dumpster fire, there is more adventurous, challenging rock and roll being created now in the underground. But if massive influencers MC5 (Deep Purple were inspired by them when they created the legendary In Rock album in 1970) and New York Dolls can’t get any recognition after a half century, I doubt much of significance will be noted by the HOF in years to come unless there’s another massive culture shift.
Rock and roll ain’t dead, but it’s been misplaced and forgotten by the gatekeepers.
March 29, 2024
Fester’s Lucky 13: 1994
January 4, 2024
Fester’s Lucky 13: 1989
December 1, 2023
Fester’s Lucky 13: 2023 Year-End Summary
