Happy 70th birthday to Wings and Moody Blues guitarist Denny Laine.

Jack Bruce 1943-2014

50 artists who should be in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Link Wray, Dick Dale, Boz Scaggs, Gene Chandler, Cliff Richard, Ry Cooder, Warren Zevon, Joe Cocker, Rick Darrenger, Harry Nilsson, The Cars, The Guess Who, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Styx, Bad Company, Blood Sweat and Tears, Canned Heat, The Monkees,Paul Revere and The Raiders, Paul Anka, The Belmonts, Bobby Vee, Journey, Yes, Rory Gallagher, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, Thin Lizzy, Hubert Sumlin, Three Dog Night, The Zombies , Johnny Winter, Edgar Winter, Jethro Tull, Electric Light Orchestra, Grand Funk Railroad, Deep Purple, Danny and the Juniors, Blue Oyster Cult, Chicago, Steppenwolf, Pat Benatar, Steve Miller Band, John Mayall, The Grass Roots, ELP, Foreigner, Dire Straits, The Del Vikings, The Marshall Tucker Band, The Stray Cats, The Moody Blues

Over the past month I have been following KISS and their induction into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame. The KISS fans or what is known as KISS Army have fought for years to get the band inducted into the hall while members of the committee including loud mouthed music critic Dave Marsh have fought equally as hard to keep them out because of a hatred of the band and their music. You would think the fans and the band would be happy about this having honor. But when the hall announced that only Ace Frehley, Peter Criss, Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons would be inducted as part of the band. This would mean exuding members from other line-ups such as Eric Carr, Vinnie Vincent, Bruce Kulick, Mark St. John and the two current members Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer who have both been with the band since the early 90's. This angered both Simmons and Stanley who said that they would not perform because of this. When the fans heard this many of them were angry with Gene and Paul thinking that were screwing over the fans. At first I sided with the fans having not looked into why KISS was not performing. This was until I realized that the hall was bending the rules for other groups. On the hall's Facebook page the group "Inducted: KISS 2014 inductee into The Rock n Roll Hall Of Fame" had posted a long statement which they had taken from the Facebook page of former nomination committee member Jeff Tamarkin.  Here is just part of that statement: 

 "As much as I despise KISS, Paul Stanley is actually correct when he says that the R&R Hall of Fame bends its rules at whim. He cites the Grateful Dead's induction and his take on that is 100% accurate. I was on the Hall's nominating committee when the Dead were being inducted. Jon Landau, Bruce's manager and one of the big shots at the Hall, asked me to find out from the Dead which members they wanted included. The word came back from their spokesman: "all or none." And so Robert Hunter, their chief songwriter who was never an official band member, was inducted along with, I think, 11 or 12 others. That even included Vince Welnick, who had only been playing keyboards with them for several years."

Like one of my earlier posts where the hall decided to induct the backing bands of some artists but not others this just shows you how screwed up they are. If Tom Petty gets his backing band inducted then so should Bob Marley and Frank Zappa. The same is true for The Grateful Dead. If the Dead gets all their members included then so should KISS and Fleetwood Mac. I chose Mac because they are one of the more well known cases where this has happened. Here is a link to an article about Bob Welches snub during Mac's 1998 induction ceremony. 

 http://blog.cleveland.com/pdextra/2012/06/rock_and_roll_hall_of_fame_snu.html   

While I don't consider my self a huge fan of KISS or their music I think that what the hall is doing to them and what they have done to other bands is a huge disgrace and makes their organization look bad.

 

10 worst Rock and Roll Hall of Fame performances in no order

I have only decided to pick ten but because there are so many horrible performances it will be hard to pick only ten.

10.  Led Zeppelin and Neil Young

This is one of the few times the band got back together. It really sucks to say the least. Neil Young does not belong he was out of tune and adds nothing to the performance.  Then to make it even worse Plant randomly picks up a guitar half way through and plays a god awful solo.



9. Mick Jagger and a bunch of other people

I have no idea what the hell is going on here. You have a stage pack with random musicians like Paul Shaffer, Little Richard, Keith Richards, Tina Turner and Bruce Springsteen. Since there is no room for anyone to play most of the musicians are just standing around.  Mick is the only one really doing anything and he briefly lets Tina join in. Although the whole thing is a mess the worst part is at the beginning when Shaffer tries to sing the guitar intro.


 8. Lynyrd Skynyrd and Kid Rock

 This would have been a great performance but Kid Rock has to come along and just ruin it completely. He is flopping around on stage and sings even more then the band being inducted and Johnny barely gets a word in.


7.  Neil Young and others

 

The title of this video is very misleading because it says Jimi Hendrix Experience performs at Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions 1992 which is not true. The two members are barley seen as Paul Shaffer invites Neil Young on stage for yet another horrendous version of a classic song. Young's vocals are not the right fit. Jimmy Page was clearly drunk which is why his solo sounds like crap. The real reason this sucks so bad is because there are too many guitar players on stage which makes it sound like someone killing a cat.

6. Aerosmith and Kid Rock

Once again Kid Rock ruins another performance  and proves to the world yet again that he has no talent.



5. Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Keith Richards and others

For starters the mics are screwed up which makes Jerry sound like crap because you can barley hear his singing or his piano. And once again Neil young adds nothing to the performance. The Everly Brothers are also on stage standing around doing nothing as is Paul Shaffer. But the real question is why is Chuck playing a fender?

4. Booker T. & the M.G.'s and others

This is really awful. First off the group of musicians was put together by Paul Shaffer who also tries to conduct this mess of guitar players and other random musicians crammed together on stage. I think Paul is even worse here then he was in the Mick Jagger video because he will not shut up. The sound is so messed up that you can barely hear Booker T's organ or the guy on the harmonica. I have no clue what Johnny Cash is doing there and it appears that Little Richard, Lyle Lovett, Phil Specter and a host of others are just standing around adding nothing to the performance.






3. Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony

Now one would think that if you only have the bass guitarist and second lead singer at induction the ceremony that you should not perform. There is not even one Van Halen brother present. But they do perform and come off sounding like a cheap Van Halen cover band.




2.  George Harrison, Ringo Starr and others

For starters the title of this video Beatles perform at Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions 1988 is very misleading. This because Paul is not even present and George and Ringo are barely seen in the video. Paul Shaffer is back adding nothing to the song and Bob Dylan and Jeff Beck don't look like they want to be there. Mick Jagger and Bruce Springsteen do a terrible job at singing.

1.  Sam Moore, John Fogerty and Steve Cropper

Although these are not in order I would have to say that this performance is by far the worst. First off you have Paul Shaffer as conductor which never goes well. Some guy carrying a guitar walks across the stage during the performance. Then you have Sam Moore who looks confused reading the lyrics of his most famous song from a piece of paper because he forgot the words. John was also singing from a piece of paper. The only three people performing were Sam, John and Steve Cropper. What's point of having all these different artists on stage if you're only going to let two people sing.





 

After watching these and other videos I'm left wondering why the hall kept using Bill Joel, Neil Young and Little Richard. How could they not find anyone else to do these performances?  You might say Little Richard was an extra since in all the videos since he's just standing around and not even given a singing role. The people who run things would be smart to keep Paul Shaffer and Kid Rock away from the next and all future induction ceremonies.

2015 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Nominees

So recently the Rock and Roll hall of fame relased it nominees list. The artists are The Paul Butterflied Blues Band, Chic, Joan Jett and The Blackhearts, Green Day, Kraftwerk, The Marvelettes, N.W.A, Nine Inch Nails, Lou Reed, The Smiths,The Spinners, Stevie Ray Vaughan, War and Bill Withers.

My first reaction was a sense of anger. Not only is Deep Purple not in the hall but this year they were left of the ballot completely. This year the hall has decided to nominate more new artists instead of many of the influential artists of the 50's 60's and 70's such as Link Wray, Deep Purple and Yes. Those three who are usually put on the ballot but never inducted were not even put on the ballot to make way for more modern less influential bands.

One of my main problems with the hall happened again this year. It's when the hall inducts only
certain backing bands and not others. This year it's the Blackhearts being nominated and Stevie Ray Vaughan's band Double Trouble being left out. Just this year the E Street Band got after being left out of Springsteen's induction in 1999 but sadly Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici did not live to see the induction which really pissed me off. I will never understand why some backing bands get in with their leaders and others don't.

Some of these artists are not what you would consider rock like N.W.A,Chic, Bill Withers and The Spinners. While I am a huge fan of both Bill Withers and The Spinners and listen to them on a regular basis I don't think they should be in the hall. I'm really getting sick of this genre mixing that is going on. I am also really disappointed that all of these raps acts are getting nominated and inducted before many legendary rock artists like Paul Revere and The Raiders, Steppinwolf, Chicago and Johnny Winter. I would be all in favor of starting a rap/hip-hop hall of fame and taking the artists in this hall and putting them in there.

Well the good news is that Stevie is finally being recognized by Jann, Joel, Dave and the rest of those clowns proving that once in a blue moon they can get something right.
   

Joan Jett & the

Happy 88th birthday to one of the gods of music

Paul Revere 1938-2014

Another music legend is gone.

Listening to these albums to celebrate the births of the Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eddie Cochran

I did not realize that two of my musical idols shared the same birthday. One man helped to change the course of modern blues and the other help to create Rock and Roll. Who knows what more they could have done had their lives not been cut short. May you both rest in peace.