Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
This ranking was originally published in 2018.
It has since been updated and revised.
But Ertegun died in 2006, and over the next ten years or so, pressure on Wenner grew.
(And, not incidentally, help put keisters through the turnstiles at the museum in Cleveland.)
In these cases, any consideration of artistic quality, importance, or influence goes out the window.
In Cleveland, not so much anymore.
Theres one other important tendency that has manifested itself with vengeance this year.
A much larger voting committee culls this group down to seven or eight.
Increasingly, the former has found itself unable to get important artists through that second hurdle.
Were the acts influential?
Were they the first?
Are they simply brilliant at whatever it is they do?
(There are a few bands I personally like a lot on the bottom half of the list.)
I know there arent enough women; more on that anon.
Finally, lets acknowledge that the nominating committee does have a difficult task.
Its all based on several sliding scales of relative worth, or even interest.
Perhaps you werent the best at something … but you were the first.
Maybe you werent about songs, per se, but a sound.
But enough about Bon Jovi.
Lets go to the inductees!
He decisively introduced real lyric writing to pop music.
As a person, he wasless than ideal.
But still: One of the most consequential American cultural figures of the 20th century.
(The Stones didnt get in until the following year.)
Bob Dylan (1988)
Dylan took rock lyrics to places they hadnt been before and havent been since.
Not even the Beatles can compete with the sheer quantity of his essential songs.
(Robert Greenfields oral history on Erteguns life is titledThe Last Sultan.)
A certain rock-magazine publisher was looking on with interest.
Mick Jagger, Robert Christgau once wrote, should just fold up his penis and go home.
At the induction, Prince said, soberly, Too much freedom can lead to the souls decay.
He died, shockingly, in 2016.
The Ramones showed us that every once in a while rock needed to be rebuilt from scratch.
Johnny gave George Bush a shout-out at the induction.
Now thats punk rock.
Finally convincing himself that he didnt have a future, he committed suicide in 1994.
Buddy Holly (1986)
A gentle soul who died far too soon.
And his evolving growth makes his heartbreakingly early death (at 21!)
hard to think about.
(He, Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, and Cobain are rocks greatest tragedies.)
Some people these days dont know much about Jann Wenner.
Thats what we saw on the outside.
And stories abound of Wenner letting his rock- and movie-star buddies vet their profiles.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe,a sensational performer, was inducted in 2018 in this category.
His emotional dynamic range is unmatched.
He died in a plane crash in 1967.
He was one of the chief architects of the music.
He was capable of more routine blues, and even calm songs.
(His band, Richard would recall fondly, had an orgy after every show.)
TheirBeggarstoExilerun is probably unmatched by any other band.
Over the years, there have been any number of peculiarities in the halls inductions.
Notice anything odd about the Stones lineup listed above?
He played on their records and became their road manager.
Its why the hall has been accused of bowing to outside pressures.
They unapologetically purveyed the heaviest of heavy metal.
They eschewed the single, forcing fans to buy their albums or see them live.
Must read:Rottens fax to the hall, so contemptuous as to not even include punctuation.
(Were not coming.)
She is the preeminent blues-rock singer.
Most people have heard about Ike Turner because of his monstrous treatment of his wife and others.
Turner was 20 at the time.
And with James Brown and the Stones, they may be the musics greatest live act.
All it’s crucial that you know about this outfit isright here.
The plan, originally, was to tear down everything that came before and build a better world.
Then Mick Jones decided he was a rock star.
Over the years, there have been many rumors about behind-the-scenes fiddling with votes at the hall.
What Roger Friedman says and what the truth is are genuinely two different things, Peresman said sharply.
I asked Wenner about it as well.
Bullshit, he said.
Aretha Franklin (1987)
A singer whose artistry transcends the music.
The voice she was born with could pierce glass, and her own technique embellished everything she recorded.
The hall gets attacked on a lot of fronts theres not enough women, etc., etc.
Bowie had to wait four years, and wasnt even nominated (!)
in two of those years.
(Lou Reed didnt get into the hall until 2015, nearly 20 years after his eligibility.)
I didnt go deep into this with Wenner.
(After years of relationships with both sexes, Wenner came out in middle age.)
I dont believe so, he replied.
Its never occurred to me.
Forgive me a short digression on exactly how collected Hendrix was.
Note that the inductee here is not Hendrix but his band.
Why are Pettys Heartbreakers in the hall but not Segers Silver Bullet Band?
It makes no sense.
The decision to include the players in Hendrixs power trio is a puzzle too.
The 1980s were awkward, after which she headed out into a jazz odyssey understood only to her.
She remains one of the musics most austere and uncompromising artistic presences.
He had huge ambition and ways of looking at love and society rock hadnt seen before.
His critical corner is so polite it doesnt mention he hasnt recorded a great song since 1986 or so.
He was shot by his father in a family fight in 1984.
In fact, rappers werent angry.
Hes not a philosopher.
Van Morrison (1993)
A mystic and unsatisfied explorer with a voice capable of great power and nuance.
And yet he was still unhappy and by every indication remains unhappy today.
His wild sound and unapologetic mysticism would heavily influence folks like Springsteen and Patti Smith.
In the decades since he has grown increasingly ill-tempered.
During the pandemic this evolved into a sad toxicity.
His antivax rants and conspiracy theories have permanently damaged his reputation.
(See also:Clapton, E.)
30.
The brother be right a lot of the time.
Nothing captures this group better.
(Uh, Chuck, it wasnt just the so-called Chosen who were frozen at Griffs remarks.)
Note the words could have been, again.
Anyway, I love PE but I think the music and history has passed them by.
The halls notion of rock is very expansive, one voter told me.
Theyve been very receptive to being open to hip-hop acts even during their first years of eligibility.
Thats not not-true, but its not entirely right either.
Its view of the music is plainly superficial and leans to the pop-commercial side.
There has also been far too little recognition of the folks who originally constructed its sonic force.
He has since been forgotten.
And then theres the issue of hip-hop producers.
P.E.s Bomb Squad is long overdue for induction just on artistic grounds.
DJ Premier, of Gang Starr, might be a good choice.
Demonic piano boogie and declaimed words (whole lotta shakin goin on etc.
created a carnal maelstrom.
Lewis was precocious in both the positive and negative sense even by the standards of rocks early geniuses.
Clinton was an underrated producer his tracks teem with sonic inventiveness, humor, and hooks.
But a great presence.
Marley died of cancer in 1981.
Ive mentioned the nominating committee a couple of times.
How does the halls voting process work?
The top five to seven vote-getters get inducted.
Traditionally, the nominating committee meets in aRolling Stoneconference room, generally in September.
Over lunch, each nominating member gets to make the case for two potential inductees.
They need to create a story to sell to the others in the room.
The group votes, and a short list is created.
This can be ten to twenty names.
(More on the implications of that later.)
These are sent back to the hall.
Neil Young (1995)
A rock-and-roll seeker dogged by mental demons and a goofy avatar of rock authenticity.
Long may he run.
The world liked it back.
Of the great 50s rock stars, only Elvis Presley did better on the pop charts.
They were pretentious and quite often unlistenable.
Nor was the bands studied disregard for popularity, at least initially.
Stories abound of folks like Clapton and Van Morrison making pilgrimages to Woodstock just to play with these guys.
Motowns secret weapon; his good taste and stylistic elegance reverberates in pop music to this day.
If youve never watched a hall induction ceremony, each new member is inducted by some famous person.
Robinson was inducted by Hall & Oates, artistically slight but big stars at the time.
This is a hall pattern.
And no band has had worse album covers, period.
The Kinks story overall is not a happy one.
Its also evidence of how unquestionably Amer-centric the nominating committee is.
(I was one.)
His distinctive singing style rarely fell into the mannered; he was reservedly carnal, cautiously joyous.
Green also produced respectable soul long-players, at least one of them,Belle, exquisite.
Seventies pop radio would have been much less textured without him.
A gracious albeit haunted presence to the end.
Ray Charles (1986)
A graceful, elegant presence over decades.
Reinvented soul, and came close to reinventing country, too.
Watch it, guys one of these days were all going to get wise.
Bruce Springsteen (1999)
Jersey guy, nice wife.
(He met her at work.)
And his albums fromBorn to RuntoBorn in the U.S.A. are effectively produced.
This is exactly the wrong approach.
Bands should be given more credit for quitting early and keeping their percentage of top-quality work high.
Note that Springsteen was inductedwithoutthe E Street Band.
(Compare Loves Little Deuce Coupe with Dont Worry Baby, which had an outside lyricist.)
And Wilsons singular vision his pursuit of teenage symphonies to God to this day personifies the troubled genius.
And now he writes songs for Pixar movies.
And they may go down in history as the last great rock band.
At the ceremony, Becker delivered this kiss-off: Were persuaded its a great honor to be here tonight.
Yes, I am aware the lead singer has become annoying.
He was convicted of manslaughter and died in prison at the age of 30.
All that said, lets put it into context.
In other words, he was a big known star who suddenly got very big.
Thats different from what Jacksons fans were doing.
That said, as a pop artist Jackson was certainly innovative, and set new standards.
And as a Presley-like pop archetype of failed potential, very rock and roll.
(The hall, however, sayshis two inductions will stay put).
Elton John (1994)
John unquestionably is a pop-rocker not a rocker.
He was flamboyant, but he was also someone you could take home to mother.
He bravely came out in the mid-1970s.
He also has something Joel doesnt have and that is somehow irrelevant to McCartney, which is good taste.
His melodrama never goes overboard and his pop instincts were always natural and flowing.
(Note that Taupin did get in in 2023, through the the Musical Excellence Award side category.)
A quaint fiction in the music industry remains that keeps attention focused on the public face.
But wasnt this basically just a case of inaccurate musician credits?
Shouldnt the award have then gone to whoeverdidsing on the record?
Werenttheystill the Best New Artist?
For the record, they were probably the second-biggest band of the 60s, after the Beatles.
This artistic trichotomy obviously creates issues for the hall.
But I take the point it was a mess, however it was resolved.
Shes also one of the most pretentious artists in the history of rock and roll.
And on the more matureWavethere are timeless songs like Frederick and (speaking of ecstasy) Dancing Barefoot.
Nothing shes done in the 40-plus years since is comparable.
It was an official audience, Conforth says drily.
It was at the newRolling Stones offices [on Sixth Avenue].
I was allowed to enter the inner sanctum.
Theres Jann, barefoot.
Eddie Cochran (1987)
There is something irresistible about Eddie Cochran.
Presley always seemed a bit Olympian; Cochran was rough and ready, but never distant.
He could play a lot of instruments and sometimes recorded tracks by himself.
In Cochran songs, the rhythms just dont stop.
PR Smart enough, too, to formally distance themselves from early anti-women behavior.
Janis Joplin (1995)
A viscerally exciting performer with a mighty voice and a magnanimous and supple mind.
King (1987)
I have to bow to the blues experts on this.
(He took Ike Turner to Sun Records.)
His signature song, The Thrill Is Gone, came late in his career.
But over the years his name has become so iconic you cant really argue about it.
There are actually two important but separate issues when it comes to women and the hall.
(you might readher full Longreads essay here.)
Thats an objectively true observation, but I respectfully disagree somewhat with McDonnells analysis.
The hall has plainly treated women better than it has gay men, for example.
But thats a good thing.
The numbers fluctuate, but about 10 percent of committee members over the years have been women.
But thats still not enough.
The exclusion of women from the nominating committee is disgraceful.
If you want to target the halls sexism, focus on that.
Big Joe Turner (1987)
75.
A little frenetic for my taste but connoisseurs say hes one of the greats.
Famously had a heart attack onstage while singing the words, My heart is crying!
which ended his career.
The talented Betts stepped up big time after Duanes death and the band rocked on credibly through the 1970s.
And probably the only rock band that should have two drummers.
Deservedly, the first of the girl groups to be inducted.
But, as with so many other things in McCartneys life, it just doesnt matter.
Thats the way his life goes.
You dont have to like him.
He still likes you.
In their own way, subtle.
Then they became MTV stars.
Mnemonic rig: The guy who doesnt have a beard is named Beard.
Hill died in 2021.
T. Rex (2020)
T. Rex is one of the halls most long-overdue inductions.
The musics the definitive manifestation of glam.
But if Bolan was one thing, he was a star.
Here he isin full, uh, flower.
And the youngest had a lot of potential.
Later recorded as the Jacksons.
Is the hall of fame voting process rigged?
And no one had any idea how the votes from the voters at large were tabulated.
Hes Jann Wenner: he did whatever he wanted.
Was the hall his personal fiefdom, as Hagan said it was?
Thats wrong and its certainly not the case in terms of who gets in or out, Wenner said.
The Yardbirds lacked the Jagger-Richards songwriting juggernaut; their early hits were written by outsiders.
Hank Ballard (1990)
Ballard & His Midnighters are the greatest rock band youve never heard of.
They have lots better work than that.
The Moody Blues are a great example.
The hall has been schizophrenic.
Early on in the halls history, Tamarkin, theGoldmineeditor, was on the hall nominating committee.
He brought in a petition that had been signed by 5,000 people asking for the Moodys induction.
Tamarkin recalls he was asked if he was an enthusiastic supporter of the band.
He said he wasnt but thought the petitions mattered.
The meeting moved on.
(The Moonglows got in, eventually, in 2000; the Moodys in 2018.)
He wasnt asked back.
Hes now the editor of a lively website, Bestclassicbands.com.
Garcia, being Garcia, was supposedly on his way but never made it to the ceremony.
Tupac Shakur (2017)
Unlike a lot of people on this list, he was a true star.
I wish this smart man had been smart enough not to run with Suge Knight.
Could he have become the man his biggest fans say he could have been?
Im skeptical but also sorry were not going to find out.
Again, back to Cleveland.
Conforth, the curator, is a highly entertaining interview.
He was a scholar whod done his dissertation at Indiana on the San Francisco scene.
He turned out not to be a good fit for the hall.
Even two decades later he remains amused at his tenure.
They wanted him to appear for a segment on When Dream Jobs Become a Nightmare.
Santana the bands Latino-psychedelic fusion was distinctive.
Sam & Dave Sam Moore and Dave Prater (1992)
No argument here.
These guys are molten, as good as soul got in the 1960s.
Also like Bowie, wrote lots of good songs, like Jersey Girl, Time, and That Feel.
His often blistering raps displayed a highly provoking combination of brattiness, humor, and satire.
(If you havent heard it,you have a treat coming.)
He plays to this day in the same T-shirt and jeans he always did.
(To be fair, he was a very big star in his heyday.)
It was, ironically enough, a somewhat petulant response to fans uninterested in his new sounds.
The life of a teen idol is a real bitch.
And their live shows make Motorhead, say, sound prissy by comparison.
The real problem is with the nominating committee.
This happened in 2007 and again in 2016.
Besides that, the committee is New York centric.
Then the world shifted a bit and they became cuddly 80s MTV reliables.
And it turned out that all three were fairly decent musicians.
They flirted with the cheesy but then reasserted themselves withSynchronicity, averywell produced pop-rock masterwork.
Leader Sting has since become a real menace.
Paul Simon (2001)
An austere artist, to be sure.
And his albums from the classic period (up toRhythm of the Saints) sound sensational without being overproduced.
The years since, as with so many of his cohort, have seen few significant songs.
Note that Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats is actually Ike Turner, who is already in the hall.
(For the record, I like Lets Twist Again better than the original.
I can also see Louie Louie getting in at some point.
Jackson Browne (2004)
Like James Taylor, Browne never apologized for his straightforward, confessional songwriting.
He died in 2016.
Michael had to hide his sexuality for many years, and suffered from substance abuse.
They were getting better, too until Van Zant and guitarist Steve Gaines perished in a 1977 plane crash.
And if you think thats easy, Ive got a used CD ofShes the BossId like to sell you.
Note, though, that actual rap pioneers like Eric B.
& Rakim have still been overlooked, another example of the halls nagging ahistoricity.
Albert King (2013)
A gigantic talent, in both senses of the word.
(He was inducted 25 years after he was eligible.)
He recorded an early garage-rock classic, Open My Eyes, with his band Nazz, at 19.
All of that came before he was 25.
But, you know, hes no Lionel Richie.
Rundgren has always scoffed at the hall and didnt show up for the ceremony.
Frank Zappa (1995)
Zappa did a lot of things no one really cared about.
Leader and songwriter Nielsen does crazy things on the guitar and makes it all look easy.
Absolutely killer live, to this day.
LaVern Baker (1991)
A highly versatile and precise R&B queen from the 50s.
Besides the main list, theres the early influencers category, for pre-rock-and-roll folks, which is fine.
That makes sense too.
The main hall is for performers, and the Ertegun Award for nonperformers.
How could the hall fuck that up?
In 2000, the hall started inducting people under a new Sidemen category.
(Why just him?)
(Hes a good guitarist, but so is Roy Clark.)
The next one went to … Ringo Starr.
(Of all the instrumentalists in all the rock bands in the world, he gets an award?)
This is really wrong and should be fixed.
A simple solution: Let the nominating committee induct one or two acts per year by fiat.
Thats a defensible hedge against the infelicities the voting committee causes.
Allen Grubman, Irving Azoff, and Jon Landau.
Leonard Cohen (2008)
A Canadian folk poet whose stature has grown immensely over the years.
These remain an indelible part, for example, ofMcCabe & Mrs. Miller.
His latter-day concerts were wild, mysterious affairs.
Their albums are mostly hodgepodges of covers and so-so originals.
This makes no sense.
Elliott crafted her image for herself out of her attitude and sounds.
She hasnt recorded that much, really, but shes never released a bad album, either.
and the Bomb Squad.
She had a sound and a voice and was probably the sassiest of the early female rockers.
(This Little Girls Gone Rockin, [Mama] He Treats Your Daughter Mean.)
(Not much has changed, really, but thats another story.)
(Labels either claimed they were still recouping production costs or were just keeping the money.)
The fan turned out to be a canny lawyer.
Blige is different; shes scrappier and more complex and more honest about her vulnerabilities.
On virtually every track, you could feel the reverberations of a very tough background and a hard-won indomitability.
She insisted that her persona transcend pop music, in other words, rather than be defined by it.
(Their performance at Woodstock, remember, was their second live appearance.)
And Stills is not a bad guitarist.
(The cover line: Go-Gos Put Out.)
(By my back-o-the-envelope calculation, Diamonds grossed half a billion dollars touring in the 2000s.)
You cant really dismiss him; hes had too many hits (literally dozens of Top 40 hits).
Hard to argue with a star in an evanescent business still standing 50-plus years later.
He retired a few years ago due to Parkinsons.
Accident or not, it makes his stature plain after 40 years of reliable, ever-more-inessential rock.
Etta James (1993)
Classic Chicago blues from the purest blues voice on Chess Records.
And he had a voice.
They kept at it and the world came to them and they ended up global superstars.
They provided MTV with a bunch of inventive videos, and the Cure eventually played a few stadiums.
Among the bloated mishmash of names above, youll note one particularly odd inductee: Reeves Gabrels.
Dusty Springfield (1999)
A visionary singer possessed of a dulcet voice and a sparkling persona.
A British woman, she went to America to record a breathtakingly emotional album,Dusty in Memphis.
Thats her on the Pet Shop Boys What Have I Done to Deserve This.
An early gay performer, too, and it cant have been easy.
The Impressions then once they got in, the same folks started saying, Curtis Mayfield!
until finally the others are worn down.
In their lives and art they embody the promise of the music as much as anyone on this list.
He came in and delivered a stirring plea, which the nominating committee duly acquiesced to.
Lots of good songs, too.
Raised back ten for Harrys purred response: Its so nice to see everyone outside of the courtroom.
The cacophony still somehow made sense.
(Some of the time, anyway.)
Baker was a highly committed drummer.
The result was some stalwart classic-rock hits.
But lets be fair: Leader Mark Knopfler is no ordinary instrumentalist.
He is a guitarist rarely not worth listening to.
On the other hand, his words are seldom profound and the band is often boring.
How many artists on this list can you say that about?
The 2018 induction was a low point for the hall.
Knopfler and his brother David were nowhere to be seen.
I could hear Wenner audibly shrug when I asked him about it.
A couple of the members didnt get along with each other and didnt want to appear with each other.
Which has happened before.
Why was there no one to induct them?
But Taylor is not slight.
Still writes a good song every once in a while.
Shes an American figure who transcends petty genres like country or rock music.
She began recording before Dylan, the Beatles, or the Stones.
I always liked how organic the bands early albums sounded, odd for the genre.
Why is, say, Jeff Beck in the hall as a solo artist but not him?
And too many of even their nice-sounding songs seem to turn on evil women.
In a way, they deserve a J.D.
Power Award or something rather than a hall of fame induction.
Docked ten notches for orchestrating the halls most Orwellian induction.
One has to assume that it was under the orders of the band that he got stiffed.
Ill Be There may be Motowns most emotional track.
Slightly indistinct but, as I said, hardy.
She was never comfortable onstage and did few live appearances.
They barely put out listenable albums.
(Singer Balin was punched by a Hells Angel at Altamont.)
Slick refused to come to the ceremony.
Why are the nimrods of Journey in the hall and not those guys?
It brought in Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff early.
But they were all elements in the kaleidoscope sounds of the time.
About time, and now lets get Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes in.
I think they have no depth.
On the other hand, the records, courtesy of producer Eddie Offord, sound pretty great.
Then a guy from the Buggles joined.
And they wrote those hits, too.
Ann Wilson has quite a voice.
They had a commercial comeback in the 1980s with the help of outside songwriters.
(I feel like Im writing that sentence a lot.)
(2020)
Under hall rules, youre eligible for nomination 25 years after your first record.
Did Biggie Smalls qualify?
A lot of people think Smalls is one of the best rappers ever.
Theres nothing decontextualized about the Rodgers and Edwards riff at all.
And to those who say hes a word machine, I say lets get Rakim in first.
As with Neil Diamond, its hard to argue with 50 years of credible stardom.
Robins voice is what it is, and I dont know what Maurice did.
Joan Baez (2017)
We all love Baez.
She was the first folk superstar and had some nice hits.
I hate to say it but, while she has a wonderfulvoice, shes a sometimes unlistenablesinger.
Lloyd Price (1998)
A big, expansive blues-rock presence; more hits than you would expect.
The argument for them is that they were responsible for the devolved (!)
She was an able song interpreter on some obvious covers and once in a while did something unexpected.
For the record, shes something like a jazz-pop artist, not a rock artist.
Not too much of a career besides that song.
Vincent was injured in the same car crash that killed Eddie Cochran in 1960.
The rest of his career ranged from the uneven to the sad, and he died at 36.
Id like to take a break here and note this.
Joy Division/New OrderAfrika BambaataaLonnie DoneganWarDiana RossEric B.
The Carpenters are another strong example of how the hall sneers at certain genres.
Soft rock was a huge genre in the 1970s.
I asked him whom he had voted for that year, which was 2019.
None of the ones Id voted for got in, he said.
I voted for five.
Theres the Zombies, Link Wray, and MC5 and those to me are indisputable.
That to me is as rock and roll as you get.
Bessman also told me he spent his years on the nominating committee arguing, fruitlessly, for Lesley Gore.
I thought Bessman wasout of his mind.
In time I felt they had a point.
Some of his stuff is schmaltzy and a lot of it was somewhat deracinated covers of better black renditions.
Those are DiMucci solo hits; the Belmonts biggest hit as a group was Teenager in Love.
Its another one of those bits of random hall cheesiness that the Belmonts werent included in the induction.
Taylor, Dennis Dee Tee Thomas, Ricky Westfield (2024)
This is a weird outfit.
John Lee Hooker (1991)
A sui generis blues boogie stomper, often slowed down to barbiturate levels.
I like Hooker, but why is his oddball shtick lauded while those of so many others ignored?
Like the Dave Clark Five, the result is enjoyable stompy pop, nothing more.
To me, he is the epitome of corporate hip-hop.
And once in a while, he records a song with some force.
But there is something bleak and empty about him.
The subject matter of most of his songs is rote.
Many of his productions are obvious and overdone.
Finally, the voting committee bit.
This is not a hall-of-fame band.
Why these guys and not the Motown house band?
A great American (and rock and roll) story!
With Desmond Child and Diane Warren (!)
), and a lot of generic Diane Warren and Desmond Child pabulum.
History would be better served if they had been included in the new Hall of Fame Singles category.
One of the first Hispanic rockers, too.
He lived not-that-fast, died young, and left behind a decent greatest-hits album.
Did sniping at the hall affect nominations?
No, he said.
You get in whether you sneer or not.
You get in whether you show up or not.
Radiohead was duly inducted soon after.
Another Rock and Roll Single candidate.
Marriott went off to rock very hard in Humble Pie.
Rod Stewart joined and the band went on as the Faces.
Then Stewart got distracted by his solo career.
But its hard to not likethe Faces shambling, dissolute charm.
His One Great Song: the Oscar-winning, still sensational Theme From Shaft.
Bobby Blue Bland (1992)
Hes fine.
He was a dependable and facile riff-maker, and the other guitarist, Pat Simmons, played well too.
Then gentle, smoky-voiced Michael McDonald, whod had a small side career in the L.A. scene, joined.
He was a little less tough.
(An early signature song of his was Taking It to the Streets.
Oooh watch out, streets!
Key lyric, and Im not making this up: Well discuss it further.)
Flash-forward five years: Johnstons gone, McDonald is ascendant.
Check out this video ofan anodyne and spavined band rocking oh so carefully to McDonalds What a Fool Believes.
Jeff Baxter is sitting in a frickin chair.
Its a great rock and roll story, and it belongs in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
As I said above, the hall hasnt quite captured the glories of 70s soul.
Nicely done, boys!
But he was on Atlantic, and during the Ertegun years that was enough.
full albums worth of material, in which you could find about one-and-a-half albums of decent material.
A real close call, both for the hall and prison.
(Like a dog without a bone / An actor out on loan.)
And Morrisons unsubtle declaiming quickly became laughable, as on Touch Me.
A lot of 70s bands evolved: Fleetwood Mac, the Doobies, Roxy.
Imagine David Lynch leavingTwin Peaksand Aaron Spelling taking over as showrunner.
Unfortunately, the hall couldnt come up with a Genesis untilWind & Wuthering induction.
At this point, it felt like the hall was just randomly feeding their nostalgia.
I think its stupid too.
My question for Steve is, So why were you there?
These days they show up at all the industry events, swaggering around and trying to look tough.
Like I said: Knuckleheads.
And dont get me started on the drummer.
Note the name Robert Trujillo above.
He joined the band 10 or 15 years ago, long after any Metallica album worth remembering.
(This was an issue back then.)
It had an odd structure too.
England embraced the band fully.
New Orders work was dark and complex during this period.
The Pet Shop Boys were creating remarkable works of impishly transgressive pop.
Beyond that, the Pet Shop Boys have two or three great rock and roll albums.
New Order has close to half a dozen timeless top-tier dance-rock classics.
Depeche Mode doesnt have one.
The nomination feels like the product of an organization that doesnt quite understand the music it thinks its honoring.
(Ten Commandments of Love.)
Still, a minor outfit.
Solomon Burke (2001)
A happy warrior and another openhearted soul singer.
But there are literally dozens of more important artists who are not yet in the hall.
Doo-wop, a touch of blues, recorded for decades.
And that was the bands career!
Hes really just another Lionel Richie.
Hes earnest, writes some decent songs, and is properly respectful of his elders.
But still: How rock and roll is that?
And again, I like him.
(They made me change my name!
And in any case, is decent the standard?
(Lalena / Cant blame ya.)
And then theres all the stuff that sounds like low-grade Dylan.
Still, they gave us Do You Believe in Magic, the greatest hippie-dippie song of all time.
Leader John Sebastian would later become how to put this?
Bobby Darin (1990)
Darins early death due to heart problems has made him a somewhat tragic figure.
He died too early, in a helicopter crash in 1990.
I could see Vaughan being inducted in the new musical excellence subcategory.
Buddy Guy (2005)
A great man, serious guitarist, adamantine presence.
Hes a major dude and a solid practitioner and Ive spent enjoyable nights in his club watching him play.
Jetts another performer who has unquestionably benefitted from showing up to hall events in the past.
Its hard to think of a major traditional rock band that has come after Radiohead.
Beck Im sure will get in at some point.
Maybe the hall can get Tom Cruise to induct him!)
But what major artist will come after him?
The Kanye West crowd, and Kanye himself, will not stop screeching until he is in.
Wilco, yes … White Stripes, perhaps.
Green Day (2015)
They were inducted by Fall Out Boy, an honor in itself.
(My Chemical Romance apparently had a conflict.)
These guys were originally fartsy, not artsy, in the post-Nevermindbrat-punk explosion.
Then they grew up, respecting their elders and devising ever-more ambitious, if slightly boring, opuses.
Bill Withers (2015)
Answerable to nobody, as rectitudinous an artist as soft rock has produced.
That it came to pass is a perfect illustration of the nominating committees insularity and growing craven commerciality.
more than two hours long.)
Peter Frampton (2024)
Another pet rock.
He also had a workaday touring operation.
Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, decisively ended his celebrity two years after it emerged.
His best track remains his first hit, (I Wanna) Love My Life Away.
They retooled themselves in the 1960s with pop hypermelodramas like Going Out of My Head and Hurts So Bad.
Why these guys melodramas and not, say, Lesley Gores?
Is there music today that has been influenced by this act and not Joy Division and New Order?
I dont think so.
Percy Sledge (2005)
Not much beyond his classic wail on When a Man Loves a Woman.
This guys more important in the history of rock and roll than Kraftwerk?
How is this a hall-of-fame act?
But they quickly turned into herky-jerky pop hitmakers.
(Butterfield was a hardy harp player.)
Still, back in the day Bloomfield was considered to be something of a tastemaker.
He died of an overdose in 1981.
As I said, forgotten today and probably a good candidate for the musical excellence subcategory.
Deep Purple had two, maybe two-and-a-half, good songs.
Their reputation today rests on just one (Smoke on the Water).
(Without it, what are they?
And the band immediately lost all its interest after the departure of Blackmore.
These acts also put keisters in the seats for the annual induction ceremony.
These folks have been flooding the hall of late scores in recent years!
What could possibly go wrong?
Says Wenner: [Inductees like] the fifth drummer from Guns N Roses dont vote.
They dont turn in their ballot.
Lennox is a character and went on to craft some very adult solo records.
Stewart went on to become a busy and prolific in-club producer but not a particularly notable one.
Culture Club, too, now that I think about it.
George Harrison (2004)
This induction is sort of a joke.
You wont hear this in the four(!
But hes not an important artist as a solo figure.
She doesnt have much to say, and shes never received other than passing attention from critics.
And she doesnt even sell that many records.
Pop of course has a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but not pop cartoons.
And if youaregoing to have cartoons, why not the Monkees?
Josie and the Pussycats?
The real motivation here was giving the hall something to market to theMamma Mia!set.
In the event, only two members showed up to the ceremony.
Heres a corollary question.
What should the hall do aboutimportantpunch lines?
But: Thats really not who Donegan was.
Isnt Donegan one of the most influential performers in rock history?
Heres another example: K.C.
& the Sunshine Band.
and the Sunshine Band, were disco and pop superstars a year later.
The magnificent Donna Summer aside, the hall has never quite dealt with disco.
Another: the Sugarhill Gangs Rappers Delight, the Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor of hip-hop.
Wan bits of off-pitch poesy like Under the Bridge became their respectability calling cards.
And with eight inductees!
Theyve never been mentioned in the Pazz & Jop poll.
A tour boat was below it at the time.
These guys are all real gems.
The band had a chip on its shoulder about all of this from the start.
They seemed to suspect how cheeseball their attitudinizing was.
Their unfocused defiance is best appreciated if read aloud in a David St. Hubbins voice: I like parties.
I dont think theres anything wrong with that at all.
And if people think thats glamorous fine.
But if people think thats something bad, Id like some reasons for it.
The operation in the late 2010s was veering dangerously close to becoming the Classic Rock Hall of Fame.
He was left out of the halls original announcement, but later added back in.
Whitney Houston (2020)
Should the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame draw lines?
Theres space there for the most contentious artists in rap, country, and jazz.
Richard Pryor should be in, on general principles.
The Carpenters, too they were a legitimate soft-rock band.
But pop is something different.
Houston was none of those things.
The most strident fans of pop artists always want them to get all the awards as well.
One dubious achievement: Houstons participation in the tawdriest reality-TV show of them all.
Despite this, Houstons name still has a sheen.
This is another in-clubby nomination.
But is that the argument, that Marilyn Manson should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?
Gene Simmons is so low rent his reality show makesKeeping Up With the Kardashianslook likeThe Wire.
It was an ongoing campaign.
And at a certain point, I thought, You know, fuckme.
This is a popular art form.
I voted for them.
(Like Saturday in the Park [guess what that one was about!]
and, get this, Harry Truman [guess whatthatone was about].)
But a guilty pleasure by definition is when you like a song by a bad rock band.
In charge was Rolie, who had actually done credible work in Santana.
They were inducted by … Pat Monahan, the lead singer from Train.
Chad Kroeger had a previous engagement.
Now, what about Blue Oyster Cult?
Dont Fear the Reaper is better than any Journey song.
Heres a Steve Perry lyric: Lovin, touchin, squeezin / Each other.
Both Wenner and Peresman flatly denied any messing around with voting procedures.
We have to take them at their word.
I spoke to one nominating committee member recently, who claims that wasnt that case: No.
Theres a lot of support for Def Leppard in the group.
No one went [gagging sound].
There are some nominations where I think, You have got to be kidding me.
I didnt notice anybody cringing.
Its not perfect, but thats because the hall isnt particularly good at its job all the way around.
Case in point: The bizarre ascension of the cartoony and nonsubstantive Pat Benatar.
(Fun fact: One of her later albums is calledGravitys Rainbow.)
But hey Pat Benatars husbands in!
You know how they talk about how rock became denatured, spavined, and overproduced in the 1970s?
They are talking about bands like Foreigner.
(As recently as last year, Graham was whining that the hall had it in for the band.
I guess the jokes on us.)
Foreigner isnt one of them.
A little too much.
They are now one of the handful of very biggest-selling bands of all time.
Its a hard issue, with a simple solution.
So pull up a chair.
Heres the thing: Being in a rock band is fun.
Bon Jovi are the guys in themovieabout the rock band.
As with Aerosmith, Child should be being inducted into the hall with the band.)
The outside songwriting help frees up the band to concentrate on things like hairdos, and marketing.
Of late hes been testing the waters in Nashville, following in the footsteps of Darius Rucker.
In ten years hes going to be purveying annuities on Fox News commercials.
Hi Im Jon Bon Jovi.
I dont think hes that important, said Wenner.
What does Bon Jovi mean in the history of music?
Who can disagree with that?
Hence Def Leppard a few years later.
His best-selling album wasCant Slow Down.
Astonishingly, he was rewarded with an Album of the Year Grammy in 1985.
And I think he may be the only one in that slot that isnt in the Rock Hall.
No ones wanted to review an album or cover a show.
No ones ever said, Hey, you should hear this track on the new Ozzy album.
This post has been updated throughout.
