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I’ve actively avoided the early work of Chicago (thanks to a childhood spent hearing its later material), so I can’t say whether I agree with Variety’s Phil Gallo and his contention that the band and its “superb musicianship” has been unfairly kept out of the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. But I’m intrigued by one of his claims: “It shows the bias of the hall’s voters–they are either too old to have the wistful childhood memories of the early ’70s or too young to fully appreciate how distinctive they were in the pop landscape at the time.” Whether it’s due to this alleged age schism (I doubt that the “rock experts” who get ballots don’t include people with childhood memories of the early ’70s) or not, there are quite a few commercially successful and even critically acclaimed artists who released notable works in that decade and have been ignored by the voting public.
I can’t say I’m a fan of all these artists, but I could see an argument why these bands have as much as a right to be in the Hall Of Fame as Madonna or the Dave Clark Five.
ABBA
Bachman-Turner Overdrive
Boston
Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band
Cars
Deep Purple
Devo
Neil Diamond
Doobie Brothers
Electric Light Orchestra
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Foreigner
Peter Gabriel
Genesis
Guess Who
Hall & Oates
Hawkwind
Heart
Jethro Tull
KC & The Sunshine Band
King Crimson
Kiss
Moody Blues
Procol Harum
Randy Newman
Todd Rundgren
Roxy Music
Rush
Styx
Supertramp
Richard & Linda Thompson
Three Dog Night
Loudon Wainwright III
Yes
And there are undoubtedly some flagrant absences that haven’t even occurred to me. A good number of the above artists will probably trickle in over the years, especially once they realize that hoary rock bands like some of these will probably be more apt to jam during the induction ceremony than younger post-punk acts.
Adding Transparency To A Critical Process: Giving Chicago Its Proper Place In The Rock ‘n’ Roll Canon [The Set List]
Dick Dale?
The Stooges?
Black Sabbath? (Yeah, I know Ozzie doesn’t want them in, but fuck em)
OK, I’m a big fan of 70s Chicago, and I’m all WTF. Chicago were a fine band, but ultimately a hugely elongated blip. Yes, they wrote the dissonant guitar noise piece “Free Form Guitar” when even Bob Seger System was trying to sound edgy. But since the second album, for every “A Hit By Varése” or “Fancy Colours” or “25 or 6 to 4″, there were still about three or four filler tracks.
I love that you grabbed the Hot Streets album shot, as “Alive Again” is one of their greatest songs in the rock/disco vein. It’s also the most absurd album cover of the 70s, well, second to KC & The Sunshine Band’s Do You Wanna Go Party.
Only a couple years til Poison are eligible.
Honestly, bias is the only thing that keeps the HoF going. If it was truly based on importance and distinctiveness, they’d have way more than 4 or 5 acts a year going in.
Also, good luck trying to get all the original members of Chicago at the HoF. Terry Kath is dead. Peter Cetera won’t speak to the current members anymore, FAIAP.
@Jason Lee’s Karma Police: sabbath were inducted in 2006
I think there’s a contingent at HoF that is purposefully waiting until most, or all, of the members of certain bands are dead before presenting them. Like, they’ll do it if they have to but not because they really want to do it?
There’s goes my shot at ever getting to vote.
Oh, dude, don’t dive into these murky waters - RnR HoF arguments are always filled with whatever biases the arguer brings to the table. I often find the “Why isn’t ____ inducted” crowd far, far more ill-informed and obnoxious than the obnoxious, Jann-fronted crowd running the joint.
A couple of brief points:
1. There is no “voting public”; nominations and finals voting have always been handled by an elite (elitist?) rockcrit/industry committee.
2. Gallo’s they’re-too-young argument is clearly spurious; a bias toward younger acts is not one of the Hall committee’s problems. Quite the opposite.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to run the other way before the rockist crowd comes swarming in here with their anti-Madonna theories.
T. Rex.
The Faces.
Randy Newman.
Roy Wood.
The Monkees, fer chrissakes.
And HELL YES Grand Funk Railroad!
And believe me, I’m one with no problem with Madonna being in. It’s just that these, and many of the other acts listed above, should be in as well. There’s just too much hipper-than-thou bullshit going on in the voting process.
I can’t argue with early Chicago. That “I’m a Man” cover was great! I still have my 4-LP “Chicago Live at Carnegie Hall” set. And I still use “Colour My World” as the acid test when I’m trying out a new piano patch. Terry Kath was really underrated as a guitarist, too.
Out of the big list in the post above, I’ll go along with Boston, Deep Purple, ELO, Heart, and Yes. Just had some Yes in my car CD player this afternoon:
@Chris Molanphy: Exactly.
I’m still unsure as to why anyone gives a shit about it other than the bands in it and the friends of Werner who vote them in. The best thing is people who poo-poo it and then launch into a lengthy diatribe about how it’s a crime against humanity that _______ is in while Mungo Jerry or Five Man Electrical Band or The Blues Magoos wait outside with their faces pressed to the windows.
The only thing I see the RnRHOF has is a way for boomers to reassure themselves that their generation rocked harder than anyone else and that MTV ruined everything (Madonna and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s token places excepted.)
Waaaaaah…a writer from ‘Variety’ is sad that his fave band hasn’t been inducted into a ridiculous institution…
OMG, that rhymes!
Cheap Trick, motherfuckers. And the critics LOVED their first four-five albums.
But I generally agree that as long as that cuntfart Jann Wenner is calling the shots, the RnR HoF will be a tribute to his coke buddies from the ’70s, so fuck ‘em.
Early Chicago is awesome, but there’s an argument to be made that the ’80s output cancels it out.
Someday Jann Wenner will die and Kiss WILL be inducted. Oh yes, it will happen.
@loudersoft: I’m glad to be in Chicago-loving company here.
And Hall & Oates were the fourth-most successful artists of the 80s, right?
Also, KISS!
@FionaScrapple: Whoa…Jackson Browne was pretty amazing early on and worked with such total cheeseballs as Nico and Tim Buckley.
Sure, I’m as big a fan of Chicago’s first couple of albums (and CTA) as the next punter, but as they spiraled downward into MOR territory, can they really be taken seriously as a “rock band”?
On the other hand, the fact that influential and commercially successful bands like Deep Purple, Jethro Tull and Yes haven’t been inducted into the Hall of Fame is a travesty. I’d include Roxy Music as a fine example of glam-era rock, and maybe Rush, as much as I dislike them, if only for their career longevity and influence.
Then, of course, there’s Motorhead. If there was ever a band that epitomized the invincible rock & roll, road warrior spirit, it’s Lemmy the K and his merry men. “No sleep ’til Cleveland!” will be our battle cry…induct Motorhead!
Post-Percy Sledge (no disrespect), it’s a lot easier to argue for a lot of acts to be inducted.
@Chris N.:
Perhaps you’re thinking of the “Cock’ n ‘Hole” hall of fame. Kiss is a charter member.
In fact, Paul Stanley occupies a flat directly above the main atrium.
It’s a lifetime lease, sadly.
@AcidReign: “25 or 6 To 4″, “Fancy Colours”, “It Better End Soon”, “Beginnings”
I mean I could go on and on. The Live at Carnegie Hall box set was EPIC.
The RRHoF is utter fucking tripe. Jackson Browne? John Mellencamp? That’s as lame as Forrest Gump winning an Oscar for Best Picture.
Complete garbage.
Down with Jann WEINER… Fricke too! Thanks for your service, but it’s time to go. It’s time to hand over the reigns. Your elitist ways just aren’t cool anymore. Nobody likes to hear their grandfather preaching at the dinner table. Get over it you’re too old to be in touch with reality. So stop using your influence to shape it!
There was a time, when anyone who didn’t like the stuff I like, was un-cool! To each his own. About the only “legitimate” measure of Hall-of-Fame-ness is probably sales or air-play figures. I don’t like rap, for instance, but I do my damndest not to make fun of it in front of my son, who’s into it. I did mess up and forward him a Soldja Boy link, but I’m human…