Idolator

...I kill Friedman now?

Yes Roger Friedman is a little nuts and his list contains some non-worthy names, but I will admit I too thought it was unbelievable that Madonna and Beastie Boys were getting inducted.

They should both be in there someday but probably not for another 20 years.

And why does Jann Wenner have so much authority over the R&R Hall? If anything, Rolling Stone shows that they no longer know anything about good music, they just support the same commercial music on the radio that sucks. Plus Zac Efron on the cover?

The R&R Hall is becoming a parody of itself. Anyone who has toured the Hall probably had the same let-down feeling I did to pay that much money to see so little memorabilia in a place called the Rock & Roll Hall.

I guess Johnny Rotten/Lydon was correct.

@bnb614: The R&R Hall is becoming a parody of itself.

It was ALWAYS a joke.

Friedman needs to do some fact-checking: Tina Turner was already inducted with a then-incarcerated Ike. Bernard EDWARDS was Nile Rodgers' partner not Bernard Summers (wherever he got that name from...)

Friedman has been an entertaining d-bag for years and rarely checks facts (a fine Fox News tradition). Anyhow, a R&R Hall of Fame honor is about as meaningful as being saluted at a Rotary Club luncheon.

You know, Sonny Bono did some pretty great work in his day with Phil Spector and the Crew. Just sayin'.

i love poco.

His insistence on the inclusion of Poco only forces me to think of all singles bars Friedman must've trawled through in his day, all the Tom Collinses he must've downed, all the STDs he must've caught -- and spread. SHUDDER.

How can he say that the Beastie Boys only had one hit? The Beastie Boys belong in there just as much as anyone else. Granted the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame is a ridiculous idea but this guy is still a twat.

Roctober magazine did a Pat Boone interview awhile back that actually made a convincing case for inducting him into the RRHOF, complete with a lively point-counterpoint section. The article's main point was that Boone helped the spread of rock & roll, covering the likes like Little Richard at a time virtually no other Caucasians would do the same, Elvis and Sun Records excepted. Boone is ridiculed, and understandably so, for his misguided "Tutti Frutti" and his similarly misguided (if more clued-in) heavy metal phase. But in terms of influence, I'd pick Pat over Poco or the Turtles any day.

I should add that I've been "boycotting" RS since I discovered fanzines and college radio.

Johnny Cougar > Bob Segar (RRHOF class of '04). Feel free to hate on them both, but if you can make an argument that John Mellencamp was more "minor" than Bob f'n Segar, I'd like to hear it. I'll give you that Segar's truck jingle was less ubiquitous/annoying, but that's all I can come up with.

You know, I never though I'd be witnessing Jann friggin' Wenner pissing off the squares

This is the key bit of your (generally excellent) writeup, and it points out how my mixed feelings of anger and annoyance at the whole Hall of Fame brouhaha are evolving into something closer to LOL bemusement.

Simply put: the outrage expressed by boneheads like Friedman and all the bro-rock morning DJs pissing and moaning about the Hall should be a cold shower for all the hipsters out there.

Hey, indier-than-thou types who bitch about Hall injustice: these are your brethren in complainitude. Care to get in line with them while they picket? They can scream about the Moody Blues and Poco, while you guys whimper about the injustice of overlooking Pere Ubu. You guys'll have lots to talk about together.

Wow, Carly Simon... good one, Roger. I think Christgau said it best: "If a horse could sing in a monotone, the horse would sound like Carly Simon, only a horse wouldn't rhyme 'yacht,' 'apricot,' and 'gavotte.'"

@Fried Bologna Is Back!: and yes, that means that I think John Mellencamp belongs in this stupid club.

I'm sorry, but the Beastie Boys are fucking awesome. FACT, not opinion. Yeah, 'TT5B' was kind of weak, but the rest of the catalog is impeccable, and to label them a one hit wonder means you are an old boring white guy who gets his news from FOX...oh wait.

"while I'm sure quite lovely" = the new "articulate"?

I love Steve Winwood. There, I said it.

The rest of that painful list, not so much.

@Chris N.: I dig winwood too. the man did play on Electric Ladyland, y'know.

This item is a little misleading and some of the comments are a little knee-jerk-sure he has some dumb choices (which mostly make up the ones cited in this post) but he has several excellent names of artists that belong in the Hall--Gram Parsons, Todd Rundgren ("The New Cars" not withstanding), Peter Gabriel, Lou Reed Steve Winwood, Harry Nilsson, The Stooges, etc etc. If the friggin Dave Clark 5 gets considered, where are the Hollies?

I also agree with his comments about Madonna's producers-it's no coincidence that her early success in clubs was related to her bonking the likes of Jellybean Benitez...to that end, where is Giorgio Moroder?

@Jupiter8: Hey, don't disrespect the DC5... even if just for Dave's business savvy. What other band in that era owned their own master recordings?

He is dead-on about Chicago and KISS, two groups that probably would be in by now if they hadn't horribly sullied their legacies by hanging on too long (something both Madonna and John Mellencamp are in imminent danger of doing).

As long as KISS stays out, the R&R HOF is OK by me.

Best thing about Poco? Phil Hartman did some of their album covers.
Personally, I can't help but look at the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame with a "well, whaddayaknow?" kind of fondness. It's fun, but pretty frivolous. I can't get too salty about who gets in or doesn't.

He also got Ben E. King wrong. He was inducted as a solo act in 1987. He mentions John Fogerty, Diana Ross and Steve Winwood. All were inducted with their groups. CCR, Supremes and Traffic. Among some of the other names he feels are more worthy than this year's nominees: Sonny Burgess, Ringo Starr and Carla & Rufus Thomas.

This totally has the stink of the gay mafia. I'm sure a few of her Madgesty's best gal pals have been twisting Wenner's arm about his whole fucking-a-married-dude shtick. They probably made him toss in Donna Summer for good measure. Afrika and the Beasties draw the flack, and the attention. Flawless!

@Jupiter8: Diana Ross's bjs helped get her into the Hall. I don't see why Madonna should be handicapped. And let's not forget the Supremes made it in two years before their songwriting team. As Donna Summer would say, "She works hard for her money/So you better treat her right."

CHIC is easily the most influential of all the nominees for the R&R Hall Of Fame. They influenced a whole generation of Punk artist: The Clash and Blondie being the most notable. Rock artists wanted a bit of CHIC's sound so Queen, David Bowie, INXS and The Power Station all used it.

For rappers CHIC has been the holy grail, arguably no other artist has been so sampled by Hip Hop artists. Todays Dance music and pop music still use the CHIC sound. Madonna got her breakthrough with it (the "Like A Virgin" album).

And if we are talking their own productions we have Era defining hits like Good Times, Le Freak, I Want Your Love, Everybody Dance, We Are Family, Upside Down, I'm Coming Out, He's The Greatest Dancer and Spacer. The last five having other artists on lead vocal, but being in all other ways very much a CHIC release.

For those who still suffers from the anti-Disco germ; If you listen to a CHIC record there is much more Jazz, Samba, Rock, R&B and other stiles, on them than Disco cuts. And many CHIC songs are commentaries on society and history.

In short, CHIC meets all the criteria for getting in, and then some!

Here are clips of some of CHIC's more rock sounding songs. They are all written and performed by CHIC. Lead vocal may vary:

1: [www.chictribute.com]
2: [www.chictribute.com]
3: [www.chictribute.com]
4: [www.chictribute.com]
5: [www.chictribute.com]
6: [www.chictribute.com]
7: [www.chictribute.com]
8: [www.chictribute.com]
9: [www.chictribute.com]
10: [www.chictribute.com]
11: [www.chictribute.com]

For more info check out my site on CHIC: [www.chictribute.com]

@queensissy:
That may be true, but he totally bungled the money he could have made reissuing the band's back catalog in the CD reissue era-a market which probably peaked in the early 90s. The only thing that ever came out was a 2-cd best of on Hollywood Records (long out of print) so in terms of business savvy, he may have been smart in the 60s but boy is he dumb now...besides, Gerry and the Pacemakers totally rule! Screw that "Tottenham Sound"!