Annual Rock Hall Nominee Shit Show thread

[twonabomber]

I saw those first few Sting solo tours, all at Blossom. Going to see Andy Summers next month, a combination of his music and photography. 650 seat capacity room.

[Terry]

You may be right. I mean, yes, Peter Gabriel got in both as a member of Genesis and as a solo artist. But I think nobody would claim that Sting solo is as influential as Gabriel solo. Putting Gabriel in as a solo artist is a no-brainer.

That said, Sting was still freaking huge as a solo artist. He sold tons of records. He definitely became a superstar in his own right. He definitely influenced a lot of people.

I still maintain that DREAM OF THE BLUE TURTLES is a great album. (I like the movie about this album, BRING ON THE NIGHT, even more.)

NOTHING LIKE THE SUN (the 2nd solo LP) is also very good, if a bit overlong. ENGLISHMAN IN NEW YORK is like The Police single that never was. (FORTRESS AROUND MY HEART, from DREAM, also sounds like it could have come off SYNCHRONICITY.)

THE SOUL CAGES was also very good (maybe not quite as good as the first two LPs).

A lot of people found TEN SUMMONER'S TALES too poppy, but songs like LOVE IS STRONGER THAN JUSTICE and SEVEN DAYS are really good.

After those LPs, his work becomes admittedly spotty. But it would be hard to deny that Sting's solo career has existed mostly on its own terms and he hasn't just tried to replicate The Police sound.

(He's also embarrassed himself, making flute albums and shit.)

Putting aside the HOF, I enjoyed more than a few things Sting did in his solo career.

Can't say I enjoyed it as much as The Police, but The Police...they were just one of my favorite bands. Period.

Took balls to leave The Police and go solo. The Police...man, they were just getting bigger and bigger. However, in retrospect, disbanding when they did and only reconvening for a few select occasions was a smart move. The group put out 5 fantastic albums, went out on top and didn't flog the nostalgia of it into the ground.

But...yeah. Turtles was different, but great, agreed. The Bring On The Night movie...the surprise for me was that his band ended up upstaging him a bit...what a great ensemble!

Nothing Like The Sun I remember listening to a lot when it came out. Hasn't aged quite as well for me.

But, you know, it'd be unfair in a way to be too critical in comparing Sting solo to The Police. Mostly because The Police were just fucking brilliant, and without Summers and Copeland...as important as Sting was to The Police as the primary songwriter it definitely took what all three brought to the table to make it what it was.

[twonabomber]

Conflict creates great art. I'm pretty sure Stewart Copeland wasn't referring to Andy Summers

[Rikk]

And that kind of describes Winwood solo, and Clapton after Journeyman/24 Nights, and Frampton after When All The Pieces Fit.

Winwood has had some good solo stuff. Albums like ARC OF A DIVER are really respected. It's too bad, however, that Winwood does not have a sprawling catalog of great solo albums that match his reputation as one of the great singers/players/songwriters to come out of 1960s England. He's been inducted as part of Traffic...well deserved.

It's too bad Blind Faith only made one album. That 1969 album really gets overlooked...in my opinion, it is easily one of the highlights of both Winwood's and Clapton's careers. HAD TO CRY TODAY, CAN'T FIND MY WAY HOME, PRESENCE OF THE LORD, SEA OF JOY...these are all great songs.

Clapton's solo career has had plenty of peaks...and plenty of valleys. But I think few self-respecting rock experts would claim he hasn't done enough solo to warrant his solo induction. And he's done some reasonably good work in recent years (his 2010 solo LP, CLAPTON, is actually pretty damn good...if a bit light). A lot of his recent successes, however, are based on nostalgia, like the 2005 Cream reunion (I really love the Blu-Ray of the Royal Albert Hall reunion gigs) and his really great live LP/film with Steve Winwood from 2008 (during which they play a lot of great material, including several Blind Faith songs).

I have to admit...I'm really not very knowledgeable concerning Frampton. The only album I really know is FRAMPTON COMES ALIVE. Mind you, I really enjoy that album. (I don't even really know Humble Pie.)

Zevon absolutely should be in.

You bet! His first two real solo LPs (1976 & 1978) are both masterpieces. And albums like THE ENVOY and even THE WIND have very strong material. He was a great (and unique) songwriter.

On a similar note, I cannot believe John Prine has not been inducted (nominated once). Again, killer songwriter, very influential.

Midnight Oil...leaning toward the political/activist side of things, so maybe? I mean, that's the thinking behind putting Rage Against The Machine in, I guess.

You're right...very political. Even that aside, they wrote so many great songs and were killer performers. I'm a big INXS fan...but Midnight Oil were (IMO) even better. I actually list 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 as one of the best albums to come out of the 1980s. It's truly a masterpiece. And DIESEL AND DUST was a huge album. Will they get in? Who knows? They do have a big ally in David Fricke, who always champions the band...though I don't know if he's actually on the Rock Hall's Board or if he's even a voter.

INXS. Majorly influential to me personally. I know those songs inside out, backwards forwards...enough that I will never go see an INXS tribute band, because there is no way it will ever be good enough for me. I will sit there and nitpick that motherfucker and complain all the way home and wonder why I spent money on that shit. Saw them four times from Kick forward, the last a couple months before Michael Hutchence died. Hutchence could work a room with the best of them.

Yeah, Hutchence was such a great frontman. I absolutely love the LIVE BABY LIVE 4K disc I have. It's one of the most stunning things I've ever watched in my home theater. You're lucky, by the way. Yeah, I saw Midnight Oil three times...but I never got a chance to see INXS, for some reason. (And it sounds like you agree with me on the idea that any of their post-1997 reunions were not INXS.)

A lot of people claim KICK is their best album...but I actually think LISTEN LIKE THIEVES is a stronger LP.

Dead Kennedys and Black Flag. How do you have Green Day (highly derivative and not innovative IMO) and not more of the original wave of punk bands? They probably wouldn't show up anyways, but still, why not induct them?

I could not agree with you more!! Green Day is so hugely fucking overrated...similar to Foo Fighters. Green Day, in my humble opinion, did nothing new. They took the sounds of tons of classic punk bands from both sides of the pond, mixed in some of the bombast of even bands like Queen, and made a sort of more media-friendly, watered-down version of punk/pop. And I find them (for the most part) kinda boring. An unexciting band. A bad band? I didn't say that. But I can't imagine myself ever getting truly excited about Green Day in any way.

Dead Kennedys? Yes, a west coast punk band. But who else did they sound like? Nobody!! East Bay Ray created a guitar sound that is instantly identifiable. Peligro was such a great drummer (just passed away). And Jello Biafra? One of the most uncompromising frontmen ever...and a great lyricist. They truly are one of the most dangerous-sounding bands that ever graced a stage. And of course they wouldn't show up. But who cares? (But yes, let's be honest...the Hall inducts people based on which inductions will get high T.V. ratings...it has nothing to do with credibility.)

Black Flag influenced thousands of bands. They were important. And, of course, they'll never get in.

Jethro Tull...meh. "Oh, Anderson plays FLUTE!" Not enough in my eyes. Our former mod Mr. Walker was a fan.

I like them. But I'm not the massive fan my friend is. They really should be inducted. They were pretty huge, influential...have their own sound.

Maybe Duran Duran getting in means more New Wave gets in. DD should have been in earlier, their use of video is the definition of "perpetuation of rock and roll." Finally saw them the other night, great show.

I like Duran Duran. Never had a chance to see them live. If I did see them, it would make me very happy if they played my favorite DD song, THE CHAUFFER (but I know they don't play it live very often). They were influential, they were easily one of the rock video pioneers...had their own sound...a solid singer...a solid look.

The UCR article has Hagar solo on their list. For what? I've always said Dave solo is a stretch, too.

Hagar will never in a million years be inducted (thank God). I can't imagine that even being considered. I can't imagine any self-respecting music personality giving a speech, talking about how influential THREE LOCK BOX was to the world.

I love David Lee Roth. He was the ultimate frontman and the only singer for Van Halen. And even I will admit: he does not deserve to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist. He simply didn't do enough unique material or really create anything new as a solo artist. It'll never happen.

What from the 90's "nu metal" gets in? Most of that is shit. But that's just my age talking :D

For me, the 1990s is so much my generation. That's when I went to High School, etc. But I guess the "grunge age" was my generation's movement...the "Nu Metal" stuff came later. And most of it does nothing for me. I have NO love of Korn...I'm not really a Slipknot fan (though I have nothing against Corey Taylor)...I did enjoy the first three Limp Bizkit albums as "guilty pleasures" (make fun of me all you want...I was young). WHICH of these deserves to be inducted into a Hall of Fame? None of them, I think...though I'm not the expert on this genre.

Let me know if I'm leaving out any of these bands.

[twonabomber]

Duran Duran aren't doing Chauffeur this tour, but they opened with Night Boat and played Friends Of Mine later in the set. First album well represented.

My friend's kid is way into Green Day, I tell him go back and dig into the '80's punk.

[Rikk]

The only way Cherone gets in is if he buys a ticket.

Gary Cherone will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for Tribe of Judah. They were one of the biggest bands in rock history. They were mind-numbingly huge and changed not only the face of music but our entire planet. When I think of 2001-2003, I think not only of 9/11, the Bush years and the "War On Terror," I also think about how everybody in the world was talking about Gary Cherone and his ass-kicking hard rock combo, Tribe of Judah.

Any band who has a Wikipedia entry that is exactly one paragraph long deserves Rock Hall recognition. And it could never be denied that they sold dozens of albums back in the day!!

[So this is love]

I want Steel Panther to be nominated and inducted...Fucking RRHOF.

[Rikk]

I want Steel Panther to be nominated and inducted...Fucking RRHOF.

"Cuz my heart belongs to you...
but my cock is community property."

[So this is love]

"Cuz my heart belongs to you...
but my cock is community property."

...and death to all but metal.

[So this is love]

"Cuz my heart belongs to you...
but my cock is community property."

That guitar riff is insane, I could listen to it all day...

[Seshmeister]

Are you sure that's the one you are thinking of?

[So this is love]

Are you sure that's the one you are thinking of?

Oh no...lol I was refering to Just like Tiger Woods...

[So this is love]

Oh no...lol I was refering to Just like Tiger Woods...

Steel Panther should be inducted just for the fact that they use the words "community property" in two different songs...how many bands have achieved this in their career...

[Terry]

Gary Cherone will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for Tribe of Judah. They were one of the biggest bands in rock history. They were mind-numbingly huge and changed not only the face of music but our entire planet. When I think of 2001-2003, I think not only of 9/11, the Bush years and the "War On Terror," I also think about how everybody in the world was talking about Gary Cherone and his ass-kicking hard rock combo, Tribe of Judah.

Any band who has a Wikipedia entry that is exactly one paragraph long deserves Rock Hall recognition. And it could never be denied that they sold dozens of albums back in the day!!

At this point, the RnRHoF has let so many bands in...like, why the fuck NOT let Gary Cherone in? Let 'em all in. Let Josie And The Pussycats in. Let the Saved By The Bell miming cast band in.

As if anybody under 50 years old even gives two fucks.

[Rikk]

At this point, the RnRHoF has let so many bands in...like, why the fuck NOT let Gary Cherone in? Let 'em all in. Let Josie And The Pussycats in. Let the Saved By The Bell miming cast band in.

As if anybody under 50 years old even gives two fucks.

What about the one-off side album, JUDAH AND THE PUSSYCATS (the Pussycats but let by Gary Cherone instead of the usually ever-present Josie)? It was a side-band that sold pairs of album!!