Rant #1,530: HoF NG

Last week, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced its nominations for its most recent list of potential inductees into its hallowed halls of honor.

And once again, it has created a cauldron of banter, mostly negative, about who gets into the HoF and who doesn't, and why.

Now that I have had a few days to digest all of this, I think I can write about it with a clear mind.

Janet Jackson?

She has as much to do with rock and roll as Zamfir does, but she will get in. It is a lock. They need performers like this to generate advertising for the televised show and for the HoF itself.

Heck, no advertiser is going to pay good money to have acts like Cheap Trick, Chicago and Deep Purple lead the inductees.

You can have them, but you absolutely need Janet Jackson, NWA and that lot, because that is the PC world we live in, one the advertisers just love to spend their money in.

Sorry Spinners. Without Jackson, you aren't going anywhere.

As for those who were left out this year, and are always left out, I can say one thing to you: fuggedaboudit.

You aren't ever getting in, as long as the hierarchy in place is still ruling that kingdom.

So yes, an entire era of music--the early to mid 1960s pop-rock that literally, and ironically, set the table for acts like current nominee Cheap Trick--might never be heard from again as far as the HoF is concerned.

And I guess that if that is how it is, then so be it.

We know what we like, and we don't need this paper HoF to justify it.

But yes, it would be nice to have acts like Paul Revere and the Raiders, the Monkees, Lesley Gore, Chubby Checker, the Turtles, the Moody Blues and so many others acknowledged, but it simply isn't going to happen.

As for those who were nominated, aside from Jackson, Chicago should get in. They probably should have been in long ago.Their potent mix of rock and horns sets them apart from most other acts from that era, although their later, sappy music is probably better known by most audiences.

It would not kill me if the Spinners get in. They were really the final link to that Motown-generated soul machine, although they had their biggest successes at Atlantic Records.

Deep Purple and Cheap Trick are pretty much in the same boat. Pop rockers at their best, they kind of tread water between this type of music and other genres, including hard rock, which kind of morphed into heavy metal.

The others, I don't remember who was even nominated.

But as for Chic, I do think that 10 nominations is enough. They aren't getting in, because they simply do not deserve to, even though they kind of mixed rock, pop and disco, but their slim collection of recorded work pretty much lands them in the dumpster once again.

Look, Hall of Fames are meant to be discussed, over-analyzed, and berated, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is no exception to that unwritten rule.

But it does not compare to what happens each year with the Baseball Hall of Fame, where controversy is literally its middle name.

I just have to mention one player's name for you to get my drift, if you don't already---

Pete Rose.

'Nuf said.

So, in closing, good luck to this year's nominees, but until a representative batch of acts that play the music that I personally like is in there, I won't be visiting the hallowed halls in Cleveland anytime soon.

Why should I? I have my own Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in my mind, and sorry, it has little or nothing to do with what the actual, brick and mortar Rock and Roll Hall of Fame stands for.

And if you agree, let's all do the Twist ...