Rant #3,125; Rock the Boat

I still get ticked off by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and its choices for entrance into this supposedly hallowed Hall.

Yesterday, it announced its newest members, and I have to say, if this isn’t the worst class ever, then certainly, based on this class, the worst is probably yet to come, because I said the same exact thing last year about the 2022 class.

When your top three inductees are named Willie Nelson, Missy Elliott and Kate Bush, you know you are in major trouble.

What these people have to do with rock and roll is beyond my comprehension, but the three of them will generate ad revenue for the yearly show, which I assume qualifies them for even being nominated over many more deserving acts.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has been controversial since the get go, and once the obvious inductees were put into the Hall—Elvis Presley, Beatles, Rolling Stones—it was almost a certainty that each and every year, there was going to be a rumble from some quarter at first, the nominees, and second, the inductees.

Not every act that has hit records should be in the Hall of Fame; it is supposed to be what influence that act had on other generations of rock performers, but I fail to see where recent inductees qualify as being influential.

This year’s class includes The Spinners, and that is one act going in that I really can’t argue with.

They were the last of their type of act—the multi-member act of black, male singers based on the Motown model of the Four Tops and the Temptations—and while I would not call them influential, they did have a string of hits into the mid-1990s that made them one of the most popular acts of their generation for all audiences.

OK, they should be in based on the supposed parameters of the Hall, but how about, in addition to the three singers I mentioned earlier, this rogues galley of performers who were voted into the hall in the latest class:

George Michael
Sheryl Crow
Rage Against the Machine
Al Kooper (I am kind of wishy washy on his being elected in and he feels the same way according to news reports.)
Chaka Khan (I feel much the same about her as I do about Kooper.)

I have read numerous articles about the Hall and just about each one of them states the same thing: the latest class shows “inclusion” along racial and gender lines, and the Hall is just so proud of that.

Well, just like in the real world, the use of “inclusion” has been bent to the breaking point to satisfy some egocentric need to include everyone, and when you practice “inclusion,” that also means you are going to practice “exclusion” of those more deserving, and the same thing goes on each and every year in the Hall.

Too many politics, too little listening to the public when it comes to nominations and those who eventually get in.

I can name plenty of acts that should have gotten in years ago that still aren’t in, and probably won’t ever get in, including the following:

Chubby Checker
Lesley Gore
Monkees
Michael Nesmith (as a solo performer, and music and video pioneer)
Tommy James and the Shondells
The Turtles
Three Dog Night

And if I really racked my brain, I could probably think of about 20 more acts that should be in there but aren’t, won’t and will never be.

The newest list of nominees will be announced later this year, and I shudder to think about that group, most of whom will probably have as much right to be elected to the Hall as I do, and maybe less so.

But guaranteed, a year from now, I will probably be as upset with the newest inductees as I am now with the 2023 group, because when you throw politics into anything where it doesn’t belong, you are going to have problems—and dissent.

And even though Jan Wenner doesn’t rule this roost anymore, politics and money run the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and really, always will run the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame …

So what, me worry?