Morrissey and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

The Seeker of Good Songs

Well-Known Member
After watching the 2008 induction ceremony, I hope Morrissey never chooses to participate in the ceremony or anything to do with it.

What an awful presentation it was. The presenters seemed only to know about the inductee by the speech notes that they read off of; which by the way they read them, you'd think they were just handed the notes prior to going on stage.

The entire production seemed poor and embarrassing.
And what's Tom Hanks have to do with music that he was in the audience and even spoke?

I can see why John Lydon and the Sex Pistols stay away and I hope our Mogsy does not participate either.
 
What did you think of Iggy's performance? I wish he had worn a shirt.
 
What did you think of Iggy's performance? I wish he had worn a shirt.

Well honestly, I quit watching as Timberlake, or whatever his name is, was introducing Madonna. It was so awful, I thought, except for Leonard (which is the only reason I tuned in), that I couldn't watch anymore. People who couldn't read a TelePrompter or notes on paper in front of them.

I had hopes when Lou Reed came out with a big sheaf of papers but then put them aside. I was thinking, "oh, he's going to just speak - ad lib" which he did some, but them went to the papers to read some of Cohen's poetry, but so badly. He ran the line together not knowing or understand poetry has some type of cadence...you don't read it like an encyclopedia.
And up and down with his flip up reading spectacles. Ugh.

(as a side...does Lou Reed have Parkinson's disease or some other problem? It appeared he had uncontrollable shakes or tremors.)

I came back near the end to see if there would be some jam session with Cohen involved, but I only saw Joan Jett or someone...and Billy Joel playing with Fogerty. I just seemed so awful to me. Sorry.
And then it just seemed to unexpectedly end and then the credits came up.


Maybe I am just too critical. It is a fault I have been told I have.
 
I still don't understand why Madonna got the award anyway.
 
I still don't understand why Madonna got the award anyway.


She has had influence on the music industry...whether we like her or not.
 
The R'nR HOF is all about who's friends with Jann Wenner, that's all. Musical merit is beside the point.

Anyhoo: I heard Lou Reed was nervous. I hope he's not ill.
 
But she's not rock n roll!

from:
http://www.kansascity.com/414/story/524839.html

Another March brings another Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, which brings with it another batch of disgruntled e-mails and confused calls from music fans, wondering how the Rock Hall defines "rock" and who is rocking enough to belong there...


So, how does the Rock Hall Foundation define "rock?"
"We define it fairly broadly," said Jim Henke, the hall's chief curator. "Rock `n' roll has become the umbrella for popular music. ...When you go back to its roots of country and blues and R&B and gospel and start there, it basically developed out of all these things, and it's evolved so much."
Henke said music is so subjective that everyone has a different definition of what rock is, often directly influenced by what he or she likes, and thus visitors often leave comments questioning the inclusion of musicians who doesn't easily fall into what could be called "traditional rock" forms. Perhaps more importantly, the artists simply don't resonate with these visitors.
"A few years back when we had our U2 exhibit, we had people come in and say `Hey, that's not rock `n' roll.' Some people think it ended with the Beatles or shortly after the Beatles, some people object to hip-hop and some people object to punk rock, so everyone has their own definition," Henke said.
Moving forward, he said the umbrella will only get bigger: "It's always interesting to hear the debates about these people, like Donna Summer."
With artists from 1983 becoming eligible this year, the list of potential inductees will start to include artists from genres such as new wave (Devo anyone?), punk, early hip-hop (Run DMC, you're up next), college/indie rock and heavy/hair metal. And other, more senior artists have yet to be inducted.
Henke added that while record sales are not a direct factor, longevity and musical/pop culture influence also play a big part in the voting body's choices, and that the music and/or artists should have "some kind of edge to them."
 
When watching the Brits this year it did cross my mind that I couldn't imagine in a million years Morrissey being part of a show like that. He'd just be so out of place.

From what I recall from the few award shows he's attended he's only had to say a few words then has legged it.
 
When watching the Brits this year it did cross my mind that I couldn't imagine in a million years Morrissey being part of a show like that. He'd just be so out of place.

Not only the part that Morrissey dislikes the music industry per se, and they dislike him, but he'd have to sit among many of the people he loathes so; and would have to sit through performances of music that he dislikes. It would seem hypocritical, somehow, of him to be at events like this, not that he doesn't deserve the awards and accolades. And to see him accepting an award and having to thank all the industry people...:sick:

I can not imagine Morrissey on stage at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony with Rourke and Joyce (I keep forgetting which one sued him.)
 
i don't think morrissey would like to be next to lock-jaw pop stars thicker than pig shit like that timberlake or... i don't know, people who doesn't deserve to be in the HOF
 
Next year the ceremony will be in Cleveland, where the hall is located. They said ticket prices will be kept lower so average fans can go. So I'll be going, damnit why couldn't REM be inducted 3 yrs later instead. Would be cool to say I saw one of these events.
 
from Leslie Gray Streeter, Palm Beach Post

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy defines a "no-brainer" as "something that is absurdly simple or easy and requires little thought." And I think that's a perfect description of how easy it should be to get the following 25 artists in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Every single one of these artists has had undeniable influence on music, yet they've been overlooked for inclusion, some for decades. Some of them haven't even been nominated, which makes me question the brains of the Rock Hall selection committee.

1. Carole King
Eligible since: 1984
Here's what I don't get. Every year critics get their Gloria Steinem up about the lack of female artists in the Hall, when they only have to look as far as one of the architects of popular music. Carole King and former husband Gerry Goffin are already in as a songwriting duo for their Brill Building efforts, but it blows my mind this and every time that the woman who made "Tapestry," the gold standard in female singer/songwriting, still hasn't gotten her due as a performer. How can Madonna be in when the woman who sang and wrote "It's Too Late" and "So Far Away" isn't?

2. Chicago
Eligible since: 1994
I speak to you not of the Chicago to whom you are the inspiration and a hard habit to break. I present, instead, the trippy jazz-rock fusion lads with a seemingly 100-person horn section and a way around a psychedelic lyric - witness the hard-charging "25 or 6 to 4," the hippie philosophical "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" and the Beach Boys-accented nostalgia of "Wishing You Were Here." I speak of a band who combined jazz band geek chops with an era-appropriate sense of adventure. I speak of pioneers who need to be recognized.

3. Billy Preston
Eligible since: 1988
Preston's Hall worthiness can be summed up in three words: The Fifth Beatle. Let me elaborate ... do you know who this man has played with? Aretha Franklin? The Rolling Stones? Eric Clapton? Bob Dylan? The Beatles? Come on, y'all. He was the synthesis of funk, jazz and soul. And that's rock.

4. Ashford and Simpson
Eligible since: 1998
Not only were the husband and wife hitmakers in their own right, but they wrote so many epic songs. "You're All I Need To Get By"? "Ain't No Mountain High Enough"? "Reach Out and Touch Somebody's Hand"? "I'm Every Woman"? Classic. And the brains behind them? Genius.

5. Neil Diamond
Eligible since: 1991
Forget for a moment that Neil wrote "I'm a Believer," one of the most solid and infernally catchy pop songs ever created. And stop snickering about the sparkly suits and the over-the-top Vegas-y production. Isn't rock supposed to be about excess, about bigness? Why does that excess always have to be in hair and bar budget? Neil's about an embarrassment of emotional riches wrapped in undeniable lyrical strength. Hello, again? Hello?

6. Donovan
Eligible since: 1990
The Scottish folkie was a master of gentle trippiness and an elegant acoustic touch. There's a youthful lilt to "Mellow Yellow" and "Catch the Wind" that still exudes heft and prowess. He bridged the gap between sprightly guitar lads and thoughtful importance.

7. Darlene Love
Eligible since: 1988
As the voice of the Crystals, and as herself, Darlene was the bold power behind the definitive '60s girl group classics, including "Today I Met the Boy I'm Gonna Marry," "He's a Rebel" and "He's Sure the Boy I Love." Why the Ronettes are in before her, I'll never get.

8. Genesis
Eligible since: 1993
Genesis is another band whose historic rep might be suffering from comparison to its more recent cheesy glory. Forget the goofy Boomers who mugged through the "I Can't Dance" video in the 1990s. That shouldn't negate "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" oddities from the Peter Gabriel days or even spacey love songs like "Follow You, Follow Me" and "Taking It All Too Hard" from the early Phil Collins era. The Hall forgave McCartney for" The Girl Is Mine." Why can't it show Genesis some love?

9. The Commodores
Eligible since: 1999
Where can I start? The flaming instrumental groove of "Machine Gun?" The nasty funk of "Brick House?" The sexy call-and-response testifying on "Just to Be Close to You?" Even without the popularity of Lionel Richie's hit ballads ("Three Times a Lady," anyone?), Tuskegee's own burned with a heaping helping of Southern soul and jazz flash.

10. Tina Turner
Eligible since: 1998
Already in the Hall for her work with ex-husband Ike Turner, Tina's solo career has been a marvel. You think rock radio is hostile to women? Try being a black woman. In your 40s. But Tina, building on '60s relationships with rockers like the Rolling Stones, recast herself in the '80s as an ageless, timeless force of nature equally at home with Adult Contemporary ballads and scorching leather-clad roof raisers.

11. Hall and Oates
Eligible since: 1997
Philadelphia's Hall and Oates competently scaled the heights of R&B with the authenticity that comes from just not acting like crossovers. They just sang their song. And it was always mighty soulful.

12. The Stylistics
Eligible since: 1996
You can't fake those harmonies. You can't fake the chills running down your neck when Russell Thompkins Jr. hit that piercing falsetto. You can't fake the sweetness of "You Are Everything," "Stoned in Love With You" and "Betcha By Golly Wow." They helped define Philly soul, for Pete's sake.

13. Dick Dale
Eligible since: 1987 He took a Greek folk song and turned it into "Miserilou," a blistering surf metal standard. It provided not only the grinding retro soul of Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" and the backdrop of the Black Eyed Peas' "Pump It," but instantly evokes the churning danger and fast fury of the ocean and the fast times to be had around it. Besides that, it just kicks butt.

14. Joe Cocker
Eligible since: 1994
Oh, that glorious rasp. How it is that such a rough vocal instrument, wielded by a man with herky-jerky stage movements, is capable of both such tenderness ("You Are So Beautiful," "Up Where We Belong," "With a Little Help From My Friends") and flaming sexuality ("You Can Leave Your Hat On")? From the gruffer side of blue-eyed soul, he's a first-rate interpreter who just throws himself-literally-into a song.

15. Chic
Eligible since: 2002
If Chic's Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards had only been responsible for "Freak Out" or written for and produced Sister Sledge, Diana Ross, Debbie Harry and Robert Palmer (along with Rodgers' work with Madonna, Duran Duran, Robert Plant and more), they'd be worthy of praise. But in one song, the iconic "Good Times," they provided the backdrop for two early hip-hop hits, The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" and Blondie's "Rapture," and apparently inspired Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust." They keep getting nominated, and the Hall keeps turning 'em down.
 
continued...

16. The Cars
Eligible since: 2003
Our recent synthesizer rock past is not a period that generally inspires a lot of pride. But Boston's The Cars are an exception - New Wave geniuses who danced on the edge between adventurous and odd, and made it work. They had avant garde videos and awesome hair, but it all comes back to the killer hook in every song that sticks in your head long after you hear it.

17. War
Eligible since: 1998
I'm happy to say that in 2008, it's barely noticeable when a band's lineup is racially diverse. But not so much in the turbulent '60s, when Americans of different backgrounds didn't go to the same schools together, live in the same neighborhoods or eat in the same restaurants. But The Animals' Eric Burdon and an assemblage of musicians formed a funky, poppy band whose bizarre songs ("The Cisco Kid," "Why Can't We Be Friends") had you scratching your head while kicking your butt. Now we know we can be friends. Can't we get War in the Rock Hall?

18. Heart
Eligible since: 2001
This'll be a short one. Before Ann and Nancy Wilson, no one believed women could rock. I mean, rock hard. I mean, write and wail and kick down doors with their awesomeness. I mean, make guys want to both jam with them and take them home. Ignoring this is a travesty.

19. The Hollies
Eligible since: 1989
They get compared to the Beatles a lot, but Graham Nash's former group was perhaps superior to the Fab Four in one vital area - their exquisite vocal harmonies that lifted songs like "Bus Stop," "Carrie Anne" and "Step Inside" into the ethereal.

20. Don Kirshner
Eligible since: 1983
So he reinvented the Brill Building. So he created the sound of The Monkees. So he gave Neil Diamond, Carole King and so many other songwriters their start. So his "Rock Concert" shows are considered a precusor of MTV. So ... why isn't the man in?

21. Ice-T
Eligible since: 2007
He's playing a cop on "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" now, but back in the early 1990s, Ice-T channeled the anger and frustration of a community that felt a target was on its back through "Cop Killer." He and other rappers opened a dialogue about what was happening on the streets the way only musicians can. And his thrash rock band Body Count proved further that rock and rage know no color.

22. The Moody Blues
Eligible since: 1989
They had mod beginnings ("Go Now") and a 1980s resurgence ("In Your Wildest Dreams"), but in the middle, the Moody Blues were leading lights in prog rock. And the gem of them all? "Nights in White Satin," one of the weirdest songs to also be sexy. Breathe deep the gathering gloom, y'all!

23. Squeeze
Eligible since: 2003
Wittiness is hard. Wittiness that doesn't become preciousness is harder. But Chris Difford, Glenn Tillbrook, Jools Holland and company created some of the most gorgeous evidence of the latter. "Pulling Mussels From a Shell," "Goodbye Girl," "Annie Get Your Gun" and "Black Coffee in Bed" are lessons in the kind of heartbreak you can dance to, and "Tempted," sung by the amazing Paul Carrack, is just a masterpiece.

24. Jimmy Buffett
Eligible since: 1995
The man isn't just a musician-he's a movement. Ask yourself how many artists can command that sort of loyal fan base with people who aren't selling hemp wallets and falafel in the parking lot. The answer: Not many.

25. The English Beat
Eligible since: 2005
If there's a smile on my face, it's only there to sing the praises of Dave Wakeling, Ranking Roger and their partners in ska. Like War, The English Beat and their next phase, General Public, were a multi-cultural crew merrily mixing genres and getting their dance on. Brilliant.[/I]
 
1. Carole King

Agreed, but too dated.

2. Chicago

God, no. Anybody's who's ever been in marching band can agree with me on this one.

3. Billy Preston

Love him, but he's dead, and nobody remembers anything he's done, except for Beatles fans who know that he played keyboards on "Get Back."

4. Ashford and Simpson

One-hit wonders. Nobody cares that they wrote lots of great songs for others.

5. Neil Diamond

Definitely should be in there.

6. Donovan

Inducting a hippy would be so antithetical to modern sensibilities, it would be worth doing just for the shock value.

7. Darlene Love

Who? I don't know any of those songs.

8. Genesis

I'll withhold my opinion, given present company. ;)

9. The Commodores

Totally.

10. Tina Turner

Hell, yes!

11. Hall and Oates

A begrudging yes. They were better than they looked.

12. The Stylistics

Nobody remembers them. (Well, I don't.)

13. Dick Dale

Yes!

14. Joe Cocker

Another yes!


NO effing way. It's not the Disco Hall of Fame!
 
continued...
24. Jimmy Buffett
Eligible since: 1995
The man isn't just a musician-he's a movement. Ask yourself how many artists can command that sort of loyal fan base with people who aren't selling hemp wallets and falafel in the parking lot. The answer: Not many.

I have been moved in many parking lots many times due to number 24.

And heeeey... Whats with the sly Dave Matthews Band and Phish reference?
 
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