Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Yesterday Jill was wiped out from her first midterm of the week and tried to go to bed early, but had to wait until dark because my neighbor’s roof was being replaced. I read the paper, had some fried chicken and creamed spinach for dinner, then watched the live broadcast of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It was ok, best parts were Sammy and Mike accepting the award for Van Halen (and playing “Why Can’t This Be Love”), Velvet Revolver covering “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love” and “Best of Both Worlds”, and Eddie Vedder inducting and playing with R.E.M. AOL has the replay.

The Hall of Fame has come under fire recently, justifiably in my view. Inductees this year included Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Patti Smith and the Ronettes. Nice, but are they really rock and roll? Look at this partial list of artists that haven’t been inducted (and are eligible):
INXS, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Ozzy Osbourne, Bryan Adams, Def Leppard, Descendents, Iron Maiden, The Cars, Devo, Dire Straits, Squeeze, Toto, Whitesnake, The Boomtown Rats, Cheap Trick, Eddie Money, Foreigner, George Thorogood, Iggy Pop, Motörhead, Peter Gabriel, XTC, Boston, Heart, John Mellencamp, Journey, Ted Nugent, Bad Company, Jefferson Starship, Judas Priest, Kansas, KISS, Robert Palmer, ABBA, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Rush, Blue Öyster Cult, Foghat, Hall & Oates, Joe Walsh, Lou Reed, Peter Frampton, Scorpions, Styx, America, The Doobie Brothers, Electric Light Orchestra, Little Feat, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Meat Loaf, REO Speedwagon, Thin Lizzy, War, Badfinger, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, The J. Geils Band, Jimmy Buffett, Mountain, Supertramp, Alice Cooper, Blind Faith, Bread, The Carpenters, Chicago, Grand Funk Railroad, Joe Cocker, Johnny Winter, King Crimson, Three Dog Night, Warren Zevon, Yes, Blood Sweat & Tears, Blue Cheer, Deep Purple, Emmylou Harris, Genesis, Jethro Tull, Steppenwolf, Steve Miller Band, T. Rex, Gram Parsons, Jeff Beck, Procol Harum, Cat Stevens, Love, The Guess Who, The Hollies, The Moody Blues, The Zombies

I think every single one of those artists should go in before anyone else is even nominated. Come on – no Bad Company, KISS, Boston (RIP Brad Delp, you’ll be missed), Styx, or Rush? Most of these artists are the very definition of classic rock, and the Hall of Fame dishonors it’s own name by not inducting them.

In other rock news, maybe Live Earth will be in DC after all. I knew there was a good reason Congress went blue…