Ladies Love Cool Gheorghe

The crack team of Gheorghe: The Blog prognosticators for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductions (GTBRnRHoFers, for short) came up with this in February:

And yesterday, the Rock Hall announced its winners:

A few takeaways:

• In Dave style, I will self-proclaim... I'm getting good. 
• There was plenty of chatter that Carole King wasn't rock and that the year of the female would bring in Kate Bush and Chaka Khan instead and that the Foos needed to wait longer and that Fela Kuti got a million tallies on the Fan Vote and that Rage embodied the culture and mindset of 2021. Eh.
• I only missed on Jay-Z, saying "Soon enough." That time is now.
• Alas, poor Devo. I know them well.
• Tina Turner will be the headliner for the show, but my favorite pick other than the obvious is the Go-Go's.

So let's talk about LL Cool J. Technically speaking, the Hall did this:

What the hell is that?  Musical Excellence, not a Performer?  Is LL Cool J not a performer extraordinaire? 

In some ways, it's a backhand that demeans both LL and me.  In others, who cares? He's in.  Along with Billy Preston (the 5th Beatle) and Randy Rhoads in '82 right before that . . .  you know.  

Fast fact no one cares about that I thought of when I saw the list of Early Influencers (other than the fact that this is the only place you will ever see these three artists bundled together, ever): Gil Scott-Heron was on Little Steven's brilliant project Artists United Against Apartheid on "Sun City." That (linked) video is a fun watch.

Anywho... come on, man.

Don't call it a comeback.

Forget Oreos, Eat Cool J Cookies

Last week, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced the latest batch of nominees. A slew of new picks, only one (1) holdover from the 2020 nominees, and only one selection that has been nominated more than twice.

That selection is LL Cool J. Ladies. Love. Cool. James.

It's time.  Hip-hop has slowly started to be embraced by the whitey whites in white town at the Hall. RandB is still working its way into prominence, and Afrobeat? Well... 

Could this be LL's year? As you know, I'm biased, as he was my vintage in rap music. He couldn't live without his radio, he was bad, he rocked the bells, he took down Moe Dee, and he knocked you out because Mama said to. And then he joined NCIS.

Vote for him on the Fan Vote here. Come on, man.

The 2021 nominees are:

• Carole King
• Chaka Khan
• Devo
• Dionne Warwick
• Fela Kuti
• Foo Fighters
• Iron Maiden
• JAY-Z
• Kate Bush
• LL Cool J
• Mary J. Blige
• New York Dolls
• Rage Against the Machine
• The Go-Go’s
• Tina Turner
• Todd Rundgren

And here's my annual take:

Check this out! 

Fela Kuti, Afrobeat pioneer, is currently leading the Fan Vote!!  That there is interesting.

My wish list has LL, Devo, The Go-Go's, Rage, Chaka Khan, Kate Bush, and maybe Iron Maiden just so (the real) Bruce Dickinson can tell the Hall to sod off. In a cooler way than Johnny Rotten did.

Oh, and for sleeper pick? Todd Rundgren.  You know who also thinks so?

Oh, We're Halfway There

It's that time of year again already.  No, not Halloween (see yesterday's post for that), but time to announce this year's nominees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  Time to review the list, see who's new to it, see who the holdovers from years past are, feel the outrage for the snubbees, and wax philosophical about the process and what "deserving" really means.

Eh.  The Hall inductions started in 1986 with:

• Chuck Berry
• James Brown
• Ray Charles
• Sam Cooke
• Fats Domino
• The Everly Brothers
• Buddy Holly
• Jerry Lee Lewis
• Little Richard
• Elvis Presley

Pretty formidable.  31 years later, as a crop of rockers or otherwise gets ushered in each year, it's a much more inclusive group, and most within reason get the nod.  This isn't the BBWAA keeping Cooperstown for the elite only, lording their authority over every nominee.  (Nolan Ryan received just 98.8% of the vote tally, because, you know.)  The Rock Hall is far more like the NFL Hall.  You were great for more than an instant, you're getting considered.

As such, you have Morten Andersen and Yes.  Kevin Greene and Cheap Trick.  Joan Baez and Ray Guy.  Inductees who hung around long enough to be classics, folks a little out of the usual mold, and people that other people enjoyed at some time in their lives.  As it should be.  Exclusivity is passé .

So... who's in this year's crop?  Who will get in?

That's the way I see it. There's a groundswell of support for Bon Jovi and the Moody Blues (somehow), and they do want to fill the event next March.  The Cars are just way too good.  The Hall throws the underserved metal peeps a bone and keeps many more at bay.  Radiohead is a vote for cool and trendy, and they seem a shoo-in.  The inductors add in one random genre pick every year, so maybe Nina Simone.  The Meters could fill that spot, but Dr. John got in 6 years ago and they may space that out.

Meanwhile, The Cure, Smiths, New Order, Pixies, Sonic Youth and others who inhabit hero-dom to alt-rock lovers of the 80's and beyond continue to starve.  Depeche Mode should have been in last year.  I don't know.  It's like reggae: Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff, and then nothing ever.  Peter Tosh, Steel Pulse, the Maytals, etc.  If you have any reggae in a "rock" Hall, do it right.

Rage Against the Machine is getting hyped for entry, but I don't know that they have the discography of most inductees or the clout of the Nirvana / GN'R types. Meanwhile, LL's exclusion continues to stump me, especially when Tupac got in last year.  Ladies Love Cool James must've pissed somebody off.

Don't count on the feelgood posthumous vote for J. Geils.  Cornell/Soundgarden got no love.  Lemmy/Motörhead got no love.  They don't care.

And a rock and roll hall of fame without Mark Knopfler in some form or fashion, at this point, is just stupid.  Same with Willie Nelson.

That's all for now from your resident rock snob.  Go vote for the fan's choice here, if only to combat the Moody Blues campaign. Here's a Spotify playlist with 3 selected songs from each nominee...