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?

Whitney's Second Coming

At Gheorghe: The Blog you can count on us to break the news, quite badly sometimes.

The results are in, and they're . . . we'll, they're in.  Last you saw a Rock Hall headline, Dave Matthews Band won the 2020 Fan Vote overwhelmingly, with over 1,000,000 votes cast online.  So that means they're in (and Rob's happy), right?

Ha ha.
Ha ha ha.

It means DMB got exactly one (1) ballot put into the mix with their name on it. Among 1,000.  What a colossal waste of time for the legions of fans that figured they could will DMB into the RnRHoF with their "voting" or perhaps their "bots," to keep the recent rules-bending theme going. The lesson: there is no rhyme and reason to the Fan Vote, and it's a typical situation for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. What would you say?

Anyway, let's go to the big board.

So what did we learn?  Well, other than that the Fan Vote is a crock of dancing nancies, we learned that I'm getting to know these jokers.

• I pegged DM, the Doobies, Whitney, and Biggie.
• I backed the wrong proto-punk act when I said MC5, not T. Rex... and MC5 now stands for 5 nominations without entry, while T. Rex had never been nominated. They gotta be pissed.
• I picked the wrong member of this co-headlining tour... I went sentimental, which they do not do in the RnRHoF.
• I thought Judas Priest was worthy. But I guess I've got another think comin', or another "thing" comin' if you're Rob Halford. Maybe that's why they kept him out.

That's all for now. I'm your G:TB (Gheorghe: Tiger Beat) roving reporter Whitney (no relation).  Rock on.

Biggie, Lemmy, Whitney, & the Doobies

It's that special time of year again, and it seems to come earlier each year. Not Halloween. Not Thanksgiving. Not even Christmas, even as there are holidays-themed ads popping up here and there already. It's Rock Hall time!

I could offer something purportedly pithy, but I won't. The quick and dirty:

• Pat Benatar
• Dave Matthews Band
• Depeche Mode
• The Doobie Brothers
• Whitney Houston
• Judas Priest
• Kraftwerk
• MC5
• Motörhead
• Nine Inch Nails
• The Notorious B.I.G.
• Rufus featuring Chaka Khan
• Todd Rundgren
• Soundgarden
• T. Rex
• Thin Lizzy

Some familiar faces in the crowd of 16 nominees, and a handful of new entries. Christopher Wallace and Patricia Andrzejewski, aka Biggie Smalls and Pat Benatar, both get their first nods together, which is fitting in some way I haven't come up with yet. (Something about "best shot" seemed inappropriate.)

DM and NIN are back on the ballot, while Devo and Rage fell off.

LL gets the Gas Face. Again.

Kraftwerk is like Jack Morris... in no way whatsoever, except appearing on the Hall of Fame ballot for a long time without entry. Maybe they will follow his lead.

Personally, I would go with Whitney (natch), Depeche Mode, the Doobies, Priest, Biggie, Soundgarden, and maybe even DMB. But I don't get a vote... beyond the Fan Vote, which I encourage you to exercise. Once again, here's the snubbees.

As always, I have made my predictions. Last year I was mostly on, so here we go.

In the meantime, tune into the Les Coole 2020 Nominee Sampler:

It's the Time of the Season

Three months ago yesterday, we filled you dedicated readers in on the latest batch of nominees for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  In addition to the roster of talent, I gave you my predictions as to who would get the nod this year:

And here are the results:

12 out of 15 nominees correct.  That's 80%, a C average.  We will take another crack at it next year and see how we measure up -- perhaps including all of GTB's Music Department staff. Which we said last year.

In the meantime, we present you the soon-to-be-inducted rockers:

• The Cure
• Def Leppard
• Janet Jackson
• Radiohead
• Roxy Music
• Stevie Nicks
• The Zombies

I was actually pretty enthused by the announcement, even as more and more people take aim at the RnRHoF as being a pointless, off-the-mark institution run by cheap, biased jackasses. Or, as Johnny Rotten put it, a piss-stain. Here's an amusing recent article chronicling 17 awkward, insulting, and off-putting moments from the induction ceremonies of the last 30 years. Guess who was mentioned first???  You know who it was.

Eh. It's fun.  And it's not like it's the goddamn Grammys.

So The Zombies got in! It was wishful thinking on my part to make that call, but I'm glad for them. I mean, there's every chance that ubiquitous Walking-Dead-and-the-like zombie-mania over the last few years led to a surge in popularity, or maybe someone even thought that's what they were voting for, but hey, they're in. They're great fun and were likely the first to sing "Who's your daddy?" on the radio.

And The Cure! I'm a big fan and yet didn't think they had the Hall voters swayed. Very glad for Robert Smith & Co. It's just like a dream.

Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me came out a couple of months before Hysteria, but they might as well have emanated from different planets. Their fans certainly did . . . though I can claim to have owned both albums. On cassette.

Back to the modern era... here's a Spotify playlist of tunes from those that got the call.  Enjoy.

GTB Reviews the 2016 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Class

We caught up with GTB's own Whitney this morning to get his take on the recently-announced Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2016. The conversation was, as you might imagine, marked by erudition and insight. Or insults.

Idiots Rule

I've always loved Green Day. They're everything a rock band should be - bombastic, whimsical, loud, fearless. Three chords and the truth, man. On top of all that, Billie Joe Armstrong is my kind (size) of people.

Not trying to steal Clarence's thunder here, as I eagerly await his annual(ish) Rock and Roll Hall of Fame post, but Green Day will be inducted tomorrow as part of the 2015 Hall of Fame class. Punks no more, for better or worse.

'American Idiot' is probably my favorite rock record. Full of righteous anger, head-nodding hooks, and arena rock wall of noise, it was a staple in my CD player (you younger folks may not remember those) for months and months after it was released.

So in honor of Billie Joe, Mike Dirnt, and Tre Cool elbowing their way to respectability, a little Green Day for you this morning.