KISS inducted to Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and 'Nothing to Lose"

For the past  few days, I  have been fascinated by the music group, Kiss.
Last year they  had some controversy about their 2014 induction
to the Rock and Roll of Fame.  The group's two founders , bassist Gene
Simmons, and rhythm guitarist, Paul Stanley complained about the Hall
not inducting any of the group's non-original members, some of whom had
been with the band for years.  The Hall are only inducting the group's 
original four members, Simmons, Stanley, drummer Peter Criss, and lead
guitarist Ace Frehley.  This is standard practice for the Hall, usually they don't induct
replacement members of a group if they were not  around for a group's most important work.
For example-Bob Welch and many other members  were not inducted with Fleetwood Mac, and Bruce Johnston and  other replacement Beach Boys were  not inducted with the Beach Boys.

Stanley and Simon told the Hall of Fame that they would not perform without  two current replacement members Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer.

It turns out that Simmons and Stanley do not get along well with Criss and Frehley. Criss and Frehley, were both drug users and /or alcoholics during the 1970's and Frehley continued to have problems with substance abuse till about seven years ago. Remarkably, neither Simmons or Stanley drank or did drugs regularly (quite unusual for Rock stars of 1970's ).  But Simmons had a problem with sex addiction and both Simmons and Stanley seem excessively controlling and greedy.   The result of this is that Simmons and Stanley are continuously bad mouthing Criss and Frehley in the press, even when there seems no earthly reason to do so.  Makes for controversy and that in itself keeps the group in the news, and helps sells concert tickets.  

The video above from 1995 (Unplugged )  has all four original members as well as two of the replacements. Yes, and their not wearing their classic  makeup.  As you can see they are actually surprisingly engaging  performers without the makeup and their stage  persona's .

The first lead singer on this performance, is replacement drummer Eric Singer, and the second lead is done by former drummer, Peter Criss, the singer who sang on the band's biggest hit, Beth.  At this point in time, He and Ace Frehley are simply  putting in a guest appearance with the group. They both left the band in the early 1980's and in the late 1990's and early 2000's  would come back for various reunion tours.  By 2004, they were both out of the band again, and the replacements were back. 



This is the  same song with makeup sung in 1974 in this appearance on Dick Clark.   In this version, the song writer, Gene Simmons performs the first lead and Peter Criss does the second lead.

Kiss, were  actually quite popular with teenagers and tweens  in the mid 1970's , though I never took much interest in them.  All those teenagers grew up and now have big wallets, so Kiss's reunions tours of late 1990's and early 2000's   and the  subsequent shows with replacement members in the past decade, have been quite  lucrative.

Their reunion tour a show in Brooklyn, NY doing their anthem, "Rock and Roll All Night".

The performance is exciting, though you can't get away from how inane the actual lyric  is. 
 I  think that  after reexamining their oeuvre I find that my original opinion stands, that they were not among the great musicals acts of their age, but they were better than I thought, and I must say their stage show and that makeup  were and still are pretty cool.  

The Tale of Florence Ballard of the Supremes.

...

This is one  of the best recordings made by Florence Ballard with The Supremes . Florence "Flo"Glenda Ballard along with Diana Ross, and Mary Wilson was one of the three original Supremes in their classic 1960's lineup.   There are actually not that many lead vocals by Flo, because despite her obvious talent she and jazz voiced Mary Wilson were largely pushed aside so as to allow Diana Ross to sing almost all the leads on Supreme records even on B-sides and album tracks. (It's as if the Eagles only had Don Henley sing lead vocals. ) Clearly, Ross had a more distinctive, more commercial voice, then her trio partners, but Ross's   thin and unemotional voice was not necessarily always a  particularly better singing voice. Still, can one really argue  when Diana Ross was the lead vocalist on  18 #1 hits? Ross has sung lead vocals on more American number one hits than any other female singer except Mariah Carey who has also has 18 #1's.

Florence Ballard had great range, she could sing high and low, and sang more soulfully than Ross.  Oddly, she was most renowned for her ability to sing loud.  However, she also sometimes had poor phrasing, and lacked the confidence of a lead singer.  In the early 1960's before  the Supremes became big, in the early 1960's all three girls sang lead vocals, and did a lot more ensemble singing,  which meant that group did not have any clear distinct sound. Barry Gordy Jr., the President  of Motown eventually decided that Ross' voice was the most distinct and most commercial, and when the group was paired with songwriters Holland -Dozier Holland in 1964,  they finally took off after having released numerous failed singles. 

 At first, it didn't matter that Ross was being groomed to be a superstar, because between  1964 and 1967 the Supremes were the most successful  female vocal group in the world- placing ten songs at number one on the American charts- all written by that  legendary Motown songwriter team of Holland-Dozier-Holland. Wilson and Ballard were a key part of the success more for their  visual appeal than for their  vocal abilities. Still, the vocal backgrounds of Flo and Mary provided a soulful and etheral background to the pop stylings of Diana Ross. Flo often sang powerfully in the background. These three Black girls from the Detroit housing projects were  transformed into elegant ladies who were  seen in fancy clubs and on national television dozens of times  in the early years, and they became the creme-De-Le creme of Motown acts. Wilson was uncommonly beautiful and sexy; Ballard was   cute, tall, homey,  endearing and sexy. The rail thin, bug eyed, Ross was perhaps  less attractive, but she was a natural performer, and  a intelligent  women with a considerable sense of flair and style. Ross  also improved as a singer, as she aged, while Florence voice  was it' s worst when she finally got a chance to sing a whole solo album. Most of  all they looked great as a team, and Holland-Dozier-Holland songs  they sang are classics. 

Diana Ross, is  a particularly selfish person, and over time thorough hers and  Berry Gordy's manipulations she went from being just one of the girls in 1959, to in 1967 being billed as the group's star accompanied by  two increasingly  irrelevant backing singers. Ross  went from singing with the girls, to singing to the side of them, and finally to  just singing in front of them. This was true of many Motown groups , one lead singer in front-but most  of  these other groups did not have two backing singers who were world famous. Ross also had a close (partly romantic ) relationship with Barry Gordy and she  took advantage  of this to go over the head of anybody at Motown who crossed her.

After awhile, Ross  was the only one allowed to talk to the press or talk on stage. Bizarrely, in most of the  Supremes later recordings (in 1968 and  1969)  session musicians are used to sing backup vocals.  The group had two more number one songs in this period (for a total of 12)  but were  not as successful as they had been.  Still, Mary Wilson hung on  through the constant  indignities and in 1970, Diana Ross left for her solo career and was replaced by a Jean Terrell, a  new lead singer, and the group continued with some other changes all the way through 1977.  Mary Wilson even sang lead on a few  of the latter day Supremes hits.  Since 1977, Mary Wilson has continued singing in a modest solo career, where she is the lead singer. Mary Wilson died in 2021.

Things didn't work out as well for  Florence Ballard. By late 1966,  Florence Ballard became unhappy with the way things were going in the Supremes, and she began to become to internalize her anger, and she  became  unreliable and sometimes  drunk. Flo had been raped as a teenager, and that may also have played into her anger issues. Motown made very little effort to help her with problems and just discarded her . On July 1, 1967, Ballard  was fired from the group, and  she never recovered from this humiliation   in the years that followed. (Flo  was replaced by Cindy Birdsong.)


Flo's solo album on the ABC  record label was left unreleased after two failed singles.   Her small settlement from  Motown, was either squandered or  stolen by her lawyer, and in the early 1970's,  she found herself having to go on welfare to care for her children. Imagine being on the top of the world in 1965, to sinking to such depths by 1974, This happened  partly through the actions of others, but also through one's own bad choices.   In 1976 she died, from a heart issue.   Her death is  considered one of the the saddest events in rock-n-roll history.


People have not forgotten Florence Ballard. In 2007 actress/singer Jennifer Hudson won a supporting actress Oscar  for her  portrayal of Effie White, the character inspired by Florence Ballard, in the movie adaption of the Broadway musical Dreamgirls.  What strikes me about Florence Ballard, is that she was a  human being,  not a star.  There is some cool footage  of the Supremes, performing  "Stop in the Name of Love" on the Hollywood Palace TV show.  In the beginning,  there's one of the Supremes' trademark chorus girl dance moves. They all move their left to right feet  five  times in unison.  Florence misses the last step.  

Diana Ross, Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard

..

Supremes performing "Stop In The Name of Love".

 

The Supremes: It Makes No Difference Now

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All three Supremes sing lead on this track recorded in 1963.  In order-Mary Wilson, Florence Ballard and Diana Ross.   It is my favorite Florence Ballard vocal.

Kate Bush comeback greeted with huge cheers

It took thirty five years but it finally  happened    British Pop Diva, Kate Bush returned to live performance.   The number of concerts  was  minimal.  and only in one venue,the Hammersmith Apollo, but at this point any kind of live Kate Bush performance is welcome.   The performances are  called "Before the Dawn", there were  a total of 22 concerts  held in London in August 26, 2014 and October 1, 2014.

Before this, Kate Bush had only toured twice.  Firstly there was a  series of practice gigs  around London in 1977 with the KT  band before she became big, and  then one highly elaborate  tour in 1979. She has never performed in the USA, or outside Europe.  Kate's April to May 1979 tour (known later as the Tour Of Life)  is famous for featuring elaborate dance routines, and her pioneering use of a non- hand held microphone.  The tour featured   28 dates in Great Britain and on the Continent.  Since then her only live performances have been a few live television appearances. Why hasn't Kate performed more live?  She has a fear of flying, she prefers working in the studio, doesn't need the money, and she likes her privacy and spending time with her family.

VHS tape of the 1979 tour.

Waiting for Kate Bush is always a long wait.  She has only made four original studio albums in the past 28 years, a slow pace even in  today's environment where older legacy artists usually wait a few years between releases.   In those 28 years she has made no concert appearances, and appeared rarely on TV.  Nor did she break up the time with stopgap compilation albums. She has released only one greatest hits album, one album of re-recordings,  one box set (not released worldwide) and no DVD's over the course of her career.  Her numerous non-album B-sides and rarities  have only been compiled once on the aforementioned box set. Her production of B-sides, soundtrack appearances and other rarities is one area where  Kate exceeds other artists with her productivity, so it's shame they haven't been compiled in a more affordable format. The same with videos--her videos were all great-why not put that out on DVD.
 

Kate made the unusual step of asking audiences not to record the performances on their phones.  The shows were recorded for the 2016 triple album, also called Before The Dawn. The show was also filmed without an audience -but that visual document was never released.  This greatly annoyed the many fans who could not get one of the 75,000 seats available for the residency.


The set list comprised most of Hounds of Love, many songs  of Aerial, two songs from The Red Shoes, and one song from 50 Words for Snow. Bush's first four albums  were noticeably excluded from the set list. One song "Never Be Mine" was meant to    included in the  show but had to removed to cut some of the time off the show. It was included on the CD version of the concert.   Some fans complained that there were not more hits.  Kate voice had lost more of it's higher ranges-but even so most were happy with her singing and the staging of the show.

^{The set list from Wikipedia...} Introduction

1. "Lily"
2. "Hounds of Love"
3. "Joanni"
4. "Top of the City"
5. "Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)"
6. "King of the Mountain"

The Ninth Wave

1. Video Interlude - And Dream of Sheep
2. "Under Ice"
3. "Waking the Witch"
4. "Watching You Without Me"
5. Little Light (Performed by Backing Vocalists)
6. Jig of Life
7. Hello Earth
8. The Morning Fog

A Sky of Honey

1. Prelude
2. Prologue
3. An Architect's Dream
4. The Painter's Link
5. Sunset
6. Aerial Tal
7. Somewhere in Between
8. Tawny Moon (performed by Albert McIntosh)
9. Nocturn
10. Aerial

Encore

1. Among Angels
2. Cloudbusting

Originally posted August 29, 2014

Kate Bush Live -Before The Dawn (updated)

 It took thirty-five years but it finally  happened    British Pop Diva, Kate Bush returned to live performance.   The number of concerts  was  minimal.  and only in one venue,the Hammersmith Apollo, but at this point any kind of live Kate Bush performance is welcome.   The performances are  called "Before the Dawn", there were  a total of 22 concerts  held in London in August 26, 2014 and October 1, 2014.

Before this, Kate Bush had only toured twice.  Firstly there was a  series of practice gigs  around London in 1977 with the KT  band before she became big, and  then one highly elaborate  tour in 1979. She has never performed in the USA, or outside Europe.  Kate's April to May 1979 tour (known later as the Tour Of Life)  is famous for featuring elaborate dance routines, and her pioneering use of a non- hand held microphone.  The tour featured   28 dates in Great Britain and on the Continent.  Since then her only live performances have been a few live television appearances. Why hasn't Kate performed more live?  She has a fear of flying, she prefers working in the studio, doesn't need the money, and she likes her privacy and spending time with her family.

VHS tape of the 1979 tour.

Waiting for Kate Bush is always a long wait.  She has only made four original studio albums in the past 28 years, a slow pace even in  today's environment where older legacy artists usually wait a few years between releases.   In those 28 years she has made no concert appearances, and appeared rarely on TV.  Nor did she break up the time with stopgap compilation albums. She has released only one greatest hits album, one album of re-recordings,  one box set (not released worldwide) and no DVD's during these thirty five years.   Finally, in recent years Kate did put out two set collection of remasters of most of output. She also released a standalone rarities collection-which sadly excludes five of her B-sides.  Still no sign of any DVD release.

ABOUT BEFORE THE DAWN

Kate made the unusual step of asking audiences not to record the performances on their phones.  The shows were recorded for the 2016 triple album, also called Before The Dawn. The show was also filmed without an audience -but that visual document was never released.  This greatly annoyed the many fans who could not get one of the 75,000 seats available for the residency.

The set list comprised most of Hounds of Love, many songs  of Aerial, two songs from The Red Shoes, and one song from 50 Words for Snow. Bush's first four albums  were noticeably excluded from the set list. One song "Never Be Mine" was meant to    included in the  show but had to removed to cut some of the time off the show. It was included on the CD version of the concert.   Some fans complained that there were not more hits.  Kate voice had lost more of it's higher ranges-but even so most were happy with her singing and the staging of the show.

^{The set list from Wikipedia...} Introduction

1. "Lily"
2. "Hounds of Love"
3. "Joanni"
4. "Top of the City"
5. "Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)"
6. "King of the Mountain"

The Ninth Wave

1. Video Interlude - And Dream of Sheep
2. "Under Ice"
3. "Waking the Witch"
4. "Watching You Without Me"
5. Little Light (Performed by Backing Vocalists)
6. Jig of Life
7. Hello Earth
8. The Morning Fog

A Sky of Honey

1. Prelude
2. Prologue
3. An Architect's Dream
4. The Painter's Link
5. Sunset
6. Aerial Tal
7. Somewhere in Between
8. Tawny Moon (performed by Albert McIntosh)
9. Nocturn
10. Aerial

Encore

1. Among Angels
2. Cloudbusting

The official video filmed by Kate Bush for use in Before the Dawn

Originally posted August 29, 2014 Updated June 2019

Star Trek: The Original Series Soundtrack Collection- Behind the Score

Here's a video overview of the 15 disc Star Trek-The Original Series Collection.
This is a new collection,released in late 2012, which features some recordings that have been released before, but many more that haven't.  Star Trek-Original Series soundtrack music  has long been a bit of holy grail for Star Trek fans because no soundtrack album was released during the original series run.

Finally In the 1990's, CD's  were released of some  the original Star Trek music, but some of them were re-recordings done in rearranged musical suites . Those releases did not include  every cue or episode, for example there was no original recordings from the third season, and none of the vocal tracks by Nichelle Nichols, Leonard Nimoy etc. were released . But this new  collection has it all and more. This collection also includes cues that were composed  and recorded but  not used.

Original scores were written and recorded for about  half the episodes, so not every episode had an original score. For some episodes, cues were simply borrowed from other episodes.  So that's why you would hear some the same bits used in multiple episodes, and that's why the music became so familiar to fans. 

So here we finally have it all together.  Although Star Trek fans are biased, it seems apparent that the original series had a fairly good background scoring, I can think of more than one episode, owes much to it's score, most notably the "Doomsday Machine" and "Amok Time". 

If I had money to burn, I would have bought  this. Though this  is was one of those  expensive (235 dollar!) limited edition sets that are all the rage now, because  they are profitable, sought after, and  too big to steal with illegal downloads.  Sadly, they often go out of print before  you can buy them.

Also in Felpin's Pond:

Star Trek:Original Series Soundtrack Collection:Track Listing

Jerome Bixby's man from Earth

Heart - Battle Of Evermore, Rock-N-Roll Hall of Fame 9-2-95

(THE VIDEO FOR THIS POST-often gets pulled so if you don't see or hear it-that is why).This song means a lot to me.  My favorite female singer is Sandy Denny.  Her best selling recording, is her appearance on Led Zeppelin IV, singing with Robert Plant on  Plant/Page's  original folk-rock song, "The Battle of Evermore".  The song  came about because Jimmy Page just happened to be messing around on for the first time on  a Mandolin one day-and just made up  this amazing tune. Led Zeppelin never performed  the song live effectively,  because Plant's live duet partner, in the band, John Paul Jones, sang it poorly. So the best live performance of the song has to be this version by Ann and Nancy Wilson.

Ann and Nancy have always been the best Led Zeppelin cover band around, and "Battle of Evermore" effectively taps into the Wilson's acoustic roots, better than any other of their Zeppelin covers.  

Mary Chapin Carpenter - "Just Because"

Remember Mary Chapin Carpenter? She is not related to Harry Chapin or Karen Carpenter. She got big in the 1990's when anybody could sell a million copies of a CD.  She had four platinum albums.  She had a MOR hit with the Lucinda Williams song, "Passionate Kisses". She also had  about eight other top ten country hits.

My favorite song of hers is one called "Just Because".  It's a song she wrote that was on her relatively obscure debut 1987  album called Hometown Girl. "Just Because"  has an exquisite melody and lyric  made soulful by her rich alto voice. The song can also be found on a obscure compilation album of hers called Super Hits

A modest proposal to to bring free market principles to the US political system

A modest proposal to  to bring free market principles to the US political system and to prevent politicians  from becoming a burden to their nation.. (Spoiler-this article is satire)

Two  recent Supreme Court decisions (Citizen United and McCutcheon v. FEC) right minded though they may be, did  not go nearly far enough to bring a free market system to our expensive , wasteful system of elections and government.   If the core  principles of "corporations are people too" and "one dollar, one vote" are to be truly beneficial to our nation, they will need to be carried out further.  Free market principles,  as a rule, always bring incredible  efficiencies  to every market endeavor-just look at the great increase in revenues for aging  rock stars ( and ticketing  agencies) once they actually  began  charging what the market will bear for concert tickets. 

A private well compensated body should be  set up to conduct  auctions for all leadership positions in the federal government.   Bidders should be able to obtain for a price (and a small fee) which ever positions in the government they wish to control. Why spend all of the money of the donor class on  CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS FOR CANDIDATES and indirect bribes   when that money could instead be spent on government itself.   Once bidders have bought the positions they will be obligated to pay for all the salary, benefits, staff and office expenses for the position in question.  There will be  no more complaining about the great expense of Air Force One, for once in private hands the jet will be downsized, and market efficiencies introduced. Extra staff will be let go. Future  First Ladies will have to pay for her own vacations.

We shouldn't have to pay for the First Lady's  trips to feed foreign animals.

The resulting savings, may eventually enable the government to cease charging taxes all together and rely solely  on auction receipts,  government fees, and foreign  bond holders to cover those government expenses that we actually choose  to pay for.   With tax money back in the hands of the  investing class, the nation will once again be able to invest in off-shore job creation.  It will  be a win-win for every one.

Why not rename this building-The Capital One-US Capitol building?

What about the pricey government infrastructure?  The continuing expense of many of these buildings could be mitigated by auctioning off  naming  rights, or the buildings could be removed directly from inventory by outright sale. Parts of government that can't be shut down, could be paid for by donations from  people who like to  give away their money like Warren Buffet, Warren Buffet's secretary, Hollywood liberals, and  Bill Gates.

A theft-based  variation of this system has already shown to work really well for oligarchs  in China and Russia, why shouldn't oligarchs here have the same rights? I for one, am looking forward, to not having all those campaign commercials clogging the airwaves. 

Does Anybody Really Belong in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

 ODD!

Doesn't it seem a little odd to have a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?  I mean isn't Rock and Roll partly about rebellion?  It hardly seems rebellious to have a big museum charging 35 dollars a pop  devoted to Rock and Roll.  The other thing odd  is most big Rock Stars already have plenty of fame. TOO MUCH FAME, and TOO MUCH MONEY!. Too much sex and too many drugs. Does Mick Jagger need more fame? Does Bono need more money? Does Gene Simmons need more sex? Ah-no, no and NO!

No that's not true of everybody, not every rock artist is rich and famous. A  lot of the Rock and Roll pioneers, people like Ruth Brown or Solomon Burke, or blues  greats like Buddy Guy are not rich and they haven't been on the cover of People, so heck put them in the  Hall of  Great Ignored, Ripped Off music artists.  In fact, that was the original idea of the founders of the Hall, people like Ahmet Ertegun wanted to recognize all those great rock and roll and soul  artists of the 1950's  that record company owners  like him had ripped off.

So meanwhile, there is still much wringing of hands about whether certain  artists belong in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  People bitch about who is in, people bitch about who is not in. Some folks  love to bitch about all the non-rock artists who are in the Hall of Fame. Dance music stars like  Madonna or Donna Summer.  These ladies  are  not rock are they? Does  Madonna belong in the Hall? Isn't most  of her stuff is crap? Isn't  she is a  evil, evil person?  True, true.. but just remind yourself  the Material Girl  does have  more hits then the mafia, and  she somehow managed to stay on the radio for 30 years. That must be worth something....

So who does belong?   Should anybody really care? No. But, if we did, in fact, care, we would have to go over it . ANAL-yze IT.  Go over it (yeah we said that).   Who belongs-who doesn't. Sift the wheat from the chaff.

WHO !!!!!!!

There is a lot controversy about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's selection process.  The acts chosen seem to be fairly random, and many of them have somewhat small bodies of work. It seems to me that  you should have more than one albums worth of  quality stuff to be in the rock and roll of fame, but what are you going to do-Bill Haley has  got be in there even if can we only think of two songs that he actually  did.

Many of the acts in the hall of fame are  not even  rock acts. I am actually OK with that since it appears to be the point of of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to celebrate all the music of the Rock Era. But lots of people get all worked up that Hall of Fame leaves out a lot of rock acts in favor of acts from other genres. Why ABBA and not Kiss? Why Laura Nyro and not Motley Crue? Maybe it's because Motley Crue sucks.  Just saying!

I can think of a few acts that I  personally really don't think belong in the hall-Alice Cooper, Grand Master Flash,  Miles Davis,   and Percy Sledge . I thought Miles Davis was Jazz. Oh sure he's done   some fusion shit-but he's JAZZ!!!!!!!!

There are so  many  acts in the hall  that just seem to be  borderline choices  and there  many other borderline acts that are not in the Hall of Fame that could just as well be in there like  The Moody Blues or Chicago.  (Update-these two were finally let in decades after they became eligible).

The problem is the Hall of Fame lets in far too many acts, so many, that many  of the choices seem questionable. What if they did it like the Baseball Hall of Fame, where there were only 2-4 inductees  a year (instead of the 5 to 7 in the rock hall ) , plus a veteran's committee to pick from candidates  snubbed in the   the original voting process.  I mean Roger Maris is not in the Baseball Hall of Fame is he?  NO, NO he is not. One or two great years does not get you into to the baseball Hall of Fame. It's fairly easy to figure out who to put in the Baseball Hall of Fame because you can just compare stats. But if you just go by the stats for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the place would be filled with the likes of Britney Spears, Justin Bieber (if they were   eligible) and Kiss. Oh wait, Kiss is in the Hall of Fame, now. 

If the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame had  a lot fewer acts,  people wouldn't wonder why  Blondie is in there and not Kate Bush, because none of the non-consensus acts would be in there.


SNUB!

At least,  now it has gotten a little better. In the past few years , a lot of the long snubbed   acts have been inducted. These are commercially successful (but sometimes not highly esteemed )  acts who have eligible for a long time but who had been snubbed: Kiss, ABBA,  Heart, Hall and Oates, Neil Diamond (maybe they should have just  inducted  the 1960's Neil Diamond) , Linda Ronstadt, and Cat Stevens (remember Fatwa's are OK now) .  In recent years, somebody let fans into the voting process, and that seems to have helped cut down on the bull shit of picking people like the Stooges when nobody can remember anything the Stooges ever did. Now we get the bull shit of picking acts just because they were popular.  

The snubbing process is  sometimes personal. The biggest female rock star of the 1970's -Linda Ronstadt was kept out because Hall of Fame Board member, Jann Wanner didn't like her. It seems she finally got in now-because she has Parkinson's Disease. Wanner is also blamed for personally messing with the voting process and installing Grand Master Flash over the Dave Clark Five, because he said he thought the hall needed at least one hip hop act. Rock Critic Dave Marsh, personally kept Kiss out of the Hall of Fame.  But eventually both of these acts got in

Even now,  the snub list is still long. It's a roll of honor. A badge of honor.  You know a  lot of acts on the snub list have never  even been  nominated. 

The most notable snubs now are the Monkees, ELO, Deep Purple, , Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, Journey, Joy Division, Fairport Convention, The Spinners, Kraftwerk, Motley Crue,  Nick Drake Procul Harum, Ozzy Osborne (solo),  , Kate Bush, The Doobie Brothers, Duran Duran, Dire Straits, Bad Company, Depeche Mode, Def Leppard, Jethro Tull, and , but there so many other plausible acts left out as well.

A few acts such as  Mariah Carey , and Whitney Houston, have only been eligible for a few years, and it's to early to say it is a " snub"  that they have been left out. 


WHO ARE THE OBVIOUS CHOICES? 

What if the Rock and Roll Fame only had rock acts? What if you only  included the fairly obvious choices? Well the  first list below  this is a fairly good guess as to  who would  be in there if only the clear, very  obvious choices were in there.    Indeed, All of  these acts listed  really are already in the Hall of Fame!

I  did include  in a few  R&B soul acts who are borderline rock and roll, such as the Supremes. The number of R&B acts in the real  hall of fame is fairly large, since Rock is based on this genre, it's sometimes hard to make the distinction on these acts.  

 Bob Marley, Michael Jackson , Madonna, Simon and Garfunkel, the Bee Gees, Prince, Carole King  and ABBA belong in the hall  but the diehards will tell you they are  not rock acts.   I have excluded some clearly important choices who have only  small amounts of important works (Bill Haley, The Sex Pistols, Buffalo Springfield, Gene Vincent) or who are more soul than rock (Al Green).  This lists below do not include pioneers, sidemen,  non musical performers etc.

THE WHEAT: ACTS THAT ARE FAIRLY OBVIOUS CHOICES FOR THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME.

----These  are the more consensus might be the acts that would likely  still be in if far  fewer acts were allowed in...
Most  of the acts were chosen within their first three years of eligibility,

Pretty small list it is....

1986 *Chuck Berry James Brown *Ray Charles *Sam Cooke *Fats Domino *The Everly Brothers *Buddy Holly *Jerry Lee Lewis *Elvis Presley *Little Richard	1987 Aretha Franklin Carl Perkins   Roy Orbison	1988 *The Beach Boys *The Beatles *Bob Dylan *The Supremes
1989 *The Rolling Stones The Temptations *Stevie Wonder	1990 The Four Seasons *The Kinks *The Who	1991
1992 *The Jimi Hendrix Experience Johnny Cash	1993 David Bowie *Creedence Clearwater Revival *The Doors *Van Morrison	1994 The Band *The Grateful Dead *Elton John *John Lennon
1995 *Janis Joplin *Led Zeppelin Neil Young	1996 *Pink Floyd	1997 *Crosby, Stills and Nash
1998 *The Eagles *Fleetwood Mac	1999 *Billy Joel *Paul McCartney *Bruce Springsteen	2000 *Eric Clapton
2001 Steely Dan *Queen Paul Simon Aerosmith	2002	AC/DC 2003 *The Clash Police

2005 *U2

2006 *Lynyrd Skynyrd

2007-*R.E.M, and Van Halen 2009 Metallica 2010 Genesis

2014 Linda Ronstadt

THE CHAFF
ACTS THAT COULD HAVE BEEN LEFT OUT OF THE HALL OF FAME, if fewer acts were chosen  each year, or if non-rock artists were excluded. And I'm not saying all these people do not belong-I am just saying that there are other  folks who have been left out who are just as good.

1986	1987 Ricky Nelson The Coasters Eddie Cochran Bo Diddley *Marvin Gaye Bill Haley B. B. King Clyde McPhatter *Ricky Nelson *Smokey Robinson Big Joe Turner Muddy Waters Jackie Wilson	1988 *The Drifters
1989 Dion Otis Redding *The Temptations	1990 Hank Ballard Bobby Darin *The Four Tops   The Platters	1991 LaVern Baker *The Byrds John Lee Hooker The Impressions Wilson Pickett Jimmy Reed Ike and Tina Turner
1992 Bobby "Blue" Bland Booker T. and the M.G.'s *The Isley Brothers Sam and Dave The Yardbirds	1993 Ruth Brown Cream Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers Etta James Sly and the Family Stone	1994 The Animals Duane Eddy *Bob Marley Rod Stewart
1995 *The Allman Brothers Band Al Green Martha and the Vandellas Frank Zappa	1996 Gladys Knight and the Pips Jefferson Airplane Little Willie John *Pink Floyd The Shirelles The Velvet Underground	1997 The (Young) Rascals *The Bee Gees Buffalo Springfield The Jackson Five *Joni Mitchell Parliament-Funkadelic
1998 The Mamas and the Papas Lloyd Price Santana Gene Vincent	1999 Curtis Mayfield Del Shannon *Dusty Springfield The Staple Singers	2000 *Earth, Wind & Fire Lovin' Spoonful The Moonglows Bonnie Raitt *James Taylor
2001 Solomon Burke The Flamingos *Michael Jackson Ritchie Valens	2002 Isaac Hayes Brenda Lee Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Gene Pitney Ramones Talking Heads	2003 AC/DC Elvis Costello & the Attractions Righteous Brothers

2004 Jackson Browne The Dells George Harrison Traffic ZZtop Bob Seger	2005 The Pretenders Percy Sledge Buddy Guy The O'Jays	2006 Blondie, Miles Davis The Sex Pistols Black Sabbath

2007Grand Master Flash, Patty Smith, The Ronettes,

2008- Madonna,  Leonard Cohen, the Ventures and the Dave Clark Five.

2009-2014...

2009 Jeff Beck Little Anthony and the Imperials Metallica Run DMC Bobby Womack 2010 ABBA Genesis Hollies Jimmy Cliff Stooges Gun and Roses  2013 Rush Donna Summer Heart Randy Newman Public Enemy Albert King

Alice Cooper Neil Diamond Dr. John Darlene Love Tom Waits 2012 Beastie Boys Blue Caps Comets Crickets Donovan Famous Flames Midnighters The Miracles Laura Nyro Red Hot Chilli Peppers The Small Faces 2014 Cat Stevens Linda Ronstadt Kiss The E street Band Hall and Oates Nirvana