This guy is so far off base

[mimi85]

I don't even know where to start. Kraftwerk? SRV? I even emailed him.

<snip>
Congratulations to the new herd of musicians just named as inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Minus the context, all have proved themselves notable enough to be part of a trending topic for a few days per year, as well as serving as pawns in a game over definitions, taste and intentions. Successful enough at the job to land within the hallowed halls of a Cleveland institution that honors a music designed to question institutions, the acts' families should be proud. They did it.

But -- spoilsport alert -- as a whole, the whole thing is wrong. Here are seven reasons why.

1. Chic still didn’t get in, but Green Day did. The former helped build a sound that still resonates on the charts and has influenced generations. The latter ripped off better bands that influenced generations, commodified pop punk and wrote a Broadway musical.

2. Kraftwerk was shunned again, but the Paul Butterfield Blues Band is in. Anyone under 50: Quick, name a Butterfield song. Didn't think so. Influential, perhaps, but hardly more important than Kraftwerk, Chic or, say, the Germs or Black Flag.

3. Ringo Starr gets in on a technicality. At his best, Ringo was a B-grade rock drummer. As a singer, he was no Keith Moon. *My note - does anyone remember Keith Moon singing?!?

<snip>

[link:http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-rock-roll-hall-fame-inductees-20141216-column.html|

[Scuba]

1. Never heard of Kraftwerk, Chic or, say, the Germs or Black Flag.

OTOH I love the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Glad they got inducted.

[dogknob]

12. Kraftwerk -- probably the most commercially successful early 70's German band

There were certainly better ones (Cluster, Tangerine Dream, Can, Amon Duul II).

Post-Ziggy/Young Americans Bowie, and a whole lot of other stuff that's already in the R&RHOF, would simply not exist without what the British Music Press decided to call "Krautrock." A genre based entirely upon race, as most of the artists sounded radically different from one another.

[Nitram]

2. Paul Butterfield Band were fantastic bluesmen.

As for Ringo, a drummer with a rock solid backbeat and a no-frills style is not B-grade. A drummer playing for a primarily vocal band would be B-grade if he tried to hog the spotlight and indulged in long solos.

[mimi85]

3. SRV should've been in the first vote taken.

Last edited Wed Feb 25, 2015, 05:59 AM - Edit history (1)

And Leon Russell last year, thanks to Elton John. The Hall of Fame is beyond political.

Now I'm on a crusade for Rory Gallagher - def one of my top 5 favs. My husband wore out his old Rory t-shirt, so I got him another one. PLEASE listen to him. Jimi Hendrix even said Rory was the better ax player - and he was!

[demtenjeep]

4. Chicago should be in

as well as The Doobie Brothers

Until that happens the Hall of Fame is marred

[ProfessorGAC]

5. For Me It's The Cars

Unless i missed something, i don't think they're HoF.

Nobody sounded like them before. Nobody sounded like them since. Most underrated great guitar player of all time. Clever, hummable tunes. Millions of records sold.

[mimi85]

9. We saw them in 1980.

Should have stayed home and listened to the CDs. Just the same as Steely Dan. Awful in concert. Millions of records sold shouldn't have the criteria for the HOF at all.

Wait - CDs didn't come out commercially til 1982. I meant vinyl - still have them. I loved the Cars - they just sucked live.

[ProfessorGAC]

10. I Saw Them Twice

And i've got two DVD's of them live. I think you may have got stuck with a bad night. They were good once, excellent the other time, and the DVD's are pretty good and very good.

And, while you may not think commercial success shouldn't be a criterion, it certainly is. There is no denying that commercial success increases the probability of HoF entry.

[WhoIsNumberNone]

6. Chic? Weren't they like a one hit wonder from the disco era?

Kraftwerk would make sense to me because they were pioneers. All the techno garbage that's out there today can trace its roots back to Kraftwerk, but Chic?

[Number9Dream]

7. NOT in R&R hall of fame: Moody Blues, Kansas, Doobie Bros...

...Yes, Jethro Tull (Ian Anderson), King Crimson, Chicago, Emerson, Lake, & Palmer, Mountain (Leslie West), Procol Harum, Robin Trower, Alvin Lee / Ten Years After, others.

The R&R hall of fame is a joke, just like the Grammys.

[greendog]

8. The Butterfield Band brought the 'extended jam' to rock music.

[leftofkant]

11. Butterfield Band is pretty good

Picked up a LP of there's on a whim a few weeks ago. Surprised by the quality of the music. But you're right, not in the same league as Kraftwerk

[Trajan]

13. Paul Butterfield was popular in the late sixties ...

I was twelvish, and the local teens and twenties listened to Hendrix, Cream, Paul Butterfield, Dr. John, etc ... Many were bikers ...

It was very blues based, and I frankly tired of that genre pretty quickly - Blues are a Rite of Passage for guitarists, and you have to pick some of that up along the way, but I was more of a psychedelic rock fan ...

Here's some Kraftwerk ... Their minimalist synthesis compositions were groundbreaking and are highly influential even today:

I'm a fan of Green Day ... shrugs ... no apologies for consistent high energy guitar pop ... Its a great tradition ...