Jann Wenner Removed From Rock and Roll...

I was texting with a friend yesterday when my headline alert went off. I texted him the headline and added DING DONG THE WITCH IS DEAD.

This man is the worst kind of journalist you can imagine. He is so self-absorbed and assured that HIS opinions are the only ones worth pursuing. The fact that each Beatle singularly is in the Hall Of Fame as well as a group says it all. Brian was not socially relevent enough, but we know Ringo was. And THAT is not a knock against Ringo. My point is Jann would have voted Mal Evans before Brian.

Jann also promised John Lennon after a lengthy interview for Rolling Stone that he would NOT publish a book of their entire interview, which of course he did.

Such an asshole.

Now, can we please induct Jethro Tull?

Way way way pass time for them.

It's About Time.

Apologies if I sound negative, but does anyone really care about the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame?

My sense of the Hall of Fame situation may be an unpopular opinion, but here it is anyway: they were actually laying the groundwork for a valuable curatorial institution in the early days by inducting artists like Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Little Richard, the Beach Boys, Beatles, etc. -- artists whose influence was so fundamental and decisive on the historical trajectory of rock and roll that no-one could conceivably question their inclusion.

Where they ran into trouble was when they realized that they needed continuing publicity to suvive as an institution, so they came up with the idea of inducting more artists more or less every single year. This had the effect of turning the whole enterprise into a game of Baby Boomer fantasy football.

A lot of people, especially older guys, seem OK with their favorite authors not being represented in the Norton Anthology of English Literature or their favorite movie not being represented in the Sight & Sound poll or AFI list, but they seem to lack that level of self-awareness when it comes to their favorite band.

Engaging with that fantasy football game was the beginning of the end of the Hall's credibility as the kind of cultural institution Wenner and Landau envisioned. The fact that Wenner himself turned out to be a stupid old racist/sexist fossil in his 70s is less of a story to me than the way his lust for publicity led to the whole enterprise's obsolescence. 

I know I'll regret engaging with this, but how can you possibly say that "Paul McCartney is a big example of being blackballed," when he has been inducted into the Hall twice?

Is the measure of the institution's validity now "it has to induct my favorite singer 3 times"?

By any measure whatsoever, I don’t understand why The Association is not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

I don't see any reason to induct Brian Wilson as a solo artist. His solo career has consisted mostly of touring, playing the songs he wrote and performed with the Beach Boys. The Beach Boys are already in. By far the most popular Brian Wilson solo album is BWPS - a reconstruction of a project he started with the Beach Boys.
Ringo Starr had a string of top 40 hits from 1971-76; I'm not sure that alone is enough to merit inclusion in the HOF. Honestly, I don't think it was necessary to induct the individual Beatles as solo artists. Yes, George should be recognized for the Concert for Bangladesh. You can represent that in the museum without inducting him as a solo artist. I guess we have to have John as a solo artist because he was Wenner's favorite Beatle, but most fans (i'm not including myself here) think he only did two great albums, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and Imagine. And I guess we have to induct Paul, because he's still around, but the critics sure hated most of his post-Beatles music back in the day, and his biggest success by far was as the leader of Wings, so why not induct the band into the HOF? 
I think the HOF got started off the right way back in the 80's, honoring the pioneers of rock and pop music. I don't think anyone would argue AGAINST the inductions of the Everly Brothers, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino. I do remember James Brown saying "i'm not a rock and roll singer, but I am honored to be here", or words to that effect. Is Ray Charles rock and roll? I've heard Ray sing jazz, pop, country, blues, pretty much everything except rock and roll, but he was a pioneer, and rhythm and blues is a very, very close cousin of rock and roll, so I think he should be there. So they inducted artists who were the foundation on which rock was built. Then they lost the plot somewhere along the way. 

Yup: artists become eligible for induction 25 years after the release of their first record. Thus Brian became eligible in 2011... or possibly 1991.

I think the problem with the HOF is that music is subjective. A HOF for sports like baseball and football makes total sense because athletes are judged based on statistics. Obviously you could have a hall based off of billboard/cash box chart placement or record sales but many artists that are greatly admired were not commercial superstars and that would leave them out. So we are left with a system where industry honchos nominate people and they are then voted on by 500 experts.Hence it depends on who is on the nominating committee. As time goes by, chances are the nominating committee will skew younger, making it less likely that classic rock artist that were snubbed the first time around will get in later. Also-the hall long ago began to blur the lines of what is rock. I think it would be more accurate to call it a Hall of rock, Pop, R&B, soul, Disco, easy listening and Hip hop.