I used to do a yearly review of the induction ceremony for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame every year, but I’ve neglected it the last couple years. But I caught the ceremony on HBO this year and thought I’d write something up about it. Among the inductees were the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Beastie Boys and Guns and Roses.
The induction of the Beastie Boys was made all the more poignant by the death of Adam Yauch right at the time the ceremony started airing. He wasn’t at the induction because he was obviously very sick and fighting cancer. The Beasties were easy to dismiss because of their first big hit, which was a rather juvenile song about partying. But they started out as a punk band and their later material was often intelligent and unique. If the only thing you know about them is that first song, check out some of their later stuff. The remaining members of the band didn’t perform, but the Roots Band, Kid Rock and several others performed Sabotage. And as much as I loathe Kid Rock, it was actually a pretty good performance (though not because of him). They were inducted by LL Cool J and Chuck D, which tells you a lot about the respect they had even as a white group in hip hop.
Chris Rock, of all people, inducted the Red Hot Chili Peppers and talked about seeing them in their very early days opening for Grandmaster Flash. They put on a blistering performance, though I’m still trying to figure out why they had two extra drummers on stage. I’m also trying to figure out when Will Ferrell started playing drums for them (seriously, could Chad Smith look more like Ferrell?). The coolest thing about the Chili Peppers was the respect they paid to George Clinton, who is pretty much the definition of funk.
A lot of attention was paid to the fact that Axl Rose refused the induction and didn’t show up for the ceremony. Chris Rock got off the line of the night when he said that even if Axl had planned to be there, he wouldn’t have gotten there until after the show was over anyway. Izzy Stradlin also didn’t show up for some reason. But the rest of the band was there, including both drummers, Steven Adler and Matt Sorum. It was good to see the band include Adler, who was thrown out for doing too many drugs (as Matt Sorum said, “How the fuck is that possible in Guns and Roses?”) in the early 90s. It reminded me of Metallica including Jason Newsted when they were inducted, which is a gracious thing to do. If only Axl was half as gracious, but he is forever being the drama queen.
Guns and Roses performed two songs, the brilliant Sweet Child O’ Mine and the vastly overrated Paradise City (the weakest song on Appetite for Destruction, which Billie Joe Armstrong plausibly called the greatest debut album in rock history). Steven Adler played on both of them and it was good to see him back on stage, clean and sober and still playing well. Slash was incredible as always; there may be many guitarists who are more technically flashy than he is, but few can match his tone and feel.
Unfortunately, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame continues to ignore some of the most important bands in rock history. I like the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Beastie Boys, but how on earth do they get in before Deep Purple, Rush, the Doobie Brothers, Heart, Bad Company, Yes, Jethro Tull, Iron Maiden and many more? Even a band like KISS, which I think is about the most boring band in the world, clearly deserves to be in the hall of fame just for their popularity and influence. How about Peter Frampton? Or Kansas? Come on, guys. Those bands all need to be in, long before most of the band that have been inducted the last few years.
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VeritasKnight
May 19, 2012 at 10:43 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“before Deep Purple, Rush, the Doobie Brothers, Heart, Bad Company, Yes, Jethro Tull, Iron Maiden and many more?”
I’m a huge Iron Maiden fan, and this time every year on a forum I frequent people will bitch about the Hall of Fame. There’s a lot of acts in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that really don’t meet the “rock and roll” qualifications, but they have ignored some extremely great bands.
It seems to be almost political. Nothing against the Beastie Boys, but it’s a crime they’re in there before Rush, Tull, Maiden, and Judas Priest.
emc2
May 19, 2012 at 10:55 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I agree about the missing bands. I’ve been saying for years that a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame without Rush is just a big joke, but all those you mentioned just add to the humor.
It has come to the point where they might be better off staying out. They are getting more recognition than those who have made it. I compare it to Susan Lucci, who got so much press and notice for NOT winning an award. (Would she have hosted Saturday Night Live if she had won?) Then when she finally did win she just became another award winner and all the extra notice went away.
Daniel Fincke
May 19, 2012 at 10:58 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Whoah, whoah, whoah. A “juvenile song about partying”?? Coming to terms with the themes in that song caused me a great deal of anguish when I was an evangelical Christian nine year old.
Doug Little
May 19, 2012 at 11:26 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Ian Astbury said this about the Grammys and R&R Hall of Fame on last weeks That Metal Show when the question on which institution was more clueless was posed.
“I always thought rock and roll was about not having to have the establishment tell you it’s OK”
When prompted to choose a more clueless institution he said
“All institutions are clueless”
Now that’s rock and roll.
My biggest “Why the fuck aren’t they in” band is Motorhead.
Improbable Joe
May 19, 2012 at 12:13 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I think the list of inductees is based largely on who can perform on the chosen night and will draw a crowd.
Michael Heath
May 19, 2012 at 1:39 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Ed wrote:
The problem with Paradise City was that is so much like everything else out there where the rest of the album’s heavily promoted songs weren’t. Poison or Bon Jovi could have done Paradise City.
dan4
May 19, 2012 at 2:01 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“How about Peter Frampton?”
IMHO, Frampton’s music is pop, not rock and roll.
Jeremy Shaffer
May 19, 2012 at 2:13 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
When License to Ill first came out I was about 12 or 13 years old and that song, as juvenile as it may be, was not just awesome but summarized my thoughts about my parents and adults in general for the next few years rather well. Not too long ago I had heard that song once again after going several years (a decade and a half, give or take) without. Hearing it now at an older age, it’s taken on an ironic twist in that the lyrics that I once felt “had my back” as a teenager was in reality making fun of and laughing at the assured rightness of my opinions that come from immaturity.
Or maybe I’m just trying to salvage a piece of my youth by giving it more relevance to my adulthood than it deserves.
feralboy12
May 19, 2012 at 2:23 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Beastie Boys? Guns & Roses?
If the baseball Hall of Fame had such standards, Dooley Womack would have a plaque in Cooperstown.
Yeah. Dooley Womack.
keithgriffith
May 19, 2012 at 2:42 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I was always under the impression that “Fight For Your Right To Party” was satirical, making fun of the type of kid who would hold those attitudes. The fact that no one got that was presumably the reason the Beasties refused to perform the song for most of the last two decades.
This Cracked article makes a strong argument that a skillful, varied body of work is less likely to get you in the Hall than a unique and memorable image, regardless of talent.
Rip Steakface
May 19, 2012 at 3:25 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The two bands whose exclusion annoy me the most, Rush and Deep Purple, pretty much cause me to ignore the Hall of Fame. Rush is well known for having one of the best drummers in
rockmusic history (Keith Moon, Buddy Rich, and Dave Garibaldi are up there too, along with a few personal favorite metal drummers like Gene Hoglan and Richard Christy), along with influencing almost every subgenre of rock.For one, prog rock is pretty much directly responsible for punk – punk was a reaction to being bored by long, technical prog rock songs. Rush is less guilty of this by far thanks to their proto-metal tendencies, but it’s still there. Rush also is the first prog rock band that most modern progressive artists of various types (between metal and rock) cite as an influence.
Deep Purple, on the other hand, is responsible for pushing heavy metal in a faster, more aggressive direction. If you listen to Black Sabbath, typically considered the first consistently metal band, their most influential, early songs, are all fairly slow and ponderous. They’re simply trying to sound evil (the only exception to being slow is Paranoid). Meanwhile, Deep Purple comes out and releases songs like Highway Star and Burn, which (pardon the pun) are burning fast and feature some of the coolest organ solos in history.
In other words, you can thank Deep Purple for the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, and then in turn for speed metal, thrash metal, and then their descendants (almost every genre of metal save prog, stoner and doom). Yeah. They’re that influential, and they’re awesome.
dan4
May 19, 2012 at 4:43 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
For me, the most interesting and surprising thing about the ceremony was seeing (on TV, that is) the members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers with clothes on.
jakc
May 19, 2012 at 7:29 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The concept of the Rock HOF is ridiculous. Induct songs, not bands. Beyond that, have some guidelines that mean something. Look, no one is going to elect Tim Wakefield into the baseball HOF despite being a great guy and a great teammate. Kerry Wood isn’t going in despite the 20 strikeout game. In the case of the Rock HOF though, bands that don’t have the statistical cred can always be waved in. A few people at Rolling Stone think the Sex Pistols were innovators not an early pre-fab boy band – they’re in (seriously, when was the last time you were at a bar and heard someone play the Sex Pistols on the jukebox?). I’m sure its my age, but I look at the Beasties and think “when did they become Rock-n-Roll?” (Same goes for Hank Williams & Miles Davis, both of whom -unlike the Sex Pistols, Dave Clark Five, or any rap group – I listen to regularly. Why those two should be in the Rock HOF and not Deep Purple or Warren Zevon, well it says everything you need to know)
dan4
May 20, 2012 at 4:28 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@13: Ugh, Warren Zevon should be in the RHOF? He should be kept out for “Werewolves of London” alone.
Rip Steakface
May 20, 2012 at 6:27 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@13 jake
The Beastie Boys have a good number of actual rock songs. Similarly to Rage Against The Machine, though, their vocal delivery is entirely rapping. Would you argue Rage Against the Machine isn’t rock?
However, I do agree that a bebop pioneer like Miles Davis has no reason to be in the R&R Hall of Fame because it’s simply not his genre. Ditto for a country man like Hank Williams.
The Sex Pistols were inducted but infamously gave a gigantic middle finger to the whole thing and sent in a poorly handwritten letter containing a large number of four letter words and combinations thereof, then refused to go to the ceremony. They’re massively influential punk rock. Their attitude was the inspiration for every hardcore punk band.
left0ver1under
May 20, 2012 at 7:57 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The “hall of fame” has nothing to do with celebrating music. Its sole purpose is to allow record companies to repackage and resell old material, who then provide kickbacks to Jann Wenner and others at Rolling Stone. The recording industry is, and has always been, run on payola. It is those people who decide who gets nominated, the groups who have been snubbed for years – some more than a decade – belong to genres that Wenner personally hates.
As for who is “in” this year, “poignant” is not a word I would use to describe the timing of Yauch’s death and the announcement. That’s not to say I wished him ill, but rather to highlight that the “hall” is so opportunist that it would have quickly inducted Donna Summer to capitalize on her death…if she weren’t already in the hall, which is a joke in and of itself. I’m surprised that Whitney Houston wasn’t quickly “inducted” to make a few extra dollars. And it won’t surprise me to see her listed next year, despite the fact that she and Summer have nothing to do with “rock and roll”. Then again, neither did the Beastie Boys.
Yes, some people aren’t going to like those comments. No, I wasn’t being cruel. I was criticizing the crass commercialization of music.
Speaking of criticizing crass commercialization and payola, here are Joe Jackson’s “I’m The Man” and They Might Be Giants’ “Hey Mr. DJ”. Jackson is not in the hall, which again shows how much of a joke the whole thing is. The only reason TMBG haven’t been snubbed yet is their first well known release came in 1988 (yes, I know their eponymous record was in 1986).
http://youtu.be/WSahO51w_DM
harold
May 20, 2012 at 8:32 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Rock and roll died on the day they created a “Rock and Roll Hall of Fame”.
harold
May 20, 2012 at 8:59 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
All Beastie Boys stuff tended to be extremely clever satire on multiple levels.
At one level the song is making fun of the excesses of pubescent/adolescent rebellion. “That hypocrite smokes two packs a day” – hilarious; the father is trying to stop the son from smoking because he himself is an addicted chain smoker, and the son interprets it as the father “hypocritically” “enjoying” the cigarettes while denying them.
The video mixes sexual innuendo with childish stuff like pie throwing.
But at another level, it’s a celebration of the spontaneity and energy of the very group of people it satirizes.
Oh. My. God.
Okay, I’ll grant you that what little work Miles Davis did, at the very beginning of his career, which could be termed “bebop”, that is, the stuff that is available today on “Birth of the Cool” and releases related to it, is innovative.
I’m not into arguing over classifications, but it would be fairly uncontroversial to say that Miles Davis is best known for his hard bop, modal, post-modal, and electric period stuff.
Miles Davis had a huge influence on, and was influenced by, rock and roll. A lot of his electric period stuff is a lot more rock and roll than the other stuff in there.
I am skeptical of the existence of the RRHF, but as long as it exists, Miles Davis belongs there.
left0ver1under
May 20, 2012 at 9:56 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
A follow-up on Rush’s omission (and prog rock’s omission) from the “hall”:
Monday is May 21st, which is the Victoria Day holiday in Canada. We treat it (unofficially) as the beginning of summer, and Labour Day as the end.
Rush, “Lakeside Park” (1975):
Rip Steakface
May 20, 2012 at 2:40 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Eh, I don’t really listen to much Davis. I’m not a trumpet player (percussionist), and I tend to prefer showy big band stuff. Yeah, the big band stuff is less technical and artsy because it’s not mostly improv, but I like it more.
When I think of Miles Davis, I think of ballads and bebop. That’s what I hear whenever one of my jazz band buddies puts on Miles Davis – not rock ‘n’ roll. Now, someone like Bull Moose Jackson could actually be considered an early rock pioneer or perhaps a few Buddy Rich songs here and there.
jakc
May 20, 2012 at 4:00 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Influential is usually code for musicians people don’t listen to. I appreciate the middle finger the Sex Pistols gave the ROH, but they were no more genuine than the Monkees. As for their music, I don’t see people spending a dollar to play it. I do see people spending money to hear the Ramones. I’ll spend a buck to play Husker Du, but the Sex Pistols? Sorry. Fashion victims, not interesting band.
As for Miles – put Bitches Brew on at work or at a bar, and see how many people and see how many people say “cool, I can see how this influenced rock” versus “do you have to play this crap”? Putting Miles or Hank or John Coltrane is a way for critics to say “we’re cool” but it ain’t rock-n-roll
As for Zevon, some web site making projections has him going in in 2019, with Whitney, Lovin’ Spoonful, Dead Kennedys, Pavement, Journey & Can. It’s got a more interesting methodology than the real HOF
harold
May 20, 2012 at 5:37 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Actually, I have put on electric period Miles for people and neither of those things happened. They usually want to know what it is, because they like it but they don’t recognize it, and are unfamiliar with anything else like it.
Interesting projection. You, in fact, are the one who is putting down what other people like in a (failed) effort to demonstrate that you are “cool”.
I’ve never heard of anyone claiming to like Miles Davis or John Coltrane in an effort to seem cool.
Of course, the debate is over. I don’t even like the concept of a “Rock and Roll Hall of Fame”, but there is one, and someone else, not me, put Miles Davis in it.
I strongly support your right to finance a competing institution, maybe “The Really Cool Alternative Rock and Roll Hall of Fame”, and keep Miles Davis out.
(The Sex Pistols were indeed grossly overhyped but a couple of their songs are classics. The early Ramones were great but even though I am a Ramones fan I think they stayed together too long.)
stace
May 21, 2012 at 8:51 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Then what the hell is Abba doing in there? Frampton was in Humble Pie by the way, and most of Frampton Comes Alive qualifies as straight up rock. He only strayed into pop territory after he got huge with the execrable “I’m In You.” (which was masterfully parodied by Frank Zappa on Sheik Yerbouti (“I Have Been In You.”)
heathermighty-lambchop
May 22, 2012 at 11:51 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Eddie Trunk has taken up this issue several times. His rants about it are pretty legendary. It was an interesting confluence of events that Alice Cooper was inducted not long after Eddie had a moment on “That Metal Show.” I’d like to believe his rant helped but since the Hall has yet to induct so many deserving and overlooked bands I’m pretty sure they didn’t take his opinion too seriously.
Eddie Trunk also interviewed Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation CEO Joel Peresman in December 2011. It pretty much confirms any and all suspicions one had about the asshattery of the Hall.
It is a travesty that Deep Purple, Iron Maiden and Thin Lizzy are not in. The Hall is ridiculous and clueless.