This Week’s Theme: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Snubs Part Two (Personal Selections)

The theme of Radio Faux Show Volume 1, Number 35 was Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Snubs. That was a year ago, and there is now a new year of members being inducted. That means it is time to look once again at which artists have been snubbed from induction. Last week’s show was focused on female snubs. This week’s show takes a look at the artists I would induct if I was the king of the world. As I wrote last week, the first thing that the Rock Hall should do is stop inducting male artists until the number of female artists is increased and the discrimination against them is resolved. Therefore, I did not duplicate last week’s female artists in this week’s show and instead created a list of male artists who I think are worthy. Some of them are obvious snubs and others are very personal choices that will never be inducted.

I’ve selected thirty-one artists for this week’s show. There are easily over one hundred artists who I considered when creating this two-part Faux Show, so a lot of deserving artists are not included. I’m sure I’ve left out some of your favorites, but maybe next year they’ll be inducted for real. All we can do is hope for the best.

Top Ten Snubs

There are many artists deserving of inclusion in the Rock Hall, but these are the first ten that I would vote for if anyone would let me.

Number One: Can

Can will never be inducted. If they were, they would be the least known member for anyone who visits the Rock Hall. Less than .00001% of the US probably knew who they were when they were recording in the ’70s. Since then, they have become better known due to other artists who name them as an influence and the modern-day availability of their recordings through streaming. Still, I can’t imagine that they are known by more than .0001% of the US population. But, this is my list of who I would select, and I would argue (and have in this blog before) that they are one of the major architects of modern rock music. They are a direct influence on artists such as David Bowie, Robert Fripp, Brian Eno, Roxy Music, Talking Heads, The Fall, Slint, Talk Talk, Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel, Stereolab, Radiohead, Wilco and most artists who have either been influenced by those artists, or by any other artist that can be classified as progressive, new wave, art-rock, indie-rock, post-punk, or post-rock over the last fifty years. Many of the artists they have influenced in the 21st century have never even heard of them, but their influence on the sound of rock in the seventies was so pervasive that it has crept out into every aspect of the modern rock sound. They only recorded about five to eight albums that you should listen to, depending on what you count as an album and how deep into their discography you want to delve, so it is not difficult to digest their work in a short amount of time. If you choose to do that, and then do it again, and then start to internalize their sound and style, you will begin to hear them in all of the rock music from the mid-70s and on.

They were part of a progressive rock movement from the late-60s and ’70s that was labeled kraut rock. A more accurate sub-genre would German Progressive Music. Of all of these bands, I believe they are the most important, but my selecting them for inclusion is both due to their individual influence and also as a token selection for all of the rest of their contemporaries, including Neu!, Popol Vuh, Faust, Cluster, and dozens of others who as a group helped build the foundations of indie-rock in the ’80s.

There will never be a time when U.S. audiences will recognize any of these German progressive bands beyond a fringe audience. It is now fifty years since their prime. They are German and often either sing in German or don’t sing at all. They didn’t record anything one could consider a normal single, much less a hit. They were experimenters in technology and composition. They are the definition of artists who only true music nerds listen to. Still, one of them, Kraftwerk, somehow crept into Afrika Bambaataa’s hip hop samples, and then into a larger fanbase, and then into Rock Hall membership. This is my number one argument for Can to be inducted – they are more important, influential, and just plain better than Kraftwerk.

Numbers Two and Three: Brian Eno and Robert Fripp

My argument for Brian Eno and Robert Fripp is very similar to my argument for Can. I simply can’t imagine the sound of the music from the ’80s through today being the same without either of them. They didn’t start out recording together, but they were both born from the same sonic landscape in the late-60s. Fripp was the founding member of King Crimson and Eno was a founding member of Roxy Music (who are Rock Hall members). They both started their careers by using those bands to experiment and evolve their compositional technique, technological wizardry, and musicianship into a diversity of music and styles that now seems impossible to have come from only two people.

Brian Eno quickly left Roxy Music after their early recordings in order to branch out as a solo artist. His first four albums (Here Come The Warm Jets, Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy), Another Green World, and Before and After Science) are a quartet of masterpieces that evolved from the sound of early Roxy Music into a new form of rock music that incorporated ambient composition, loosely structured movements, state-of-the-art electronic techniques, and groundbreaking production work. While recording these first albums, Eno branched out into the world of minimalism, which lead to his development of what is now called Ambient Music. To be clear, Eno was not inventing an entirely new musical form. He was taking a century of compositional techniques, such as avant-garde composition, minimalism, and electronic tape manipulation and combining them into a new sound that he was able to bring to a much larger audience than past composers had been able to do. This music was influenced by the same composers who influenced Can’s development in the ’60s, and then the rest of the German progressive musicians discussed previously. By the early ’80s, Eno had become one of the architects of modern music without most people knowing who the hell he was.

Robert Fripp is best known as the founding member of his band King Crimson. King Crimson are one of the architects of the music known as progressive rock along with much better known and more popular artists such as Yes, Genesis, Emerson Lake & Palmer, and Jethro Tull, as well as lesser-known artists such as Gentle Giant and Van Der Graaf Generator. Starting in the late ’60s, Robert Fripp has been creating a wide variety of music for over fifty years. His greatest downfall has been a complete lack of attention to recording popular music. His early focus was on a groundbreaking use of electronic instrumentation and distortion in combination with experimental composition. These records, including the masterpiece In The Court of The Crimson King, are foundational in the progressive music explosion of the early ’70s. After several similar albums, Fripp’s next few albums, including Larks’ Tongues In Aspic and Starless and Bible Black, expanded his vision with a more powerful rock sound and experiments in huge dynamic shifts. This period concluded with his masterpiece Red, arguably the most influential album on the noise music revolution of the ’80s. By the time bands like Sonic Youth were pushing King Crimson’s experiments in noise to new heights, Fripp had left his ’70s work behind and created a new band featuring a much more marketable sound with the vocals of Adrian Belew at the forefront. His early ’80s trilogy of albums, starting with the masterpiece Discipline, is King Crimson’s most well-known period, especially the song “Elephant Talk.” That period ended forty years ago, and Fripp is still going strong. Although he has never released albums on a regular basis, he has continued to record new material for over fifty years and all his fans know to appreciate every new release. Robert Fripp and King Crimson is one of the most respected, influential, and talented artists not inducted.

In addition to their work as recording artists, both Eno and Fripp are two of the most important producers and session musicians of the last fifty years. Along with the three albums they recorded collaboratively together, their work includes dozens of recordings with other artists, including these important albums:

Brian Eno: Genesis The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, David Bowie’s Berlin Trilogy (Low, “Heroes”, Lodger), Talking Heads More Songs About Buildings and Food, Fear of Music, and Remain in Light, My Life In the Bush of Ghosts with David Byrne, Devo Are We Not Men, We Are Devo, and U2 The Unforgettable Fire, The Joshua Tree, and Achtung Baby.

Robert Fripp: Brian Eno Here Come the Warm Jets, Another Green World, and Before and After Science, David Bowie “Heroes” and Scary Monsters, Peter Gabriel Car, Scratch, and Melt, Blondie Parallel Lines, and Talking Heads Fear of Music.

If they aren’t going to be inducted as recording artists in their own right, perhaps they can someday be recognized as Ahmet Ertegun Award nominees for their importance as producers and session musicians. One way or another, both of them are more deserving of induction than fifty percent of the current members.

Number Four: Sonic Youth

Sonic Youth are the Velvet Underground of the ’80s. Even though they didn’t sell millions of albums, every band you’ve ever heard of from the ’90s on probably listened to them and was influenced by them. This is no different than the history of The Velvet Underground, who influenced the music of the ’70s and ’80s for years after they had disbanded. There isn’t anything more that can be said than the fact that without Sonic Youth there is no alternative/noise/grunge revolution in the ’90s. There is no Nirvana or Soundgarden. There is no Green River, which means there is no Pearl Jam. There is no <Name Your Favorite ’90s Band>. The landscape of modern rock and roll would not exist without this band.

Number Five: The Monkees

You can laugh if you want to, but The Monkees are one of the biggest snubs that the Rock Hall has perpetrated during their over thirty-year existence. Anyone who cares knows the story of how they were created by talent agents to produce a television show in the US in order to capitalize on the popularity of The Beatles and other British Invasion bands. They didn’t write most of their hits. They didn’t always play their own instruments. They were silly bubblegum pop artists. All of this is true. So, why should they be inducted? Because…

They are THE bubblegum artist. They invented the sound and are the original “made-for-tv” group that spawned an over-fifty-years-and-still-going-strong television marketing machine of artists like The Partridge Family, Shaun Cassidy, Ariana Grande, Selena Gomez, Miley Cyrus, Big Time Rush, Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, and dozens more. They enjoyed one of the most successful periods in the history of pop music (late ’66 through early ’68). During this time, they released a string of hit singles and albums that controlled radio and sales charts. The fact that they didn’t write or perform their songs is no different than almost every doo-wop or girl group who is a member of the Rock Hall. They are famous. Everyone knows who they are and knows at least some of their songs. While the music of their contemporaries such as The Hollies, Herman’s Hermits, Donovan, The Mamas and Papas, and The Lovin’ Spoonful (several of which are Rock Hall members) are becoming lost to time, The Monkees are still enjoyed by all ages of music fans. They were originally created as a Beatles-imitation marketing ploy, but in the end they did what very few of their contemporaries could do. They created songs that are timeless and bring joy to music fans of all generations. Very few groups in the history of music can claim to have done that, but The Monkees live on while most of the bands from fifty years ago slowly fade away.

Number Six: “Weird Al” Yankovic

The Monkees were fun. When you listen to their music you can’t help but smile. This is one of the most important aspects of music that is often scoffed at by “serious” music critics. This attitude that good music can’t be fun, humorous, silly, absurd, or even downright ridiculous is my biggest pet peeve in the world of music criticism. This attitude has always been present, but it has grown more and more prevalent since the music of the ’70s pitted the old school pop music of the ’60s with the hard rock/punk music that became prevalent throughout the decade. What is interesting to me now is that some of the most-respected artists of the decade, such as The Ramones, The Sex Pistols, The Modern Lovers, Kiss, and many others were making fun music and were ridiculous, whether they knew it at the time or not. This all led to the excess of pop music in the ’80s. MTV videos of the early ’80s are ridiculous in their artistic design and seriousness (see The Police for exhibit #1). Aging rock and pop artists clashed with the new music of the ’80s as MTV and increased radio options allowed everyone to consume music from across decades (see Emerson, Lake, and Powell for exhibit #1). Take all of this and lay it at the feet of a talented, creative, comedic genius like “Weird Al” Yankovic and the outcome is obvious. Weird Al wins and everyone else loses, because in the end laughter defeats seriousness every time.

Weird Al has won Grammy, MTV Video Music, and other major awards. He has recorded Top 40 hits. He helped build the early popularity of MTV. He has lasted for over forty years because he is an immense talent who is one of the most prolific songwriters of his generation. The main argument against him is that he wrote parodies. I can destroy that argument with two facts. First of all, it is not true. Half of his songs are written by him as in-the-style-of songs that pay homage to artists by embracing their sound. This is no different than any other band in the history of music since they are all influenced by each other. The difference is that Weird Al is able to do this across all types of music with incredible musicianship and success. Second of all, doing what he does is not easy. If there were dozens of parody artists who spent the last forty years sharing his spotlight then this could be an argument, but the fact is that there is not. There is only one, and his name is Weird Al.

Of all of the Rock Hall snubs, there are two that actually make me angry. The first is the discrimination against women, as discussed in last week’s show (need to add link). The second is Weird Al. Our world is increasingly filled with hatred, fear, racism, violence, corruption of power, and fascism. It seems like there is no end to the political ignorance and stupidity of our nation in sight and this could be the beginning of the end of the American political experiment that began two hundred and fifty years ago. In the middle of all of this, yelling and screaming at each other solves nothing. Hating and fearing each other solves nothing. Politicians and leaders around the globe have let us down, conservative media has bred a generation of ignorance, stupidity, and fascism throughout nations, and the entire world is on the brink of destruction from climate change, famine, sickness, and death. At some point, the only solution is to stop and realize that you are an idiot and it is okay to laugh at yourself. If we can’t do that, then no one will prevail. Weird Al has devoted his career to this in the world of music, but it is a lesson for all aspects of life. Thank you Mr. Yankovic.

Number Seven: War

There are a lot of great R&B, soul, and funk artists who are yet to be inducted, but my personal favorite is War. After one moves from the first tier of soul artists, such as Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Smokey Robinson, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, The Temptations, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, and Prince, there are hundreds of next-level artists. Many of these, such as Wilson Pickett, Earth, Wind, & Fire, Lionel Richie, The O’Jays, and Janet Jackson are already members. Falling squarely in the middle of this next tier is War, and I have never understood why they have been snubbed for so many years. If I had to argue for their inclusion, there are two features of the band that I believe both set them apart and also cause them to be snubbed. In other words, these two qualities are a strength and a weakness depending on your point of view. First of all, in addition to their mastery of soul and funk, they incorporated jazz into their sound better than any other R&B group before or after. Their ability to lay down jazz grooves that seamlessly fit within the flow of their albums was groundbreaking in the world of R&B during the early ’70s. They didn’t just use “jazzy” music, they played straight jazz as part of their repertory. Secondly, they combined soul and funk music with Latin music and rhythms, including Latin jazz, to create a completely unique sound. No other band sounded like War before War. When you combine their hit-making ability with their early Eric Burdon Recordings with their prime period of albums in the ’70s they are as strong a candidate as half of the soul artists who are already members.

Number Eight: Steve Earle

Steve Earle is one of the greatest rock and roll songwriters. He is one of the original alt-country/roots rock/Americana artists. He is what would have happened if Bruce Springsteen had grown up in Texas and then moved to Tennessee as a teenager. His body of work across over forty years is as high of a quality as any other artist over such a long stretch of time. He will never be nominated because the Rock Hall apparently thinks he is a country artist, which shows their ignorance. If you aren’t a fan already, you should go get a sense of his work through the years by listening to the albums Copperhead Road, I Feel Alright, El Corazon, and Washington Square Serenade. There is a lineage of rock and roll poets that runs from Dylan to Springsteen to Earle, and he deserves to be a member as much as any other songwriter who is already inducted.

Numbers Nine and Ten: Wilco and Beck

There is a new pattern in the Rock Hall voting that only rewards ’90s artists who are male and perform alt-rock or rap. The only members inducted so far are Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Green Day, Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails (seriously?), Foo Fighters, Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z, Tupac, and Eminem. Last week’s show outlines this with regard to their discrimination against women. For this week’s show, I’ll highlight the two most obvious snubs.

If Wilco is not worthy of Rock Hall membership, they should stop adding any more artists from the ’90s and just call the museum full. Wilco started out as alt-country pioneers Uncle Tupelo, so their membership should include that band as well. They spearheaded that movement in the early ’90s and helped turn it into a mainstream genre that is now firmly entrenched in 21st century rock and roll. Primary songwriter Jeff Tweedy then branched out with their album Being There, a double album that transitions the band out of their alt-country sound and into a combination of lo-fi, folk, and ’70s rock. During this time they also worked with Billy Bragg to record a double set of fantastic songs featuring lyrics by Woody Guthrie. They followed these records up with an incredible pop/rock album, Summerteeth, that was a throwback to Pet Sounds. Their next album is their masterpiece, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, which stands with Radiohead’s Kid A as the two records that heralded the future of rock music in the 21st century. Their next album, A Ghost Is Born, is a post-rock masterpiece. I’ll stop the list there, but they have continued to evolve and record and have created a body of work that stands against every other ’90s group who is already a member. The lack of respect this band receives by the Rock Hall is shameful and elitist.

Beck is the only ’90s songwriter who was able to match his creative genius with commercial success. He started out as an Anti-folk artist in the New York coffeehouse scene and then evolved his songwriting into a unique hip-hop/folk/pop mashup (Mellow Gold and Odelay). As soon as he perfected that formula, he threw out an old school funk album (Midnite Vultures) and followed it up with a mainstream, lo-fi masterpiece (Sea Change). For the last twenty years he has put it all together to create album after album of creative music that always sound fresh and relevant. His snub is a great example of the Rock Hall’s elitism. Beck is sort of nerdy and doesn’t spill testosterone all over the stage. He just grooves the hell out of everything he touches, writes songs that seem like nonsense on the surface but are poignant if one digs deeper into them, and is a better vocalist than every other ’90s band already inducted.

Know Your History

Let The Rhythm Hit ’em

I am all for the Rock Hall adding hip-hop artists, but the issue they are having is similar to their issue with rock and soul artists. They keep inducting newer artists before they have added older artists who are just as deserving. Eminem was just voted in this year, which may be okay, although I have never been a fan. The problem is the long list of older rap artists who are still waiting. In addition to the women I discussed last week (Queen Latifah and Salt-n-Pepa), there are Schooly D, Afrika Bambaataa, Kurtis Blow, and many more, including these three.

Architects of Funk

Toots

There are several reggae groups who need to be inducted. These include Lee “Scratch” Perry, Burning Spear, and Toots & The Maytals. The Rock Hall should add each of these artists one year at a time, starting with Toots. He had one of the greatest voices in all of soul music, not just reggae. He is a legend who has influenced R&B, soul, funk, and punk music for decades.

Genre Icons

Here are some artists who are icons of their respective genres and deserve to be inducted.

Metal: Iron Maiden are the bridge between Judas Priest and all metal acts who came after them. Judas Priest was finally inducted in 2022, many years too late, so hopefully Maiden is next in line.

Glam: New York Dolls are icons of American glam and punk music. Along with The Stooges, Kiss, and The Ramones, the Dolls created hard rock music that led to American punk, hardcore, and alt-rock. They are the last of this foursome waiting for induction.

Punk: The Jam aren’t punk like The Sex Pistols or The Clash, but they came out of the same scene in the late ’70s and influenced British bands more than the Pistols or Clash. Even though they never found popularity in the US, it is hard to envision the MTV British Invasion could have happened without The Jam influencing so many of those British bands who ruled pop music in its early years.

New Wave: Devo are electronic and new wave music pioneers. They were ridiculous, which certainly doesn’t help their credibility (see Weird Al above), but their influence on the music to come after them is vast. I used to think they made sense as a snub, but then The Cars were inducted. Devo are far more deserving than The Cars.

Southern Rock: Little Feat are the third and least popular of the Southern Rock band trio that includes Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Allman Brothers, but I like them and think that Lowell George is an under-rated musical genius. When I was young, I didn’t appreciate them, but now they are the only band of these three that I still listen to. George’s lyrics and hooks hold up much better in our modern world than any other Southern Rock bands of the ’70s.

Two British Fan Favorites

More From The ’90s

I’ll wrap it up with five artists from the late ’80s and ’90s who fall into the same bucket of white male rockers as the other artists who are already members (Green Day, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Foo Fighters). The last thing the Rock Hall needs is more white male rock bands, but these five are all good choices for different reasons.

Soundgarden are one of the original architects of what would become grunge. My personal favorite grunge act was Mudhoney, but they didn’t find the success of Soundgarden. Chris Cornell was a powerful vocalist, and they seem like a good future addition.

The Pixies were angry, catchy, and didn’t sound like any other band. If they had stayed together for a few more albums, they may already be in. Even so, their albums Surfer Rosa and Doolittle are two of the greatest indie-rock albums ever recorded.

Fugazi were formed by former Minor Threat vocalist Ian MacKaye in the late ’80s and are one of the greatest bands ever. They won’t be inducted. Minor Threat also won’t be inducted. Neither will MacKaye’s side-project Pailhead or his other band Embrace, or the other bands that broke up before their members co-founded Fugazi (Dag Nasty and Rites of Spring), but if you put them all together…they still won’t be inducted. But tough shit. If I could pick only one band from the end of the ’80s to go see live one more time, it is Fugazi. There was no one like them before or after, and I don’t care if they never sold any records. They were amazing.

The Flaming Lips started out in the mid-80s as a psychedelic garage band, then evolved into a totally original sounding noise band, then had an actual hit with “She Don’t Use Jelly,” then changed their sound into an experimental electronic rock concept band, and are still going today. They will never be inducted, but they are one of my favorites and seem as worthy as Nine Inch Nails or the next white rock band from the ’90s that gets inducted.

Weezer are the only band from the ’90s that I still listen to on a regular basis. They are under-rated. Their songs are catchy as hell. I listen to every new album that they release. That may be the main reason that they should be inducted. They have never stopped recording, and have now created a body of work that is as impressive as almost any other band of their generation. I would induct them just for their debut, The Blue Album, but there is so much more great material they have recorded over the years that they deserve to be much more famous than they are.

Artist of the Week: All of Them

Most of this week’s artists have already been rejected by Rock Hall voters for years, so the least I can do is make them all the Artist of the Week. The last thing they need is one more snub.

Thanks for listening (and reading)!

Track List

Track	Artist	Song Title
1	Monkees, The	Daydream Believer
2	Low Rider	War
3	Beck	Loser
4	“Weird Al” Yankovic	Polkas on 45
5	Devo	Uncontrollable Urge
6	Weezer	Buddy Holly
7	Sonic Youth	Teenage Riot
8	Soundgarden	Flower
9	Fugazi	Bad Mouth
10	Brian Eno	Third Uncle
11	Jam, The	Down In The Tube Station
12	Smiths, The	This Charming Man
13	Pixies, The	Where Is My Mind
14	Flaming Lips, The	Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, Part One
15	King Crimson	21st Century Schizoid Man
16	Can	Oh Yeah
17	Eric B. & Rakim	I Ain’t No Joke
18	Ice-T	Power
19	A Tribe Called Quest	Ham ‘n’ Eggs
20	Toots & The Maytals	Pressure Drop
21	Meters, The	Cissy Strut
22	Kool & The Gang	Hollywood Swinging
23	Wynonie Harris	Good Rockin’ Tonight
24	Roy Brown	Cadillac Baby
25	Louis Prima	Jump, Jive, an’ Wail
26	Little Feat	Snakes On Everything
27	Steve Earle	Hard-core Troubadour
28	Wilco	The Late Greats
29	Nick Drake	Pink Moon
30	New York Dolls	Babylon
31	Iron Maiden	The Trooper

• Uncategorized