> > >ROCK HALL SNUBS ARTISTS OF '70S >The Plain Dealer >Cleveland, Ohio >March 5, 2000 >by Clint O'Connor > >It's only fitting that the decade known for Nixon's ruin and really >bad haircuts is being largely ignored by the Rock and Roll Hall of >Fame and Museum. The rock hall's all-powerful New York foundation and >its nominating committee regularly snub early '70s artists from >induction into that weird building on the lake with no parking. > >The New York nominators look at the '60s and see the Beatles, the >Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix. They look at the '70s and see a vast >wasteland of initials: BTO, REO, ELO. > >But the big rock clock is ticking. The hall which holds its annual >induction ceremony tomorrow in New York faces a dilemma: What to do >now that it's running out of seminal '60s artists? The prerequisite >for induction, that you must have released your first record at least >25 years ago, has brought us to 1975. > >Potential inductees are nominated by a committee at the New York >Foundation. Ballots are then sent to about 1,000 "rock experts." The >rock hall has done a wonderful job of recognizing rock's early >influences and nonperformers, and honoring a bevy of solid-gold R&B >talent. But now, going by the minus-25 rule, they are knee-deep in >the album-rock era, while ignoring some of its most prolific >purveyors. They have repeatedly shunned early-'70s bands and singers, >or artists who started out in the '60s but made their biggest mark in >the '70s: > >Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Steely Dan, Jethro Tull, Little Feat, >War, Yes, Alice Cooper, King Crimson, Mott the Hoople, Roxy Music, >Boz Scaggs, Ry Cooder and Bob Seger, to name a few. > >Singer-songwriters like Jackson Browne and Cat Stevens have also been >ostracized, as have '70s siren Linda Ronstadt, rock heavyweight Leon >Russell, and writer-producer-performer-engineer (he'd probably change >your tires if you asked) Todd Rundgren. There's also Canton's the >O'Jays, Chicago, the Marshall Tucker Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and the >everlasting Texas trio ZZ Top. > >All are eligible. Only four have been nominated: the O'Jays, Lynyrd >Skynyrd, Steely Dan, and Black Sabbath, which has been on the ballot >three times. (Last year, Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne grew weary of >the process and asked that the band's name be withdrawn.) Most of >them will probably never make it because their decade is utterly >overshadowed by the '60s. And there are still plenty of performers >from the '60s waiting for the nod: Joe Cocker, the Moody Blues, >Traffic, Procol Harum, the Turtles, Neil Diamond, Judy Collins. > >Cocker is a likely addition. The Moody Blues have lost points because >they look kind of old and annoying now on their PBS specials. The >rest don't have much of a chance, except perhaps Traffic. The rock >hall has to figure out some way to get the multitalented Steve >Winwood inducted, and it might as well be with the innovative Traffic. > >One fact in favor of early '70s artists is that the rock hall has >already lowered the bar. The Mamas and the Papas are enshrined. The >Lovin' Spoonful goes in tomorrow. Translation: Everyone, including >Uncle Ernie's Skiffle Flaggers, is now eligible. The rock hall can no >longer posture about the sanctity of its honorees, not with the Young >Rascals and Four Seasons taking up space. > >The good news: The rock hall has already inducted Led Zeppelin, David >Bowie, Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Bob Marley, Pink Floyd, the >Allman Brothers Band, Carlos Santana, the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac, >artists with enormous effect on the '70s and beyond. James Taylor, >Bonnie Raitt and Earth, Wind & Fire will be added tomorrow. So the >nominators are far from blind. It's more like tunnel vision. They >seem so caught up in rock-righteous explanations of "importance" and >"influence" that they have forgotten which performers people were >going to see in concert back then, what albums they were listening to. > >The hall also needs more women. Now that Raitt is going in, does that >help Linda Ronstadt's chances? If she is voted in, will that open the >doors for Carly Simon, Roberta Flack, Emmylou Harris, Janis Ian and >Joan Armatrading? > >They could languish for years, dismissed as too soft (Simon and >Flack), too country (Harris), too Joan Baezish (Ian) or, like >Armatrading, too removed from the mainstream. > >Still, they need bodies. Somebody has to bridge the gap between the >'60s superstars and the late-'70s/early '80s critics' darlings like the Sex >Pistols, Talking Heads, Police, the Clash, U2 and R.E.M. Those New >York gatekeepers are going to have to break down and invite some '70s >album-rockers. But who, and when? > >(c)2000 The Plain Dealer >****************************************************************** > > > _________________________ To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe doobiefans-list" in the body.
