Sound And Vision: Guns N' Roses? Joan Jett? Why the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Is on the Verge of Becoming a Joke?

posted in: Pop

Last month when the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced its fifteen nominees for induction in 2012, the organization really outdid itself”and not in a good way! Donovan? Not again! Erik B. & Rakim? Not before LL Cool J! Joan Jett and the Blackhearts?

What? No “Weird Al” Yankovic? Hasn’t he been eligible for four years?

The Hall of Fame has been scraping from the B-list for a while now, but the voting body should take a closer look at the A-list. There’s still a lot of unheralded talent there, and that would not include Joan Jett. Yes, Jett’s former band, The Runaways, deserves credit for introducing girl power to hard rock, but did Joan Jett and the Blackhearts really earn a spot in the hallowed Hall based on the strength of one really awesome No. 1 smash, 1981’s “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll,” which the band didn’t even write? In the general scheme of things, aren’t they sort of a rock & roll footnote?

Not Linda Ronstadt. Perhaps the most influential female in ’70s rock, who spent the ’80s juggling genres from new wave to mariachi to the great American songbook, she’s the most deserving artist never to be nominated. And let’s talk about Pat Benatar and Stevie Nicks, who is already in the Hall of Fame as a member of Fleetwood Mac but whose solo career is far more worthy of the honor than Jett’s post-Runaways. At least the nominating committee finally had the good sense to give props to Heart, though I’ll eat my copy of the “Alone” Cassingle if the Wilson sisters actually get in.

Shouldn’t the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame be more about honoring legacy, influence and entire careers over one or two classic singles or albums? I can’t imagine any other reason for Guns N’ Roses”a band whose classic line-up released one classic single album and one classic double album that was released as two single ones before becoming a sporadically active Axl Rose vanity project”to be on the shortlist in its first year of eligibility. I know I’m going to get death threats for saying this, but were it not for 1987’s landmark Appetite for Destruction, would G N’ R even be under consideration?

Had the band broken up after 1991’s Use Your Illusion I and II, sterling musical reputation in tact, I would be more on board with its inevitable induction since, as will be the case with Nirvana in several years, a short mythical existence is worthy of a speedy welcome into the Hall. But it didn’t: Rose spent most of the twenty years since the Illusion albums changing the group’s line up more than making new music.

Bon Jovi”nominated in 2010 but not this year”were never as hip as G N’ R, but at least they’ve been consistently active, and “Living on a Prayer” is every bit as timeless as “Sweet Child of Mine.” If Bon Jovi is too populist, too hair-metal cheesy for Hall of Famer status, why not Electric Light Orchestra, Roxy Music and Depeche Mode, three British bands who have been just as influential as G N’ R and have formidable discographies? Not one of them has yet to even be nominated!

A lot of people will say, Depeche Mode is not really a “rock” band, and it’s the same excuse the Hall’s nominating committee probably would use to leave Duran Duran, Kraftwerk, New Order, Eurythmics/Annie Lennox and most of the titans of new wave out of the discussion for the next twenty years. I beg to differ. Rock has become an umbrella term to include all the various forms of modern popular music. If rappers are eligible for induction, then pop, new wave and even country stars should be too. The well-deserved inductions of Madonna, Dusty Springfield, Darlene Love and Wanda Jackson prove that it’s not just about rock, so it’s time to retire that excuse as a reason to pass over Barbra Streisand (the first and to my knowledge the only artist to conquer film and Broadway while regularly producing gold and platinum records and winning GRAMMYs), Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton as well as the multiply nominated Donna Summer.

Next to Ronstadt, Summer might be the Hall of Fame’s most egregious omission. Though she’s usually dismissed as a disco diva, Summer was so much more. Her synth-based fusion of pop, disco, R&B and, yes, rock, paved the way for new wave, and “Our Love” from her 1979 album Bad Girls even laid part of the musical foundation for New Order‘s 1983 classic “Blue Monday.” As for the other 2012 nominees, the Faces are worthy and have been since 1991, the first year Rod Stewart‘s former band was first eligible. But letting the Faces in now after twenty years of snubbing feels like a “Now we don’t have to actually induct War or Rufus featuring Chaka Khan [both also nominated]” move.

Donovan seems marginal among the heavier hitters of his time and deserves to continue being an also-ran, and as much as I love Red Hot Chili Peppers, they don’t feel as essential to the history of rock & roll as Beastie Boys, up for the third time and likely to finally make it in, and post-punk pioneers The Cure, who”in a rare stroke of genius”were finally shortlisted after eight years of eligibility but don’t have a snowball’s chance in Hawaii of getting in. If the third consecutive time is the charm for the late Laura Nyro, it will only be because the competition gets shakier every year.

And what can I say about The Spinners? “The Rubberband Man” and “Working My Way Back to You/Forgive, Me Girl” are as awesome as ’70s and ’80s pop-soul gets, but as vocal groups go, The Spinners isn’t in the same league as The Temptations, The Four Tops or even The O’Jays, and it seems criminal to consider them while still ignoring the great Dionne Warwick, who duetted with The Spinners on the vocal group’s only No. 1 pop hit, 1974’s “Then Came You.”

Of course, the Hall of Fame still hasn’t gotten around to honoring Burt Bacharach and Hal David, who wrote Warwick’s greatest hits and so many others classic songs, including “(They Long to Be) Close to You,” made famous by the forever-ignored Carpenters. To quote one of The Spinners biggest hits, it’s a shame.

Meanwhile, still no love for the never-nominated Barry White, who”among iconic disco acts”was third only to Summer and Bee Gees? Chaka Khan should get in some day, but were the members of Rufus more essential to the history of music because they played rock instruments? Chaka might disagree with her Hall of Fame potential, though: In 2001, I met her backstage during a taping of music-star week on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, and she was getting autographs from two Backstreet Boys (Kevin and Howie), apparently unaware that they were the ones in the presence of a living legend!

Kiss play instruments, too, and they still aren’t in. (The band’s Gene Simmons was also on Millionaire that week, as was future Hall of Famer Lars Ulrich of Metallica.) And just because Smokey Robinson is in doesn’t mean his old band the Miracles should be ignored year after year. Is “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” really worthier than “The Tears of a Clown”? (P.S. Though he wasn’t considered a figure in music, the late Steve Jobs deserves a spot for revolutionizing the way we listen to it, but the Hall of Fame never thinks outside of a very small box, so don’t expect his widow to be accepting honors on his behalf any year soon.)

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has long struggled with credibility issues for being overly political and ignoring so many deserving artists (most of them, predictably, female) while frequently admitting head-scratching ones. Inducting Joan Jett and the Blackhearts before even nominating Ronstadt (or Summer or Warwick or White or ELO or Depeche Mode or the Miracles) would make the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame not only a joke but the worst one ever.