Thrilled about Darlene Love (about time!), Tom Waits and the Night Tripper. Heartsick that the great Joe Tex once again is denied admission.
Alics Cooper was a joke back in the early 70s -- a clueless heartland junior high kid's idea of a "cool" rock band but really just a mediocre gimmick -- and they never rose about crap. The fact that Cooper is now a golf-playing, country club Republican makes the band's entry even more ridiculous and noisome.
"Y'know, that's one of the things I like about Mitt Romney. He's been consistent since he changed his mind." -- Christine O'Donnell
Rock Hall of Fame to Induct Alice Cooper, Neil Diamond, Tom Waits
by Gary Graff, Detroit | December 14, 2010 9:43 EST
Billboard.com
It's official -- Alice Cooper, Neil Diamond, Dr. John, Darlene Love and Tom Waits will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next year. The class of 2011 will be formally feted on Mar. 14 at New York's Waldorf Astoria Hotel.
All but Waits were first-time nominees to the Hall. Acts who did not make the cut this year included first-time nominee Bon Jovi, as well as multiple nominees LL Cool J, Donna Summer, the Beastie Boys, J. Geils Band, Chuck Willis, Chic and Joe Tex.
The nonination of shock rock icon Cooper and his original band seemed a long time coming given their commercial success -- four platinum albums and five Top 40 hits between 1971-73 -- and stature as theatrical pioneers.
Cooper figures it's about time the band got into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But he wasn't worried about it."I've always felt the same way about this whole thing," he tells Billboard.com. "I kind of sat back and said, 'It will happen eventually.' "
"It did get to be kind of a joke, not being nominated," Cooper (born Vincent Furnier) adds. "I got to the point where I was saying, 'OK, I'm the Pete Rose of rock 'n' roll!' So now that it's a reality, it's a different take on it. Now I sit there and go, 'Wow. Wow! We've got to really get up and play, and assume the position of being in the Hall of Fame.' It'll be great."
Cooper says the only time he was upset about not being on the ballot was in 2009, when Kiss, who he considers proteges of a sort, were nominated before him. "That one stung a little bit," he acknowledges. "I sat there and went, 'Now, wait a minute...Really? Are we invisible here, or what?' "
The original Cooper band -- guitarists Michael Bruce and the late Glen Buxton, bassist Dennis Dunaway and drummer Neal Smith -- splintered in 1974, after the "Muscle of Love" album. But Cooper, who's continued as a solo act ever since, says he would not have accepted induction if it wasn't for the entire band.
"The original band was cutting edge," he explains. "It was the original band that had all the iconic records from 'Love it to Death' on to 'Billion Dollar Babies' and 'Muscle of Love.' What I did after that was an aftermath. The original band were the guys that had to cut through that big, thick ice in order to become an entity out there. I can't see how I could just go up there as an individual."
The four surviving Alice Cooper members are currently together in Arizona rehearsing for a performance at Cooper's 10th Annual Christmas Pudding at Phoenix's Comerica Theater, benefiting his Solid Rock Foundation for children. (Rob Zombie, former Eagles guitarist Don Felder, Night Ranger, Glen Campbell, Cheech Marin and Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers are also performing). The group will perform at the induction ceremony, with Steve Hunter, who played in Cooper's "Welcome to My Nightmare" band, filling in for Buxton.
Major theatrics -- such as the guillotine or gallows -- are unlikely for the Hall of Fame ceremony, Cooper says, but it will hardly be a bare-bones performance.
"We'll play 'I'm Eighteen' and 'School's Out,' probably," he says, "but I'm sure there'll be weather balloons of confetti thrown into the audience and stuff like that. They'll know it's us."
Yes, Chic's run from 1977-1980, plus Nile Rodgers' work in the early '80s with Bowie and Madonna, make them pretty viable for the honor, so long as we've expanded the definition of "Rock n Roll" wide enough to include ABBA. (I mean, the bassline of "Everybody Dance" alone!)
Looking at the nominees this year, this might be the Hall of Fame's waterloo w.r.t disco. Go, Donna! Go, Chic!
Sonic Youth wrote:But Neil Diamond did write the great "I'm a Believer" which slightly absolves him of all else.
Yes, points for Diamond for writing a great pop song, but many more negative points for I Am, I Said and Coming To America (or whatever that Jazz Singer patriotic thing was called.)
Dr. John and Tom Waits are both great, but for me this year is all about finally getting the incomparable Joe Tex inducted. He's been nominated in the past, but not last year, and most of his southern soul contemporaries are in (including Solomon Burke -- wonderful, but with less cross-over hits than Joe), so its way beyond his time.
Tee, Chic's Bernard Edwards and Nile Rogers may be nominated more for their work as producers (Diana Ross, Sister Sludge, Carly Simon, Deborah Harry, Luther Van Dross) than for the couple of albums they did as Chic. But as someone who had a lot of friends who hated disco at the time, Chic seemed to make music that even disco-haters liked. I'd rather see KC & The Sunshine Band be a disco group getting in.
In addition to Joe Tex, my hopes are with Darlene Love, Dr. John, Tom Waits, and Laura Nyro. Why, 20 years after he was eligible, did Donovan finally receive a nomination?
And have whoever it is who votes on these things never heard of The Marvelettes?
"Y'know, that's one of the things I like about Mitt Romney. He's been consistent since he changed his mind." -- Christine O'Donnell
Whoa whoa! Chic had amazing songs for years! Their first three albums are chock-full of amazing "disco" songs that do not sound aged at all. Plus they produced "We Are Family", that must be worth something in itself.
Yeah -- if the baseball hall of fame had high-multiple inductions every year, the field would start to look a bit lackluster as well.
There are people I like listed -- can't believe it's first time for Dr. John or Donovan -- but Chic? Did they ever have more than those two records in, what was it, '79?
But Neil Diamond did write the great "I'm a Believer" which slightly absolves him of all else.
As the nomination lists over the past several years have demonstrated, there's a real problem with having yearly inductions. Once you've honored the undeniables, you hit saturation.
Neil Diamond???!!?? Well, as ABBA's induction last year shows, sometimes risible trash becomes endearing.
From the NY Times:
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Nominees Announced
By Ben Sisario
Bon Jovi, the Beastie Boys, Neil Diamond, Alice Cooper, Donovan, Tom Waits and LL Cool J are among the 15 artists nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011. Also on the list: Chic, Dr. John, J. Geils Band, Darlene Love, Lauro Nyro, Donna Summer, Joe Tex and Chuck Willis.
These are the first nominations for Bon Jovi, Donovan, Alice Cooper, Dr. John and Mr. Diamond; some of the others, including Chic, Donna Summer and Darlene Love, have been nominated numerous times but never made the final cut. (There’s hope for them, though: this year the Stooges finally made it in after having been nominated seven times.)
The inductees will be announced in December, and the 26th annual induction ceremony will be held on March 14 at the Waldorf-Astoria in Manhattan. Artists become eligible for nomination 25 years after the release of their first single or album, and the awards are voted on by more than 500 music professionals.
A notable omission among this year’s nominations: Kiss. Last year its fans got their hopes up when, after years of being snubbed, their heroes finally got a nod. (Those hopes were dashed when Kiss lost out to Abba.) For the Rock Hall, that might be a risk: four years ago hundreds of members of the Kiss Army – a k a fans – protested at the Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, with slogans like “Thou Shalt Not Delay the Induction of Kiss” and, perhaps most frighteningly, Kiss costumes.
"Y'know, that's one of the things I like about Mitt Romney. He's been consistent since he changed his mind." -- Christine O'Donnell
