Posts Tagged ‘Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’

Lo-Fi Mojo: MC5 to the Rock Hall, brothers and sisters!

Seeing the nominees for this year’s Rock Hall class, I’m starting to feel like the writers who, year after year, banged on the “Get Art Monk into the Pro Football Hall of Fame!” drums until it finally came to fruition last August. Or the disgusted Red Sox fans who want their beloved Jim Rice in Cooperstown — and have half a shot next year because steroids are making currently eligible sluggers look mighty artificial.

At the risk of sounding like a tired old dork even before I start, here we go: There is no reason on earth the MC5 should be held out of the Rock Hall one more year! These guys pretty much took the pieces of protopunk lying around the gritty Detroit garage scene in the mid-’60s–attitude, look, volume, aggressive playing, hardcore screaming, devil-may-care attitude toward political authorities–and fused them into actual punk. Heavy, 1960s Blue Cheer/Deep Purple-ish punk, but punk nonetheless. The MC5 influenced so many early (and late and even current) punks that it’s just too ridiculous to begin counting.

Why is the Rock Hall ignoring them? One writer with whom I frequently exchange emails (and who occasionally comments on my posts as MojoHater) has floated out the conspiracy theory that the Rock Hall is what he refers to as “a Jann Wenner circle jerk,” and because Rolling Stone whomped on the band back in the day, they’ve been unofficially blacklisted. I can see that happening, but I can also see how the MC5’s radical politics — which some might say were kind of a marketing scheme that backfired — might also be something the Rock Hall is ‘fraid to endorse. Oh wait. This is rock. Forget the political discussion. The more outrageous you are, the more beloved you become — whether you’re right or not. (more…)

Jesus of Cool: Rousing the Rabble for the Rock Hall of Fame

Rock Hall logoPatti Myers wants her favorite band in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — and she wants you to help get them there. “If you are fortunate enough to own any of [their] music, then you have been blessed with a precious gift,” she says. “If you’re not familiar with their music, you’re missing a beautiful experience. [They have] a way of drawing you into the song, holding you captive, then releasing you, feeling better for it.”

Myers has even posted an online petition that she one day hopes to submit to the hall’s selection committee, extolling the band’s achievements and concluding, “Their classic music is still heard on the radio today all around the world, proving that they have earned their place in the Rock Hall of Fame.” That petition has attracted 94 signatures to date.

Patti Myers’ favorite band is Player.

Just in case you can’t make it through the year without one more sighting of celebs in tuxedos and bolo ties, tonight the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts its newest members during a ceremony broadcast live on VH1 Classic at 8:30 p.m. Eastern. (Apparently the ceremony isn’t quite important enough to knock “Flavor of Love” and “The Salt’n'Pepa Show” off the mothership: VH1 proper is waiting until March 22 to air the induction ceremony, presumably in heavily edited form.)

All this week, my colleagues at Popdose will be discussing who’s in, who’s out, who should be in, who shouldn’t be, and whether or not the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is a good idea in the first place. We begin today with the story of Patti Myers and other music fans who, on a wing, a website and a prayer, have undertaken to build a groundswell for their favorite acts to gain admission into rock’s hallowed Hall.

First, though, a preview of this evening’s festivities. (more…)