Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2015

At 2 a.m. this morning the Class of 2015 for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was announced.

Recall the nominees were: Green Day, Nine Inch Nails, NWA, The Smiths, Lou Reed, Sting, Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Kraftwerk, Chic, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, The Marvelettes, The Spinners, Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble, War and Bill Withers.

There was a fan ballot that counted as one of the approximately 500 ballots. The top five of the fan ballot were: 1. Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble (31% of the vote with almost 20 million votes), 2. Nine Inch Nails (22%), 3. Joan Jett & the Blackhearts (15%), 4. Bill Withers (6.5%) and 5. Paul Butterfield Blues Band (6.25%). Four of those five also scored inductions this year. (Thanks, as usual, to Future Rock Legends for the data). The inductees are…

Green Day: Power punk pop or whatever you want to call it, they were a no brainer and got in on their first year of eligibility. They’ve got so much that critics love, (faux) punk attitude but actually are power pop masters with a leftist manifesto/concept album under their belt to boot. Of course the Hall could not resist. No argument here, either, though.

Bill Withers: Nice to see. Unique talent who wouldn’t play the industry game and walked away from music entirely after a very successful 15 years or so. His early records are fantastic singer-songwriter/soul fusion. Later stuff not so great. But get Still Bill.

Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble: The Hall did something right in correcting their initial nomination. At first it was just Stevie Ray Vaughan nominated, but after holy hell was raised in many quarters (including here at GNABB) over the exclusion of SRV’s crucial band, the Hall did the right thing and without explanation several weeks later added “& Double Trouble” to the nomination. SRV has been one of the biggest snubs and remarkably this was his first nomination. As predicted, as soon as he was nominated he was a shoo-in. Vaughan not only influenced a generation of guitar slingers, but he was at the vanguard of saving Blues music from being a museum piece and dragging it into the modern age as a still vital genre.

Joan Jett & The Blackhearts: When nominated, I predicted she would be inducted and also stated that she is probably the least deserving of all of the nominated artists. I really like Joan Jett. If anything, her influence is in her look and attitude and inspiring gritty rocker girls. But even just listening to a hits collection of hers shows that the substance of her music is fairly thin, and many of her hits were covers. No real innovation at all. But she is cool.

Lou Reed: It is a shame that his high profile from his recent death is probably what inspired another long overdue nomination and induction. Some may feel that his induction with Velvet Underground was enough, but I say no way. His solo career was as influential, deeper and more interesting. Risk taker to the extreme, he inspired anyone in rock who didn’t want to follow the beaten path. He didn’t always succeed, but he changed the game by always trying. Love Lou. Lou joins the elite Clyde McPhatter Club (artists with two inductions, named after the first artist to accomplish the feat. Trivia: there is only one artist with three inductions – Eric Clapton [Yardbirds, Cream, solo]).

Paul Butterfield Blues Band: I have to say that I am surprised that PBBB made it. I have always argued their worthiness, although most music fans could not name one of their songs or albums. One of the very first interracial bands in rock, they featured two virtuoso musicians in Butterfield (harmonica) and the guitar playing of Mike Bloomfield. Probably most famous for backing Dylan at his epochal Newport Folk Festival performance, they also deserve credit for pioneering the exploratory jam in rock with the still bold sounding “East/West.” Check out the entire East/West album to see why PBBB deserves induction.

The powers that be also chose to resurrect the Early Influence category and inducted the Five Royales. That’s cool, although like many other inductees under this category, I'm not sure whether they are really Early Influences if many of their hits were during the rock and roll era. But whatever, they are deserving.

Here is the requisite bonehead move that the Hall has to make every year. In the Musical Excellence category (often used for deserving sidemen and session players), they decided to give a backdoor induction to…Ringo Starr! Lennon, McCartney and Harrison all have been inducted twice (as Beatles and as solo artists in the main Performer category). Probably knowing that Ringo would not be voted in, they slid him in here. Why? Did they just want all four Beatles to have two inductions? People like him. He did play on a lot of other artists’ records as a session player. He even had some hits. But still…

I have always contended that for a second induction, you have to have blinders on as far as the work that they were already inducted for. Therefore, you have to pretend that Ringo was never a Beatle and that the first music we ever heard from him was his first solo work. On that basis, there is NO WAY that Ringo Starr would be inducted on his own terms. This is glitter leftover from being a Beatle. To be honest, I would not have inducted George Harrison as a solo artist either. McCartney is questionable. Lennon is probably the most deserving as a solo artist, but even he is a minor one. The Beatles are The Beatles, but that should have no bearing on inducting them a second time for their post-Beatles work. Maybe Lennon, perhaps Macca, probably not George, no way Ringo. Stupid.

I was disappointed not to see The Smiths or Kraftwerk inducted, but not surprised. The voters are so far pretty cold to the alt-80’s. In the last three years, The Cure, The Replacements and now The Smiths have been nominated and not made it in. I was also surprised that NWA did not make it. Too controversial?

That Musical Excellence slot should have gone to Nile Rodgers. Chic was nominated for a 9th time and did not make it. Just put Nile in here for both his Chic work and his excellent and important production work that he did for countless artists. That would be deserving, and they could give the Chic nominations a rest.