Booting the Lame from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Boston Herald music writer Jed Gottlieb wants to take a broom to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to clean out the "pretenders." Here's his new criteria:
1. You have to rock. If Janis Joplin, Bon Scott or Joe Strummer wouldn’t have toasted your tunes with a pint, you’re out.

2. You have to blow minds. The Beatles and Hendrix switched the world from black and white to color. Well, you gotta do that. Or at least come close.

3. You have to have done at least one thing that categorically qualifies as rock ’n’ roll: lighting your guitar on fire, getting busy with your 14-year-old cousin or writing a letter to the Hall of Fame calling it a, um, urine stain after being inducted (as the Sex Pistols did) all qualify.

Gottlieb wants no part of Madonna, Leonard Cohen, The Lovin' Spoonful, The Eagles, The Bee Gees, Miles Davis, James Taylor, Jackson Browne, or John Mellencamp. In their place he wants to honor many of the popular snubbed artists: Beastie Boys, Lou Reed, The Cars, The Stooges, KISS, and The Cure. Check out the full column here.

Hidden Track also comes up with a list of 10 bands they want to see inducted: Tom Waits, The Cure, Genesis, Rush, Willie Nelson, The Stooges, KISS, Metallica, Sonic Youth, and Alice Cooper. Videos, career highlights and ten more names at Glide Magazine.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Nominating Committee could do a lot worse than start with the names from these two lists when they're putting the ballot together for 2009.

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