Saturday, November 9, 2024

Rock Hall, As I Predicted: Pearl Jam, Tupac, ELO, Baez Plus Bombastic Bands Yes, Journey

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Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: they chose six, not five to induct and still snubbed once againĀ  Janet Jackson, Joe Tex. and of course, Peter Wolf and the J Geils Band.

As I predicted: Pearl Jam, Tupac, ELO, Joan Baez plus the bombastic bands Yes and Journey. You can stop believing that the Rock Hall is meaningful in any way. As usual, the people who should have gotten in got the Long Distance Runaround.

Nile Rodgers is getting a special award for excellence, meaning he didn’t make the vote again but this is so embarrassing that the RRHOF has waived him in. They did this a couple of years ago for Ringo Starr.

I really thought J Geils would make it this time. I really thought: how can this insulting treatment go on? And yet, it does. Joe Tex? He’s dead. And listen: no old R&B acts will ever get in again. No living ones will either. Chaka Khan? If only Prince were alive, he’d have made the HBO show and inducted her. But he’s dead, so it’s not possible. Tupac is the black act, he IS dead. Maybe the people who conspired to kill him will induct him. That will get ratings!

Jann Wenner is so hopeful that one of the Beatles will show up for ELO, or that Bob Dylan will come to the HBO filmed ceremony for ELO’s Jeff Lynne or Joan Baez. It ain’t happening. If Dylan didn’t show for Joan’s 75th birthday at the Beacon or the Nobel Prize ceremony, he’s not whoring himself out for Wenner. And Lynne? He’s a lure for McCartney and/or Starr. But you’d think by now they’d gotten how this works.

And so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.

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