Posted on 01/08/2007 10:21:03 AM PST by slowhand520
Van Halen, Grandmaster Flash, R.E.M., Ronettes and Patti Smith make Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
CLEVELAND — Van Halen made a "jump" into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Monday along with Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, R.E.M., the Ronettes and Patti Smith. A panel of 600 industry experts selected the five artists to be inducted at the annual ceremony, to be held March 12 in New York.
Van Halen was the 1980s hard rock quartet led by guitarist Eddie Van Halen, outrageous lead vocalist David Lee Roth, and later rocker Sammy Hagar, that put out hits such as "Jump" and "Dreams."
R.E.M. was the quintessential indie rock band until breaking through to mass success in the early 1990s with songs like "Losing My Religion."
Grandmaster Flash led the most innovative act in early hip-hop, and the song "The Message" was like a letter from urban America.
Punk rock poet Patti Smith and Phil Spector favorites the Ronettes round out the 2007 class.
To be eligible, artists must have issued a first single or album at least 25 years before nomination.
Only original members are inducted into the Hall of Fame. In 1990 the 4 Seasons were inducted with Nick Massi, one of the originals, at the ceremony. But he had actually left the group in 1965 and his replacement, JOE LONG, who was on many of their hit singles from 1965 on, was NOT inducted, even though Frankie Valli pleaded his case, but the Hall said NO.
In between the double-feature movies I saw Les Brown and His Band of Renown (shook the rafters every time), Carmen Cavallero (you remember him, of course), the ever-explosive Fred Waring, Kay Kyser and His Kollege of Musical Knowledge (with cutting-edge Ish Kabibble), Frankie (yes, THE Frankie), Mae West warbling, old, ugly but still....well, nevermind, and some other really famous big bands, can't remember who, exactly.
Then there was the Aragon Ballroom with Lawrence whathisname........hey, wun-a-two wait a minute!!!!!! I'm on the wrong thread!
Sorry folks, I'm outta here.
Now where did I put my mouse?
Well, if I could find my glasses, I'd know where my mouse was.
Bye Bye! Buy Bonds!
Leni
Yeah, new album out this year too. Don't know how good it will be, but I'm sure I will still buy it.
I play that song with my distortion pedal....it still rocks!!!
Van Halen must have been the only 70-80's group that wasn't in the HoF and they felt bad.
I guess if you sell and album or two you're on your way to
the HoF.
Okay....
So the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has been around for what? 15 years? Year after year after year, they keep denying a place in the Hall to someone who has rocked the world AND believes in the American Dream in the same way as many of my fellow Freepers.
I am speaking of none other than BloodBrother #1, the Ten Fingers of Doom, the MotorCity Madman.....
TED NUGENT!!!!!
And do you know WHY they keep passing him over?
Conservative.
Republican (with a dash of Libertarian thrown in).
Gun Owner.
Hunter (Gun and Bow).
Board Memeber of the NRA.
Believes in Freedom.
Calls 'em as he sees 'em.
I want Uncle Ted in the Hall, but as long as the world of rock and roll is controlled by liberal, limp-wristed, traitorious, self-righteous idiots, he'll never make it.
Still, I say...ROCK ON, UNCLE TED!!!!!!
Ping to #130, dude!
hehehehehe
8^)
Very solid first album - they did'nt make much noise until they had "Play with me" featured in "Bill and Ted's Excellent Advanture" (The song playing during the mall chase). I liked them when I saw "Kid Ego" on MTV.
Extreme:
"Little Girls"
"Wind Me Up"
"Kid Ego"
"Watching, Waiting"
"Mutha (Don't Wanna Go To School Today)"
"Teacher's Pet"
"Big Boys Don't Cry"
"Smoke Signals"
"Flesh 'N' Blood"
"Rock A Bye Bye"
"Play With Me"
I like the later stuff, as Nuno explained, he learned how not to fill every blank moment on the tape with guitar, and let the music breathe more - Extreme II Pornographitti showed that maturity, and I still love III - Two Sides To Every Story. He ranks up there almost with Steve Vai for his creativity and technique and emotional playing, to me. Not the best, but very, very near the top.
He was also all over an album by Dweezil Zappa, "Confessions", which has some insane guitar work on it - it also has a young Josh Freese, one of the best rock drummers around (A Perfect Circle and the Vandals). It's hard to find now, but if you like guitars and goofy Frank inspired songs, it's a GREAT album.
I've heard his new band, The Satellite Party, with Perry Farrel from Jane's Addiction, is very, very good, but I havent come across any copies yet.
I was shocked when VH hired Gary - he's a fantastic singer, but he just did'nt fit VH. I was'nt surprised that the album and tour flopped. Gary is too...effeminate to lead a testosterone driven band like VH -If you get the chance, watch his version of "Hammer To Fall" from the Freddie Mercury Benefit - he sang his butt off and put others to shame, but he's from the Queen school, not VH.
Speaking of forgetting lyrics, I got ruined on Fleetwood Mac when I went to see them on their reunion tour. We had kind of a bird's eye view of the stage and we could see that Stevie Nicks was singing off a teleprompter."
Most performers use them now, all you need is a monitor and a laptop. It's standard equipment now - or like Zakk Wylde (Ozzy Osbourne, Black Label Society), he has the lyrics on large 24x30 posters at his feet, swapped out by his guitar tech every song. Axl Rose has thrown a fit and stomped off stage when his went out.
I know how you feel, tho, I remember seeing George Carlin in concert and seeing his act scroll across digital signs on the balcony where only he could see it. I got over it, tho.
"She helped to write the songs. She'd been singing them for 30 years. 12000 people in the audience can remember the words, but she can't. I haven't listened to Fleetwood Mac since."
She also had a middling to severe cocaine habit for decades, which blows out your memory, and is getting older, which doesnt help. I'd bet she only refers to them once in a while, anyway.
Does an orchestra play less well for having the sheet music in front of them? Do you enjoy a movie less if you know the lines are printed out and placed around the set? Or in a play?
Cut them some slack, bands like Fleetwood Mac paid their dues long, long ago - if they need a hand, so what, as long as it sounds good, and you enjoy the show.
This HOF has no credibility without the Moody Blues.
"Thats when Diamond Dave is on. I saw them at Madison Square Garden in 82' and he was visibly drunk. They opened with "Light Up the Sky" and he blurts out "I forgot the f'ing words". Eddie made up for his buffoonery"
He did that EVERY show. Every bootleg and official tape or video I've seen from that era, he said that.
It was part of his act. His bottle had iced tea, not whiskey. He himself admitted that his lyrics were subject to change at whim - and usually were. His autobiography is half bs and half truth, and Roth knew his role of frontman - he WAS the party, and it made the crowd happy to think he was as drunk as they were. He was a crappy singer at best, barely bothered to sing in favor of boogying around and flirting with the women in the audience, and generally just had a good time. And people LOVED it.
Never forget, rock and roll is all about illusion. Things you heard, or urban legends you heard, are either wrong, or made up, often by the band to get PR and attention. Some were true, but for reasons you'd never expect: like the brown M&Ms at VH shows. Word was, no brown ones allowed, or the band trashed the place. Whole mythologies about it were made up about why, I heard everything from superstition, to them being aphrodisiacs (and the band wanted them all to themselves), to it being the biggest example of spoiled rock star indulgence.
DLR admitted in his book that they snuck that brown M&M thing in there to make sure the promoter was reading the riders and requirements for the show, as VH shows were complicated monsters that required close attention to detail. (Take a look at the "1984" tour stage. It was a behemoth, even by today's standards.) So, if they saw brown M&Ms, they knew that the promoter was cutting corners and their managment knew they needed a close line-check of everything. And, he admitted, he would throw some drama in for good measure and amusement - that was his job.
DLR is known as an astute businessman and hipper than you carnival clown, his technique and skill always took last place to showmanship and hype. Half of what you've heard about him is false, but he loves every bit of it, and encourages it.
David Lee Roth patterned himself after Jim "Dandy" Mangrum of Black Oak Arkansas.
Great. One more R.E.M. and Patti Smith song and I'll puke. Her 'duet' with Stipe during their Monster tour completely turned me off to their music. And, the fact that they absolutely SUCK live.
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