That said, who's to say who does and doesn't belong in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It is a commercial venture, not the one and only Catholic Church. You and I could establish a competing Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame and induct in it Bobby Rydell and Terry Jacks. Who's to stop us? It's such an artificial creature as to be laughable from the getgo, I'm afraid. I don't recognize it as any sort of authority on the history of rock'n'roll.
“I don’t recognize it as any sort of authority on the history of rock’n’roll.”
I made this point on the “boot the lame from the hall of fame” thread.
The history is false. We’ve been sold a false bill of goods.
Rock and Roll is not “kids junk” as it has been said in revisionist history. It was the sound of juke joints in the early 1950s. Adults gathered to drink, gamble, f***, and fight. It wasn’t written to “change the world with songs of golden protest”.
The Baby Boomers who were still in diapers when rock began have tried to use the false gods of Dick Clark, Bill Graham, Jann Wener, and a few others to tell us “who was cool” or “important” or “influential”. And if it came after their day (or was ignored by them in high school in their day) it didn’t “exist”.
Lester Bangs could put together a lot more essential list.