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OT: The Rock & Roll HOF

What happened to our annual ‘who will get in, who should have been nominated, who is the most deserving of individuals/groups that have never been inducted, who is the least deserving’ thread which typically ran multiple pages?

Did we miss it because they changed the date of the inductions to the middle of the FB season? Is it due to Owtahear’s absence? Did DT_Pitt lose his interest in rock music?

Anyway, my belated thoughts on this year’s nominees/inductees and related subjects.

(1) I thought they all were deserving. I was especially pleased with the induction of Bernie Taupin, the lyricist on almost every Elton John song. Cool guy. He and Elton are such opposites and yet they are a great team. Represented him in a lawsuit brought by ex-wife #1 (who he wrote “Tiny Dancer” about). Illustrates the validity of the saying “no good deed goes unpunished.” I believe they were married only when Bernie wrote the songs on one album. But in the divorce settlement he magnanimously gave her a half-interest in the income from songs on two other albums. That was enough to provide her with a large income for life; between $700k and $1M annually.

But, no good deed goes unpunished: When Elton and Bernie signed with a new entity to exploit their catalog, she sued because the new entity took a 1% higher commission. She claimed that violated Bernie’s fiduciary duty to maximize the income from the exploitation of the catalog.

The evidence, however, showed that her net vincome from the new entity was $150k to $250k higher annually under the new entity than it had been under the old entity. The new entity did a much better job and deserved that extra 1%.

That is not uncommon in the industry. AFTRA pays lower performance rights fees than BMI. But AFTRA does a better job than BMI of tracking performance rights and generally pays out more.

Lots of musicians would have settled the case and paid her something to avoid the legal fees. Bernie wouldn’t. On principle. Anyway, the judge understood. She got not one penny.

But, back to the HOF. With Willie Nelson the latest non-rocker in it, how can they keep John Denver, Johnny Cash, The Weavers and Woodie Guthrie out? Bernie Taupin made a pitch for Merle Haggard. I don’t know his music well enough to have an opinion.

I will let those far more knowledgeable than me about music after the 1980s pitch their own deserving entrants.

Let me tell you one group I was shocked to find out is in the HOF: “The Loving Spoonful.” Are you kidding me? One big hit: “Do You Believe in Magic?” and they are in the HOF. Could it have anything to do with the friendship between John Sebastian and Jann Wenner?

If they were going to induct any short-lived group from that period it should have been “The Association.” Two of the greatest love songs of all-time in “Cherish and “Never My Love” and a handful of other hits.
Don’t want to get into the Spoonful’s credentials but they had many hits in the mid 60s.

Summer in the city

What a day for a day dream

Did you ever have to make up your mind

Nashville cats

Darlin be home soon

You and me and rain on the roof

These weren’t all smashes but all were great memories for me back then.
 
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The Beatles didn’t get in until the third class in 1988? Who does this voting?
Clearly you did not read the by laws of the RR HOF and who and when people are eligible. Nothing fires me up more than people who do not know the RR HOF by laws.
 
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Aren’t most Halls of Fame boring?
If you had ever gone to the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame in St. Louis (moved to Arlington Texas since I was there but I am assuming it is just as exciting) you would have never asked such an idiotic question....
 
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The Swampers have to be in the HOF. If you are unfamiliar with the Swampers check out the documentary on The Muscle Shoals Sound Studio formed in 1969 by Barry Beckett (keyboards), Roger Hawkins (drums), Jimmy Johnson (guitar) and David Hood who have made more Platinum Albums than anyone.
Name a few of their songs?
 
Aren’t most Halls of Fame boring?
The only one I ever saw in person was the Pro Football Hall of Fame, I thought it was kind of underwhelming, some ratty old jerseys under glass with some leather helmets. The only thing was it made you think about playing football in that equipment, I suppose modern kids would feel that the helmet I wore in 1976 would belong in a museum :)

you can see it from the highway that runs north between Columbus and I80, is it I73? anyways, one day in the 80s I was driving up that road by myself on a weekday, so I just figured what the hell, pulled off the road and went and looked at it.
 
The only one I ever saw in person was the Pro Football Hall of Fame, I thought it was kind of underwhelming, some ratty old jerseys under glass with some leather helmets. The only thing was it made you think about playing football in that equipment, I suppose modern kids would feel that the helmet I wore in 1976 would belong in a museum :)

you can see it from the highway that runs north between Columbus and I80, is it I73? anyways, one day in the 80s I was driving up that road by myself on a weekday, so I just figured what the hell, pulled off the road and went and looked at it.
Yeah the Football HOF is lame, the Hockey Hall of Fame is better due to the room with all the trophy’s and the display of old goalie masks, but the rest is just old jerseys, sticks and pucks.
 
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