Shake It's Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Renovations Announced

Last weekend, Shake It Records held its black-tie-optional Rawk and Roll Hall of Fame "induction/deduction" ceremony, where artists were ceremoniously booted from the current Rock Hall while a handful of acts deemed more worthy were added to take their place.

Here are the performers it was decided (by Shake It, Chunklet magazine and voters) deserved to be shown the exits at the Cleveland-based Hall:
Elvis Presley (deemed an "overrated fat-ass thief")
Jackson Browne
Mike Love
Michael Jackson
The Four Seasons

And here are the artists taking their slots:
The MC5
Charlie Feathers
Keith Morris
The Sonics
Howlin' Wolf

Agree? Disagree? Who would you put in and who would you take out? For me, The Stooges go in and, as I've campaigned for the past several years (I'm starting an online petition, the only real way to get anything accomplished today), the Lovin' Spoonful are out. Who the hell did they ever influence? Or, rather, who the hell did they influence that had any effect on Rock & Roll music whatsoever?

And if you're pissed, tune into Shake It's MySpace page (linked above) next year around this time and put in your own nominees. If you didn't vote, you can't complain! Right, apathetic Bush haters?

— Mike Breen

Comments

[trey]

Elvis a thief? The only real thievery was done by white urban liberals. The blueprint for rock and roll was created by two groups northern liberals didn't feel comfortable with: blacks(who they intellectually backed but couldn't support on a gut level) and white religious, social conservatives (who they could look down upon more openly). Elvis made it because he was good-looking enough that the northern teen record-buyer (where most of the revenue came from) could overlook his lack of education. I came to this theory after watching a PBS special on rockabilly and noticed that almost all these 50's white rockabilly performers were largely unknown. They had been rejected as much as the much mentioned black originators. It was not until the Beatles and the "better educated" British performers who mastered this genre (and to a lesser extent the Northern-American folk rockers)that rock exploded.

[C.A.]

I wouldn't take Michael Jackson out. No way. Even with his weirdness in the present, he's still a Pop icon in my book. I used to have a poster of him in my room when I was a kid. He was wearing a yellow suit, and he looked so handsome back then. I remember I took the poster on the bus and showed all the kids. Alas, I haven't listened to him in years, but what a star-lit dancer in his day.

[Chris]

I must respectfully disagree with your stance on the Lovin' Spoonful. For shame! They totally influenced the entire 1960s California pop movement. That same sound later altered into the country pop that dominated the charts in the late 60s/early 70s. They were the biggest band out there at the time, to such a degree that they influenced the Beatles. Along with the Mamas and the Papas and Buffalo Springfield, they made California into such a "scene" that musicians left New York in droves. It's even rumored that John Lennon started wearing his round glasses because John Sebastian did it first.

[Action News]

I guess they issue here is whether an artist had influence, or whether the reader likes the artist. ;-) For example, I believe that Madonna had a large amount of influence on the pop music scene since the late 80s. I also completely detest her music and think she's amazingly over-rated.

I don't know if the band "Love" is in the RnR HOF, but if it isn't, it should be. Their influence could be debated, but I bet a lot of their more popular contemporaries heard their songs and considered quitting the business. A band that has never gotten the recognition it deserves, IMO.

[g-rant]

michael jackson is definitely a "pop icon," but it's called the ROCK & ROLL hall of fame.

and as far as thievery goes, ALL music is stolen, except for maybe DEVO because they are just so far out there.

personally, i could never get past the way that elvis treated his original band when he got back from the army. col. parker may have been behind it, but it was still elvis' call. fat cracker ass cracker.

[Breen]

Action: Good call. Love certainly deserves more respect. I'd put them in my Rock Hall (it's in my basement rec room; and it's only $10 to get in).

Let me just say that the Shake It Hall is all in good, cynical, sarcastic fun (pick up a Chunklet magazine for that brand of cut-throat humor). Pressed for a real vote, I doubt anyone could legitimately make a case that Elvis and Jacko don't deserve to be in.

I agree with the comment that it's about influence. I think Jacko did influence Rock & Roll (and the industry as a whole), even though he's Pop. I did a previous post about how, if it was solely limited to artists playing dictionary-definition Rock & Roll, the Rock Hall would suck even harder (really - no Aretha Franklin?).

There are plenty of artists I despise in the Rock Hall that I would never dream of saying they don't belong. Steely Dan comes to mind. Never liked them, but they were important. And I've never understood the KISS thing (I think their music is average-bar-band quality at best), but damn if they didn't impact areas like live Arena Rock shows, merchandising and fandomonium.

Chris (love your site!): I will respectfully disagree right back. The Spoonful are more known as the band that emerged from that Folk scene and made everything Pop and watered down for the masses. I don't think they even begin to approach the influence of, say, The Byrds, or Buffalo Springfield or even the Mamas and Pappas. I'm not saying they were a horrible band or anything, they just seemed an odd addition when there are so many more worthy artists left out.

Although I've always loved Sebastian's Welcome Back Kotter theme.

[trey]

I may have gone a bit overboard on my Elvis defense. He's not really somebody I connect with strongly but I thought it was disrespectful and the thievery charge was rather pedestrian (I use to say the same when I was a naive 20 year old.) (Luckily now I'm a naive 40 year old: yuck, yuck) But couldn't you say the same about Malcolm X. I haven't heard a whole bunch of his speeches but the ones I heard he always strikes me as having a rather white speaking style (especially when compared to MLK or Sharpton) Then, does that make him a thief? ..............But anyway, I stand by my position I stated in prior posts. The Hall of Fame should live up to its name: you know like being about famous musicians and stuff. So no Charlie Feathers, the Sonics, Keith Morris, or , the MC5. I consider myself like a kind of musicologicst and the MC5 is the only one I've really heard of. So I think big 70's groups like ZZTop,ACDC, most probably Boston (I heard them on the radio the other day and though it might be arena rock I rather enjoy them), and maybe even Journey need to go in. As I said its called the Hall of FAME.

[trey]

Mr. Breen, I don't know why I'm so interested in this subject because I'm almost sure I'll never go to the museum. Maybe because I was once totally into music (probably more so than you) and really don't care about it anymore so arguing history is the only use I can make of all this "useless" info I have. But anyway I researched the process of HOF induction and have some comments. First, I was unaware that ZZtop and ACDC were already in (good for them). So now I think I'll focus on arguing why Boston and Journey should be in. The simple case is that record sales should be the number one determinant who gets in and these guys sold boatloads of records. The process is now limited to a committee of 75 nominaters and 750 voters. The nominators are guys like Jann Wenner and Dave Marsh, pretty good critics, but guys with fierce biases. I think it would be much better to set up a sophisticated algorhythm that gives most weight to record sales and concert ticket sales to the 16-25 rock and roll age consumer, followed by some measure of longevity (I'm sure some math geek could come up with this) and a small weight that is given to such intangibles as influence and the like -- though I would argue that groups that are supposedly influential like the Velvet Undergroud (who I personally really enjoy) were in fact completely irrelevent beyond a subgroup of people who live a somewhat non-traditional lifestyle in big cities. I have spent most of my life in a small town in S.E. Indiana and tell you (surprise, surprise) the local bar bands don't play V.U., they play Skynard. And my guess is that if you go across the country and count up all the money that changes hands on a nightly basis in rock and roll bars, you'll find the same thing. (More later.)

[trey]

First up I would like to state that I know the word is algorithm not algorhthym. I have no idea what the etymology of that word is so I thought maybe it was "algebra in rhthym" for a second but after I thought on it a while I remembered how it was really spelled. I still have no idea about its etymology though (alot of math terms have weird derivations)...... Anyway I just wanted to repeat that I honestly think a museum that more closely followed revenue streams would be superior to a "critics choice" museum. I'm willing to accept that BonJovi and Madonna would be included [if it was somehow limited to the 16-23 consumer (the main R&R audience)and brought into account longevity, I'm pretty sure that acts like Donny Osmond and Lindsey Lohan would be kept out]so that the totally arbitrary whims of critics (no matter how talented) would be avoided. In honesty probably the most overrepresented acts in the Hall are the black ones. Even the so-called take-no-prisoners Shake It Records consumer is afraid to admit he/she has never purposely listened to that dude who sings "When a Man Loves a Woman" or Sam& Dave in his life so he'll take his anger out on some non-punk rock white guy. (And in closing I would like to stress again how the so-called influential artists who are also overrepresented were only influential to the small cadre of people who happen to include big-city music critics. For example, British punk rock which was supposed to be this world changing cultural movement according to Rolling Stone and the others was a near complete flop throughout most of the U.S.) FYI: I at one time owned a whole bunch of Pistols, Clash, Buzzcock records. .....PS: I know how you are a big backer of the Stooges getting in and I originally thought your reasons were more examples of critical whims but I have sort of altered my opinion in that if the Stooges can keep the large audience they seem to have with their comeback for 5 or so years maybe they deserve to be inducted