Here is the first installment of my “100 Greatest Rock Hall Prospects” list, starting out at #100, and moving on to #1 in the coming weeks. (Chicago, fortunately, lost their spot at #1 by virtue of being inducted.) Hopefully, I’ll be able to imbed a Spotify playlist on this blog shortly, but please bear with me; I haven’t quite figured that trick out yet. This particular batch has some eclectic, but somewhat borderline, cases. Interestingly, five of these artists have already been nominated, but haven’t made it in yet. Let me know your thoughts as we journey through the epochs of rock and roll. Remember- this is just one guy’s opinion, so I hope you won’t take umbrage if your favorites aren’t on the list or are ranked too low for your liking.
100. Fela Kuti: For all we complain about certain “snubs” from the Rock Hall, there are some genres, and indeed, some geographical regions that are left out in the cold entirely. No artist who spent their career working from Africa, to give one less obvious example, has been inducted. If the Hall ever looks in that direction, they could do no better than Fela Kuti. Like Bob Marley before him, Kuti worked outside the Anglo-American axis, and pioneered a bold new synthesis while standing up to political oppression. And also like Marley, he is regarded as much as a prophet as a musician. Kuti’s contribution is Afrobeat, a dynamic synthesis of funk and traditional Nigerian rhythms, and a key progenitor to world music. Redbull Music Guide calls him “A complex man who was equal parts shaman, showman, and trickster,” a crafty thorn in the side of the violent regimes that Nigerians endured during his lifetime. If it weren’t for the horrific migrations out of Africa in the 1600s and 1700s, rock and roll could have never happened, so it is incumbent on us to recognize a figure who, more than anyone else, brought it all back home. If this seems like a far-fetched choice, remember that Kuti has plenty of admirers in high places, ranging from Jay-Z to his onetime collaborator, Ginger Baker.
99. Husker Du: I was a bit dismissive about Husker Du in my introduction to this project, but they still deserve serious consideration for a Rock Hall induction. They helped create alt-rock and set the table for Green Day and other latter-day acts that dominated radio when I was a teenager, except they did it years before it was cool. Ultimately, they were a musician’s band, more famous for influence than for record sales. Patrick Smith said it best: “To say that Hüsker Dü never cultivated any sort of image, in the usual manner of rock bands, is putting it mildly. These guys just didn’t look or carry themselves like musicians. And they didn’t care.” Their records rarely had a picture of the band, but they were workmanlike, touring relentlessly to break out of the underground scene they were beholden to. Husker Du bridged the gap between thrash and alternative, recording an essential album, Zen Arcade, with little time and a meager budget. Nirvana, Pixies, the Foo Fighters and countless other acts cite them as an important influence.
98. D.C. Talk: One important genre that the Rock Hall has heretofore neglected (and will probably neglect for a very long time) is Christian Contemporary. This is probably because its artists and its audience exist in a somewhat insular subculture in America far removed from anybody on the Nominating Committee. But if your daddy listened to James Dobson on the radio and your mama read Amish romance novels, chances are, D.C. Talk was a part of your life in the 1990s. D.C. Talk remains the most historically important Christian contemporary artist for the Rock Hall’s consideration, at least until Jars of Clay become eligible in 2020. They started out recording plenty of spiritually uplifiting secular songs like “Lean On Me” and “Jesus Is Just Alright” before 1995’s Jesus Freak came out like a bolt out of the blue. A lot of music that white evangelicals were listening to…well…let’s just say it was shoddily recorded and noticeably derivative. There were lots of earnest singer-songwriters with acoustic guitars and beards, or Styx-wannabes like Petra. D.C. Talk broke away from the evangelical tendency toward second-rate music, playing conscientious hip-hop-infused rock that didn’t sound like a pale imitation of existing artists. Wisely, they tapped into post-punk and alternative’s need for personal authenticity and its identification with society’s misfits and losers, balancing the introspective with a finely-developed social consciousness. Virtually every edgy Christian songwriter of a generation began his or her education with D.C. Talk.
97. New York Dolls: This pick goes against everything I stand for in terms of my personal taste, but it is tough to deny their longstanding influence. The New York Dolls were gender-bending to a striking, and apparently persuasive, degree (just this semester, one of my students foolishly included them in a diorama on “women in rock.”) There was this sorta Jagger-knock-off feel to their sound and their sneering and pouting temperament, but they were an important piece of what became punk music. Even if they got there by way of glam. I love that their first gig was in a homeless shelter; it’s the perfect encapsulation of the New York underground scene that embraced all kinds of people who were rejected elsewhere. They challenged convention (particularly gender convention) with their wardrobe choices and became heroes to Patti Smith, The Ramones, and other top-shelf acts that became massively big later on. (Then again, they also influenced KISS. This isn’t something to be proud of; it’s more like remembering Lee Harvey Oswald for influencing Mark David Chapman.) At a time when popular music was getting more complex and ethereal, New York Dolls not only brought it back down to earth, but into the gutter. They lived fast, some of them died hard, and they enjoyed only a short career before disbanding, but everyone who was there at the time vouches for their importance. The band was nominated once in 2001, but it may be a long time before they see the inside of the Rock Hall. If it took the Sex Pistols five tries and the Stooges eight tries, they may have quite a wait ahead of them.
96. Teddy Pendergrass/Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes: Every genre in the rock and roll family tree moves the listener in a different way. The deep soul branch touches the most plaintive notes of our conscious selves, and speaks to our deepest hurts and our most aching longings. I can think of no outfit that did this quite so well as Pendergrass- either with or without Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes. Their most important (and most widely covered) hit, “If You Don’t Know Me By Now” is a track of profound emotional depth, and that’s just one of a small armada of hits that tore up the R&B charts through the 70s. Pendergrass kept this going in his solo career, which was cut short by a freak accident that paralyzed him and shortened his life (eerie parallels to Curtis Mayfield, no?) Actually, like Mayfield, Pendergrass and the Blue Notes also threaded a careful line between love songs and socially conscious numbers in tune with their times (give a listen to “Wake Up Everybody” for a fine essay in this genre.) While figures like Barry White had a more conspicuous calling card in his spoken-word seduction, Pendergrass had chops that weren’t overshadowed by deceptive production. Philadelphia artists have a habit of being ignored by the Rock Hall, as Daryl Hall pointed out at his own induction, and the Blue Notes would be a worthy addition given the absence of Philly soul from the Cleveland halls. Classic rockers will have a fit, but I’d rather have a first rate soul outfit than a group of second-rate rockers.
95. Procol Harum: For a few years, it seemed like Cleveland was letting every British invasion act it could remember into its halls. When Procol Harum was nominated for the Class of 2013, it sure looked like a front-runner on a ballot filled with dicey blues and rap prospects. Yet, they failed to get the votes, and I wonder why. Inductees Dave Clark Five and The Hollies certainly had more hits, I’ll grant you that, but Procol Harum had significantly more vision behind it, and was a better fit for the Hall’s own agenda. With a full-time lyricist at their disposal, they challenged rock and roll’s artistic boundaries, using greater classical influences, and a broader array of instruments- with the organ at the front of the mix- to create baroque pop. The result of this technique was the glorious “Whiter Shade of Pale,” a track that serves as the exemplar of ambitious (if somewhat obtuse) psychedelia. But don’t stop there, because “The Devil Came From Kansas,” “Conquistador,” and “A Salty Dog” were all ambitious and masterfully composed, rich gems waiting for those who are willing to delve further into their catalog. All these factors make them important antecedents to progressive rock sensibilities. Today, every artist records with a full orchestra as a fun lark. But Procol Harum was perhaps the first band to do so with a 1972 album with the Edmonton Symphonic Orchestra, exploring how classical and rock and roll might be genres in collaboration rather than competition. Procol Harum is still on tour today with its frontman Gary Brooker, and despite recurring lawsuits over “Whiter,” the band would be able to perform, and even skip the light fandango, if called upon.
94. Chuck Willis: The Rock Hall has, traditionally, been very mindful of 50s R&B legends- people who didn’t have tons of hits that are played on Oldies radio today, but were indispensable to the foundations of rock and roll. But a few of them never quite made it past the hurdles of induction. Joe Tex is one of them. Esther Phillips is another. But arguably the turban-wearing Chuck Willis is the most influential of the figures in this category. He was nominated on each of the Hall’s first five ballots, and once again in 2011, without success. As the voting body becomes younger and perhaps less historically astute, Willis’s window is probably gone unless he gets a backdoor “early influence” nod. It’s a shame, because he deserves induction without any asterisks. He wrote his own material in a genre where that rarely happened, popularized “C. C. Rider” and The Stroll, one of Rock’s first dance crazes, and toggled easily between sincere ballads and riveting rockers. His blend of crooning and wailing established the template for every number of R&B vocalists to come. Unfortunately, he was felled by peritonitis in his prime, and died at the age of 30, one of rock and roll’s first big casualties, even predeceasing Buddy, Richie, and the Bopper.
93. Mary Wells: Has the Rock Hall milked Motown dry? It seems like every significant Motown artist is enshrined in the Hall, although the Nom Com seems on the lookout for more of them. The Marvelettes have been nominated a couple times, most recently for the Class of 2015, but I think a stronger case can be made for Mary Wells if you’re going to close the book on Hitsville, USA. Go back and listen to her old 45s, and you’ll hear a remarkable self-possession and personality shine through. Sultry but sweet, emotive but confident, she should have had a much bigger career than she enjoyed. It must have been tough as a female artist in the 60s, with the virgin/whore dichotomy at full bore. Your output had to be demure enough to be respectable but sensuous enough to be interesting. There aren’t many songs that are simultaneously both seductive and innocent as her vocal work on the coda of “My Guy.” Unfortunately, she violated Rock and Roll Rule #3: Don’t Cross Berry Gordy. (Rule #1 is “Don’t bite the head off a bat” and Rule #2 is “don’t marry your 13-year-old cousin.”) Rumors persist that Gordy sabotaged her career after she left Motown, irritated by The Supremes getting more attention, better promotion, and more quality material. But any way you slice it, the hits dried up prematurely for one of soul’s most talented vocalists.
92. Megadeth: there are probably metal bands that deserve to be in before Megadeth, but they are certainly in the queue. Founded by Metallica castaway Dave Muscatine, Megadeth presided over the creation of thrash-metal: angry, focused, intentional, and intense. The band has danced with the devil for decades, with lyrics that explore death and destruction, but never wholly endorsing a violent worldview. In terms of zeitgeist, it’s remarkable how well Megadeth directed their ire at the bloodlust of the 1980s, with a revived Cold War and a lot of unnecessary, phallus-waggling American incursions into Latin America and the Caribbean. Nobody, as it turns out, was buying peace. Although Muscatine has expressed interest in induction, it’s probably a long way off. The Nom Com just isn’t interested in thrash metal, and their rivals, Metallica, belong to the Rock Hall’s “in-club” and these guys most definitely do not.
91. Bon Jovi: If you really stop and think about it, one of Cleveland’s more insidious biases is against artists that women tend to like more than men- perhaps a reflection of the male super-duper-majority on the Nom Com. How many artists in the Hall of Fame today have a decisively female fan base? Bobby Darin? Ricky Nelson? Neil Diamond? I can’t think of too many more. Teen idols tend to get passed over as long on image and short on chops. Every once in a while, an exception like Peter Frampton- a surprisingly good guitarist- challenges that stereotype, but otherwise, good luck waiting for Bobby Vinton, Frankie Avalon, Lief Garrett, and Neil Sedaka to come to Cleveland. But in the mid-to-late 1980s, Bon Jovi were not only teen idols, but the most well-remembered emblems of hair bands. With long mullets, screechy guitar solos, and ear-worm hooks, bands like Bon Jovi tore up the charts in the mid-to-late 80s. They wracked up a number of big hits made for stadium sing-alongs and Jon holding out the microphone to the audience (every song they’ve done seems to have a “wuhhh-oh” or an “aaah-ah” in the chorus crafted for this kind of moment.) It was listener friendly, but almost factory-designed to vex the serious listener or critic, ever searching for technique and nuance. But technique and nuance were never part of Bon Jovi’s appeal. I had just started listening to Top 40 radio when “Always” was out, inaugurating Bon Jovi 2.0, and several years later, they did it again with “It’s My Life” and later remade themselves into John Mellencamp-style heartland rockers in the new millennium. In a crazy way, a Bon Jovi comeback seemed more far-fetched and anachronistic than its contemporary Santana and Cher comebacks, partly because it was so tough to disassociate them from the mullet-infested, Dollar Store Springsteen side of the 80s. After all, didn’t Nirvana exist to save us from bands like Bon Jovi? Nevertheless, as a cultural artifact, as hitmakers of astonishing resilience, and as contributors to the rock and roll milieu, Bon Jovi deserves a place in the Hall. “Tommy used to work on the docks” is one of the great opening lines in all of rock history. Bon Jovi has been nominated once before- for the Class of 2011- but didn’t get in. With the recent exception of Janet Jackson, that’s probably the most shocking non-induction in the last decade of Rock Hall history. I’d expect them to get a second chance sooner rather than later- especially under the aggressive new management of Irving Azoff.
Fantastic list already. What a great undertaking. I’m really looking forward to seeing the remaining choices (although at this early juncture, I may put Harum and the NY Dolls a little bit higher).
As would many people I respect. Ultimately, it is hard for any list to be totally objective- taste will factor in somehow. I hope you’ll keep reading this project, Josh!
Absolutely!
I was actually reading this list from an “odds of induction” mentality, rather than taste one. Objectivity is definitely impossible (and one of my main criticisms of the rock hall is that it wants to turn the subjective into objective). And I had been thinking that they might have better chances than some because of their prior nominations.
Sure. My ranking is based on “who most deserves to be there”, rather than “who is most likely to get in”.
Gotcha. And as an aside, I, for one, would be over the moon if the hall ever acknowledged Fela Kuti. What a great choice!
Now that Chicago has been inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, these are the acts I am anxious to see inducted next
FOLK
01. Phil Ochs
02. Joan Baez
03. Judy Collins
04. Peter, Paul & Mary
05. The Kingston Trio
COUNTRY
01. Willie Nelson
02. Merle Haggard
03. George Jones
04. Conway Twitty
05. Kris Kristofferson
06. Dolly Parton
07. Connie Francis
08. Patsy Cline
POP
01. Jan & Dean
02. The Monkees
03. Chubby Checker
04. Dionne Warwick
MOTOWN
01. Mary Wells
02. The Marvelettes
03. The Spinners
PROG
01. Yes
02. Jethro Tull
03. King Crimson
04. The Moody Blues
05. Emerson, Lake & Palmer
JAZZ-ROCK-R&B
01. The Commodores
02. Kool & The Gang
03. Blood, Sweat & Tears
Roy, I am just delighted for you- more than I am delighted for myself- that Chicago made it. I can’t say that all of your picks are on my list, but I think you’ll be pretty happy with how it shapes up.
I think I’d have to go higher with Fela Kuti as far as his worthiness, in part due to his huge influence on at least two current Hall Of Famers: Talking Heads and Peter Gabriel.
Definitely looking forward to seeing the rest. Your writing is fantastic!
Thank you, Donnie. Looking forward myself to seeing your thoughts on the Class of 2016.
There are so many lists and opinions out there that I need to be grabbed immediately to remain engaged. You did that with Fela Kuti. It terms of non-North American/European/Australian names Kuti and Brazil’s Os Mutantes are the first two that always pop into my head in these discussions.
As far as the two acts here that one might expect me to be most opinionated about, it’s a bit of a split. For what an essential, important influence they are on the punk and alternative timelines, New York Dolls would be a top 20 for me. On the other side, I think your ranking and assessment of Husker Du is pretty spot on. Honestly, if they hadn’t made your top 100 I probably wouldn’t have thought anything of it. Definitely a band who would merit induction, but who I see a bit of a punk/alternative line in front of. In Rock Hall Revisited/Projected, they’re one of three alternative acts (along with XTC and My Bloody Valentine) who I see as deserving inductees, but who jumped the line considerably in comparison to some of their contemporaries.
I’m not really a Metal guy, but a lot of people outside the Cult of Trunk do tend to follow the Rock Hall’s lead in pretending that Metal doesn’t exist, so the inclusion of Megadeth is nice to see and well warranted.
I’m actually surprised that Wells, Willis and Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes haven’t been inducted yet and have to wonder if they’ll end up getting lost as the Rock Hall is beginning to move into a contentious generational sea change. It would really be a shame for any of them to fall into the cracks a be forgotten.
In the Rock Hall Watcher community over the past couple years I see a mindset gaining traction that I call the “Sophisticated Rockist”, as in, “I don’t just support the classic rockers, I support the R&B hitmakers on the ballot, too”.. They’re a double edged sword for me. On one hand, their dismissal of most anything but classic rock and R&B is, well, dismissable, but on the other hand, I think they’re going to be some of the most valuable voices over the next decade or so in terms of those R&B acts not getting pushed aside.
I certainly hope so- it would be a shame for the Rock Hall- still partly an educational institution- to give up on the earlier artists. But this year’s class decided to vote for nostalgia, and those acts you mentioned are much more historical rather than nostalgic ones in the minds of many voters.
Anyway, we don’t always agree, but I’ve always respected your opinion. I’m glad you are following this project.
Thank you. And the feeling is certainly mutual.
You bring up a good point about nostalgia. I’m someone who is often prone to falling into a cold academic view of R&R history, but ultimately I think the best course for the Rock Hall to take really is an ebb and flow of nostalgic warmth and nerdy historical mapping.
Very good start. Just as a brief aside though, DC Talk didn’t start with songs like “Lean On Me” and “Jesus Is Just Alright”… both of those were on their third album (though far and away their best) Free At Last. Their eponymous debut is definitely different from the Michael W. Smith and Amy Grant trend, but probably hasn’t held up well, musically. Their second one “Nu Thang” definitely shows the stepping stones from that first one to “Free At Last” as they started to show a bit more about how faith should shape a daily walk and even our society, with a vision that is significantly different to what we’ve got in even the most “Christian” pockets of American society today.
Anyway, very pleasant surprise that you included them. “Amish romance novels”… it’s like you monitored my childhood for that remark. Could’ve just said, “and if your mama’s favorite author was Janet Oakes.” lol
That’s all true enough, Philip- I should have simply used “pre-Jesus Freak” and given more credit to those second and third albums. But I am fascinated that you grew up in the Christian contemporary milieu- I’ve followed your writing for a while and never knew that about you.
Well, what constitutes the “Contemporary Christian milieu” is rather debatable. For example, I’m from and still hold to a Calvinist faith tradition, whereas the typical connotation is towards the more charismatic/Evangelical camps. We certainly didn’t have services every night or join in any protests… but that may be simply because we were in the backwoods, a real small town. So, depending on whom you ask, I either did or didn’t come from that setting.
Also, kinda curious where you get off calling Petra “Styx-wannabes”. For starters, Petra predates Styx, I believe. Their first album was in 1973. Second, I thought they were a bit harder than Styx. They certainly were on their classic album “Beyond Belief,” which sounds a bit more hair-metal than arena rock. Also, Petra has been officially enshrined by the Hard Rock Cafe. So, they’re not without merits either.
I okay. I get it. Calvinism is, as you point out, quite different from, say, Wheaton evangelicalism (to say nothing of, say, Bob Jones or Liberty evangelicalism.) I had to read dozens of issues of the Reformed Journal for my dissertation, so I had to become conversant in the breadth of modern Protestantism.
The “Styx-wannabe” line was a dig at my father-in-law, who may or may not read this blog. He loves Petra to the point that when he was in charge of watching my wife and her brother when they were kids, he arranged an activity called “Petra, Popcorn, and Pandemonium” which usually involved throwing stuffed animals at each other. The goal was to prod him into spending a half hour of his life explaining to me how they aren’t styx-wannabes.
Good job so far, and I’ll be following along as the list progresses. I hope DC Talk isn’t the highest ranked CCM act, though. I’d argue that artists such as Amy Grant, Larry Norman, Michael W. Smith, Steven Curtis Chapman, Keith Green, and even Petra have been more historically significant and influential in Christian pop and rock music. Still, DC Talk is certainly in the upper echelon of the genre’s legends, for reasons you pointed out.