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Saturday, December 26, 2015

20 Answers before the Eve of Christmas (Give or Take a few days)

Last week, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced who were the five top vote getters in the Performers category for their class of 2016.  This means these five artists are definitely getting inducted, with perhaps more to come in other categories.  The five artists are:

N.W.A:  This will be the first of two inductions for Dr. Dre; I expect him to get inducted on his own, probably as a Non-Performer in a couple years time.  Also going in as part of N.W.A. will be Ice Cube, Eric "Eazy-E" Wright (1964-1995), MC Ren, DJ Yella and Arabian Prince.

Chicago:  Including the inductions of Terry Kath (1946-1978) and Peter Cetera.

Deep Purple:  Inducted would be Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan, Jon Lord (1941-2012), Roger Glover, Ian Paice, David Coverdale, Glenn Hughes, Steve Morse, Don Airey, Rod Evans, Nick Simper, Joe Lynn Turner and Tommy Bolin (1951-1976).  Not included is Joe Satriani; he was never really a member of Deep Purple and is more than likely to get inducted one day on his own, probably as a Sideman.

Steve Miller

Cheap Trick

Since the announcement, there have been a number of bone headed moves and odd reasons given for why this is the leading artists for induction next year, and other issues that come with the territory of the RRHOF.  Indeed, on Sunday, the webmasters at Future Rock Legends posted on their blog page 20 questions regarding this year's named inductees and the future of the RRHOF.  It is intended to be posted in public so that those that run the Hall of Fame (Jann Wenner, Jon Landau, Joel Peresman and Greg Harris to name four) can provide the answers and give transparency in their voting and induction methods.

I should come out and say this:  I doubt any of the four, including Jon Landau but especially Jann Wenner, will answer these questions.  For myself, having been a regular poster and participant in elections on the Future Rock Legends website, I figured that since no one in the leadership will likely respond; here then are my answers to these questions.

My assumption as to why there are only five Performers inductees instead of six, which is still small since we at FRL have inducted seven Performers per year into our Rock Hall Project:  This may have been suggested by HBO along with Play Tone (Tom Hanks' production company) to have the telecast go within 3 and a half hours and attempt to lessen the editing of speeches and performances.  The ceremony is not broadcast live.  It does indeed revert back to a sense of creating a massive backlog that I had hoped was starting to ease since 2012.

Perhaps only having 5 inductees as Performers will in turn shorten the ceremony, subsequently fitting the time alloted for the HBO telecast.

The Barclays Center is quite the state of the art arena, one that is indeed expanding in importance since the New York Islanders have now called Barclays home.  As well, Jay-Z owns a percentage of the arena; perhaps this is a second test run for when Jay-Z one day gets inducted in the arena he calls home turf.

I am rather aghast that Nick Simper, Steve Morse, Don Airey, Joe Lynn Turner and Tommy Bolin are not yet listed as inducted members of Deep Purple.  I do think, if there are no goof ups, this was an intentional act by the hall of fame for a particular reason.  Mark II and III are fully in, yet Mark I are 4/5ths in mainly as a way to somehow entice Rod Evans to show his face in public after 35 years.  Well, that is not going to happen; and here is why.


To discuss this stupid and asinine move would be an essay in itself.  Suffice to say, Ritchie Blackmore in particular became so incensed that he and the band's attorneys cut off Evans' royalties.  Yes, Blackmore has a problem with most people but he does have a legitimate gripe against Evans.  As do most Deep Purple fans.

Steve Miller, under himself or as part of Steve Miller Band, has always had the focus be upon him.  This is most true once Boz Scaggs went on to do his own thing.  I can hardly name off the top of my head every person involved in the Steve Miller Band, and neither in fact can most RRHOF voters.  So, the easiest and most honest route is to induct Steve Miller, and not the backing Band whichever it may be.

It is absolutely certain that bands with complicated memberships seem to have more trouble getting inducted than bands with clear lineups, even if only classic lineups.  It is perhaps one reason why King Crimson is not yet inducted, and the same goes with Megadeth.  Those are just a couple examples.

I do not who these "experts" might be to determine honorees in a band. I wold not be surprised if these "experts" include someone's father's sister's brother's nephew's cousin's doctor's roommate.  In other words, a complete unknown.

The fan poll, I think, is utilized as a way to determine who will be inducted.  Since 2012, most of the Performers inductees per year from 2013 onwards has been determined by who eventually gets to be on the fan ballot.  For 2013 and 2014, 4 out of the top 6 on each fan ballot was inducted.  In 2015, it was 5 out of 6.  In 2016, it is 4 out of 5.  As well, each artist that led the fan ballot (Rush, Kiss, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, and Chicago) all got inducted.  It appears that more often than not, the fan ballot is what determines the sort of inductees that will be presented in each class.  It would not surprise me if the official 'experts" that receive a ballot also vote on the fan ballot.

As has been determined in post October 15th voting and voting on the Future Rock Legends website, Yes and Janet Jackson respectfully led each poll and by all rights should have gotten inducted.  However, I believe it was determined that 2016 would be the year for classic rock and a high percentage of 1970s based acts.  In particular, since Chicago, Steve Miller and Cheap Trick were first time nominees, lifelong fans of these artists who also are tech savvy elected to bot the voting.  Most of the bot votes went to Chicago.  Now, I do not have a problem with Chicago getting inducted, nor any of the named inductees so far.  Yet I do think the RRHOF allowed the tainting of the vote to be enacted primarily to enforce a Peter Cetera reunion with Chicago at least.

As I mentioned before, the fan vote adds a lot more teeth if, and I think it has happened, people with an actual ballot get to also vote on the fan ballot.  So that one vote on the fan ballot ideal gets tossed aside when Voting Committee members place their votes online on the fan ballot for all to see.

I do not think in past years this sort of chicanery was utilized.  In 2015 though, it may have been used on an experimental scale in order to legitimize fan support for an induction of Paul Butterfield and The Paul Butterfield Blues Band.  Since the Butterfield experiment proved a success (and mind you, I felt he should have gotten in before he passed away), it seemed that this experiment could be utilized to have fan support be named for at least a few of the nominees.  The fact that by October 15 Chicago received some 20 million votes, most of it by bots, and two months later the inductees were announced shows that this ballot was completely flawed.

For the record, I do not receive a ballot and thus I am not on the Voting Committee.  In truth, aside from known inductees who have a ballot and vote on it, along with several other names, I do not know every person who gets a vote.  It very well could be hacks and lackeys.  Sadly, I also do not see much gender diversity in who might be added to the Voting Committee.  It is a bit sad, considering the gradual rise of female artists and pioneers in rock and pop music in the past half century.

I have know idea how and why Gary Dell'Abate received an official ballot.  Being a Steely Dan fan and having an admittedly nice home theater does not say to me that this man needs a ballot.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has a gender diversity problem.  By comparison, our most recent projected Rock Hall Project inductees, while not as much as I would like, inducted Mariah Carey and Pat Benatar this past October.  By the way, Ms. Carey and Ms. Benatar have not yet been seriously Considered by the Nominating Committee as of yet.  I would request the RRHOF conduct a special election and ballot for this coming new year consisting solely of female candidates and female inductees.  Indeed, if I had a ballot for 10 female inductees, mine would look like this:

Mariah Carey
Pat Benatar
Janet Jackson
Whitney Houston
The Runaways
Siousxie Sioux
Carole Kaye
Joan Baez
Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Connie Francis

All were inducted into our Rock Hall Project, yet not the actual Hall of Fame.  That is not right.

I tend to believe the NomCom should have final say on who will eventually be inducted.  The Voting Committee apparently are best used as a recommendation body, not a voting body.

I would tend to believe that less than half of the 800 ballots were returned.  Perhaps even lesser than years before after the fan vote bots locked in the fan ballot.

The voted were likely counted by a computer software of some kind.  I also doubt that the voting ballot totals will be released to the public.

As mentioned before, it appears that the RRHOF wanted enforced reunions of three different groups (Peter Cetera with Chicago, Ritchie Blackmore with Deep Purple, Cheap Trick with their past drummer).  The Cheap Trick reunion might happen, though it will not be easy.  I doubt Ritchie Blackmore appears at the ceremony, and while Peter Cetera could entertain the idea of reuniting with Chicago for a final time; Mr. Cetera has not felt the need to reunite in the past 30 years.  The Kiss reunion uncertainty in 2014 only involved One act.  2016 has Three acts that people want to see a reunion at any cost.  As for N.W.A,, a reunion of surviving members, including Dr. Dre, has always been on the offering so no problem there.

We all assume the remaining inductees will be announced early in the new year.  I am not sure who gets inducted through other means, though I assume they will generate a lot of needed buzz.  I am guessing the RRHOF do not want a second Ringo Starr situation when the inductee that was not on a nominating ballot gets to be the headliner.

This may sound absurd, yet i think the RRHOF made the decision to scrap the Los Angeles location for one in New York due to the every several years weather pattern El Nino.  A pattern in which the West Coast gets colder and wetter, and the East Coast remains wet yet far milder.  We just noticed this peculiarity when on Christmas Eve, New York City was in the upper 60s.  Fortunately, this will not last long and is expected to be considerably colder in the days and months and even years to come.  I say years because after an El Nino there is a La Nina.  Not to mention there has been a methane gas leak off the coast of California that has only been given nationwide attention on Christmas Eve: after 6 weeks of leakage!  To give you an idea, methane is far more dangerous than carbon dioxide.  So, environment, weather patterns and short sighted ideals have the ceremony now taking place in New York.   Perhaps next year the ceremony will return to Los Angeles.

Well, since I doubt you will get official answers from Jann Wenner, Jon Landau and Co., I do hope these answers I gave will suffice.  I was going to finish this before Christmas Eve; yet dinners, parties and a far amount of gifts I received made this get posted at this time,  Leave it to the Holiday season to receive much desired gifts like new Roger Waters and David Gilmour films and albums, a new LP player, two more vinyl LPs and finally getting the Beatles on music streaming services like Apple Music.  And that is just rock and roll and music related.

Any comments and/or questions are greatly encouraged and appreciated.

Talk to you all sooner than later,

Robert



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