Before the broadcast: Revolt of the Inductees.

Codifying an art form into legitimacy is in theory an interesting way of at least allowing the art form to become highbrow culture.  One way to do this is by presenting awards and treasures for what we may consider the best in one's respective fields and ideals.  In effect, the highbrow worlds intertwining business, commerce, governance, academia, history and medicine can use their theoretical stamps of approval on one such aspect of pop culture.  Rock and Roll and/or Pop Music is one such field.  How do you know if what you are seeing and hearing is Rock and Pop?  Well, I tend to agree with David Byrne when he mentions that a rock concert has so many interactions going on with the artists and audiences involved.  If you are required to attend in formal attire and play the music with notation in hand; not to mention make no personal gestures between audience and artists and, most importantly, do not make the show unique in your own way if dealing with no longer living writers; then you are watching a classical performance.  Which by the way is quite fine, albeit much of the music and performances you will see and hear resonate from a time long gone and rather ancient.

There may come a time when certain forms of contemporary songwriting and music playing is given the same revenance and acquired taste given in classical music.  I suspect we are seeing that somewhat in Jazz music of the big band era (Glenn Miller, the Dorsey Brothers) and Broadway show tunes.  And yet, the Rock and Roll era has been around since the early blues era of the 1930's and has no sign of slowing down.  It does show signs of changing formats and popularity, but the idea of the now still stands.  So you can imagine what we collectively feel at this time every year when the annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony comes around.  And in 2016, this was the induction ceremony when the inductees that appeared more or less told the Nominating Committee, Jann Wenner, Play-Tone (Tom Hanks' production company) and the sponsors to go screw themselves with the rough end of a pineapple.

Yes, it actually happened, and apparently the brass at the RRHOF are unable to do a thing about it.  This year inducted were N.W.A. (I assume Dr. Dre will be inducted on his own later on), Deep Purple, Steve Miller, Chicago, Cheap Trick and Bert Berns (1929-1967).  I would like to focus on the leading four inductees in 2016 for this essay.  Each of them had issues with the Hall this year. The family of Bert Berns did not have any issues pertaining to Berns' posthumous induction, nor did Cheap Trick have any explicit problems.  I will say that Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen did thank the Rock Hall for limiting the amount of tickets so that Nielsen's family did not need to find seating for what will be his 9 grandchildren.

Perhaps the most obvious band drama this year came from Chicago.  You would not think this would be the case, seeing that many of the band members are still together after some 49 years in the business.  Well, just for a moment forget about who showed up and notice who was not there.  Many of you will say Terry Kath, and of course you would be right; although his daughter did accept the award on his behalf.  Mind you, Terry Kath died in a tragic accident in 1978.

I'm namely referring to Peter Cetera in who did not show up.  Knowing Chicago's history and a great deal of what went down with Cetera and the rest of the band during the 1980's, it was a certainty that he would not show up.  You can't say Peter Cetera didn't try to get a reunion going.  However, it appears that issues stemming from their 1981-1985 era when David Foster was their producer and collaborated with Cetera on songwriting, not to mention their resurgence of the time, is still a mixed blessing on the rest of the band's part.  Rightly or wrongly, that era did happen; and rightly or wrongly, Chicago has not been the same since Terry Kath died and Peter Cetera left.  I am also aware that financially Cetera is wealthier than the current version of Chicago put together.  So jealousy abounds.

If any band inducted this year were known to have personality issues, it would have to have been Deep Purple.  Let's get this out of the way: Ritchie Blackmore did not show up.  Apparently Blackmore did not consider the idea of showing up, nor did the current band want him there.  And yes, Rod Evans wasn't there either, Mr. Evans wouldn't be caught dead as it were showing his face in public relating to anything Deep Purple; not after the fake Deep Purple of 1980.  None the less, it appeared that the producers of the show and the RRHOF basically wanted to induct Deep Purple first and shorten the speeches of the living inductees who were there and limit the amount of songs to perform just to get it over with.  Glenn Hughes has come out and pretty much confirmed these theories.

N.W.A. did show up, including Dr. Dre for the first of what will be 2 inductions (Dre will go in on his own a couple years from now as a Non-Performer).  The living inductees were willing to perform with someone well known doing Eazy-E's impressive rapping.  However, the Rock Hall and the producers of the show had other ideas as to how performances and reservations would be approached.  Needless to say, both sides were at an impasse; and as is customary in certain matters, N.W.A. accepted and gave their speeches yet did not perform.

Okay, so issues with bands and groups; not a surprise.  It does become a surprise when an issue arrives regarding an individual artist.  In this year, Steve Miller may have done us all a great service.  Though quite honored and accepting of the induction, Steve Miller did expose a number of odd choices and hypocritical matters pertaining to how the RRHOF operates and the issues regarding the induction ceremony.

This was during the induction acceptance speech. After performing, Miller had some words to say in a press interview.

There has indeed been more to discuss about the events and revelations from last week, both from Steve Miller and regarding the flawed structure of the Nominating Committee and the voting process at large.  In a later essay, one in which I will cross-post alongside my involvement with the Future Rock legends website, a lot more will be said regarding how to effectively reform the RRHOF.  I think in essence it needs to be similar to how we at FRL promote our Revisited/Projected Rock Hall Project.

Tune in to this station,

Robert

Throwing It All Away: Sports Edition

Thanksgiving 2009: it was not a great Thanksgiving on a personal level, as it was the first Thanksgiving since my parents made it known to me and my brothers that they were separating.  It also came at a pretty low point in my life: a time which changed a year later once I received my first paying job.  None the less, 7 years have passed and Thanksgivings since then have been quite wonderful.  This is despite my parents not being together.  Thanksgiving 2009 may have been a bad day for myself and my loved ones; yet for someone else that day was a day of no turning back.

It is now the weekend of the Masters tournament, perhaps the most impressive PGA Tour event that takes place in the United States.  The weekend also correlates with my mother's birthday, who has now turned 60 years old.  So obviously, as was the case earlier in the year when  my father turned 60, I find it more important to celebrate a milestone for my parents.  Even so, there have been times this weekend that I have been looking at the results of this year's Masters.  And it looks impressive, as right now Jordan Spieth may be on his way to a second consecutive green jacket; an impressive feat for a golfer younger than me and quite possibly destined to become much like is golfing idol, one Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods.

I remember when he came onto the professional golf scene back in 1996.  Woods had been the most celebrated amateur and wunderkind in the game since Bobby Jones.  Seeing an opportunity after winning three straight U.S. Amateurs and the NCAA Golf Championship, Tiger Woods turned pro in 1996 at age 20.  Immediately, Woods became the dominant golfer of his time.  I can easily remember a Sunday in 1997 when my family from my father's side and I were watching the Masters.  It was a game for the ages, when Tiger Woods won his first of 14 majors convincingly. We were all impressed  with this budding and gifted athlete and an impressive beginning to a dominant and lucrative era in golf.

As the years went on, Tiger Woods went on to define the late 1990's and 2000's in athletics.  To list his accomplishments on this blog would take a while, and by now you already know of the accomplishments.  Yet, Tiger Woods has been in a professional slump after an impressive 2013 season where he had five PGA wins.  Injuries have taken a toll, along with a younger crop of golfers and several chokes on the golf course.  Right now, Woods has 79 PGA Tour wins, second only to Sam Snead with 82; and he has won 14 Majors, second only to Jack Nicklaus.  Quite honestly, Tiger Woods would have surpassed those records by now.  And yet, those records seem more out of reach than at any point of time in his life.

So what happened?  Well, Bill Simmons in his essay collection The Book Of Basketball (2009) had mentioned in his ranking of Chris Webber as the 72nd greatest basketball player a reasoning as to why Mr Webber did not go far in his potential.  Simmons believes that at a certain point, as early as the 1993 NCAA Championship Game when Michigan lost to North Carolina, Chris Webber felt the need to have a do-over in his approach to the game .  Well, life is not like a video game; there cannot be a reset button nor even a chance to shut off the console or computer when things do not go the way it is supposed to.  I feel that Tiger Woods would like to have a do-over or rather a mulligan on that Thanksgiving night in 2009.  In particular, I think he would like to go back and not get into that car crash just outside his house after arguing with his wife and mother of his children Elin Nordgren when she found out about Woods' affairs and sex addiction.

I know when news broke of the car crash that it just seemed so bizarre and unseemly for Tiger Woods.  Many those first couple of days were asking what happened.  Well, grappling with the separation of my parents I knew what exactly happened immediately.  And so indeed did many observers.  Relations he had fell apart, and Woods was in need of putting the needs of his children first.  It is to Tiger Woods' credit that he has become a doting and important father .

Yet in the golf world and the world at large, Woods' car crash and reduction to merely good golfer and for three years now a relic and cautionary tale was unprecedented.  Now, years before I and others saw something similar with David Duval winning the Open Championship in 2001 and completely collapsing in his professional career.  We felt that golf wise, Duval had it all and he threw it away.  Perhaps we now feel the same regarding Tiger Woods.  There is surprisingly a good deal of personal similarities Duval and Woods have; not least of which is them being doting and important fathers nowadays.  I suppose though golf without Tiger Woods is becoming more and more a reality that we may need to face.

An athlete's peak and winning streak will end eventually.  None the less, I would hate to be the one that says the best golfer in my lifetime failed to live up to his potential.  Yet, what do we expect when we see our athletic greats as real life superheroes. disillusionment is inevitable when the one who can do no wrong is found to be a mere flawed human not unlike ourselves.

Catch up with you soon,

Robert