2013 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Yellfest

Clapton some really great solo stuff. Slowhand is one of my favorite albums of all time. Journeyman is damn good, in a different way.

 

Young is in as a solo and a member of Buffalo Springfield, not CSN&Y or with Crazy Horse.

Paul Simon would be in even if he never met Art Garfunkle.

Linda Ronstadt is long long over due, she's at least as worthy as Bonnie Raitt whom I love.

And Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds belong.

 

Crosby isn't in as a solo artist. I think I misread your post as saying Lennon and MCartney were the only worthy two-time inductees.

Simon is not borderline. You can admit you forgot him. No one will be upset.

 

I think by Starman's standards, Buffalo Springfield shouldn't be in because Neil Young already was in and Stephen Stills was going in with a group that had a stronger case.

 

These two opinions are among the most insane ever posted on a forum known for insane opinions.

 

Simon & Clapton both had better solo careers than Lennon or McCartney.

 

They did -- and I was there at the Nokia Theater for the induction . A late birthday present and an amazing, amazing night. You've all seen Alex Lifeson's hilarious speech by now, I'm sure, but what you hopefully didn't see was the 15-minute rant Flavor Flav went on that nearly got him booed off the stage. Chuckie D finally stepped in and told Flav to STFU.

The Nokia was packed -- and packed with about 65-70% of folks who were there just to see Rush. One guy I was standing with outside the JW Marriott while we were waiting for a cab told me he and his girlfriend flew in from New York and Pennsylvania just to see Rush's induction. They were flying out on a red-eye that night -- after he saw them for the 65th time.

OK, bragging about one of the most memorable nights I've ever had on the concert front aside ...

Starman, you left out "Biko" in your otherwise artful defense of Peter Gabriel. But Paul Simon isn't borderline. Not in the least. Nor is Clapton. Both belong in as double- or triple-dippers. They simply belong, period.

 

I dig Gabriel very much. 'Security' is a great album, far superior to the better known 'So.'
He enjoyed commercial and critical success, but I don't think he's deserving as a solo performer.

Simon and Clapton are no-brainers as solo performers.

 

Peter Gabriel is one of those artists who strikes me as not necessarily all that deserving... but one of the best of those still eligible, so sooner or later he was going in. We'll see that a lot from now on. There are very few hall-worthy artists to come along in the last 25 years, so they'll have to keep digging deeper and deeper into the older acts.

Questioning Clapton in particular is just silly.

There are now 12 artists in both as a member of a band and as a solo artist:

Peter Gabriel
Jeff Beck
John Lennon
Paul McCartney
George Harrison
Clyde McPhatter
Eric Clapton
Curtis Mayfield
Neil Young
Michael Jackson
Paul Simon
Rod Stewart

I'm not too inclined to bump anyone off the list.

 

It would have probably went something like this:

Also, one of the first songs Dave Grohl recorded with Foo Fighters was a cover of Ace Frehley's Ozone. I do believe, however, that Grohl will geek out and do just about anything asked of him in the jam session. I don't think he'll bother doing anything from Nirvana however. Courtney Love is going to be there and they'll likely have to stand onstage together. That will be plenty to ask of that situation.

 

McCartney? Were you alive in the middle 1970s? McCartney was elbow-to-elbow with Elton John as the biggest solo artist in the world for about a 5-year stretch (1974-79 or so).

(Although while we're at it, it is not utterly crazy to argue Wings should be in as a group -- they had a great 5-year run and Denny Laine co-wrote the group's biggest-selling hit, 'Mull of Kintyre,' so it's certainly possible to build a case for Wings as a group.)

Simon's biggest solo hit, "Graceland," was about on a commercial par with 'Venus and Mars' or 'Red Rose Speedway,' McCartney's second-level hit albums from his mid-70s prime.

Again, if you discount Derek and the Dominos as a 'Clapton solo' album, the rest of his strictly solo career has been pretty much journeyman in nature.

 

Wahoo, you are slavishly devoted to the Beatles, and your devotion robs you of any chance of getting within spitting distance of reason on this topic.

The Derek and the Dominoes is a Clapton album, and to call 'Slowhand' and '461 Ocean Boulevard' journeyman efforts is ludicrous.