2023 Rock & Roll HOF screechfest

In some ways the RNRHOF goes through insane and ridiculous contortions to admit rappers and pop and disco R&B acts in order to diversify the predominantly white color mix of "Rock & Roll" when they could induct Living Colour on unimpeachable R&R credentials.

An all-hands on deck RNRHOF All Star Jam on "Cult of Personality" could be a video moment for the ages, along with new drop-in audio bites featuring the last 3o years.

 

I could make a strong argument for Bad Brains to be inducted, too.

 

I would say RATM would be a fair comparison for the Brains.

 

Comparing Living Colour 's Vivid to Never Mind the Bullocks is utterly stupid. Yeah, Living Colour is a great group of musicians, but the band in no way has any of the meaning and influence of the Sex Pistols.

 

Definitely gotta agree here, the Pistols' impact was seismic spawning hundreds, shit probably thousands, of acts in their wake in the UK and elsewhere. As Joe Strummer said one night after seeing them, "It's a whole new thing, man."

And as much as I like Living Colour (Vernon Reid remains the most famous person to have replied to one of my Tweets) to the extent they are remembered at all today by anyone other than hardcore fans is probably as the performer of CM Punk's entrance music.

 

Ehhhhh ... the Sex Pistols, over time, have become wildly overrated. Much to most if not all of what they did had been done earlier by the Ramones, the Stooges and the MC5. Kind of a 1970s parallel to the Doors: yeah, they were great and important and influential for a brief moment and released some all time great songs but they don't rise to top tier HOF level, much of their legend is a result of their early burnout.

 

I'll meet you halfway. I think the Pistols are overrated too. However, they were a sensation (in the UK) in a way the Ramones, Stooges and MC5 never remotely came close to on either side of the ocean.

So they were very influential. Even though the Pistols, on purely musical merit, are nowhere near as good as the Clash or the Stranglers or any number of other peers were (though Steve Jones was very good), the first thing people think of when they think of punk is the Pistols and that matters.

They are vastly more deserving than Living Colour, whom I dug a lot in the very late 80s/early 90s, but frankly? I dug them as an antidote to the shit hair metal that pervaded at the time, much in the same way I dug the Black Crowes for the same reason. Vernon Reid sounded like manna from heaven in comparison to shite like Poison, Slaughter and the rest.

In hindsight, they made three albums total in their heyday, weren't really influential in any way, and sound dated these days. In fact? They don't sound that far off of the hair metal they seemed to be an alternative to at the time.

 

Are you saying The Doors aren't HOF worthy?

 

They are, but not top tier.

 

It might have been here that I saw this. Still worth reposting:

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/an-open-letter-to-17-year-old-boys-who-just-discovered-the-doors

 

The Oliver Stone movie probably sent the Doors into the overrated category, at least right after it came out. The Doors were inducted in 1993, two years after the movie came out and before a number of acts that I'd consider far more worthy: Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Bob Marley, Janis Joplin, etc. I think modern appraisal of their work shows they had like 3-5 genuinely canonical songs -- certainly enough to merit HOF induction -- but also a whole lot of dreck.

 

And Sinatra's voice is tinny.