2023 Rock & Roll HOF screechfest

Haha damnit I was coming here to say that!

 

I'm not sure how Soundgarden and especially Rage Against The Machine aren't in already. RATM is a classic cool kids band (I really like Morello but have never been a big fan of the band, never could get over the whole FUCK THE ESTABLISHMENT nonsense coming from a band on fucking Sony). Soundgarden is no worse than the third-most influential band of its era. If that makes them Tim Raines, so be it, he's a fucking Hall of Famer too. Really would have thought Soundgarden would have rolled in after Cornell's death.

Have to think Willie Nelson will get in b/c a.) how is he not in yet and b.) he's almost 90, let's hurry it along. Also not sure how Warren Zevon isn't in yet. I'll echo those who say the Stranger Things phenomenon will get Kate Bush over the finish line. I'll say two of the three of White Stripes, Missy Elliiott & A Tribe Called Quest get in as well.

 

So, what makes Cyndi Lauper so much more of a no-brainer than Sheryl Crow? The Broadway stuff?

 

I agree, but I think there's a perception problem for Sheryl b/c All I Wanna Do was so ubiquitous but she never broke thru to complete superstardom like peers such as Alanis Morrisette, Madonna (stretching peer there, since Madonna's explosion was a decade earlier) and Gwen Stefani. She kept making solid, versatile records but none ever hit like All I Wanna Do.

Her third album, "The Globe Sessions," is the one I really loved. I'd listen to that every night in the CD-ROM player of my Apple desktop computer in '98-99. Wow am I old.

 

Want old? I saw Sheryl Crow when she opened for Crowded House in a club in Portland. "All I Wanna Do" was released as a single two months later.

 

So Crow was a Rolenesque 76.2 percent?

 

In defense of Crow, she had a string of hits that are in a limbo of sorts because few traditional radio stations play modern rock/top 40 from the 1990s. It’s easy to forget how many hits she had. She also was victim of being a late bloomer. She has been a back up singer (most notably for Michael Jackson where there was a nightly running bet amongst the backup band if Michael would get hard during a duet where crow would press up to him). Anyway, her handlers often described her as being in her mid 20s when “all I wanna do” broke out when in reality she was past 30. After she scored a few hits in the next couple of years, she was soon referred to as looking good for pushing 40.

against Crow: she played the halftime show at the 2004 AFC championship game, and I hold her bad performance (she debuted “soak up the sun,” which wouldn’t be released for months, and the audio was bad) for the Steelers losing, and Tom Brady going to the Super Bowl. If she had just done a Donnie Iris cover, everything would have been ok.

 

She at least had a couple top-5 Hot 100 finishes!

 

Well., I guess its that "She just so Unusual." While Sheryl just wants to have some fun.

 

These are great points. She got in just as the window slammed shut for women who weren't 25 and possessing hourglass figures. If Tuesday Night Music Club comes out in 1996, she's having an Aimee Mann-type of career...nothing wrong with that, but she's not selling millions and being nominated for the RRHOF.

Also, thanks for unearthing my repressed memory of the 2004 AFCCG.

 

Lauper is a far superior singer and had better and more interesting music?

 

I'm going to the Black Cat in D.C. tomorrow to see The Hold Steady. I haven't been seen a show at that venue since 1995, when I saw (eeeek) Korn. Sugar Ray opened for them a bit before they made the turn to poppy schlock like Fly and actually wasn't bad. Definitely feeling a little old today.