-FUPPETS- is not against honoring those who have made an impact on music, but in an attempt to create a "tourist destination" type museum, they had to include crap that non-rockers find cool, even though most rockers find it repulsive. Oh well.
This year's inductees are a wide-ranging lot. The only criteria for induction is for at least 25 years to have passed since the release of your first recording. They have already used up most of early rock's greats, and soon we will be forced to swallow an inundation of 70's arena-rock losers like Kansas and ELO. Ha!
There are three categories for people to be inducted. These categories are Performers, Early Influences, and Sidemen.
Performers
Jeff Beck. While -FUPPETS- could give a flying fuck about Jeff Beck, his guitar stylings seem to have a large following among the 600 aged and decrepit voters for the Hall of Fame. It seems that anyone who even rubbed dicks with the Yardbirds is gonna get inducted. Most of his output has been instrumental records. Here he is doing his thing on a slow blues track.
JEFF BECK - 'Cause We've Ended As Lovers
Little Anthony & The Imperials. A doo-wop group from New York, active from the 50's on, had a string of hits in the late 50's and early 60's. The Hall appears to blur the line between what is Rock and Roll and what isn't, and doo-wop is most definitely NOT rock and roll. Oh well. -FUPPETS- does not care. This is "mom's going shopping on a Saturday" music. Nice tunes, but no way in hell anyone's ROCKING to this.
LITTLE ANTHONY & THE IMPERIALS - Hurt So Bad
Bobby Womack. Another Soul act padding the rock and roll Hall. Bobby Womack had his own group, the Valentinos, with his brother, and was also Sam Cooke's guitarist for a while. he wrote songs for other artists and had a string of hits in soul, blues, gospel, and funk genres. Decent soulful tunes, but NOT Rock and Roll.
BOBBY WOMACK - If You Think You're Lonely Now
RUN DMC. The Elvis of rap/hip hop. The first act to take a new musical genre huge to the world. NOT rock and roll, but since they included Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, as well as dozens of soul, gospel, country, etc. artists, they have set precedent to include Hip Hop in the Hall Of Fame. Three teenagers from NYC took the world by storm. The younger brother of Russel Simmons, Run, and his classmates DMC and Jam Master Jay blew up the world. It is hard to believe sometimes how revolutionary and scary these guys were to mainstream America. They dressed like street hoodlums and SHOUTED into the mic. They released some of the most popular albums of the 80's. Jam Master Jay was murdered/assassinated in his Queens studio a few years ago, and to this day the NYC police have not found anything or anyone. Pathetic. At the time, RUN DMC made a statement that they would never perform together again, for without Jay there is no RUN DMC. They are sticking to their convictions and have announced they will not perform at the Hall of Fame induction ceremonies this Saturday.
RUN DMC - King Of Rock
METALLICA. Quite possibly the most successful Heavy Metal band ever, and a true Metal band, who while expanding their sound, never did pander to the non-metal fans by watering down their style too much. In the early and mid-80's, if you wanted truly aggressive and heavy music, there were 4 bands that did it better than any others. Those were Megadeth, Anthrax, Slayer, and Metallica. Metallica's first 3 albums, Ride The Lightning, Master of Puppets, and ...And Justice For All were monsters that swallowed up everything in their path. They sold out stadiums, sold millions of records, and had a rabid fan-base with no radio play, and no MTV play, until they made a video for their song "One." Their subsequent releases saw them expanding their trademark riff-heavy sound to more bluesy-slow riffs, gaining them a new audience that let them blow up into the biggest Heavy Metal band ever. With the extremely over-due induction a few years back of the greatest Metal band ever, Black Sabbath, the hall Of Fame finally opened the doors to that most-unfairly-ridiculed of rock sub-genres, Heavy Metal. Metallica themselves performed the Sabbath songs in tribute. It was amazing.
METALLICA - Master of Puppets (live)
EARLY INFLUENCES
WANDA JACKSON. One of the earliest singers/guitarists to fuse early rock and country into the style known as rockabilly, she had success and then in the 60's drifted more towards straight country music. She is being inducted as an early influence on the developing world of rock and roll.
WANDA JACKSON - Hard-Headed Woman
SIDEMEN
BILL BLACK. William Patton "Bill" Black Jr. Bill Black was a kid from Memphis who was fortunate and talented enough to become Elvis Presley's long-time bassist. He played bass on all of Elvis' seminal hits as well as providing back up vocal duties.
BILL BLACK - That's Allright mama (w/ Elvis Presley)
DJ FONTANA. DJ Fontana was Elvis Presley's drummer for 14 years and played on over 460 Elvis tracks recorded for RCA records. Along with Scotty Moore on guitar and Bill Black on bass
DJ Fontana was one of the Blue Moon Boys, who backed Elvis for years.
DJ FONTANA - Heartbreak Hotel (w/ Elvis Presley)
SPOONER OLDHAM. Spooner Oldham is a legendary songwriter and session musician who played on, wrote or co-wrote dozens of huge hits, such as Percy Sledge's "When A Man Loves A Woman," Wilson Pickett's "Mustang Sally," The Box Tops' "I'm Your Puppet," and "I Never Loved A Man" by Aretha Franklin. He has frequently played with Neil Young and continues to tour.
SPOONER OLDHAM - Mustang Sally (by Wilson Pickett live)
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