Besides the Moody Blues (who are the biggest R&R HoF snub right now IMHO) here's three other bands who should be in there who all have remarkable surround releases:
1) The Guess Who
2) The Doobie Brothers
3) Dire Straits
There's others I could name too, but the fact that these three (plus the Moodies) are not in the Hall of Fame yet is just terrible, yet they induct Tupac… :howl
Well, my big exclusions are Johnny Rivers on the artist side and Bob Crewe on the producer side of the Hall. As a huge Moodies fan I've beaten the lack of their induction to death; it's simply ludicrious, plain and simple. And why Rivers and Crewe have yet to make it is equally inexplicable. Crewe may have begun his career as a would-be pop crooner and rock teen idol, but he also wrote songs and began producing in the late '50s The 4 Seasons (who are deservedly in) were his best knwon act, but he worked a lot of pop magic for many acts. He was also a workaholic yet not a hack; unlike some producers, he seemed genuinely committed to making good, strong music (and like many producers, started a side project of his own, and he got one big hit out of it). He rode his wave of success into the mid'70s, even being the mastermind behind the silly "Get Dancin' (Disco Tex and the Sex-O-Lettes) from 1975, recorded in the tried and true 'fake live' Mitch Ryder style (another of his successful acts).
Johnny, of course, needs no introduction beyond "Secret Agent Man," "Poor Side of Town," "Summer Rain" and a bunch of savvy, enjoyable covers of Chuck Berry, Harold Dorman, and others. He too was a songwriter and producer of considerable talent.
The Guess Who and Doobies? Maybe. Dire Straits? Given who runs the Hall, I'm surprised they're not already in. As for rap acts like Tupac, that's beyond my web of interest, but can't really condemn the Hall for inducting rappers, they are connected to rock even if many of us white guys could care less. No, I'm more bothered by some of the stupid exclusions to date, and the occasional inclusion of acts that don't really belong at all except by some committee's whim or fiat (Baez, Brenda Lee, for example) whose connections to rock music are tenuous (or brief) at best. Nothing personal, though: Brenda had her rock moments, but that was mostly in her early career; most of the rest was pure pop or neo-country.
We will hash over this forever but what the hell, gotta bitch about something, right?
@:
ED