Random Thoughts On The Rock Hall, The End Of Summer And A Good Cause:
On The Rock Hall debate….
I want to thank everyone (and there were hundreds) who took the time to email me about last week’s story on the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame nominees and I have to tell you, people are pissed off.
I was going to do another story this week on the subject as an open letter to the committee but the more I research this, the madder I get so I am going to wait until the finalist are announced and with what I find out, I’ll put it all out there for you.
Just a couple of things I found out and don’t want to wait and have to get off my chest. Some of these members who hold themselves in such high esteem (ie: Robert Hilburn - LA Times music critic) don’t even bother to go to the nomination meeting and I’m sure there are others who didn’t bother to go but Bob made it public last week “tweeting” about it. Hey Bob, don’t complain about who the 12 finalists are if you don’t think it’s important enough to attend the meeting not just this year but the past several years. Here is his comment to futurerocklegends.com (a very cool site that I came across and covers the Rock Hall process) about this “unable to attend ny meetings in recent years; sent my choices to the chairman. so don't know how debate went this time”.
Bob if you can’t be there to advocate for your choices then RESIGN. Let someone that cares enough about their choices and feels strong enough about them come in and take your place. I know you said “Here are Rock candidates I would have preferred: Lou Reed, the Replacements, Gram Parsons, Tom Waits, Kraftwerk, Randy Newman, NY Dolls” but it wasn’t important enough for you to even go and voice your opinion so you know what, you get to vote for ABBA this year as you said you were going to.
If you guys on the committee feel as several have stated “keep seeing tweets about disco, punk, soul etc not being valid for rock hall--not true. the hall should embrace the great acts of rock era” and “The Rock Hall uses the word rock in the broadest possible definition, which makes a lot of sense” then as you embrace disco artists, rap artists, etc which performed during this “rock era” and this is the criteria you are using then where are the country artists such as Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson (true songwriters) or vocal artists such as Sinatra, Streisand, Dean Martin. Why are they not being considered based on your own criteria? During this time period they were as important to music as any artist out there. Look I love Willie, Frank and Dean but do they belong in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame?.....No! But under your strange rationalization your telling me Donna Summer had a bigger impact on music than Frank Sinatra or LL Cool J was a bigger influence than Willie Nelson let alone artists that actually should be in the Hall Of Fame such as Alice Cooper, Deep Purple, Leon Russell, Stevie Ray Vaughan, etc. That is actually what you are saying to us with your nominations. You are so arbitrary with what you deem to be “important” in music and how and who you make your choices for, it absolutely makes no sense.
Remember it’s only Rock And Roll.
It’s great to get comments from the readers like “keep up the fight”, “you are right on about this”, “you’re speaking for all of us”, “Thank you” because at times you don’t know if it is just you (or the voices in your head!) or is this how others feel (Except for Bob The Cop who let’s me know very strongly how he feels each week!). I will keep up the fight alongside people like Bob (The Cop not Hilburn) because this process they using and who is on this committee, is just wrong.
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On The End Of Summer….
Now that summer is gone, the Browns are officially eliminated from the playoffs (they are aren’t they?), the Indians AAA team is playing out the season at the Jake (I can’t get myself to say The Prog) and I just don’t care about the Cavs (what is everyone in Cleveland going to do next year when he is wearing someone else’s jersey) I have time on my hands so my good friend Matt from addictedtovinyl.com has a great feature on his site called the “Monday Morning Mix Tape” where you can submit your version of the old mix tape everyone used to make. It can have a theme, no theme, random songs or just whatever you like. Just put together your music for everyone to see.
I started mine to submit and it is “The End Of Summer” with songs that just remind me of summer days when I hear them. They don’t have “summer” in the title, they just have something that sparks some hidden memory for me. These are the songs I turn the radio up with the top down on the Jeep on those warm summer nights. So far I got Brown Eyed Girl (Van Morrison), Three Little Birds (Bob Marley), Grand River Lullaby (Alex Bevan), I’m Your Captain (Grand Funk), Baby Blue (Badfinger), Two Of Us (Beatles), My Whole World Ended (David Ruffin), Gimme Gimme Good Lovin (Crazy Elephant), Two Lane Highway (Pure Prairie League), Out In The Country (Three Dog Night), Got To Give It Up (Marvin Gaye), Time Won’t Let Me (The Outsiders), 6th Avenue Heartache (The Wallflowers), Ripple (Grateful Dead), Trick Of The Tail (Genesis). Wow, what an eclectic mix. I swear I picked these “not under the influence”. That’s my Mix Tape so far. Now I just got to figure out which order to put them on the CD. Let me know your mix tape and make sure to send them into Matt.
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On Doing A Good Thing….
On October 10th Michael Stanley and Alex Bevan, two of Cleveland’s beloved musicians are doing a benefit at the Beachland Ballroom for the organization Roots Of American Music (ROAM). ROAM is a non-profit organization that focuses on presenting and preserving roots music (Blues, Jazz, Bluegrass, Folk) and using the music as a academic vehicle to help kids reach their benchmarks and educational goals.
This show features these two great artists for the first time ever together doing an intimate all-acoustic show of their best loved songs along with the stories and tales of their colorful careers.
So think about it readers, you get a great night of music and you get to do something good for the community and for a great cause.
Call Roots Of American Music at 216-321-9353 or visit http://www.rootsofamericanmusic.com/ for benefit reservations or www.beachlandballroom.com.
Well that’s it for this week. Let me know what you think good or bad of my random thoughts at bear@clevelandrockandroll.com.
Nuff said, least till next time
Peace Out
Bear
By looking at the list and seeing Genesis (eligible since 1993 and first time on ballot), Kiss (eligible since 1999 and first time on the ballot), The Hollies (eligible since 1989 and again first time on ballot) it is like they said amongst themselves “We better put some classic rock bands on the list or we’ll get crucified in the press again.” Dave Marsh, a member of the Induction committee, was quoted last year about Kiss “Kiss is not a great band, Kiss was never a great band, Kiss never will be a great band, and I have done my share to keep them off the ballot.” Then when pressed on the Kiss issue by City Scoops Magazine he responded by email “I oppose Kiss because I think it was a shitty rock band, not worthy of induction. What else is there to say?”
Last spring we did a poll on 
Nuff said, least till next time
This guy spent weeks, months playing this game. Learning the songs or should I say learning which button to press to be a rock god. You know the worst thing; his kids are the same way with the game. 
Remember your first guitar? The one where the strings were so high off the frets that your fingers bleed trying to push them down to play a single note but you kept coming back and you built up the calluses and you got better guitars as you got better and the next thing you knew you were playing in your first band. How cool was that! 
