Rock Hall snubs Link Wray and Deep Purple, inducts Cat Stevens and Hall & Oates instead

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      The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has done it again, proving once more that it has its head so far up its ass that it isn't even funny.

      I'm sure as hell not laughing.

      Today the Rock Hall named it inductees for the class of 2014 and, unbelievably, pioneering guitar legend Link Wray was left out in the cold. Instead, those monsters of rock known as Hall & Oates got their tickets to immortality. 

      Now, I've got nothing against Hall & Oates, they've got some great tunes. At least they did in the '70s. But for christsakes—put them in the Pop Hall of Fame. Don't have them beat out somebody like Link Wray when you're talking rock 'n' roll.

      And the same goes for Cat Stevens, who also got the nod. I've heard "Moonshadow"; I'm good with it. I love "Peace Train". Stick him in the Pop Hall of Fame too. Or the Easy-Listening Mudroom of Fame, if you will.

      ANYWHERE BUT THE "ROCK AND ROLL" HALL OF FAME!

      The other four inductees announced today are Nirvana, KISS, Peter Gabriel, and Linda Ronstadt, so let's take a look at them too.

      Nirvana is a no-brainer. They deserve to take the red carpet directly to the heart of any Hall that calls itself Rock and Roll.

      KISS is a no-brainer too, but more in the sense that it has no brain. That's never mattered much, of course, because KISS had the costumes and makeup and staging and pyro and whatever else it needed to make up for the fact that all its best songs got used up on that wicked debut album. Still, for sheer popularity and influence, they probably deserve a spot in the Rock Hall.

      Though not as much as Rush did.

      Peter Gabriel is an incredibly talented artist and a great humanitarian, and he's been known to rock ("Big Time", all that classic prog stuff with Genesis), so he's in. And Linda Ronstadt? I can't decide either way about her.

      But what I do feel strongly about is the snubbing, along with Wray, of fellow nominees Deep Purple. Purple is about as "rock and roll" as you can get, as one listen to Machine Head proves. Music-wise, they deserve to get inducted way more than KISS. Maybe Jann Wenner and the other directors on the Rock Hall board got their noises out of joint when Ritchie Blackmore declared that he "couldn't care less" about getting into their hallowed institution.

      Deep Purple will get in one day, I'm sure, and in the meantime there's no shortage of other things to slag the R&RHF about. Tops on my list is the fact that Irish guitar great Rory Gallagher hasn't even been nominated yet.

      Now that is seriously fucked.

      Just ask Slash.

      Comments

      30 Comments

      Ron

      Dec 17, 2013 at 10:42pm

      Couldn't agree more. Hall & Oates Rock n Roll? Give me a break. Purple should be there!

      Martin Dunphy

      Dec 17, 2013 at 11:01pm

      All you need to know about Jann effin' Wenner and what he considers to be rock 'n' roll is to look at every cover of <em>Rolling Stone</em> for the past 15 years.
      Christ, they're as bad as the musical guests on <em>Saturday Night Live</em> for that same time period.
      And if you ever wrote a bad review for his fave music advertisers...
      Britney Spears is punk to that guy.

      RUK

      Dec 17, 2013 at 11:02pm

      But the rock and roll hall of fame IS the pop hall of fame too. The Beach Boys are eclectic close harmony that went to surrealism. Simon and Garfunkel are folk pop. Johnny Cash to me is a rock and roller from the Sun days but is clearly a country icon. James Taylor is Mr. Laidback.

      I feel your pain about Link Wray, and if it was me picking the inductees we'd have The Shaggs and the Legendary Stardust Cowboy (thank god I don't pick the inductees), but Cat Stevens was a great, iconic songwriter and Hall and Oates were, at their peak, the epitome of blue eyed soul and very underrated songwriters. They are legit choices!

      jacob

      Dec 17, 2013 at 11:23pm

      rock and roll hall of shame!

      Ron

      Dec 17, 2013 at 11:26pm

      RUK, it is the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame! Not the Blue Eyed Soul HOF.

      Eric

      Dec 18, 2013 at 3:26am

      Last year it was ABBA and the year before Madonna. What's that got to do with rock 'n roll? It's a joke, they don't take themselves seriously anymore there in Cleveland. When are the Spice Girls eligible?

      Pat Crowe

      Dec 18, 2013 at 8:45am

      Jimmy Page said, no Rumble, no Led Zepplin. Pete Townsend said the same for The Who. Link also invented the fuzz box and the power chord.

      James Blatchford

      Dec 18, 2013 at 11:29am

      Surely KISS belong there....no one has made so much out of so little.