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| Warren Zevon: one of several egregious omissions |
Zevon, who died of mesothelioma nearly two decades ago, was a musician’s musician. A short list of those who played or sang on one of his recordings, or covered one of his songs either in concert or on a recording is pretty much a Who’s Who of late 20th century rock (and rock-adjacent) stars. Limiting the list to just those already in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, either as individual artists or as members of groups, we get: Bill Berry, Jackson Browne, Peter Buck, Lindsey Buckingham, Bob Dylan, Phil Everly, Mick Fleetwood, Glenn Frey, Jerry Garcia, Don Henley, Billy Joel, John McVie, Mike Mills, Graham Nash, Stevie Nicks, Tom Petty, Bonnie Raitt, Linda Ronstadt, Bruce Springsteen, Eddie Vedder, Joe Walsh, Carl Wilson, and Neil Young… and I’m probably forgetting someone.
Zevon co-wrote songs with Berry, Browne, Buck, Miles, and with another Hall of Famer, Steve Winwood. Add to that list esteemed musicians like T-Bone Burnett, Jorge Calderón, J.D. Souther, and Waddy Wachtel, gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, celebrated novelists Mitch Albom and Carl Hiassen, and (oh, yeah) Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon. People who have some credentials in the areas of words and/or music seem to think Zevon was pretty good at his job.
All of this, of course, leads up to saying that the 2023 inductees to the R&R HOF were announced yesterday, and Zevon’s name wasn’t on the list, despite his placing a solid third in the fan voting (seven artists from the 14 nominees were selected), and despite active campaigning for his induction by Jackson Browne, Bruce Springsteen, and especially Billy Joel and David Letterman, among others. This was the first time Zevon was even nominated, despite having been eligible for many years.
Part of the reason for that was that Jann Wenner, who headed the Hall for far too long, was (and is) a narcissistic wanker, and he didn’t like Zevon personally. Wenner doesn’t have the direct authoritarian control he once had, but John Sykes, his successor, was a hand-picked minion. In the words of another R&R Hall of Famer, Pete Townsend: meet the new boss; same as the old boss.
Sykes proclaimed immediately after his selection that his “most important mandate” was to diversify the membership, and that he “recognize[s] that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is no longer about a single genre of music.” This is pretty much all we need to know: he’s an idiot.
Rock & Roll is a single genre of music, albeit one whose borders are rather ill-defined. But Curmie will state with absolute conviction that Run DMC and Dolly Parton, however deserving of honors they might be, are not R&R musicians. If you want a Popular Music Hall of Fame, call it that. And if we’re talking about Rock & Roll, especially post-Motown, then we’re looking at a largely white male group of artists. That’s just the way it is, the same way the NBA has been dominated by black men.
Of the new class of inductees, only one—Rage Against the Machine—is unquestionably a rock act. At least two—Missy Elliott and Willie Nelson—are just as clearly not. The others—George Michael, Kate Bush, Sheryl Crow, and the Spinners—are in that space between rock and another genre; Curmie would include the Spinners and that’s it, but at least there’s a case to be made for the others.
And Sykes gets his wish: only three of the seven inductees from this category are white men. One of them is 90 years old and another at least had the decency to be openly gay. That leaves the interesting case of Rage Against the Machine. They were never terribly popular (they finished 11th in the fan voting) and not really trail-blazers (although they might have tried to cultivate that image). RATM, of course, are also good little socialists, so that sorta makes up for their impudent insistence on being straight white men. And, of course, they’re sort of metal-ish, allowing the Hall to pretend that there is no impediment to metal groups (you know, actual rock musicians) getting in.
Of course, try telling that to the fans of Iron Maiden, who finished fourth in the fan voting. Curmie was never much of a headbanger, but Iron Maiden is light years more qualified to be in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame than literally any of this year’s actual inductees.
There’s a lot of speculation as to how Kate Bush got in: Conventional Wisdom is that she rode a wave of new-found popularity from “Running Up That Hill” being featured on “Stranger Things.” So… uh… why’d she finish seventh in the fan voting, behind not one but four acts that didn’t get in?
The answer, of course, is two-fold. One is that whole “diversity” kick the Hall seems to be on; the fact that she’s even less rock & roll, and no more influential, than Cyndi Lauper (who finished second in the fan voting, first among living artists, by the way) is a mere detail. HoF honchos have wanted Bush in for years, and they finally got their wish.
The larger issue, of course, is the fact that the “fan ballot” is a cynical marketing ploy, one which Curmie devoutly hopes will work as well for the Rock Hall as the Dylan Mulvaney schtick did for Bud Light.
We were told that the fans have a significant role in the selection process, and it was pointed out that it is extremely rare that fan favorites didn’t get selected. All five acts on the 2022 fan ballot were inducted. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But placing in the top five in fan voting gets you one vote from over 1000 total ballots. It’s a scam.
We should have known better, especially after the Dave Matthews Band collected over a million votes in winning the fan balloting three years ago. They not only weren’t inducted; they haven’t even been nominated since. Soundgarden has now placed in the top five, thereby being listed on the “fan ballot,” twice; they’re still on the outside looking in. Meanwhile, Missy Elliott was nominated only once, in her first year of eligibility, finished 13th out of 14 nominees in the fan voting, has nothing to do with any reasonable definition of rock and roll, and got in.
It’s particularly telling that the numbers 3, 4, and 5 vote-getters this time (Zevon, Iron Maiden, and Soundgarden) are unquestionably rockers; none were inducted. The fact that they outpolled Willie Nelson is not an indictment of fan participation; indeed, it’s quite the opposite. The fans, unlike the collection of alleged authorities, actually know what rock and roll is, and voted accordingly. No one would deny that Nelson is the most significant musician to appear on the ballot (one actual voter wrote that “The honor almost diminishes him. It’s like the federal government giving Abraham Lincoln an ‘Employee Of The Month’ award”), but he’s never been a rocker, a fact that never seems to have concerned the official voters, a goodly number of whom appear to have been chosen for their ignorance, their acquiescence to authority, or their lockstep liberalism.
Let’s use a sports analogy. Athletes like Michael Jordan, Dave DeBuschere, and Bo Jackson all played major league baseball, but whereas their athletic accomplishments have led to Hall of Fame accolades in basketball or football, no one even floats the idea that they deserve entry into the baseball hall of fame…because they didn’t play that sport long enough or well enough to merit that honor. Well, duh.
Whether the Rock Hall balloting is crooked per se or merely the result of selecting too many idiots as voters, the entire system is a crock. The Hall could reclaim some legitimacy by ensuring that, say, the top two vote-getters among the fans in a given year are guaranteed entry (don’t nominate them if you don’t want them), and that any act that finishes in the top five will at the very least be on the following year’s ballot. They won’t do that, of course, because they are morons, because they don’t actually give a shit about fans, and because they think that being “inclusive” trumps being competent. They are, in other words, a variation on the theme of the Bud Light marketing people, whose cleverness caused an ongoing loss of about 1/6 of their sales revenues.
If the reaction of the folks on the Warren Zevon (and Bruce Springsteen and Jackson Browne) fan pages on Facebook are an indication, the Hall has miscalculated egregiously. Zevon fans are done. Iron Maiden and Soundgarden fans are done. DMB fans are done. We aren’t heading to Cleveland to spend 40 bucks to gawk at tributes to acts we consider lesser lights. And, barring a miracle, we won’t be suckered into wasting our time on a pointless exercise like having an inconsequential role in the selection process. Fool us once…
Curmie and Beloved Spouse took a lengthy car trip last weekend, leaving us with plenty of time to talk. We’re both Zevon fans, and we both voted daily (as the rules allowed) throughout the weeks-long voting period. But we also noted the list of other acts who aren’t in the Rock Hall: Emerson, Lake, and Palmer; Steppenwolf; Little Feat; Jethro Tull; Judas Priest; the B-52’s; Thin Lizzy, (and on and on)… The omission of even one of these acts while honoring any of this year’s inductees (with the possible exception of The Spinners) is a travesty.
Someone on one of the Facebook pages offered the sage advice to regard the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a museum instead of as a honor society. OK, fine. But the Hard Rock Cafe does that with no cover charge, and you can get an overpriced cheeseburger while you’re there.
Curmie means no disrespect to the artists who did get in this year. They’re all worthy of recognition, just not, in Curmie’s opinion, in this particular venue. (Curmie also notes that “The Wind,” the album that won Zevon a posthumous Grammy as Best Contemporary Folk Album wasn’t actually a contemporary folk album. The Stupid goes both ways.)
No, the contempt Curmie feels is all for the entrenched hierarchy at the Hall, from John Sykes on down. Warren Zevon doesn’t need some cheesy imprimatur to be great in the minds of his fans or collaborators. (Nor do Cyndi Lauper, Iron Maiden, or Soundgarden.) And Curmie doesn’t need someone else to tell him what musicians to like, love, or despise. Neither do you, Gentle Reader.
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