411 Music Ten Deep 3.19.10: Top 10 Artists Who Should Be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Posted by Andrew Moll on 03.19.2010

As the Hall of Fame inducts its newest class, check out some of the people who deserve to already be in! From the Beastie Boys to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, see who made the list and came in at number one in this week's edition of 411 Music Ten Deep!


(Disclaimer: All opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of 411 Music and its staff.)


Hi, hello and welcome to the thirty-third edition of 411 Music Ten Deep. If this edition seems a little half-assed and distracted, that's because it's currently being written in the middle of March Madness, so forgive me. For our non-US readers, March Madness is when all of American stops being productive and instead, sits down to watch a bunch of college basketball games that they may or may not have illegally bet on.

On a sad note, though, I give out a huge R.I.P. to Alex Chilton, who died on Wednesday at the age of 59. Chilton started off as the lead singer of the Box Tops at age 16 and sang on their number one hot "The Letter," before leaving that band and forming Big Star, one of the great unheralded bands of all-time before forging his solo career. If you haven't heard Chilton's work, do yourself a favor and get some, especially the three Big Star albums, all of which are classics.

Back to business now, though, as we look back to the response to last week's column on the Top Ten Music Documentaries:





Some great suggestions out there last week and although I can't comment on them, there is certainly some stuff that I'm going to have to check out now, so thank you to everybody.

No let it be? seriously? Just so you know music started before the crappy 80's and 90's
Posted By: Guest#1603 (Guest) on March 12, 2010 at 08:26 AM

And here I am thinking Bob Dylan came to prominence in the 1960s. Silly me.

One I might recommend is Kill Yr Idols - a look at the No-Wave scene in New York during the late 70's/early 80's. It's fun to watch some of the interviews with folks like Lydia Lunch, Arto Lindsay, Thurston Moore and Michael Gira. The film also takes a look at who was coming up at the time that the documentary was being made (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Black Dice and others whose names escape me). Recommended if you dig on that genre of music at all.
Posted By: JMAC (Guest) on March 12, 2010 at 01:38 PM

That sounds pretty great, actually. I just finally got the No New York compilation, so I am in the mood for some more No Wave stuff.

No Woodstock = Fail!
Posted By: Guest#5526 (Guest) on March 12, 2010 at 12:53 AM

See the previous week's column on the Top Ten Concert Films. I drew an arbitraty line in the sand between concert films and music documentaries.

the best one is let it be--- you get to see the greatest band of all time implode and disintegrate yet the music is still awesome. #2 would be history of rock and roll and 3rd would be the beatles anthology
Posted By: rubenberendo (Guest) on March 12, 2010 at 01:02 AM

I haven't actually seen Let It Be, so I can't comment on it.

If you're referring to the ten part doc from like 1995, I have seen that one and it's a pretty good retrospective that I haven't seen a real long time.

What, no love for Tenacious D and the pick of destiny. I understand not being in the top ten but i had at least expected an honorable mention
Posted By: Guest#3578 (Guest) on March 12, 2010 at 08:03 AM

Is it tremendous? Yes. But is it technically a documentary? That I'm not so sure of.



Top Ten Artists Who Should Be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame



This past week was the induction ceremony of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, or as it's also known as, The Collection of Bands and Artists Jann Wenner Approves Of. As usual, the class this year has some good and bad on it, as deserving artists are left off for stuff that maybe isn't so good like, oh, I don't know, let's say ABBA. Well, I've taken the liberty of finding ten artists that deserve to be in that Hall of Fame, and I present them to you today.

Before that, howver, let me make somethings clear. First: This list only includes artist who are eligible and have yet to be inducted, so no artists like Nirvana or GNR that aren't yet eligible to be voted in. Secondly, I only focused on artists that actually have a shot of getting in. I love Mission of Burma, but I'm also smart enough to know they don't have a snowball's chance in hell of ever making the cut.

We all set? Cool. Then let's first take a look at the honorable mentions.

Some Honorable Mentions: Alice Cooper; The Big Bopper; Black Flag; Ella Fitzgerald; Carole King; The Kingsmen; MC5; Charles Mingus; Randy Newman; Lou Reed; The Smiths; Sugar Hill Gang; T. Rex; Them; Thin Lizzy; Steve Winwood




10. Red Hot Chili Peppers


If you saw the Red Hot Chili Peppers sometime around 1984 or so, wearing just some strategically placed socks, you probably wouldn't have expected them to become one of the more respected rock outfits of the twenty-first century. But that's where RHCP currently stands, a veteran group that ended up paving the way for a lot of (mostly inferior) bands, with their combination of rock, funk and rap. Granted, a lot of their earlier work wasn't actually all that great, but once they began to streamline their sound and become better songwriters, the albums got progresivel better, from <>i>Uplift Mofo Party Plan to Mother's Milk and then peaking with Blood Sugar Sex Magik.





The story of the Chili Peppers has been one of perseverance as the band struggled with the death of original guitarist Hilel Slovak, only to bring in John Frusciante and release their best material. They then dealt with Frusciante's own drug problems before coming back with a vengeance in 1999 with the great Californication, which set them up for current stage of their career as rock veterans still at or near the top of their game. (Stadium Arcadium notwithstanding.) The Chili Peppers have only been on the ballot for a couple years now, so there's still plenty of time for them to get their due, but it would be nice to see the Hall of Fame recognize one of the best and biggest rock bands of the past couple decades.





9. Warren Zevon


They say that a person's death can leave us with a slightly inflated opinion of them, as we overstate their importance in the wake of their leaving us. That said, I'm pretty confident that Warren Zevon would be on this list had he not succumbed to cancer in 2003, but a sad exit for such a talented songwriter can't help but his legacy. It's a legacy that includes a number of memorable songs, from "Werewolves of London" to "Poor Poor Pitiful Me" to "Carmelita" to "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner" and many more. These songs lived on, even as Zevon retreated from the music business to focus on getting himself on clean and he was welcomed back by contemporaries like Neil Young, Jackson Browne and Michael Stipe.





In 2002, when Zevon was diagnosed with cancer, he handled it all with grace and his immortal words to David Letterman, "Enjoy every sandwich" still resonate. Something like that may not be enough on its own to get someone in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but when you combine with a catalog like that of Warren Zevon's, you end up with a sterling resume that ranks along with almost anybody's. As the years go on and more people discover, I'm sure the better chances are that Zevon will take his place in the Hall.





8. Quincy Jones


If I told you that one of the most famous producers in all of music, a man with 6 Academy Award Nominations, 79 Grammy nominations, 27 Grammy wins and a membership in the Grammy Hall of Fame wasn't a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, you might be a bit surprises, right? Well, believe it or not but Quincy Jones has yet to be inducted. In the earlier stages of his career, Jones helped provide the scores for films like In the Heat of the Night and In Cold Blood while also working alongside artists like Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald while also releasing solo albums of his own.





He came to even greatest prominence in the 1980s has the man who helped Michael Jackson deliver Thriller to the world, not to mention Off the Wall and Bad. Jones also had enough influence to gather the biggest stars of the mid-1980s together for "We are the World," a triumph almost unequaled in popular music. As a music, television and film producer, Jones was a pioneer while simultaneously producing great music on his own and also helping to guide what would become the most popular album in history. Quincy Jones absolute deserves a place alongside Sam Phillips, Phil Spector, Clive Davis and other in the Non-performers section of the Hall of Fame.





7. Tina Turner


Despite already being a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with her former musical partner and husband Ike, Tina Turner's success as a solo artist warrants her induction into the Hall. After some years struggling commercially on her own, Turner broke through in a massive way with "What's Love Got to Do with It," which became a huge Number One hit and propelled her album Private Dancer to more than eleven million copies sold, and completing one of rock and roll's greatest ever comeback stories. Her popularity stayed high throughout the years, with books, movies, albums and some of the most successful tours of recent times.





In fact, at one time Turner held the Guinness World Record for most concert tickets sold by a solo performer in history. That popularity, combined with her eight Grammy wins and numerous other honors, including the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors, is more than enough for Turner to get inducted. There are other artists, like Eric Clapton, who have received multiple inductions for work as part of a group and as a solo artist, and Tina Turner deserves that same kind of recognition for being one of the best, most influential and most popular female performers in rock history.





6. Roxy Music


Roxy Music never ended up having the kind of commercial success in the Unites States that they had in theie native UK, but something like that shouldn't preclude them from being someday inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. With lead singer Bryan Ferry's dapper suits and Brian Eno's flashy outfits, the band had a striking image onstage and they backed it up with a sound that combined rock, classical and dance while at the same time predicting New Wave and punk. Eno left after the band's classic first two albums, but his imprint remained due to hiss revolutionary use of synthesizers and other instruments. More classic albums, like Siren, Country Life and Avalon would follow as the band forged one of the great legacies in British rock.





When people think and talk about the band, their focus on style usually comes up pretty early, and with good reason, but Roxy Music was not a band that forgot about the substance as well. They cultivated a carefully crafted image that befit their art rock sound perfectly and something like that can make people notice. Fortunately, the band was able to back up the attention with some of the best music of the 1970s. For their influence on all the band who used stylization to their advantage, Roxy Music deserves the honor of being in the Hall of Fame; but they also deserve it because unlike many of those imitators and followers, the band also knew how to deliver some great music in a style that was all their own, as well.





5. John Coltrane


Some people take the title Rock and Roll Hall of Fame a bit too literally, but thankfully the Hall itself doesn't and has begun to allow artists from other genres in. Just a couple years ago, jazz legend Miles Davis was given a place, and if he was deemed worthy enough for induction then John Coltrane more than deserves his own place. As arguably the greatest jazz saxophonist of all-time, Coltrane pioneered the way in both traditional and avant-garde jazz, releasing albums that are absolute must-listens for anybody even considering getting into jazz. Those records are like a history lesson in jazz and even gives you a great glimpse into Coltrane's shifting styles and approaches as he become more experimental.





Starting off as a session player and working with the likes of Davis and Thelonius Monk, Coltrane made his first foray into solo work with Blue Train in 1957. His solo career really didn't get started until 1960, but the results were amazing. From Giant Steps to My Favorite Things to Ascension to quite possibly the greatest jazz album ever, A Love Supreme. Coltrane perfected free jazz by mixing it with traditional jazz. Hopefully Miles Davis' induction will open the door for other great jazz musicians, including the most deserving of them all, John Coltrane.





4. Tom Waits


There aren't many musicians like Tom Waits, with his singularly unique and gruff voice to his fully realize characters to his embrace of the avant-garde, Waits is a genre in and of himself, celebrating everything that you won't ever find on pop radio and releasing his music his way, and still finding success thanks to the fact that there are still people out there who appreciate good music. Waits' earlier material in the early 1970s positioned as the bar singer we all could relate to, as he sang about low-life figures with an attitude that was without judgement, but instead a keen sense of understanding. Classic works like Heart Attack and Vine and The Heart of Saturday Night show this Waits at his best, but also inching closer to the more theatrical persona that he would undertake in the 1980s.





It began for good with Swordfishtrombones, an experimental work full of percussion and horns that set the stage for his greatest triumph, Rain Dogs that combined typical Waits sentimentality ("Downtown Train") and the more oddball work ("Singapore"). Waits has spent the years acting as well as consistently releasing great albums and being one of the most entertaining and fascinating onstage performers in rock music, capable of captivating an audience with stuff that most fans wouldn't tolerate, but that's the talent of Tom Waits. The release epic triple album of rarities and unheard tracks, Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards in 2006 would have been the perfect time to induct Waits, but it didn't happen. Hopefully, someday the Hall of Fame will get their act together and welcome in one of the most unique voices to ever grace a stage.





3. Sonic Youth


Sonic Youth are as important and influential an alternative rock act as there's ever been, as their atonal guitar attack, DIY approach and uber cool public image paved the road for countless groups that just wanted to make a really loud racket. The early works of Sonic Youth are devoid of any rock and roll conventions and they're quite amazing to listen to, but it's also obvious the more palatable the band made their sound, the better they got and the more successful they became. Classic albums (Sister, Daydream Nation and major label deals eventually came the band's way, in addition to an elder statesman position that the band embraces, taking numerous bands like Nirvana under their wing as they started to become popular. The band became the bar setters for every young punk and alternative band that came along.





All that happened as the band continued to pump out great albums, which they've done well into this century, with records that certainly rank amongst the best the band has ever released. In the last few years, the Hall of Fame has shown a willingness to allow more abrasive acts (The Sex Pistols, The Stooges) in, so to me that means Sonic Youth most certainly will be inducted sometime in the near future, since they certainly as good and as important as those bands, if not more so. As long as the precedent has been set to allow punk and alternative rock bands, then there's no doubt Sonic Youth's induction is forthcoming since there have been, if any, as good in that particular genre as SY was.





2. Beastie Boys


Many rappers enjoy a short shelf-life, as they experience massive popularity for maybe a few years but quickly fade into the background, with just a select managing to enjoy long term success in the rap game. The list of successful white rappers is even shorter, so that makes the continued success of the Beastie Boys even more impressive. They're four white kids from New York City who started out as a hardcore punk band before turning into hip-hop and releasing one of the most popular debut albums of all-time. Just as soon as that was done, though, the group changed their sound and image but nutty frat guys to a mature approach that involved them sampling everything they could get their hands on their own. The move wasn't commercially successful, but it set the tone for the rest of their career, as they shifted from sound to sound and image to image, eventually settling on socially aware, rap elder statesmen.





The list of great Beastie Boys songs runs like a laundry list of rap's past and present, from "Fight For Your Right" to "Sabotage" and from "Sounds of Science" to "Intergalactic." The Beasties set the stage for every white rock guy who thought he could rap, and unwittingly thrust Limp Bizkit, Kid Rock and many more upon the world. Don't hold that against them, though because the group always outshone their followers, continuing to release great records while also maturing as people through the years. They came incredibly close to making it this year, and with Run DMC and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five both now occupying spots in the Hall of Fame, you can be sure that before long the Beastie Boys will have a spot of their own.





1. KISS


For ten years, one of the most popular American rock bands in history has been waiting for the announcement of their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and for ten years that announcement hasn't come. Apparently over 100 million albums sold isn't enough to convince the voters that they are worthy of induction. Not that album sales should be the sole deciding factor in who gets voted in, but the kind of success that Kiss has had over almost forty years isn't likely to be replicated anytime soon. They changed the possibilities of what a rock band could be and do, and what type of audience could be reached. Their excessive merchandising seems hokey now, but at the time it was revolutionary and pretty shrewd as well. Kiss became an entity and a corporation, making you feel like this was something you had to be a part of.





It also helped that the band two other things working for them; first, they had their image, with the face paint and stage show, there wasn't another band like Kiss anywhere to be seen. Secondly, there was the music, some of the best hard rock of that era. There's no doubt Kiss wouldn't have been as successful as they were without their excellent songs, from "Beth" to "Detroit Rock City" to "Strutter." Kiss knew how to write a great song and get the most they possibly could out of it. You can even forget the without makeup version, and even the reunion version; the legacy Kiss forged in the 1970s more than merits a Hall of Fame induction. Of course, it took them forever to induct Black Sabbath, but they never had the mainstream popularity Kiss had. Eventually, I figure, the power of the band as the Kiss Army will be too much for the Hall of Fame to continue to ignore.



That'll do it for this week folks, thanks for reading. If you have any questions, comments or concerns feel free to let me know, and make sure to leave your own lists in the comments. I'll see you all next week. And if you're out on your bike tonight, do wear white.