Rock Hall Nominees 2015

     I think it's time for The Rock Hall to take a page from Cooperstown and change it's induction policy. Baseball's Hall of Fame inducts members based on "merit" and not an annual quota system. A couple years ago, they didn't induct anyone into Cooperstown. One can still argue who merits induction, but there are very few undeserving players enshrined. The Rock Hall has come to a point in history where almost all the no-brainers (except The Zombies) are already inducted and there just aren't five acts every year who merit induction. That being said, I can list five acts who should be in and weren't nominated this year; The Zombies, Cheap Trick, Electric Light Orchestra, Duran Duran and Yes. Anyhow, I voted this morning in the fan ballot and only voted for two groups, The Smiths and Green Day.
     In the 80's, The Smiths weren't in my wheelhouse. I was mainly listening to Sabbath, Priest and Maiden and couldn't wrap my head around "This Charming Man". Even today, Morrissey is a walking, talking nonsense machine. However, over the years I have grown to like much of The Smiths' catalog and recognized their vast influence on alternative music. I still don't like "This Charming Man". In fact, I'm probably in a small minority who prefer Moz's solo albums to The Smiths. Bottom line, they are way overdue for induction.
     At the risk of losing my hipster cred, I like Green Day. It's true. Three of my favorite albums are Dookie, Nimrod and American Idiot. My only gripe with them is they seem to have been an influence on horrible bands, such as Blink-182. However, based on their own merit, I feel they deserve to be inducted.
     After some consideration, I decided to pass on Sting and Stevie Ray Vaughan. While I love The Police and secretly wish I were more like Sting, I don't feel his solo material merits induction. I give him some credit for having the balls to release a lute album, but that's not a ticket to The Rock Hall. And he wrote "Soul Cake". Sorry Mike. As for SRV, that was a tough call. Back in the day, I was all about Stevie and even got into the Blues because of him. I still love "Pride and Joy" and "Cold Shot", but overall his music hasn't aged well for me. He's an interesting nominee but I don't feel he merits induction.
     I can lump the rest of the nominees into two groups; those I hate and those I wonder why they were even nominated. The latter group includes The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Chic, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, The Marvelettes, N.W.A., The Spinners, War and Bill Withers. Rounding out the nominees with those I hate are Kraftwerk, Nine Inch Nails and Lou Reed. In fairness, I strong case could be made for all three of them, but not by me.
     In the future, it's hard for me to conceive of five acts that are locks for The Rock Hall, period, let alone five every year. Other than Pearl Jam, Radiohead, The White Stripes and Foo Fighters I'm stumped. Consider Cooperstown. Peace.