Like trying to get backstage at a big rock gig, The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame is extraordinarily difficult to get into, although thankfully it involves less harrowing episodes of oral sex with burly stinking security men than you'd think.
Instead, there's a huge 25-year incubation period before a band will even be allowed to figure as part of the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame and then, once that's passed, there's a long and tedious nomination process to sift through. The shortlisted nominations for The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame 2007 have just been revealed, and it looks like REM, The Stooges, Chic and Van Halen will be going into the Hall Of Fame next year. Or at least they might be – some of the other gnarled old musicians on the nominations list might beat them to it.
The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame is a musical institution, where thousands of really old bands who haven't really been relevant for a decade or two get together to slap each other on the backs and talk about investing in trout farms. No, wait, that's the Q Awards we're think of. The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame is where several really old bands that have usually been decimated by death or splits get together, try and put their residual bitterness towards each other to one side for the three minutes it takes to croak out their biggest hit and then never speak to each other afterwards.
But that isn't to say that the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame isn't fun – while the organisers usually do their best to stuff up The Rock And Roll Hall OF Fame with bloated chin-stroking hero worship, the bands involved usually do their best to inject whatever spirit they have left into proceedings. Like The Sex Pistols, for example. When The Sex Pistols heard that they were to be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame along with Lynyrd Skynyrd and Black Sabbath earlier this year, they wrote a bratty letter that said, in part:
Next to the SEX-PISTOLS rock and roll and that hall of fame is a piss stain. Your museum. Urine in wine. Were not coming. Were not your monkeys and so what?
While at this year's Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame ceremony itself, a former member of Blondie threw a tantrum at Debbie Harry for not letting him play with the band any more. So what about next year's Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame? Well, the shortlist of nominations has finally been announced, and up to five of the following will be inducted in the spring: Chic, Dave Clark Five, Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five, REM, The Ronettes, Patti Smith, The Stooges, Joe Tex and Van Halen.
So who'll be going into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame? Will it be first-time nominees REM? Mostly-forgotten British 1960's band Dave Clark Five? The primitive yell of The Stooges? The CBGB-closing Patti Smith? Chic, who invented the sound of two decades or Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five, who first gave hip-hop a social dimension and then played some records in the rain at the Manchester Commonwealth Games? Or one of the others? Face it, none of it really matters, but let's pretend it does. Leave your Rock And Roll Hall OF Fame ideas at the bottom of the page.
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Pedro says
Van Halen are such a bunch of one-hit wonders and REM bore me to tears. Ever since I saw an interview with Nile Rogers where he said that Freak Out started as a song called Fuck Off I’ve had a bit of a soft spot for Chic…
brian says
Only Iggy and the stooges are worthy enough to be included into the hall of fame, I’m surprised they were not there already,, the rest of the list just sucks
Jason says
Where is KISS on this list?????? You Wanted the Best, But you don’t have the Best.
kev_5150 says
haha van halen 1 hit wonder sold over 80 million albums 11 number 1 hits shall i go on
Jim says
Glad to see Stooges and Patti Smith considered, and very glad to see the consistentlly overlooked Dave Clark Five. But what about Billy Ward’s Dominos? Shouldn’t they be considered before we plummet to disco?