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| Nirvana -- from left, Kurt Cobain, Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic -- made it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the band's first year of eligibility. (AP file) |
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Membership in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will pass the 300 mark in April, when the Class of 2014 -- Peter Gabriel, Daryl Hall & John Oates, KISS,Nirvana, Linda Ronstadt and Cat Stevens – joins the Rock Hall at the 29th Annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in New York.
The Beatles’ late manager Brian Epstein and the Rolling Stones’ ex-manager Andrew Loog Oldham are going in as nonperformers and winners of the Ahmet Ertegun Award.
Bruce Springsteen’s back-up group, the E-Street Band, is being honored as the 2014 Award for Musical Excellence.
Singing wait’ll next year are nominees the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Chic, Deep Purple, LL Cool J, the Meters, N.W.A., the Replacements, Link Wray, Yes and the Zombies.
Let’s meet the newest Hall of Famers (in alphabetical order):
Some know him as the guy who was replaced as the Genesis frontman by Phil Collins, but Genesis founder Gabriel has been much more than that. His musical gifts are obvious – as evidenced by the six Grammys, 13 MTV Video Music Awards, a ton of Brit Awards and even recognition from Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
An innovative singer-songwriter, Gabriel is also the founder of WOMAD, the World of Music Arts and Dance movement, intended to spread the beauty and influence of world music. And as those MTV Awards indicate, he and his song “Sledgehammer’’ pretty much made the music network, back in the day when it still played music videos.
He’s already in the Rock Hall, by the way, as a member of Genesis in 2010.
Blond and blue-eyed Daryl Hall and swarthy John Oates combined rock ‘n’ roll and rhythm and blues into a form of music they called “rock and soul.’’ The songs weren’t deep or meaningful, but they featured strong hooks that made them memorable.
Like fellow inductees Gabriel and Nirvana, Hall & Oates benefited from exposure on MTV. A LOT of exposure on MTV. You couldn’t turn on the channel without hearing a No. 1 from them, including “Rich Girl,’’ “Kiss Is On My List,’’ “Private Eyes’’ and “Maneater.’’
The duo from Philadelphia – ergo, they’re among Rock Hall boss and Philly native Greg Harris’ favorites – had 34 hits chart on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, seven platinum albums and six gold. They’re continuing to record and make new music, both as a duo and solo.
Hall has found particular success with an award-winning Web broadcast, “Live From Daryl’s House.’’
Finally, all the rabid KISS fans can calm down. As if that were possible. Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss are in. But it’s going to be interesting. Frehley and Criss have joined and left the band twice now, and are personas non grata with Simmons and Stanley. The two have said no way will they perform at the ceremony with their ex-bandmates. But as the Rock Hall’s Harris said, these things have a way of working themselves out, so we’ll see.
The KISS Army has fought long and hard to get their heroes into the Hall. Maybe their cause was aided by Simmons’ reality show, “Gene Simmons’ Family Jewels.’’
But most likely, it’s the band’s signature riffs on such rock ‘n’ roll anthems as “Rock and Roll All Nite’’ and “Detroit Rock City.’’ And, of course, the makeup and stage presence haven’t hurt. Nobody ever accused KISS of being musical prodigies, but the band may be one of the most entertaining live acts to grace a stage.
Print out the Wikipedia bios of all the members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s Class of 2014, and that of Nirvana kills the fewest trees.
But there’s no doubt of the influence of the band that featured Kurt Cobain on lead vocals and guitar, Krist Novoselic on bass and Dave Grohl on drums. From 1987 until Cobain’s suicide in 1994 – and especially in 1991, with the release of their second album, “Nevermind,’’ and the signature hit “Smells Like Teen Spirit’’ -- Nirvana was the voice of teen angst.
Oh, and it’s no accident – at least to me – that the band’s greatest success didn’t come till AFTER Grohl joined in 1990. He has continued to shine as the frontman and guitarist of the Foo Fighters, which he formed upon Cobain’s death. That means he will be eligible for induction a second time – like Sir Paul McCartney via Wings and the Beatles – for the Class of 2019.
Ronstadt, who’s now battling Parkinson’s disease, was one of the hottest acts going in the ’70s. Her voice had tremendous range and passion, but she was able to do something that few could do back then: cross over from rock to country.
As the Rock Hall noted in its bio, “Ronstadt was especially good at singing early rock and roll; she had a string of hits that revived in rock pioneers: Roy Orbison’s ‘Blue Bayou,’ the Everly Brothers’ ‘When Will I Be Loved' and Buddy Holly’s ‘That’ll Be the Day’ among them.’’
In all, Ronstadt released more than 30 studio albums and 15 compilation or live albums. She’s also lent her voice to more than 120 albums by other artists, including Frank Zappa, the Chieftains, Emmylou Harris and Neil Young, to name a few.
I confess she was a favorite, back in the day, and I was totally jealous of her beau back then, Gov. Jerry “Moonbeam’’ Brown of California.
To me, this is the biggest surprise of the inductees. Not because he doesn’t deserve it, but because of his decision back in 1977, after years of stardom, to convert to Islam.
I honestly thought the backlash would keep the guy behind hits like “The First Cut is the Deepest’’ and “Peace Train’’ from getting in, and I’m glad to see that I was wrong.
He auctioned off all his guitars for charity in 1979 and pretty much abandoned music to “devote himself to educational and philanthropic causes in the Muslim community," according to his Wikipedia biography.
He returned to music, going by his “new’’ first name, Yusuf, with the 2006 album “An Other Cup.’’
Epstein was the Beatles’ beloved – and abused – manager from 1962 until his death in 1967. He learned of the Beatles while running the record department of his family music store.
The Rock Hall’s bio on Epstein, who was described as “completely dedicated to the Beatles,’’ pretty much put it out there with this quote from Sir Paul McCartney:
“If anyone was the fifth Beatle, it was Brian. People talk about George Martin as being the fifth Beatle because of his musical involvement, but, particularly in the early days, Brian was very much part of the group.’’
The parallels between the two managers who are being inducted are obvious. Oldham was the Rolling Stones' first manager, and worked with them until a rather rancorous split in 1967.
He is the one who famously locked Keith Richards and Mick Jagger in a room and MADE them write the Stones’ first original tune. He also created that bad-boy image that served the Stones so well early on, and forced them to dump Ian Stewart as an onstage keyboard player, reducing the band’s membership to five.
Just between us, I was shocked these guys weren’t already part of the Rock Hall. Turns out that when their boss, THE BOSS, was inducted in 1999, he went in as a solo artist.
I’m not, not, NOT taking anything away from Springsteen, but if ever was a band that helped make their frontman famous, it was the E-Street Band. Nils Lofgren, who was brought in when "Miami" Steve Van Zandt left the band to pursue a solo career, and stayed when he came back, gives the band a fantastic tandem (or trio, considering Bruce, too) on guitar. Max Weinberg is one of the most solid pocket drummers in the business.
Sadly, keyboardist Danny Federici and sax man Clarence “Big Man’’ Clemons won’t be on the stage when they’re honored. Federici died of cancer in 2008, and Clemons passed due to complications from a stroke in 2011.
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