For those to say the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is full of rubbish, apparently the institution has decided to confirm it.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame have procured one of the painted oil drums that is used at the Glastonbury Music Festival to collect garbage will soon be on exhibit in Cleveland, Ohio where it will stand alongside Elvis’ leather jacket and everything that Bruce Springsteen ever owned. When asked why the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame wanted this to add to their collection, Glastonbury founder and promoter, Michael Eavis could only offer a perplexing explanation.
“I don’t really understand why. For some reason the Americans wanted to put one is as a sample of what we do.”
Interesting statement isn’t it? Of all the things that they could have asked for from this famed festival of music, they are asking for a garbage bin?
For those unaware of Glastonbury, Michael Eavis put this together in 1970 in the United Kingdom where for a one pound ticket you could see the headliner T.Rex in a music festival. The festival returned a year later, where David Bowie was the headliner. After a seven year hiatus, Eavis brought the festival back and with the exception of 1980, 1991, 1996, 2001 and 2012, it has been an annual staple on the music scene.
A virtual who’s who has performed at this festival over the years. The list includes The Rolling Stones, U2, R.E.M., Stevie Wonder, Radiohead, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Jay-Z, Lady Gaga, Peter Gabriel, The Wu-Tang Clan, New Order, Oasis, Paul McCartney, The Smiths, Elvis Costello, Coldplay, The White Stripes, Johnny Cash, Beyonce, The Cure, The Pixies, Morrisey, Blur, Kings of Leon, Paul Simon, Rage Against the Machine, Gorillaz, Muse, Foo Fighters, Jackson Browne, Sting, Curtis Mayfield, Van Morrison, Neil Diamond, The Smashing Pumpkins, The Black Eyed Peas, Arcade Fire, Leonard Cohen, Manic Street Preachers, Yes, Primal Scream, Lenny Kravitz, Arctic Monkeys, Moby, Ray Davies, Bjork, Suzanne Vega, Pulp, Mumford & Sons, Tony Bennett, Muse, The Prodigy, The Killers, Amy Winehouse, Blondie, Shakira, The Flaming Lips, James Brown, Sinead O’Connor, P.J. Harvey, Joe Cocker, B.B. King, The Chemical Brothers, Tori Amos, The Specials, Roger Waters and the Happy Mondays.
With the vast history and incredible talent that has appeared at Glastonbury, a garbage bin is what the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame wants to showcase? This is a commentary that writes itself.
When the New York Giants had Hakeem Nicks, the Wide Receiver wore the number 88; though he will not be wearing those digits with the Indianapolis Colts, who he signed a free agent deal with in the off-season. Why is this news to us? In about six months, we will be unveiling our look at the retired numbers and franchise Halls of Fame/Rings of Honor and since 88 has been made unavailable to Nicks, this tells us that the Colts will be retiring it.
At present, the Colts have retired eight numbers, including the number #12 of the still active Peyton Manning who is now with the Denver Broncos. Marvin Harrison was the last player to wear 88 for the Colts. Harrison played all thirteen seasons with the Colts and was a Hall of Fame Finalist this year, and is likely to be enshrined in Canton. His number has been kept out of circulation since his retirement in 2008.
As for Nicks, he has selected the number 18 to wear in Indianapolis. We suspect that Harrison’s number will be retired by the organization in the next few years, perhaps to coincide to his eventual induction into the Football Hall of Fame.
In an interview with the website BANG Showbiz, Chris Squire, the long time member of the Progressive Rock band, Yes, discussed his thoughts about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the perpetual snubbing that the band has received. We thought some of those comments were worth mentioning here.
“There were bands nominated who had been up before so I didn’t really think we would get in there this year. We missed it by a few votes or something I was told, but I’m sure it will come up again.”
Yes has been eligible since 1994, but until this past year had never been nominated. It is has been suggested by many (us included) that this was due the Hall of Fame’s bias against the Progressive Rock. This has certainly not gone unnoticed by Squire.
“Most of the time they’re not prog rock sort of people. In the past couple of years they’ve made an effort by putting Genesis in there and Canadian rock band Rish, but generally they’ve always stayed away from prog rock people. I can’t say whether that’s fair or not but people have different tastes. Punk rates a lot higher than prog rock on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.”
Squire’s assessment is completely correct. Traditionally, the genre of Progressive Rock has been the red headed stepchild of the Hall of Fame (with Heavy Metal being its twin) and we only have to look at our top fifty annually to see a plethora of those type of acts who have not been inducted, or even sniffed a nomination.
He continued to mention the dilemma that would occur should Yes get in, the same one that plagued KISS, when they finally received the call. That would be which members of the band should be selected to enter the Hall of Fame, and what the resulting controversy will be.
Yes has had many members, many of which we feel would be locks to enter as part of a potential induction. That would include Chris Squire, Steve Howe, Alan White, Jon Anderson, Tony Kaye, Bill Bruford, Peter Banks, Rick Wakeman, Patrick Moraz, Trevor Horn and Trevor Rabin.
That total is eleven, which is already a lot, and more than enough to send Paul Stanley whining on Twitter. This still leaves out a lot of people who were a part of the band at one point.
Now that Yes has finally received their first nomination, we think that there is an excellent chance that they will be the next Progressive Rock band inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They can’t keep trashing this genre forever can they?
A few weeks ago, World Wrestling Entertainment inducted the Class of 2014 to their Hall of Fame. As is tradition with our website, once a Class is inducted, we move on to the rankings of the next possible class, which will again come to life the night before Wrestlemania.
Two of our top ten (The Ultimate Warrior and Jake “The Snake” Roberts) were selected and once again the top of our rankings will see a significant change. As always, votes and comments made by all of you affect the rankings, and we continue to solicit your input for the future.
Randy “Macho Man” Savage and Vince McMahon remain 1 and “1A” in our rankings. The Undertaker, Lou Thesz and the Rock who were ranked at 2, 3 and 4 respectively remain in that position. A minor switch based on your votes has flipped Bruiser Brody and Triple H from the 5 and 6 spot, and Ivan Koloff moves back into the top ten with a jump from 11 to 7. Sting, The Fabulous Freebirds and the Destroyer round out the top ten.
We have moved some talent from the futures section to the main list. The highest addition is Kurt Angle, who debuts at the #13 slot. Although Angle is still somewhat active in TNA, based on the high tally of his injuries and his age, we are hoping that he will retire sooner than later. The former multi time WWE Champion is already in the TNA Hall of Fame, where he was the second inductee behind Sting.
Angle is the only new addition to the top 100. Others who are making their first appearance to the Notinhalloffame.com top 300 WWE list are Jerry Jarrett (139), Kensuke Sasaki (156), Bruce Prichard (169), D-Lo Brown (200), Billy Kidman (214), The Great Sasuke (230), Buff Bagwell (237) and Victoria (250).
As always, we want to hear your thoughts and encourage you to cast your votes.