In other entries on this list, a debate will emerge as to whether one album makes a career. In the case of My Bloody Valentine, there was at least two full length albums recorded, but boy were they good ones!
If you are a baseball fan you might remember the sad tale of Bill Buckner whose solid career was completely overshadowed by the ground ball that dribbled through his legs that cost the Boston Red Sox the World Series in 1986. It is a very melodramatic analogy but a couple of us at NIHOF wondered aloud if Mr. Roboto may have been the error that overshadowed the career of Styx.
Had this been a list of who should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the ability to amalgamate the combined categories of performing, songwriting and producing it would have to be believed that Todd Rundgren would easily be in the top ten of this list. As it stands, the Hall does not combine those categories and chooses to induct each category separately. Needless, to say we are ranking the same way.
You didn’t think we were done with the Germans did you? We return to the “Fatherland” where we have a band (unlike our number one choice, Kraftwerk) that had true international success and is considered one of the top acts to come out of Continental Europe. We wonder if we are going to hear from some of their fans that they should be our highest ranked German band.
In other entries on this list, we discussed the Philly Soul sound. Although Hall & Oates were not considered part of that genre, there is little doubt that they were inspired by it.
Rock and Roll history is full of one hit wonders and if you look in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame you may find one or two. One hit wonders are often laughed at, but perhaps it is much worse to be perceived as a one hit wonder than to actually be one. The Clovers may very well fall in that category.
When the idea for a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was first conceived many bands likely came to mind right away. Some artists who performed in the same era probably received no consideration at all as they were dismissed as juvenile and fluff. Some of those bands may very well fit that bubblegum image but others upon time have seen their image change and their influence grow. No other group sums up that statement better than the Shangri-Las.
In the first decade of the new millennium, the medium of television became overrun with reality television. Other portions of this website may discuss the merits of reality T.V., but never have we had felt the need to incorporate that discussion in terms of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. With Ozzy Osbourne, we may have to reevaluate that position.
How can a band that has not had a new hit in nearly twenty years and reviled by so many still be one of the most downloaded artists today? Despite the criticism that Journey did receive, of the “Arena Rock” bands, it can be argued that only the Steve Perry group has the ability to re-release a song and have it sound like it was produced recently.
Talking about Motown was certainly nothing new during the NIHOF Rock and Roll discussions. However, the topic generally came up when discussing forgotten and neglected 60’s artists from the legendary label, and rarely for the achievements of the decade that followed. Yet one of the Detroit label’s biggest successes was a 70’s group that originated from the American Deep South where the Commodores emerged as a major player in the R&B scene.