A few to consider for 2013.

Being from Massachusetts, I must throw a mountain of support for the mighty J.Geils Band. Wolf in his prime was one of the best frontmen in the history of rock and he still kicks it pretty damn well these days. Pete's also buddies with Springsteen & Landua so that might help 'em this time out.

Since my opening salvo is for hometown heroes, I'm amazed that the band Boston is not already in. One of the best-selling debut albums in history, an engineering genius in Tom Scholz, great songs, anthemic arena rockers and umm, what else?.......oh yes, Brad Delp, one of the greatest singers in history. For every supporter of punk crap like Patti Smith (haters...just my opinion here) there is someone like myself who thought she sucked and wonders why her and Lou Reed rate so high on critics lists. Not my cup of tea at all and I have not known anyone personally who likes them in my 50 years on the planet.

Bad Company if for no other reason than one of the greatest rock vocalists of all time, my fave singer Paul Rodgers. The band was great, hard to find a bad song on any of their first 4-5 classic albums and they filled the airwaves and arenas in their prime. I would venture a guess that maybe Jann Wenner got rejected after hitting on Paul Rodgers at some industry event and has held a grudge ever since. No other explanation would make any sense to me.

As always, I gotta pull for Kiss, Deep Purple, Alice Cooper, Chicago & Rush. The RRHOF will always be a sad joke until these rock giants are rightfully inducted.

Alice Cooper did get in for 2011/2012, but as I have tried to emphasise the next few years will be tougher for established candidates with artists from the rap revolution of the Bush Senior Era becoming eligible, along with commercially successful grunge pioneers.

I was just looking at the 2013 eligible list and noticed the Traveling Wilbury's. Jeff Lynne is the only one in that group who isn't in the Hall yet. They need to show some love for the Electric Light Orchestra.

If seeling records was such an important critera, how the hell did Laura Nyro and Tom Waits get in? Waits I could understand, but nothing will make me understand how Nyro not only got in but was nominated several times before she did.

Public Enemy stands out over NWA simply because the latter never came close to duplicating Straight Outta Compton once Ice Cube left. The P.E. continued to have quality stuff after they broke through.

The most common thing I have seen regarding ELO's candidacy is they were not as good as their predecessor, The Move.

It's high time the 5 Royales just because of other pioneering artists they have elected. They're no less deserving.

Well the ELO was certainly more popular than The Move. I just figure it's Jeff Lynne's best chance at getting in the Hall before someone thinks it's a good idea to induct the Traveling Wilburys.

I actually do prefer ELO. But I have been told The Move is better because, er, I guess, they are.

I think they will get in, they were a major 70's act and Lynne has solid chops as a producer. Which makes me wonder about Dave Stewart. It doesn't hurt he seems to be friends with everyone, either. And, no, I'm not endorsing Eurthymics.

ELO might have grown from the Move, but despite the common denominator of Jeff Lynne they are really two different bands; the analog might be Led Zeppelin growing from the Yardbirds with Jimmy Page the common factor there. The Move under founder Roy Wood was closer to the Who in execution (they even busted things up on stage) although singles like “I Can Hear the Grass Grow” had a psychedelic-Beatles flair to it (maybe it was the harmonies).

Lynne joined near the end of the 1960s and brought his Beatles fixation with him, which of course flourished when formed ELO. The Move’s two best-known (and two of its best) songs came from the Lynne era: “California Man,” later covered by Cheap Trick (who were no strangers to Beatles-esque flourishes), and “Do Ya,” which Lynne revamped for the better-known ELO hit. But Lynne wrote it, and it shows what he brought to the Move that the band lacked: commercial appeal. I don’t say that in a back-handed manner because “Do Ya” is immediately catchy even in the rough-hewn Move arrangement, a quality lacking in previous Move singles, which might be why the band never caught on in the US (although they were regulars on the UK charts). For the longest time all I could find on the Move was a budget comp on Pickwick, which should tell you how long ago that was (I don’t think the LP jacket even has a UPC code).

“Better” is always in the ear of the beholder, but I’ll take the Move over ELO any day. That’s just personal preference. The Move was proto-punk with decidedly off-kilter attitudes: “Cherry Blossom Clinic,” “Night of Fear,” “Blackberry Way,” “Brontosaurus,” and “Wild Tiger Woman” are pure acid-pop, while “Turkish Tram Conductor Blues” suggests where Robyn Hitchcock might have got his own warped perspective.

As far as the Hall of Fame goes, ELO has the better shot because of its commercial success, which makes it a significant part of the 1970s landscape, although I don’t think either band should be inducted. But I’ve been preoccupied with auditing the Hall lately, anyway.

>> For every supporter of punk crap like Patti Smith (haters...just my opinion here) there is someone like myself who thought she sucked and wonders why her and Lou Reed rate so high on critics lists. Not my cup of tea at all and I have not known anyone personally who likes them in my 50 years on the planet.

PickGuru, don’t you think that’s a bit of selection bias if you don’t personally know anyone who likes them? Pardon the generalization, but we tend to associate with those who share our own tastes and opinions.

When she arrived on the scene, Patti Smith had more pretenses than anyone since Jim Morrison: Like Jimbo, she was a “poet” who decided to use rock and roll as her medium too. Whether she was completely successful with that is debatable, but I see her as a key figure at a time, the mid-1970s, when rock was transitioning from its classic roots to a more modern, abrasive style. Like it or lump it, that was where the parade was headed, and you can see where my vote is.

But I agree with you about Lou Reed. Although he is deservedly a Hall of Famer as the driving force behind the Velvet Underground, his solo career has been a shambles, and it’s no snub that he hasn’t been inducted. Reed has occasionally produced some interesting material (Street Hassle, New York) but most of it has been half-baked extrapolations from his Velvets days; he even went heavy metal to reproduce that Velvets material on the “unbelievably bombastic” (to borrow Ira Robbins’s phrase) live album Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal. Not that I don't have my own copy--I like unbelievable bombast now and then--but it's not going to get him into Cleveland.

I can't believe some of the groups/artists who are in the Hall of Fame because the following have been left out and deserve to be in -- The Moody Blues, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Deep Purple, Chicago, Yes, Renaissance, Electric Light Orchestra, Blood Sweat & Tears, Jethro Tull -- these prog rock bands have contributed so much to rock and roll. Their omission is ridiculous and just unfair. Who votes for the bands who are in? Someone who is 16? Why are there disco queens and blues artists but not rock and roll bands like the above, most of whom are STILL rocking???? The Hall of Fame is not truly representative of rock and roll if these super groups above are being left out. Notice how most of them are British. Notice how most of them have horns, phenomenal keys, and the use of other instruments which added so much to the rock scene. I'm sure I'm leaving some groups out, but these are the ones that come to mind first -- let's get these groups in already, will ya? Their omission is disgraceful.