Is it wrong for us to see this band get inducted just to see what kind of letter John Lydon (Johnny Rotten) would write to the Hall next? Seriously, when our little committee got together that topic was all we could talk about for an hour. With that said, though Public Image Ltd., will never approach the legacy of Lydon’s first band, the Sex Pistols, is it possible that PIL was actually a better group than the Pistols?

We can’t even begin to tell you how shocked we were that Jimmy Cliff recently got into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It isn’t that we don’t think that Cliff should have been inducted; but we really saw no evidence that the Hall would ever induct a second Reggae star (after Bob Marley). The question now is will the Hall induct a third.

What should have been. This is a sentence that seems to permeate the history of Rock and Roll, especially on a list such as this. We can’t help but think that this sentence may fit Mott the Hoople better than anyone else as the Ian Hunter-led band seemed to inspire so much yet accomplish so little.

Maybe stating that Mott the Hoople accomplished little is a bit of a misnomer, but they should have been so much more. Best known State Side for their David Bowie penned “All the Young Dudes”; Mott was selling a lot more records in their native country. Embracing the Glam Rock movement, Mott the Hoople played that style of music that was anything but androgynous. They fused with Glam with Hard Rock and a Proto Punk attitude and found themselves a wide cross-section of fans. Though they were popular, they always seemed to be forever knocking at the door of mainstream acceptance. Time has shined a positive light on them and much of their work was cited by diverse bands thereafter. Mott the Hoople may have been the best “Should have been” in Rock history.

www.mottthehoople.com

It rarely fails. As new genres emerge there seems to a need to anoint a pair of songwriters as the new Lennon and McCartney. New Wave did so with the pair of Chris Difford and Glenn Tillbrook; better known as the creative unit behind Squeeze.