Dave Marsh wept.
The veteran rock critic, known for his caustic dismissals of many a rock star, had made it his duty as a committee member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to keep Kiss from being inducted. "Kiss," he once explained, "is not a great band, was never a great band, Kiss never will be a great band, and I have done my share to keep them off the [Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction] ballot." This time, he couldn't even keep Kiss from being inducted. They're among the inductees for 2014 and, yes, the original lineup, likely all in makeup, will likely show up at the induction ceremony. Marsh has been one-upped. (Too bad, I was with him on this one.)
Kiss can at least take solace in the fact that they're not, in Marsh's opinion, "the worst band in creation." According to Marsh, the Grateful Dead are. (They got inducted in 1994.) But Marsh can't even take solace in preventing Linda Ronstadt ("an utterly horrid interpreter of contemporary rock and soul material, frequently missing the essence of a song and almost never cutting below the surface") from getting inducted; she's in too. And as sorry as I am that Linda Ronstadt is suffering from Parkinson's disease, I don't think she belongs in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame either. It's nothing personal; I just think she's never been enough of a rocker.
This is scary - I've actually agreed twice already with the man who once called Crosby, Stills and Nash a "supergroup fiasco" and dismissed their sound as "barbershop harmony!" :-O
Anyway, Nirvana are in, as are Hall and Oates, Peter Gabriel (as a solo artist), and the E Street Band. (Bruce Springsteen is already in on his own.) I approve. And not only is former Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham to be inducted in the non-performer category, so is . . . Beatles manager Brian Epstein. Thank you - thank you!
I'll have more to say on this in the spring, when the induction ceremony takes place. But, if Dave Marsh Googles his name and finds this post, I just have one thing to say to him:
Please vote to induct Family in 2015 - please! Come on, the fact that "The Weaver's Answer" is not played to death on American radio like "Stairway To Heaven" ought to make them a lead-pipe cinch!
Oh yeah, this is Dave Marsh.
And here's an earlier picture of him, from the eighties. Apart from his hair loss, he hasn't really changed much.
As one scribe once observed, he looks like a rock critic is supposed to look. :-D
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2 comments:
Yeah it's a scary thing, but I too would have to agree with Dave's sentiments about these rock groups (well, maybe the Dead weren't the worst of them, but Kiss, yes). And thank you for suggesting to him that Family be inducted next year, please!
Walt: You're quite welcome! :-)
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