Sunday, April 22, 2007

Hey hey, we're the Hall of Famers!

Phred passes along a few comments from Peter Tork on the Monkees' case for Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction. Tork, in case you don't know your Monkees lore the one who could play several instruments -- as opposed to Mike Nesmith, who could play guitar and write songs, and the other two, who were singers who had to learn drums and percussion.

Tork says Rolling Stone editor-for-life Jann Wenner is The Man keeping the Monkees out.

Here follows a quick debate on whether Wenner is right:

They couldn't play their own instruments!

They did in their live shows and on their later albums, particularly after Nesmith demonstrated his wall-punching skills to Don Kirshner.

Besides -- I don't recall any of the Ronettes sporting Stratocasters, and I don't think they'll hold it against Run DMC that Run didn't play the riff in Walk This Way.

They were pre-manufactured!

Again, the Ronettes. And yes, the Sex Pistols.

They didn't write their own songs!

Nesmith and Micky Dolenz did a lot more writing than some of the bands in the Hall.

They had no lasting impact!

Anyone over the age of 30 can hum Last Train to Clarksville. They pioneered an early form of the music video. In fact, Mike Nesmith played a hand in the next step of video evolution.

Well ... they're not New Yorkers like Blondie, the Ramones or Patti Smith. And they're not bluesmen and old Sun Studio guys we pretend to like so music historians think we know something.

We're aware of that. But this is not the Greenwich Village Hall of Fame, it's the ROCK AND ROLL Hall of Fame. And it's in Cleveland. Look it up on Mapquest.

OK, fine. At least they're not progressive rock guys like Rush and Yes.

Yeah, we'll talk about that next week.

1 comment:

Neel Mehta said...

It's a losing battle. Mr. Wenner will enshrine the Arctic Monkeys first.

We're aware of that. But this is not the Greenwich Village Hall of Fame, it's the ROCK AND ROLL Hall of Fame. And it's in Cleveland. Look it up on Mapquest.

I looked it up. It's pretty far from Greenwich Village. And after about 5 miles into the trip, no one's heard of Patti Smith. (Ouch!)

I'm reading the just-published Rolling Stone 40th anniversary issue and am feeling, well, annoyed. Patti Smith gets interviewed, natch. But -- aside from a list of 40 milestone songes -- the whole damn issue is devoted to the baby boomer perspective, and how they view the past 40 years. Not a single person who, say, grew up on the magazine. Though I'm sure if Kurt Cobain was alive they'd make an exception.