Friday , March 29 2024

Blogcritics on Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of ’06

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class of ’06 has been announced and Black Sabbath, Blondie, Miles Davis, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Sex Pistols have made the cut. Truth be told and no disrespect to the inductees who all have strong merits and claim much of my affection, but this is one of the weakest classes ever. Inevitably as an institution ages the heaviest, lowest-hanging fruit gets picked and the voters must look farther up the tree to keep the process moving forward: it’s not like they can get away with saying “This year we don’t pick anyone.”

So, apart from Sabbath, who could/should have been in ten years ago as THE seminal metal band, it’s second tier all the way other than Miles, who took rock quite seriously for a time, but who was one of the great jazz trumpeters and bandleaders ever. Put another way, Davis may have influenced rock but jazz history is unimaginable without him.

We have written extensively about all of this year’s inductees over the last few years:

Overview

2006 Rock Hall of Fame Inductees: Lynyrd Skynyrd Justice
It’s about damned time they got justice. Lynyrd Skynyrd has finally been voted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But let’s back up a step. Inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for 2006 have…
Posted to Music by Al Barger on November 29, 2005 04:38 AM

Black Sabbath

“Paranoid” – It’s not a happy song!
VH1 was re-broadcasting the UK Music Hall Of Fame Sunday night and the Soulfish wife starting watching it when she noticed some old footage of The Kinks. Soon I joined her and saw the Pink Floyd induction and Black Sabbath…
Posted to Music by Wally Bangs on November 30, 2005 05:53 PM

A Brief History of Satanic Rock
The first thing you need to know is that a true Satanist will tell you that any group that puts Satanic imagery on their album covers or in the music is bogus. Every single…
Posted to Music by uao on November 6, 2005 03:28 PM

The Heavy Metal Genre: Who Invented It?
Where does Heavy Metal music come from? It doesn’t really help to ask metal fans. They’re either too dumb or too messed up on the next line of six-packs to know. If you ask them, the ones with half a clue…
Posted to Music by Adam Ash on August 31, 2005 10:27 AM

Weekend Reissue Roundup
Black Sabbath; Maria Muldaur; Fred Neil; Blondie
Posted to Music by uao on August 6, 2005 01:49 PM

Weekly Artist Overview: Black Sabbath
Few bands were as critically reviled in their day as Black Sabbath. And still fewer have seen their reputation rehabilitated as much in the years since their peak. Black Sabbath had once earned the nearly universal scorn of the rock critic establishment for their oppressively heavy, simplistic riffs, the bad rhymes of their lyrics, their melodrama, their lumbering, plodding tempos, their sludgy sound and their Christian/Satanic/Druggy/Magical iconography. In other words, they were despised for essentially the very things their fans loved them for.
Posted to Music by uao on May 31, 2005 06:20 AM

Mini-Listen #23
A Crazy Horse and Black Sabbath reduction sauce.
Posted to Music by Mark Saleski on September 13, 2004 12:40 PM (Relevance: 1)

Ozzfest 2004: Black Sabbath upstaged by Judas Priest
Judas Priest played longer, harder and better than the equally venerable Black Sabbath at Ozzfest 2004. Find out the details and setlists for the Seattle (Auburn), Washington show on July 27, 2004.
Posted to Music by TDavid on July 28, 2004 02:49 PM

Black Sabbath box set extras
Cleveland’s online paper Cleveland.com (www.cleveland.com) reports that while BLACK SABBATH’s live cover of the CARL PERKINS classic ‘Blue Suede Shoes’ is featured as an extra on the bonus DVD that comes with the new box set, Black Box: The Complete…
Posted to Music by Marty Dodge on May 3, 2004 07:19 PM

Black Sabbath is a joke
They’re a joke, a cartoon band. Specifically, they are THE ultimate Beavis and Butthead band, as you may remember. That is to say, they’re a dumb band for glue sniffing teenage boys who have killed whatever brain cells they may once have had.
Posted to Music by Al Barger on September 20, 2003 04:56 AM

80s British Hard Rock to order!
In the early 80s, members of British hard rock bands like Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Uriah Heep all seemed to play musical chairs. It seemed that just about any random combination of the same couple of dozen musicians either…
Posted to Music by Tim Hall on January 10, 2003 12:56 PM

Blondie

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Is It About Commerce, Artistry, or Influence?
As a former Blondie business associate, I guess I get the last laugh after all. You see the music business really blew it when it came to Debbie and cohorts, and a slew of record honchos — who should have…
Posted to Music by Marty Thau on December 2, 2005 11:10 AM

Top 25 Women In Rock?
Just a little tribute to the women in rock history. There are far too many important ones to limit to 25; expect a Part II at some point. There wasn’t any real criteria…
Posted to Music by uao on November 2, 2005 12:12 AM

Weekend Reissue Roundup
Black Sabbath; Maria Muldaur; Fred Neil; Blondie
Posted to Music by uao on August 6, 2005 01:49 PM (Relevance: 1)

CD/DVD Reviews–Blondie Live
Many bands reunite decades after breaking up, and we wish they had just left well enough alone. This is not the case with the late-90s reunion of Blondie. Their all-too brief career in the late 70s led to many great…
Posted to Music by Matt Freelove on November 28, 2004 01:40 AM (Relevance: 1)

Blondie Singles Box
If the record business wants to continue doing business the way they’ve been doing it for the past 20 years, one of their only hopes is fetish commodities. Box sets have always been a strong seller for the majors, with…
Posted to Music by Jim Carruthers on August 22, 2004 05:25 PM

The Curse of Blondie
“It’s a small world after all, but it’s older than you think. . .”
Posted to Music by Bill Sherman on April 15, 2004 10:11 AM (Relevance: 1)

Blondie – Parallel Lines
While Mike Chapman had a mess of hits as a songwriter (with Nicky Chinn) for Sweet and Suzi Quatro, his great effort as a producer is a cornerstone of the new wave era, Blondie’s Parallel Lines. “I saw Blondie three nights…
Posted to Music by Eric Olsen on September 17, 2003 12:09 PM

Miles Davis

The Last Miles: The Music of Miles Davis 1980-1991 by George Cole
“Music does not depend on being right, on having good taste and education and all that.” “Indeed, then what does it depend on?” “On making music, Herr Haller, on making music as well and as much as possible and with all the…
Posted to Books by Neal Gardner on July 26, 2005 03:13 AM

CD Review: Miles Davis – ‘Round About Midnight Legacy Edition
Miles is from Mars, the horn is from Venus.
Posted to Music by Wally Bangs on June 21, 2005 06:17 PM

Miles Davis – The Best Of Seven Steps
If you want to find out how little you know about jazz, read the liner notes from a great jazz album like Miles Davis’s Seven Steps. Bob Blumenthal does an incredible job of taking you through the history of…
Posted to Music by Bennett Dawson on May 19, 2005 11:27 AM (Relevance: 2)

Miles Davis is Cooler than You Are.
Some people are just cool like that.
Posted to Music by Katharine Donelson on April 6, 2005 03:12 PM

Mile Davis – My Funny Valentine reissued
Miles Davis – Nostalgia, shit! That’s a pitiful concept. Because it’s dead, it’s safe…
Posted to Music by Wally Bangs on January 31, 2005 12:48 PM

Miles Davis Seven Steps: The Complete Columbia Recordings of Miles Davis 1963-1964
Review of the excellent Miles Davis 7-disc boxed set covering the transition years of 1963-1964. An inspired set of live performances, studio tracks and demos, it showcases an incredible period of artistic creation. rating: 9 of 10
Posted to Music by Jim Schwab on September 6, 2004 12:51 PM

Miles Goes The Distance
Muhammad Ali once said, “I am the greatest!”, and set out in the boxing ring to prove himself just that. In 1969, Miles Davis (an amateur boxer himself) said, “I could put together the greatest rock ‘n roll band you ever heard”, and did just that for a documentary about another legendary prizefighter.
Posted to Music by Ed Driscoll on October 30, 2003 07:05 PM

Miles Davis: The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions
In the late 1960s, Miles eschewed pretty much everything that had become associated with jazz – he incorporated electric instruments to the dismay of purists who only wanted to hear acoustic instruments. Electric, don’t you know, was only associated…
Posted to Music by Tom Johnson on September 30, 2003 05:53 PM

Miles Davis’ birthday
Miles Davis got himself some of that, becoming one of the central creative artists in the history of recorded American music. As a trumpet player, composer, bandleader and all around badass, Miles created and perfected several different major subgenres of jazz.
Posted to Music by Al Barger on May 26, 2003 01:42 AM

The Miles Davis Story
Miles Davis’ sleek appearance and cool music hid a bitter, angry man, capable of misogyny, pettiness, misanthropy, and other dark emotions, which are explored in this new DVD.
Posted to Video by Ed Driscoll on December 23, 2002 04:50 AM

Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece
Miles Davis changed the direction of jazz three times, once with the release of his 1959 LP, Kind of Blue.
Posted to Books: Entertainment by Ed Driscoll on September 17, 2002 12:58 AM

Lynyrd Skynyrd

Bush & Skynyrd vs. Kerry & Young
Is it really possible to connect the dots between Neil Young, Lynyrd Skynyrd, John Kerry and George Bush? Regarding the 2004 election, Greg Lewis writes in The Washington Dispatch: “Lynard Skynard, you might recall, wrote and recorded “Sweet Home Alabama,”…
Posted to Politics by Thrasher on October 31, 2004 12:59 PM

The Redneck National Anthem
I was leaving work the other day when I heard one of my co-worker’s cell phones go off. Her ringtone was set to Lynard Skynard’s Sweet Home Alabama. To put it mildly, I was shocked. She’s hardly…
Posted to Music by Casper on September 5, 2004 08:13 PM

Southern Rock Literei
It’s the Lynyrd Skynyrd micro essays!
Posted to Music by Celestial Dung on August 19, 2004 01:20 PM (Relevance: 1)

2004 Rock Hall of Fame inductees announced
Did I mention that the voters have somehow passed over Skynyrd again? What the hell is wrong with them?
Posted to Music by Al Barger on November 21, 2003 12:27 AM (Relevance: 1)

A worthy Skynyrd cause
“Freebird” alone should have long since gotten Lynyrd Skynyrd into the Hall of Fame.
Posted to Music by Al Barger on June 16, 2003 03:36 AM (Relevance: 2)

Lynyrd Skynyrd – Vicious Cycle
Vicious Cycle is one of those albums that I can listen to from start to finish and never skip a single track. This is the first album the band has put together since the passing of Leon Wilkeson in July…
Posted to Music by Hurrishane on June 15, 2003 09:41 PM

Sex Pistols

The Five Most Overrated Bands
Sex Pistols, Monkees, Kid Rock, Puff Daddy and Fleetwood Mac – my “top” five.
Posted to Music by Scott Butki on October 3, 2005 09:41 AM

Review: Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs
Let’s face it. John Lydon is not a nice guy, and that’s a good thing. In his autobiography Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs, Lydon writes:Nice is the worst insult you could ever pay anybody. It means you are…
Posted to Books by Jones Violet on July 22, 2005 04:23 PM

Weekly Artist Overview: The Sex Pistols
There are few bands in the history of rock that have left a greater impression in such a short time as the Sex Pistols. The band was together for about two years, they never charted a single in America, and they never recorded an album together; their lone album was a singles collection.
Posted to Music by uao on June 28, 2005 08:04 PM

Rotten Speaks, Billboard Withers
The Sex Pistols hit the road this summer – will the road hit back? It is pointless to try to confront an antagonist such as Lydon in an interview format, especially a timed interview format: As first reported here,…
Posted to Music by Eric Olsen on July 22, 2003 02:36 PM

Never Mind the Bollocks Turns Twenty-Five
Still sounding dangerous and subversive, the Sex Pistols’ one and only studio album a quarter-century later.
Posted to Music by Eric Olsen on October 28, 2002 12:06 PM

Sex Pistols Play Huge Punk Festival Outside LA
The Sex Pistols headlined a punk festival at the old home of the US Festival, the Glen Helen Pavillion in smoggy Devore, about 50 miles east of LA. Shockingly, a few fans got rowdy: In true punk spirit, rowdy…
Posted to Music by Eric Olsen on September 17, 2002 03:57 PM

Rolling Into the Rock Hall? pt 3
Please see part 1 here, and part 2 here. Iggy Pop The Velvets, Stooges, and the Dolls were the most important of the ’70s pre-punk bands, and Iggy Pop, after leaving the Stooges, has soldiered on through very long…
Posted to Music: Alternative Rock by Eric Olsen on August 29, 2002 10:52 AM

About Eric Olsen

Career media professional and serial entrepreneur Eric Olsen flung himself into the paranormal world in 2012, creating the America's Most Haunted brand and co-authoring the award-winning America's Most Haunted book, published by Berkley/Penguin in Sept, 2014. Olsen is co-host of the nationally syndicated broadcast and Internet radio talk show After Hours AM; his entertaining and informative America's Most Haunted website and social media outlets are must-reads: Twitter@amhaunted, Facebook.com/amhaunted, Pinterest America's Most Haunted. Olsen is also guitarist/singer for popular and wildly eclectic Cleveland cover band The Props.

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