Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2010

The newest members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame were inducted last night in New York, and the 2010 class is a diverse one. The new inductees' music covers several genres of rock and roll music: pop, ABBA; progressive rock, Genesis; British Invasion pop, The Hollies; reggae, Jimmy Cliff; and punk, Iggy Pop and The Stooges. In addition, media mogul David Geffen was included for his contribution as a music producer and industry executive, as well as songwriters Jesse Stone, Mort Shuman, Otis Blackwell and the teams of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, and Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry.
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(barry mann and cynthia weil, with carole king in white dress; the stooges)
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(ABBA; the hollies)
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The message boards across the internet lit up yesterday with posts about who should and should not be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. ABBA, in particular was singled out for venom, who many felt was too "pop" to be included in a "Rock and Roll" Hall of Fame. To us, this is a completely silly argument. "Rock and Roll" is simply a semantic umbrella underwhich many types of pop music are found, from pop to soul to punk to rap to metal to new wave to grunge, etc., etc., etc. To say that there is only one type of Rock and Roll is ridiculous. Elvis Presley is the "King of Rock and Roll", and most of his music was certainly pop, as was the Beatles'. The Rolling Stones, who are arguably the greatest "Rock and Roll" band of all time had countless hits which are clearly more pop than harder edged rock.
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(jimmy cliff; ellis greenwich and jeff barry)
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Unfortunately Ellie Greenwich died a few months ago, (see our post on her death), but her legacy as one of the greatest pop songwriters of all time is assured. One of the famous Brill Building songwriters of the 1960's, Greenwich wrote, among other monster hits, "Be My Baby", "Da Doo Ron Ron", "Leader of the Pack", "Chapel of Love" and "River Deep, Mountain High".
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(the hollies; genesis with phil collins in beard)
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Graham Nash was the original lead singer of The Hollies, scoring a string of hits in Britain, and hitting the American charts with "Bus Stop" and "Carrie Anne". Nash later left the group to found Crosby, Stills & Nash, afterwhich The Hollies scored hits with "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother", "The Air That I Breathe" and "Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress". Upon accepting his award last night, Nash joked that "he couldn't believe the group had the nerve to have three number one hits after he left the group."
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(david geffen; genesis at last night's ceremony)
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(iggy pop at last night's ceremony)
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Undoubtedly one of the highlights of last night's ceremony was Iggy Pop's performance. We haven't seen it yet, the only network to air the ceremony was Fuse, which we don't have on our cable system, but we can only imagine what it must have been like from what we've read. As Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day was giving testimony for The Stooges, Iggy Pop was behind him, getting ready, wasting no time in unbuttoning his shirt. Soon after, Iggy, one of rock's all-time greatest showmen, took the stage to perform, strutting, rolling and growling in classic Iggy Pop fashion, proving why punk became such a force in music and the counter-culture, and why no one could have lead the way any better than Iggy Pop.