Like a Virgin, Nominated For the Very First Time

Oh, Joy! The latest batch of nominees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame were announced. Rolling Stone magazine scooped the list last night.

The nominees are (drum roll, please):

Madonna (first time nominee)
Beastie Boys (first time nominee)
The Dave Clark Five
Leonard Cohen (first time nominee)
Afrika Bambaataa (first time nominee)
John Mellencamp
The Ventures (first time nominee)
Donna Summer (first time nominee)
Chic

Apparently five of the nine nominees will be added to the HoF roster.

I am not going to quibble over whether the R&RHoF should include Rap or Disco versus straight Rock. It seems a silly argument. It's the R&RHoF for cripes sake. Its most important addition to our collective culture is the building it's housed in. Besides, what genre should we pigeonhole the Beastie Boys into? Why should we bother? Another dimension. Do it.

However, perusing the list of current inductees gives me pause to wonder what kind of shop they're running over there. Bob Marley but not he Wailers. Ike and Tina Turner...together forever? While Clapton eases in on his own, as well as with Cream and the Yardbirds. Michael and The Jackson Five. Paul Simon and Simon and Garfunkel. I don't see the logic being applied.

Secondly, I'm looking at the new nominees list and I'm missing the boat on Chic. Yes, I understand that every cheesy bar full of big-haired suburban gals and 19-year-olds fresh out of their Mommy's grasp are really jiving to "Freak Out" on a regular basis. However, I don't buy it. I just don't. I'm going to picket the induction ceremony if Chic makes it over The Dave Clark Five....while in platform boots, a sparkling mini and a mauve bob-cut wig.

Assuredly, everyone can run down the list and see something that makes them cringe. Hell, ZZ Top is in the HoF already. Fuzzy guitars and the CadZZilla can take you a long way, but I think "Tube Snake Boogie" and "Pearl Necklace" is what got them in.

This says it all...

I got a girl, she lives on the hill.
She wont do it but her sister will,
When she boogie,
She do the tube snake boogie.

And if that doesn't, this surely does....

She was gettin bombed,
And I was gettin blown away,
And she took it in her hand,
And this is what she had to say:
A pearl necklace.
She wanna pearl necklace.
She wanna pearl necklace.

No matter. Groove to your own beat....whatever leaves you glad all over. The Universal Zulu Nation salutes you.

___________________________________________________


Some brief and random factoids, or semi-factoids, as I didn't check multiple sources for some of them due to extreme lack of care on my part and a need to uphold the long history of careless blahggering (NOTE: The final factoid is gospel truth. AMEN!):

• Donna Summer holds the record for having three consecutive double albums hit #1 on the Billboard charts and also became the first female artist to have four number-one singles in a twelve-month period.
• Chic's famous refrain "Aaa, freak out" began as "fuck off", conceived as an impromptu protest song after Edwards and Rogers had been turned back at the door of New York's infamous club, Studio 54. Edwards and Rogers had been invited to see Grace Jones perform, who was allegedly interested in working with the pair.
• Madonna began a short fling with artist Jean-Michel Basquiat in the fall of 1982, the year she signed a singles deal with Sire Records for $5,000 per song.
• The Beastie Boys formed in 1979 as a punk band called The Young Aborigines, before Adam Yauch (MCA) joined in 1981 and the name was changed.
• The Dave Clark Five had 17 records in Billboard's Top 40 between 1964 and 1967 and holds the record for the most appearances by a UK group (18) on The Ed Sullivan Show.
• Cohen made a guest appearance on a 1986 episode of Miami Vice entitled "French Twist" as Francois Zolan, a senior executive in the French Secret Service engaged in an illegal operation to blow up Greenpeace boats. He appears in the show speaking French on the telephone in a few short bits.
• Mellencamp has five children from three marriages. His most recent marriage (and still current, as far as I know) produced sons Hud and Speck.
• The Ventures are the world's best selling instrumental rock group, with over 90 million albums sold worldwide and are, of course, popular in Japan (40 million albums sold in Japan). The Go-Go's wrote "Surfin' And Spyin'" and dedicated it to The Ventures.
• Afrika Bambaataa is just fuckin' stone cool, yo.