The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame recently announced its list of 2023 nominees and there are quite a few that I’ve never heard of: Missy Elliott; Kate Bush; Joy Division/New Order; and, A Tribe Called Quest.
Who? How about Tiny Tim?
I know I’m old, but sheesh… these nominees are all-time greats like Elvis, Chuck Berry, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Queen? I don’t think so, but that’s just me.
Heck, Cher isn’t in the Hall of Fame and she’s been cranking out music and filling arenas for over 50 years. Tina Turner had a Top 40 hit in seven consecutive decades, held a concert in front of 180,000 paying customers in 1988, and sold 100 million records worldwide, wasn’t deemed fit for the Hall of Fame as a solo artist until 2021. Mariah Carey, who had eleven consecutive years with a U.S. number one single, has not been elected to the Hall of Fame!
Obviously, I have no idea what makes music “great” anymore. The Rap and Hip Hop genres are now quite popular, and I don’t listen to them. I’ve never listened to a Taylor Swift recording, either, which really shows how far “out of it” I am when it comes to modern culture. I do think Lady Gaga is immensely talented, though, but what has she done lately?
I was alive when Rock n’ Roll began and remember where I was “the day the music died” (Buddy Holly’s fatal plane crash). Of course, there was Elvis, Ricky Nelson, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, and Roy Orbison back then, too. And, then, we had Bob Dylan, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and the Beach Boys in the mid-60’s. The sophistication of rock n’ roll went up a notch in the Seventies with groups like Led Zeppelin, Queen, the Eagles, and Fleetwood Mac. And, the Eighties brought us Michael Jackson, Elton John, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie and a lot of heavy metal, of which I was not a fan. I liked ZZ Top, though, which might be considered bluesy Texas hard rock.
I was in my 40’s by the time that the Nineties rolled around, probably set in my ways as far as music appreciation is concerned. For the past thirty years, I have been listening to “oldies” on Sirius XM and, recently, on Amazon Prime Music. I don’t do social media, TikTok, Twitter, or any other modern means of communication, so I am oblivious to new sounds and music genres. The Rap and Hip Hop stuff that I’ve heard turns me off, as it is often hard for me to follow the lyrics, the bass is overwhelming, and the message imparted often glorifies criminal behavior and “street” culture. Being white and privileged, I guess, makes this genre difficult to appreciate: I’m sure it’s good stuff, as lots of young folk like it.
Probably the most important figure in the history of modern rock and roll is Bob Dylan. Folk singing was the bridge from the traditional pop music crooning sounds of the 1940’s: it was music with a social message. Dylan took folk music and amped it up with an electric guitar, paving the way for groups like the Byrds, the Yardbirds, Crosby Stills and Nash, the Beach Boys, the Beatles, the Eagles, and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.
Two bands have dominated the music scene during my life: the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
In April 1964, when I was a junior in high school, the Beatles held the top five spots on the Billboard 100, an incredible achievement that will never be topped. The group was only together for eight years and, as of 2019, have sold 600 million albums worldwide. Their impact on music, style, and culture remains unmatched by any musical group. They might have been the first rockers with long hair; now, it is a requirement, it seems.
The Rolling Stones were, arguably, the first hard rock and first counterculture band. I recall when they first came to U.S. attention in 1964, providing a gritty, rhythmicand bluesy sound that was definitely different than the Beatles and the Beach Boys, who were big at that time. The Stones were a “live” act, as opposed to the mostly studio-engineered music that the Beatles and Beach Boys were putting out, playing to huge crowds. They continued to do so for almost sixty years, until drummer Charley Watts death in 2021. They have sold 200 million albums and are, undoubtedly, the greatest rock n’ roll band of all time (apologies to Queen). Amazing fact: with all of their members in their 60’s and 70’s, the Rolling Stones were the highest-earning live act of 2021.
I have been listening to the music of Eric Clapton for most of my adult life. He is widely considered one of the top couple of rock guitarists of all time and has played for many groups, including an uncredited contribution to the Beatles’ “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, on of the greatest rock songs of all time. Clapton is the only performer to have been elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame three times, one as a solo performer and twice as member of the seminal bands The Yardbirds and Cream. He is 77 years old, still performs, and is the yardstick by which rock guitarists are measured. Maybe only Jimi Hendrix was better, but he died of a drug overdose when he was only 28 years old.
My favorite group of all time is the Traveling Wilburys, a “supergroup” which was made up of five Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame icons (Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, and Tom Petty). The group only recorded two albums, with members sitting in a circle with acoustic guitars, with the vocals being shared by all five musicians. The Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 won the 1990 Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group and achieved triple-platinum certification for sales in the U.S. The group was short-lived, however, as Roy Orbison died just before the group’s second and final album.
My favorite rock performer was Freddie Mercury, the front man for the group Queen. He had a magnificent voice and stage presence, and could ignite a crowd by sheer bravado. In a lineup of rock’s greatest stars, at Live Aid 1985, Queen stole the show in front of a live crowd of 80,000 fans and 1.9 billion world-wide watchers on TV. His song, Bohemian Rhapsody, might be the most famous rock song of all time. Freddie Mercury died of AIDS in 1991.
Although I’ve loved music for sixty years or so, I’ve seen relatively few live performances in person. I saw Buffalo Springfield at my Cal State University L.A. in 1966 when they were just getting started: I think they sang “For What It’s Worth”, a protest song about Sunset Strip curfew riots. Two of the members of this group, Stephen Stills and Neil Young, later got together in the supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and then split up to have very successful solo careers. David Crosby was a co-founder of the Byrds, and Graham Nash was lead singer with the Hollies, both of these groups in the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame.
Charlie and I saw Michael Jackson at Dodger Stadium in 1984. Some years later, we saw Lionel Ritchie, who was a big star then, in Las Vegas (although the best music of the concert was the piped-in sounds of David Bowie for the 45-minutes before Mr. Ritchie took the stage). In the 1990’s we saw the Beach Boys, Willie Nelson, and Chicago at various Southern California venues. When I managed the Riverside County Fair/National Date Festival (for six years),we produced concerts by Tower of Power, the Coasters, the Shirelles, and Jan and Dean, among others.
The best live-act that I’ve ever witnessed in person was an Elton John concert at Caesar’s Palace. It was called the “Red Piano” concert and had all manner of stylish production involved, including a light show and huge inflatable props circulating about the stage while Elton reprised his many hits. It was magical; he really delivered the goods.
Nowadays, the only time I listen to music is in my car. If Charlie is with me, we usually listen to 50’s and 60’s “Golden Oldies”, because that is what she likes… easy and soothing songs that she knows the words to. When I am by myself, I like louder, more edgier stuff like David Bowie, Tom Petty, the Rolling Stones, Queen, Bruce Springsteen, Prince, Bob Seger, Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin, U2, the Pretenders, ZZ Top, Credence Clearwater Revival, the Eagles, and the Doobie Brothers.
Yeah, I know, we’re old.