Top Rock and Roll Hall of Fame snubs, a subjective list

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is an exclusive club with a long list of notable music artists waiting to get in.
The website Future Rock Legends has a comprehensive list of the biggest Rock Hall snubs. It also calculates the odds of performers getting into the shrine. Some of my favorites are long shots for induction.
In September 2009, I compiled a list of 12 perennially overlooked artists who deserved to be included in the Rock Hall. Since then, three have been inducted (Genesis, Heart and Rush).
What follows is an updated list of music acts that I think deserve to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. After each artist, I’ve included their first year of eligibility for the hall and their chances for induction, according to Future Rock Legends.

1. Yes (1994), 40% chance of induction.
2. Chicago (1994), 9%.
3. KISS (1999), 40%.
4. Journey (2000), 10%.
5. Boston (2001), 32%.
6. The Damned (2001), 29%.
7. Cheap Trick (2002), 45%.
8. The Cars (2003), 38%.
9. The Cure (2003), 57%.
10. Joy Division (2003), 58%.
11. Siouxsie & the Banshees (2003), 17%.
12. Def Leppard (2004), 36%.
13. The Psychedelic Furs (2004), 7%.
14. The Motels (2004), 6%.
15. INXS (2005), 13%
16. The Go-Go’s (2005), 36%.
17. New Order (2006), 58%.
18. The Smiths (2008), 59%.
19. Bon Jovi (2008), 35%
20. Concrete Blonde (2011), 5%.

Photos: Album covers from Concrete Blonde and the Go-Go’s.

‘Disco queen’ inducted into Rock Hall of Fame. What the hell?

When I was in high school in the late 1970s, nothing was less rock ‘n’ roll than disco.
Disco was more than a derided type of music. It was a lifestyle. There were disco clubs, disco-style fashions and disco dance moves. As a teenager, I hated disco. It was something lame older people enjoyed.
Disco also was responsible for killing the rock music scene at the time. Clubs replaced live music with DJs spinning disco tracks.
Fast forward to the present and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is inducting Donna Summer, the “Queen of Disco” music, into its ranks on Thursday at a ceremony in Los Angeles. What the hell?
Growing up in Chicago, young people in the disco age rebelled against the disco craze. “Disco sucks” was a common refrain.
Chicago also was the scene of Disco Demolition Night at Comiskey Park, where DJs from a local rock station blew up disco records after a White Sox game as part of an ill-fated promotion. The second game of a planned double-header on July 12, 1979, had to be canceled after fans stormed the field. The spirit of rock-and-roll rebellion lived that night.
Now, I don’t have anything against Donna Summer personally. A lot of her music is very good. But she’s not rock and roll.
I’ve said many times that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame should be called the Popular Music Hall of Fame because it includes other genres like rap and pop.
During Donna Summer’s heyday, I was listening to Pink Floyd, Rush and other bands. Ironically, Rush also is being inducted into the Rock Hall this year, along with Heart (finally), hip-hop group Public Enemy and producer Quincy Jones.

Photo: Cover of Donna Summer’s 1975 single “Love to Love You Baby.”

Pop music has gotten raunchy

I listen to a lot of pop music with my kids, ages 7 and 9, in the car and on the kitchen radio. Lately I’ve noticed that a lot of hit songs have lyrics edited out or changed. At least, more than usual.
My kids sometimes will sing these songs out loud and include the pauses where a dirty word is scrubbed out for radio broadcast.
For instance, I heard my son sing a tune by Pink that made a reference to “whiskey dick.” Of course, the version Chris sang didn’t have any “dick” in it. The sanitized version of “Blow Me (One Last Kiss)” just had a pause after the word “whiskey.”
Then there’s “Thrift Shop” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. The radio version has so many missing words that it’s hard to understand. The actual version is so filthy I can’t imagine letting my elementary school kids listen to it.
The refrain includes the line “This is fucking awesome.”
A typical line from the tune is: “Walk up to the club like, ‘What up, I got a big cock!’ I’m so pumped about some shit from the thrift shop.”
The radio version of the song beeps out repeated use of “motherfucker,” “shit” and other curse words. But it leaves in a reference to singer R. Kelly and golden showers.
I don’t have a problem with profanity and coarse language, except in places where my kids are listening. I’ve had to explain to them about some of the words they’ve heard at school or on YouTube already.
But here’s what I find interesting: Radio airplay is designed to get people, including kids, to buy music or concert tickets from those artists. Which version of their songs are they likely to sing in concert – the sanitized radio versions or the explicit album versions?
Imagine the surprise when parents bring their kids to a concert and hear a performer sing the blue versions of their tunes. Instead of hearing Enrique Iglesias singing “Tonight I’m Loving You,” they get “Tonight I’m Fucking You.” Or Cee-Lo Green singing “Fuck You,” instead of “Forget You.” Or Nicki Minaj singing “We’re higher than a motherfucker” on “Starships.”
It’s no wonder parents play it safe and take their kids to see Taylor Swift and other family-friendly artists.

Examining Netflix’s fake movie selection

A family sits down in their living room to watch a blockbuster Hollywood movie streaming on Netflix. They go to the on-screen menu and see their choices. There are thrillers like “Agent .45” and “Hong Kong Taxi,” romantic comedies like “Bella Ciao” and “Hotel Social,” and children’s animated movie “Zen & Zack.”
The cover art for these flicks includes no recognizable actors or movie posters. That’s because they aren’t real. They exist only in the minds of the artists who created promotional art for Netflix.
Netflix provides these photos to the press to illustrate their stories on the company and its service. It obviously came up with the fake movies because the streaming selection on Netflix is subject to change. A movie available one month might not be available the next because of licensing deals with the studios.
A lot of these unfamiliar movies look like some of the Z-grade flicks that end up on Redbox or buried in Netflix’s own library.
Titles include action movies “Kaliber” and “Contract Vengeance,” love story “Ameretina,” documentary “Wild Kenya,” sci-fi movie “Orion 3” (also called “Universe V”) and horror movie “Zombie Colony.”
Also in the fake Netflix library are comedies “Mic Night” and “The Student Exchange,” melodrama “Petals,” foreign films “Salut Mademoiselle” and “Juillet,” and martial arts movie “Silent Ninja” (also called “Rocket Ninja”).
Of course, I’m just guessing at the genres based on the titles and cover art. They’re bogus, so who knows?

Photos: Netflix promotional art with its library of made-up movies. 

Roger Ebert and me

Pulitzer Prize-winning movie critic Roger Ebert died on April 4 at age 70. I had the opportunity to meet him just once in March 2000 at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles.
Like Ebert and Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, I’m an alumnus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I was invited to a reception at the Playboy Mansion that Hefner was holding in honor of Ebert and his film festival.
After meeting Hefner and Ebert, I asked Ebert if he could recommend any films that could be enjoyed by the entire family. He suggested the Iranian film “Children of Heaven” (1997).
It was very much like Ebert to champion lesser known movies. And I’ll be darned if it’s not a great movie.
Ebert will be greatly missed by film buffs like me.

Photos: Roger Ebert (top) and Hugh Hefner speaking at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles on March 23, 2000.

Apple’s iRing would join long list of rings in pop culture

Apple is rumored to be working on a ring that would act as a television remote control. A Wall Street analyst who reported the rumor called it the iRing.
Product designer Victor Yanko envisioned the iRing back in 2007 as a way to control your iPod. He created a physical model of the ring for his Yanko Design website.
If it comes to pass, the iRing would join a long list of notable rings in popular culture.
Consider the following powerful rings.

The “One Ring to rule them all” from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth fantasy novels.

DC Comics superhero Green Lantern and his power ring.

Cartoon hero Underdog and his ring with a secret compartment holding a super-energy pill.

Rings with magic powers feature prominently on the TV series “The Vampire Diaries.” Some rings allow vampires to walk in the sunlight. Other rings protect humans from death by supernatural beings.

And finally, there’s the pope’s ring.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi kissed the papal ring worn by Pope Benedict XVI as U.S. President George W. Bush looked on during an arrival ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House on April 16, 2008 in Washington, D.C.

Two great travel resources: TripAdvisor and Bedbug Registry

Two of my favorite resources when planning trips in the U.S. are TripAdvisor and the Bed Bug Registry.
TripAdvisor helps me find cool local restaurants and interesting places to visit. Bed Bug Registry helps me locate hotels that aren’t infested with bed bugs.
TripAdvisor has listings and customer ratings for hotels, restaurants and attractions. (It also has tools for booking flights, hotels and vacation rentals, but I stick with Expedia for flights and Hotels.com for hotels.) TripAdvisor is a good website to find ideas for places to eat and visit.
The Bedbug Registry is a free, public database of bed bug sightings in the U.S. and Canada. The website says it has about 20,000 bed bug reports dating back to 2006. It was started by Maciej Ceglowski, a writer and computer programmer, who had a “traumatic experience” with bed bugs at a San Francisco hotel.
Bed bugs are small, parasitic insects that live on human blood. They typically feed late at night and hide in tiny cracks and crevices during the daytime. Once they take up residence they are hard to kill. They have shown up in even the fanciest hotels. And they’re spreading at an alarming rate.