More Rock Hall Members
Bob Seger is a journeyman who belongs in the hall. Many first came to know him as the Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man of the Bob Seger System, a band inspired by the all out, high voltage, Detroit diesel jam typical of the unjustly overlooked, by the hall, Mitch Ryder. Bob maintained the rage through the years on songs with his more famous Silver Bullet Band like Katmandu, Feel Like a Number, The Fire Down Below. Perhaps his lower keyed Night Moves, Against the Wind, and Like a Rock helped sway the voters. Old Time Rock and Roll and Turn the Page got him in.
Del Shannon was destined to have a comeback with the Traveling Wilburys when he died of an overdose of antidepressants. Del’s Runaway, which is immortalized in Tom Petty’s Running Down a Dream, is a masterpiece with its masterful guitar brushstrokes, Del’s falsetto, and its sped up organ solo. Del penned the Searchers’ I Go to Pieces. Del music was prominent in an American Idolish era of sweater clad Tiger Beat pinups. Del belongs.
The Shirelles appear on the surface to be more of an iffy selection to the hall when one sees the list of other deserving entrants. However, to their credit they were the first successful all female band in the rock era, and their songs were for all audiences. Their up-tempo Boys was covered by the Beatles, their Sha-La-La by Manfred Mann. They had the sweet tunes Tonights the Night, Dedicated to the One I (Cyclops lol) Love, and Will You Love Me Tomorrow. Baby Its You is fantastic.
posted by Randy Black @ 3:15 PM
2 Comments:
I basically agree on your assessments, but The Shirelles do have the same issue you brought up with Aretha and others in the R&B world. It brings up the question "what is rock?" which is a tough question. Seger is no doubt rock (as a rule), as was Del. While Runaway is a true classic, his catalog is a bit slim.
Ideally one should be able to enter the hall of fame with a slim catalog instead of the usual multi top 40 entries. Think James Dean of rock. It would be best if the hall had subcategories such as heavy metal, psychedelic, folk, etc. As for the Shirelles, there is a line where top 40 and rock form a union and the Shirelles are close to that point and in my opinion satisfy the criteria of both barely. As for Shannon, he benefits from the fact that the early days of R & R have less competitors. Tis in itself is another argument for subcategories.
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