Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

I sent this note to a bunch of my friends who are into music ... For some reason, this drives me nuts...

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

First, here’s who’s nominated:
J.Geils Band
John Mellencamp
the Patti Smith Group
Chic
Joe Tex
Miles Davis
Cat Stevens
Blondie
the Paul Butterfield Band
the Dave Clark Five
the Sir Douglas Quintet will all have a chance to make it into the hall of fame, located in Cleveland.
Black Sabbath (eighth time on the ballot)
Lynyrd Skynyrd (seventh time)
Sex Pistols (sixth time)
Stooges (fifth time)

And here who’s missing from the list:
KISS
Rush
Van Halen
Yes
Genesis
ELO
Joan Jett
Def Leppard
Alice Cooper
Heart
Deep Purple
Pat Benatar
Duran Duran

Nominees are picked by a 70-member committee of rock 'n' roll historians, journalists and label execs, with ballots then mailed to an international voting body of 700 music industry types for the final decision. The five to seven nominees that receive the most votes will be inducted into the Rock Hall next year.

So, I ask you, were these 70 people completely high?!?!

Of those who are nominated, you could make a good case for Mellencamp (although I personally think he should go in as Cougar!), Blondie, Lynyrd Skynyrd (how you overlook them six times and vote in a band like the O’Jays (last year) who had one hit song, is just wrong) and probably the Sex Pistols. Miles Davis was freakin’ awesome, but not a rock and roller! I’d accept the Dave Clark Five (“Do You Love Me” is classic and certainly they were huge part of British Invasion) and Cat Stevens (not sure why) although I like Black Sabbath and J. Geils more.

But how do you skip over Heart (three decades!) and Yes (c’mon). I avoided the hard rockers KISS and Rush and Van Halen and Deep Purple because you all know I’m biased, but you could make a good argument that each one of them revolutionized rock in some way (truly original and influencial, power trio, popularizing hard rock and the all-star band).

Anyway, I’d be interested in knowing your thoughts…

Friday, September 16, 2005

Trumped

So, the last two days I got to see Donald Trump and Rudy Guiliani live at a biz conference here.

Pretty cool, actually.

Trump made a lot of people mad. He used a number of dirty words (oooh, the F-bomb!) and was pretty crass about his dealings with people. I actually enjoyed it. It really showed him as a person. Yes, he's a jerk, but at least now I know he's a human jerk.

I'm not sure why swearing has the exact opposite reaction on me than other people. The second someone curses around me, I feel more relaxed. I remember the first time I met Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell when I was in Fort Morgan. Like always, he rode into town on his motorcycle. He walked into the conference room with me and my editor and said, "It's hotter than s*** out there."

I was so impressed. I mean here is a guy who is representing Colorado in the U.S. Senate and he feels comfortable enough around us to swear! How cool.

Anyway, like I said, it wasn't Trump's swearing that turned me off (I liked it). But, rather, he was mean-spirited and didn't really have anything to say beyond "be sure to watch The Apprentice" and "Don't I have a hot wife?" I mean, one of his points about good business is "Be sure to get a pre-nup." Obviously, Trump thinks of marriage like a business transaction, but the rest of us don't.

Guiliani was pretty impressive. He's obviously planning a run for president. Hard to think who could beat him. I actually got to ask him a question about media handling. Pretty fun.