Make The Rock Hall Weird!

[algonacchick]

As long as we both agree he should still get in, yeah, that's what counts.

Sorry if anything I said came off wrong. I certainly didn't think you were trying to insult Al. It's all good, Dingo.

[CatraDhtem]

Needless to say, I am quite disappointed by yesterday's news (which I found out about only after spending hours removing a virus off my computer...fun day all around, huh?). It bums me out of course because of the fact that Al will not be in the running again this year, but it also saddens me because everyone really put in a lot of effort this time out. I just hate to see everyone's hard work and energy seemingly go to waste.

I keep wondering if there was more we could have done with this last petition drive; more avenues we could have explored. I personally wish I had bottomless pockets in order to go to half of the shows I had wanted to and get signatures at. I also wonder that if some of the celebrity endorsements we got on this petition weren't good enough for the Rock Hall, then whose would be? I remember the myth that Miles Davis got nominated because Quincy Jones supposedly sent the foundation a telegram (in 2006?) urging them to do so. Is that our only course of action left, to get Quincy Jones to make a half-hearted plea? I'm not kidding, in the final weeks of the petition drive I tried in vain to reach Michael Jackson's press agent, Raymone Bain. My general inquiry e-mails to her went unanswered, and I got as far as sending a petition packet cold to a PO box I stumbled upon, but alas, nothing came of it.

But anyway, all of this is just contemplating. Nothing changes the fact that I am extremely proud of the work we all did this past year-and-a-half. Some of us faced the wrath of venues, dared to become the public face of the campaign in theater lobbies and on camera, and whenever possible went that extra step to get that last remaining person to sign or help out, even if it meant cutting into their own free time before and after the show itself. I am so lucky to be a part of this fan base that always gives everything the extra effort. We're kind of like the Amish: we do everything every other music fan base does plus one-half more; it's how we survive.

As for the nominations themselves, well, what can I say, I'm personally not a huge fan of any of the acts on the ballot, but in a lot of cases I recognize why they're there, just as how I hope someone else would recognize Al's need to be inducted even if they didn't necessarily like him. There are a couple that left me going "Huh?", though.

I touched upon this a little in my blog about the nominations, but with the nomination of Run-D.M.C., and with the past inductions of such others as Miles Davis and Grandmaster Flash (and even such previous acts as James Taylor, for example), I would like to believe that the argument of whether or not Al is "rock and roll," at least as far as for the purposes of the museum goes, is no longer a factor.

If anything, the Rock Hall is defining "rock and roll" in the very broadest of terms, and one quote in the main AP article even suggested that Run became nominated solely because they were the first rap act to appear on mainstream pop music charts. And I don't say any of this as a slam on any of the acts who were nominated, but if the "rock and roll" genre as the foundation is labeling it includes hip hop, jazz, country, and whatever else, then yes, Weird Al is definitely part of that same genre.

But as I said, I would like to believe that is the case, but of course it probably isn't. This is after all a very subjective group of people making these decisions behind closed doors and without public input, and the fact that there is a web site out there even trying to calculate which artists will get nominated or inducted, as if it's only a matter of statistics, amuses me. Trust me, the nominating committee itself isn't giving it that much thought. They meet for one day out of the year (and probably just during normal business hours) to discuss the annual ballot. I couldn't even begin to add up how many entire 24-hour days I've worked on this campaign in the last four-plus years versus the five days they have met in that same amount of time.

Having said all that, and call me naive or optimistic, but I still feel we will be able to pull this off. We are at the moment the most visible of the Rock Hall fan campaigns out there (go ahead, do a Yahoo search for "rock hall campaign" and see what turns up on that first page alone) and our efforts continue getting the attention of people at the foundation and museum and their affiliates. Joel Peresman said in the AP article that for certain artists it's only a matter of time. Al is certainly not the only major neglected artist, as he shares that distinction with Alice Cooper and the Moody Blues and now even an act like Bon Jovi (and others, of course), but I am confident that Al's time will come. In the meantime, we need to keep the pressure on the Rock Hall Foundation, both to keep reminding them and also to assure them that nominating and inducting Al wouldn't be a mistake or embarrassment on their part (which I'm sure is a big reason at this point).

I'll have something fun ready on the web site and elsewhere later in the week to respond to the nominations news. And for the benefit of the mods here, in the next day or two I'll make a general summary/"action center" kind of post that can be used to launch a "2.0" thread, since we'll hopefully have a lot of fun projects to discuss and prepare for 2009, including finishing up the video and whatever is decided to be the "big" campaign drive activity.

In the meantime, we've got a lot of work to do, and if you haven't sent in a letter to the Rock Hall Foundation yet, then what the heck are you waiting for?!?

2009 will be a very big year for Al, with both a major anniversary and a major birthday. Let's make it a year worth remembering, gang!

[algonacchick]

Greg, that was a great post, and I'm willing to send out a letter, and let those folks know I, and anyone else who sends one, mean business!

[The Doctor]

That was an absolutely bell-awesome post! Thank you very much, Greg!!

[ludovica64]

Such a shame nothing has come of this for this year Greg. I know how hard you have worked and how much fun it was at Columbus working with you. It made the atmosphere very special in the queue, because everyone was talking to everyone else and it felt like some sort of a party or a celebration, not just a bunch of strangers waiting for the doors to open for a rock concert... YES! a ROCK concert, for that is what it unquestionably was with no shadow of doubt.


Al deserves to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame considerably more than many artists already inducted. Maybe the committee need to be dragged to a Weird Al Show to see for themselves how hard that band can ROCK?


I've said it before and I will say it again that if Al were a British Subject, there is little doubt that he would have already received some form of formal honour from the Queen;( in all likelihood an MBE) for services to entertainment after such a long career.
It seems a pity that the USA has nothing similar that bestows honours on the worthy "pro bono publico"

[Teh Dingo]

Greg summed up my point about the meaning of rock in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame much better than I (Clearly) could. Thank you.


I remove myself from the discussion. I need to go back to debate school......

[albinodwarf27]

So disappointed... although like Dingo, I always thought the Star would probably happen first.

[CatraDhtem]

New thread started! Continue the discussion here: Make The Rock Hall Weird 2.0