Outside Counsel

Are you happy now, Jeff Meirs? This year's Rock and Roll HOF nominees: Public Enemy, N.W.A., Rush, Heart, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Kraftwerk, Randy Newman, Donna Summer, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Chic, Deep Purple, Albert King, the Marvelettes, the Meters, and Procul Harum.

I'd go with Donna Summer. Albert King is a bluesman, not a rock and roller, but was a great bluesman, so I'd vote for him. I'll go along with Randy Newman as well, and, I suppose, Krautrock pioneers Kraftwork. I love Joan Jett, but is she really a Hall of Famer? There is no real metric for what that means, of course, so who knows?

Deep Purple. Well, who doesn't love "Highway Star"? Or "Smoke on the Water"? I'm sure there's a third Deep Purple song I'm forgetting. The Paul Butterfield Blues Band was a capable white blues outfit-- to the extent that rock and roll can be defined as white blues, I suppose they belong in the discussion. Here's the thing-- rock and roll really shouldn't be defined as merely white blues. Chic? Was that a band, or just Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers with some cats they put in the studio? I'd vote for Edwards and Rodgers.

"Whiter Shade of Pale" was on the radio as I drove into work this morning, and I like "A Salty Dog" well enough, but not enough to have ever owned a copy. I love the Meters, but I can't see how I'd justify that vote. The Marvelettes? Yeah, anybody from Motown is good with me. If you are great enough to influence the Beatles you get my vote.

Heart deserve some credit for keeping on, but it turns out they aren't Canadian, and that diminishes my affection for them. Third-stringers, I think.

And finally, Rush. Well, they are Canadian, so they have that going for them. I'll leave it at this:

UPDATE: In addition to They Might Be Giants, eligible worthy acts not on this year's list include: Sonic Youth, the Smiths, the Cure, Björk, Joy Division, Kiss, Brian Eno, the Replacements and Dick Dale,