ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME 2023 INDUCTEES

My otherwise dismal record in picking winners for induction into the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame can be upgraded slightly, for two out of the five acts I nominated have been accepted. Last year I managed only one out of five. 

        Today brought news that Kate Bush, Sheryl Crow, Missy Elliott, George Michael, Willie Nelson, Rage Against The Machine and The Spinners are the 2023 inductees from among those for whom I and other electors were invited to vote. In addition to those, four previous nominees – DJ Cool Herc, Link Wray, Chaka Khan and Al Kooper – appear to have been given a sort of wild card entry. All four have been nominated in previous years but weren't on the voting form this year. As far as I am aware, this is a break from the normal procedure and suggests someone upstairs in the R&RHoF boardroom has it in their power to shoo in whoever they want regardless of how many, or how few, votes they received. Bernie Taupin, Elton John’s lyricist, and Don Cornelius, host of the long US TV music show Soul Train, are inducted into the ‘non-performing’ category. 

        I voted for Sheryl Crow and Willie Nelson, so I’ve doubled my success rate – if it can be called that – but am still way below 50% in overall terms, not that it matters much these days. As I have repeatedly observed in recent years, induction into the R&RHoF has become increasingly irrelevant of late, not that this in any way demeans the work of Willie Nelson, whose music and attitude I enjoy, or Sheryl Crow, who has what it takes to play alongside any inductee you care to name. 

I’m curious as to how Kate Bush will respond to her induction. Famously reticent in terms of public profile and generally unwilling to perform in public without extensive preparation, I somehow can’t see her belting out ‘Wuthering Heights’ or ‘Running Up That Hill’ with an unrehearsed scratch band. As far as George Michael is concerned, in an ideal world Elton will step up to the plate, sing ‘Careless Whisper’ and accept the award on his behalf, the only hitch being that if he sticks to his plans he might have officially retired by the time the ceremony takes place. 

Among the losers are Joy Division/New Order, which is a shame as I wanted to see if avowed adversaries Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook would share a stage, and long-suffering Iron Maiden, snubbed for the second time. I can’t help feeling the long-suspect anti-British bias played a part in these rejections. 

I voted for New Order/Joy Division but not Iron Maiden as any sympathy for heavy metal I once had has long since gone down the plughole. I also voted for White Stripes, who’ll no doubt be nominated again and get in eventually, ditto Warren Zevon whose elimination surprises me insofar as he was both American and a critics’ favourite, two criteria that almost always ensure induction.