ROCK & ROLL HAll Of FAME, 2025

Time was when the America’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame sent out cassettes containing one song by the nominees for that particular year. These were superseded by CDs which, in turn, were superseded by links to MP3s. I’ve kept most of the cassettes and CDs I received, the earliest cassette 1992 which suggests I’ve been a voter for 33 years, no doubt longer than most. They also sent out brochures and I seem to have hung on to most of these too but this year it’s gone all-digital and instead of writing down my nominees on a perforated card at the back of the brochure and mailing it to an address in New York I’ve been invited to use a link that, once my credentials have been verified, will enable me to vote with my mouse for the first time.

My R&R HoF cassettes and CDs. 

That 1992 cassette contains music by that year’s nominees, among them The Yardbirds, Velvet Underground, Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Sam & Dave, Johnny Cash, Buffalo Springfield, David Bowie and Booker T. & The MGs. I can’t remember who I voted for, probably Yardbirds, Velvets, Hendrix, Cash and Bowie, and maybe Booker T. because I’ve always admired Steve Cropper’s guitar playing and back in the day was in a band that played ‘Time Is Tight’, albeit not nearly as in time or as tightly as the MGs. 

I have long considered resigning as a voter. I believe there are too many inductees with the result that standards are slipping, a bit like the House of Lords. Certain acts that deserve to be inducted, among them Richard Thompson and Slade, have been ignored despite letters of protest I included in my mailed ballots, a form of dissent no longer available to me – see above. And I’m getting too old to care or even know all I ought to know about some of the inductees. I have never owned records, either vinyl or CDs, by seven of the 14 acts nominated this year, which is not to say I don't know what they sound like, just that they’re not to my taste.  

        But here we go again. For this year’s ballot I am invited to pick up to seven of the following: Bad Company, Black Crowes, Mariah Carey, Chubby Checker, Joe Cocker, Billy Idol, Joy Division/New Order, Cyndi Lauper, Maná, Oasis, Outkast, Phish, Soundgarden and White Stripes. 

        I think the words up to are pertinent here because seven is too many. I’ll vote for Bad Company, largely because I loved Free and the two surviving members of Free, singer Paul Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke, deserve to in the HoF and are the only members of Bad Company who’ll show up anyway; sadly, guitarist Mick Ralphs is, I’m told, confined to a nursing home and bassist Boz Burrell died in 2006. 

        I’ll vote for Chubby Checker because his two great hits, ‘The Twist’ and ‘Let’s Twist Again’, were simply great records I’ve always loved, even if they were a tad gimmicky. 

        I’ll vote for Joe Cocker and not just because he’s a Yorkshireman, as am I, but because his sole number one UK hit was the best Beatles interpretation ever. 

        I’ll vote for Joy Division/New Order, for their music and to see whether or not Peter Hook will turn up and cause trouble. 

        I’ll vote for Oasis because they’re Brits and Slade fans, and also in the hope that they’ll disrupt proceedings too, but I guess that’s unlikely now that Noel and Liam have buried the hatchet in the interests of fiscal opportunity. 

        And I’ll vote for White Stripes because I like them. 

        That’s only six out of the seven. Unless any Just Backdated readers persuade me otherwise, those are all the names I’ll click with my mouse before April 21, the day voting ends.