Greatest Song Evah 5/5/23

(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding

Originally written and recorded by Nick Lowe back when he was the leader of the band Brinsley Schwarz, this week’s selection is arguably the high point of Elvis Costello’s Angry Young Punk Rocker phase. Lowe was the producer of the Costello remake and it kicks into gear right from the opening note.

This is a truly flawless recording; Bruce Thomas’s drum roll is the perfect intro as the track leads into the Attractions recreating a full wall of sound with a mere 4 musicians. Costello perfected a sneering vocal style in his early recordings, and here he shows that technique is malleable enough to complement lyrics a bit less cynical than he was generally singing at that point in his career. That skill grew more valuable as he continued to expand his musical palette throughout his career.

Class Of 2023 Breakdown

Repeating what I’ve said in the past, this year the nominating committee put together a strong ballot. It was inevitable that the results would produce a combo of excitement and disappointment. I’m so happy that The Spinners made it in at long list, while at the same time bummed over the omission of the Joy Division/New Order combo along with the realization that this year may have been Warren Zevon’s one and only shot at election.

I went 4 for 7 in my final predictions. I was correct on Kate Bush, Missy Elliott, George Michael and Willie Nelson. (At the last minute I switched one choice from Sheryl Crow to Joy Division/New Order. Always stick with your first instinct, kids.) I whiffed on The Spinners and Rage Against the Machine, but both are great choices. Of the others I was wrong on, I’ll bet The White Stripes will get in next year, while Cyndi Lauper might be in the Zevon “this was your one chance” category. The Hall does not release vote totals, so there’s no way of knowing who came close & who finished well out of the money. Seeing which artists carry over to next year’s ballot might serve as a hint as to which of the also-rans had the strongest support.

As for the ever present gender inequity issue, 3 out of 7 artist inductees are solo females. But it’s more than that. There are 5 solo acts, 5 Spinners, and 4 members of RATM. So it’s not 3 out of 7 females, it’s 3 out of 14. Expanding further, 1 out of the 6 inductees in the side categories are female, making 4 out of this year’s 20 inductees women. That’s a higher percentage than many previous inductions, but not by much. A better result, but still not great. Look at it this way. How many of us have been playing Wordle? If so, how often do you look at your stats? If you’ve been playing from the start, you’ve played almost 500 games, so by this point your win percentage is fairly well set in stone. Not even a long winning streak is likely to change your percentage. It’s the same with the composition of Hall members. This is the 38th (!) induction class; the percentage of female inductees is around 8.5%. No matter how proactive the Hall gets, it will still take years to move that number above 10%; never mind how long it will take to bring it up to an acceptable number. This issue has moved to the forefront in recent cycles as more and more people have been holding the Hall’s feet to the fire. The critics will continue to keep the pressure on, and rightfully so. It’s up to the powers that be to listen.

With that in mind, as deserving as the honorees in the side categories are, it’s a letdown to see the Hall failing to use these categories as a way to include more women. At this point it seems as if their refusal to induct either Big Mama Thornton or Carol Kaye is intentional trolling. For the side categories there’s even less transparency than there is for the general vote so there are always mini-conspiracy theories surrounding those results. For example, it’s very possible that committee voters took into account the fact that a Bernie Taupin induction practically guarantees an Elton John appearance/performance.

I had spent weeks discussing more than a couple dozen potential candidates for side category inductions, and 4 of the 6 are among those that I had brought up. (I was toying with the idea of “nominating” Al Kooper, but did not. Drat, I could have gone 5 for 6.) 2 of the new inductees were easily predictable calls. With the attention devoted to the 50th anniversary of hip-hop this is clearly the perfect year to honor DJ Kool Herc. And Chaka Khan has been nominated so many times either solo or as part of Rufus that the Hall had to end her misery. The selections of Don Cornelius and Bernie Taupin were long overdue; I’m not delusional enough to think that my write-ups had anything to do with those results, but just in case a member of the selection committee happened to read my thoughts and had a lightbulb moment, you’re welcome.

Next step is to see what the induction ceremony will look like. The 7 artists include 1 deceased honoree, 1 vocal group with only one living member, 1 British native who is unlikely to hop on a transatlantic flight, and 1 band that has had a couple of aborted reunions so there is at least some possibility that they may opt out of performing. It’s a safe bet to say that Willie Nelson will close the show, Sheryl Crow is likely to open, and there will be no shortage of people anxious to share the stage and trade verses with Missy Elliott. I may have missed it, but I haven’t seen any comment from Chaka Khan yet. Hopefully she performs at the ceremony as well. The festivities will take place in November, so there’s plenty of time to put things together.

I have already composed writeups on Don Cornelius, DJ Kool Herc, and Bernie Taupin. Chaka Khan didn’t get a full blurb; I had included her as part of a larger grouping of candidates; so next week I will give her a larger profile along with Al Kooper and Link Wray.

I’ll Have What Bryce Harper Is Having

Last October when the Phillies got hot at the right time and made it all the way to the World Series, there was one notable drawback to their success. The longer their season lasted, the longer they would need to put off Bryce Harper’s Tommy John surgery. Needless to say, one never knows if such an extended postseason run will happen again, so that’s a trade they would make any day, but had the Phils gotten knocked out in the wild card round then Harper would have been able to go under the knife much sooner than he did. As it was, the surgery had to wait until November, meaning he wouldn’t be able to return to the lineup until sometime around the All-Star break.

Or so everyone thought. Amazingly enough, he broke all rehabilitation records and returned to the lineup Tuesday night, almost a month quicker than the previous post-TJ record. Of course, the fact that he can DH helps speed up the process, but there are still concerns even if he never needs to use a fielding glove this season. (He has been taking some grounders at first base, but it remains to be seen if he will actually take the field at some point.) The final hurdle doctors needed to sign off on concerned the fear that he could rupture his elbow while sliding on the bases. He finally got that clearance, but he will need to use elbow pads while base running. It’s pretty remarkable that he has been able to return this quickly. The Phillies have been off to a poor start this season; his presence will be a huge boost to that lineup.

It’s A Celebration

The latest signal that baseball players are nowhere near as uptight as they had long been is the proliferation of home run celebrations in clubhouses. Bat flips are practically old school; now the majority of teams have choreographed routines that follow homers, often involving the awarding of some type of oversized trinket. It’s yet another example of the welcome change in the overall culture of the game. It’s supposed to be fun, as long as teams don’t cross the line into taunting, let them enjoy themselves.

I well remember the days when Jose Reyes would give elaborate individualized handshakes to his teammates after a big hit and the opposing teams would seethe in resentment. That anger was overblown; why get bothered over expressing joy and enthusiasm in your own dugout? How times have changed. As recently as the Nationals’ title run in 2019 their car-driving pantomime was outside the norm.

I bring this up now because Wander Franco’s ball flip the other night made some people head towards their fainting couches. OK, if he had dropped the ball it could have backfired badly. But it was the late innings of an early season blowout. No harm if he had wound up embarrassing himself. How is it any different from a hoopster attempting a spectacular dunk under similar circumstances?

SNL Preview

With the Writers Guild on strike, there will be no new episode this week. So Pete Davidson’s return to Studio 8H is on hold for now. All of the public comments make it sound like the two sides are miles apart, making it very likely that the season will come to a premature end. That’s toughest on the 4 cast newbies, as they will each lose 3 opportunities to stand out and make their cases to come back for a sophomore year.

And if this is truly the end of the season, we will have suffered a big loss. The show didn’t officially announce who was going to host the 2 final episodes, but apparently Kieran Culkin was all set for May 13. He did a fine job the first time he hosted but his appearance would have been a mere appetizer for the main course. If you would conduct a survey asking who would be the #1 dream host among those who have never done it before I can guess who would place first and that winner was in line to wrap up the year. That’s right, the season finale was going to have been hosted by Jennifer Freakin’ Coolidge.

What this means for me is that I can continue my rewatch of Season 6 uninterrupted. (Yay?) The 2 episodes I’ve watched so far reiterate how important it is to have strong writers. Pay them what they’re worth and get everyone back to work.

TGIF

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