The Class Of 2025

Looking At The Results

There is sooooo much negativity directed towards the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame on The Internets. A lot of the criticism is admittedly deserved, but I will be a Petey Positive and try to limit the negativity coming from my end. Sure, one can quibble about some of the decisions made by the various committees and voters, but isn’t it better to focus on the things that they get right?

I had posted writeups on each of the 14 nominees, so there is not much I can add that I haven’t already said. Instead, today I will focus on the 6 inductees in the side categories, especially because other than Carol Kaye I have not said much about any of the others. There were some pleasant surprises to be found here. All 3 Musical Excellence honorees are, well, excellent choices. The 2 Musical Influence winners have superb credentials as well; both could have and should have been previously elected in the Artist category, but the Hall is gonna Hall. And Lenny Waronker has the ideal credentials for an Ertegun Award winner. (I’ll refrain from once again making my standard Why Not Estelle Axton? tirade. You’ve heard it by now, and her absence continues to be a mystery.)

The Musical Excellence honorees consist of a legendary songwriter/producer/arranger along with 2 tremendous session musicians. The late Thom Bell was one of the major creative forces in the Philly Soul scene. He was responsible for a string of classic singles from the likes of The Delfonics, The Stylistics, and The Spinners. Being that the Hall hasn’t gone out of its way to honor many 1970’s R&B artists I did not think that they would consider Bell, but I was wrong. He now has a deserved, albeit posthumous spot in the Hall.

Nicky Hopkins’ induction is likewise a posthumous one. He was one of the most prolific studio pianists in the classic era of British rock. The piano on Sympathy For the Devil? That’s him. The piano on The Who’s records? That’s him. The piano on mid-70’s Kinks records? That’s him. Piano on solo albums by any of the former Beatles? There’s a good chance that it’s him. He didn’t just back up UK artists either. That’s him playing on the Jefferson Airplane’s version of Wooden Ships.

Fortunately, the now 90 year old Carol Kaye is still with us, although it took the Hall much too long to finally honor her. As one of the core members of The Wrecking Crew, it’s hard to know where to begin when listing her career highlights. How about starting with Pet Sounds? River Deep Mountain High? The Monkees’ records? She was also a pioneer, one of the few women who was able to successfully infiltrate the boys club that was the music scene. Above all, she was one hell of a talented bass player. It is about f***ing time for this induction.

Both winners in the Musical Influence category are worthy. Classifying them as influences might be a stretch, but naming a category We Love These Artists And Will Pull Any Lever To Find A Way To Get Them In Somehow doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. There is a slight pioneering aspect to Salt-N-Pepa. They were not the first female rappers, but they did blaze a trail for those that followed. Tangent: the induction ceremony will not take place until November, but there is only one man who can & should introduce S-N-P:

Push It is an early hip-hop classic; the synth hook is intoxicating. Unlike a lot of the early rappers they maintained their popularity, although it wasn’t accurately reflected on the charts. Their mid career hits such as Expression and Let’s Talk About Sex sold a lot of copies, but this was the period when Top 40 radio programmers were terrified of playing rap. By the time they released the Very Necessary album radio had finally caught up to what their fanbase liked, and Shoop and Whatta Man both became huge hits. S-N-P solved the puzzle; they were just raunchy enough to attract notice but not too raunchy for middle America.

The contrast between the two was a big part of their appeal as well. Pepa was a bold & brassy personality; Salt a bit more demure, she had an obvious bawdy side but hid it well. In time Spinderella added another voice by stepping away from the turntable and serving as a third rapper. Their commercial peak waned, but the members remained in the spotlight. Both Salt & Pepa, for better or worse, were part of the celebreality atmosphere, and after a few years of contentious feelings they have reconciled and are popular participants in the nostalgia circuit. They are a great choice for induction.

I had honestly lost hope for Warren Zevon. He was on the ballot 2 years ago, yet fell short. I shrugged my shoulders and assumed he was one of many one-timers on the ballot. It’s clear that he has many fans within the industry, however. Musical influence? Sure, why not? Never mind the specific category, at least he is in.

Zevon penned songs such as Poor Poor Pitiful Me and Hasten Down the Wind that were big hits for other artists and as a performer he cultivated a devoted cult following. He had a fluke hit with Werewolves Of London, and it is a great catchy novelty tune, but go deeper into his catalog and he generally explored the dark underbelly of society. Many of his best songs dealt with darkness and death, often displaying a sly sense of humor. The lyrics to Excitable Boy were kinda disturbing, but he delivered the song with tongue firmly planted in cheek and a rollicking melody. How could one not love it?

He also had a noteworthy final act. After receiving a terminal diagnosis of incurable cancer, two things kept him going. His daughter was pregnant so he was determined to remain alive long enough to see his grandchild; he was equally determined to record one final album. Done and done. David Letterman was a huge Zevon fan, and in one of the most extraordinary hours of television he devoted his entire show one evening to Warren Zevon. It was during the interview portion that Zevon introduced the phrase “enjoy every sandwich” into the vernacular. Although he was noticeably weak, he powered his way through a 3-song set.

I love artists who are unique, and that word applies to Warren Zevon. There was no one quite like him. There will be many sandwiches enjoyed at the induction ceremony.

If you want to draw up the ideal profile of an Ertegun Award winner, it would look a lot like Lenny Waronker. Starting off as a record producer, he soon moved over to the boardroom side of the industry, serving as president of Warner/Reprise Records while still working as a Grammy nominated producer. He earned a reputation as an artist friendly label head. Record executives are a little harder to judge as non-performers as opposed to a great songwriter, but unlike some label presidents, he was clearly more of a music man than a business man.

If you know me by now, you know that I have much more to discuss. Tune in Friday for thoughts on the 7 new inductees in the Artist category. I promise to be gentle with Chubby Checker.

Classic SNL Recap - Season 18, Episode 10

This episode turned out to be a huge disappointment, entirely due to the material that was edited out of the Peacock stream. Danny DeVito hosted this one, and as a five-timer his episodes can tend to blur with each other. But I clearly remember a running gag from this show. It ran shortly after one of the bizarre events in TV history; each of the 3 legacy networks aired ripped from the headlines made for TV movies about Amy Fisher & Joey Buttafuoco within a few weeks of each other. SNL parodied this with their takes on additional networks’ versions of the sordid tale. There must have been music clearance rights involved in that set of sketches, because none of them remain.

This is all based on my memory, but the sketches included the Fox version (starring Tori Spelling as portrayed by Melanie Hutsell,) a Masterpiece Theatre version, and a BET version. I believe Tim Meadows portrayed Buttafuoco in the BET take, but it was DeVito in the other two, sporting a Long Island mullet and Zubaz pants. One Fisher related sketch remained, this one in the form of an informercial in which DeVito played Ron Popeil hawking his infamous spray-on hair. He demoed the product on an audience member: returning champion Jan Hooks as Mary Jo Buttafuoco, with the spray covering up the bald patch on the side of her head caused by the bullet wound.

There was a significant historical moment that was referenced in the cold open. It was this week in January 1993 when the Chicago Bears fired Mike Ditka as their head coach, so the Super Fans returned to compose an open letter to Bears management. It was so significant that both George Wendt and Joe Mantegna participated. Chris Farley’s Todd was absent, as the news of Ditka’s firing caused his most recent heart attack. Ditka himself cameoed at the end, and he had the privilege of reading the “live from New York” line.

Overall it was a fairly bland episode, and it included one of the recurring sketches that I really hated - The Gap Girls. There was also an appearance by Mike Myers’ Simon, the young British boy who liked to do drawings and hosted a talk show from his bathtub. DeVito was the guest, an American of questionable character whose father was getting into business with Simon’s father. “Just like me, Vinny doesn’t have a mummy. My mummy’s with the angels.” “My mummy’s sleeping with the fishes. My daddy said she had a big mouth.”

I missed this when I recapped the season premiere; season 18 was one of the rare years in which a castmember left the show midseason, and this was a big one. Dana Carvey departed in the middle of his 7th season. He was technically still in the cast as of this episode, but he did not appear and he would officially be gone in a couple of weeks. He was one of the inner circle greats in SNL history; some of his ethnic humor has aged poorly, but he was one hell of an impressionist: his Johnny Carson, his Woody Allen, his Ross Perot, all perfect. I highly recommend the Hulu documentary that was made a few years ago about his short-lived sketch series on ABC. There was some insane talent on that show. As for SNL, his departure was another sign of the generational shift that was taking place. Thank goodness Phil Hartman is still around. (BTW in the opening credits sequence Hartman is shown sitting at a dinner table with his wife; the woman who would murder him a few years later. What a horrible tragedy.)

SNL returns this weekend with the first of the final new episodes of this season, so I will wait a few weeks until returning to recaps of old episodes. Kevin Kline was the host for the season 18 finale.

Mike Peters

I have previously poked fun at myself over the fact that the first record I purchased with my own money was The Streak by Ray Stevens. I did better with the first concert ticket that I purchased for myself. That was in 1983, when I saw U2 at Pier 84 in New York with The Alarm serving as opening act. (Technically the first show I attended on my own was Simon & Garfunkel in Central Park with a half million of my closest friends, but because that was a free show I won’t count it.) That was a great show with which to start off my concert going years, and that is almost as much due to The Alarm as it was to the headline act.

That was a well matched bill; just like U2 The Alarm at the time specialized in soaring anthems of hope. Natives of Wales, they were a staple on MTV in the network’s early era, and their US record sales and album rock radio play were fairly solid. Never stars, but a steady presence in hip circles. Eventually they started to sound too much like a U2 tribute band, and they later devolved into a fairly bland AOR act. At their peak they were one of my favorite bands from that era, and their best tracks still stand up well.

Alarm lead singer Mike Peters has passed away. Peters had been battling cancer for 30 years and in the second half of his life he had balanced his music career with tireless fundraising to battle the disease. Peters was 66.

The Oscar Mulligan - 2009

Best Picture - The Hurt Locker

Other Nominees - Avatar, The Blind Side, District 9, An Education, Inglorious Basterds, Precious, A Serious Man, Up, Up In the Air

The 2009 ceremony brought a sea change to the Best Picture race. Beginning with that year the number of nominees increased from 5 to 10. That had ramifications both positive and negative. Positive in that more nominees means more movies that fans can focus on. Negative in that it’s going to be inevitable that at least one of the contenders is going to be lost in the shuffle. When there were 5 nominees the televised ceremony could spotlight each; there’s not really enough time to do so with 10.

It wasn’t immediately obvious but the new policy also had an effect on the types of movies that would win. In addition to increasing the number of nominees the Best Picture voting shifted to a ranked ballot, which rewarded movies with a passionate following. One result of this policy was that it was no longer so automatic that the same movie would win Best Picture and Best Director; traditionally a movie won that double around 90% of time. Split votes have since become more common. In addition there has been an increase in the number of awards given to smaller movies rather than the traditional “Oscar” prestige or epic movie. Would CODA or Parasite have won with the old system? Maybe, maybe not.

Another drawback to so many nominees is that I haven’t necessarily seen all of the nominees in any given year. I have never seen The Blind Side. I do not ever plan on seeing The Blind Side. I am happy that Sandra Bullock has an Oscar, but that’s not enough to entice me to watch the movie, especially being that in the subsequent years Michael Oher has made it clear that the Tuohy family’s importance in his life was greatly overstated.

Leading into the ceremony it was assumed that the chase for the trophy would come down to Avatar vs. The Hurt Locker, with added juice coming from the fact the two 2 films’ respective directors, James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow, were once married to each other. Avatar is one of the biggest box office successes in Hollywood history, currently sitting at #4 on the all-time list, not adjusted for inflation. I gotta say, I liked Avatar but as a whole it didn’t do all that much for me. The special effects were impressive - the movie was quite the spectacle - but I never got all that involved in the story.

The Hurt Locker made history by becoming the first movie directed by a woman to win Best Picture, and Bigelow was similarly the first woman to win Best Director. Congrats, Academy, it only took you 80 years to do that. The movie was agonizingly tense at times, and it also served to officially change Jeremy Renner from being a That Guy to being Jeremy Renner. Kudos to all involved - and if you have never seen Bigelow’s earlier film Near Dark you should - but to me it is only the 4th best of the nominated films.

Honorable mention goes to Inglorious Basterds, the first (and best) of Quentin Tarantino’s subgenre of films that attempt to rewrite history. Christoph Waltz was outstanding; he perfected the act of quiet intimidation. His initial scene at the farmhouse? Yikes, he was terrifying. And the final act produced one of the premier examples of violence that is absurdly over the top yet crowd pleasing at the same time. And as much as people made cheap jokes about Precious’s subtitle, it was a beautifully made character study. Movies rarely focus so sympathetically on a woman such as Precious; it’s a movie that stays with you for a long time.

It’s fitting that my choice for the deserving Best Picture winner is a movie that would have likely been left off of the shortlist in the days when there were only 5 nominees. Nominating an animated movie was a rare occurrence; it’s quite possibly that Up would have been overlooked even a year earlier. Up had one of the most emotionally devastating first 10 minutes you will ever see. I can speak for myself in saying that I was not prepared for how much it was going to put me through the wringer. True, the rest of the movie did not live up to the opening moments. The remainder was typical Pixar storytelling; trust me, I mean that as a compliment. It’s that montage that makes Up stand out from the pack. One of the chief questions I ask myself is this: has the movie made a lasting cultural impact? In Up’s case, indisputably. It deserves the 2009 Oscar.

Closing Laughs

That is all for today, enjoy the final day of April. May has gotta be better, right? Right? See you all again on Friday.