All 221 Artists in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Ranked

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

All 221 Artists in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Ranked From Best to Worst

have at it, this should be fun

[John A Arkansawyer]

That's not bad. Swap out the Kinks for the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix for Elvis Presley, and Patti Smith for the Ramones, and you've got a solid top ten!

[bovine knievel]

Fuck the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I’d swap in Natty Chile for them.

[Rocky]

Do yourself a favor and read the last 7 or so. Hifuckinlarious!

[jr29]

Tom Petty at 120.....give me a fucking break.

[dogstar]

Any list that doesn't have Dylan at #1 ...
And Joni Mitchell at #2 ...
And Brian Wilson at #3 ...

[pearlbeer]

Fuck the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I’d swap in Natty Chile for them.

or anyone else.

[bovine knievel]

Fuck the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I’d swap in Natty Chile for them.

or anyone else.

Exactly.

[worrierking]

Do yourself a favor and read the last 7 or so. Hifuckinlarious!

I am not a Queen fan (I compliment them by saying "at least they're not Styx"), but man that guy was brutal on them.

[Zip City]

Only made it to seeing the Rolling Stones at #15 and thought "oh shit, 3DD about to explode!"

[John A Arkansawyer]

Only made it to seeing the Rolling Stones at #15 and thought "oh shit, 3DD about to explode!"

You and me both, brother! I can't believe they rated them above the Kinks.

[Mundane Mayhem]

Lmao @ Sex Pistols ranked at #14. I'd rather roll the dice at a random venue on a random night than listen to that fucking garbage.

[Flea]

Nope. Nope. Nope. That list could not be more wrong if it were generated by picking artists' names from a hat. Fuck that list. The writer should be tortured with a never-ending loop of 100 dB Kid Rock until he kills himself.

[beantownbubba]

Oooh I can't wait to read the darn thing

[beantownbubba]

Oh yeah, even at just first glance plenty to talk about here. First impressions:

Given the author's orientation towards historical importance and influence Berry at #1 is justifiable.

The biggest problems I see are w/ the relatively low rankings of the Stones, Hendrix and The Who. But as always w/ lists of this type, the question is who do you bump to make room? Or put another way there really are a lot more than 10 top 10 artists. The relative placement of The Ramones, Nirvana and The Clash seems questionable at best. Not quite in the top 10, but his incredibly high placement of Ike & Tina seems absurd to me. Like pretty much everyone who writes on the subject he has problems figuring out and justifying where rap/hip hop artists fit into a rock n roll list but at first glance I think he gets the rap artists mostly in the right order relative to each other.

It seems to me he gets the bottom of the list (no doubt the easiest part) basically correct, the middle is a mishmash (inevitable where taste and professional judgment most obviously meet personal opinion) and there's an argument for most of his top choices even though there are as many arguments against. Somewhere around #150 he says that the rest of the list represents a considerable drop off and he gets that line very close to exactly right. His choices for most unfair exclusions (in the essay at #154) is perhaps the most sensible such list I've seen.

What I like about this list is that the author applies more or list consistent criteria across the board and, agree or disagree, he writes knowledgeably and mostly insightfully about most of the artists on the list (at least the ones I've read).

Overall, plenty of fuel for late nite arguments here. That's a good thing.

[scotto]

Equally interesting and frustrating.
Glad Buddy Holly is in the top 10.
But are there really 37 artists in the history of rock and roll better (author's words, not mine) than The Band?
And I'm a Ramones fan, but are they really better than Neil Young?
Further, I get that his importance/influence are lost to the sands of time, but Big Joe Turner (No. 74), was, as a matter of fact, a major influence on Nos. 1, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, 16, 18, (probably 20, not sure), 36, and 48. At least.
Ha ha, fuck you, Bon Jovi.
As the author says, "There is nothing less rock and roll than a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame."
Harumpf.

[Bill in CT]

Buddy Holly should not be in the top 10. That aside...how does he put him 22 spots above Jerry Lee Lewis? They were contemporaries and Lewis was better than Holly.

He goes on and on about Queen playing Sun City. It's a valid point against them. So why does he say nothing about Paul Simon also breaking the UN boycott to make Graceland or mention the other Hall artists who played Sun City?

He says this in the Guns N' Roses section:

Note that Steven Adler, who played only on the first Gunners album, is in the hall, whereas the guy from Pearl Jam, who played on Vs. and Vitalogy, isn’t.

Um, this is incorrect. Adler also played on Lies by Guns N' Roses. In addition, the "guy from Pearl Jam" he's talking about is drummer Dave Abruzzese. The reason Abruzzese was not inducted with Pearl Jam was because the original drummer (Dave Krusen who played on the debut album Ten) and the current drummer (Matt Cameron) were the ones who were permitted by the Hall to be inducted. It's true that the band doesn't get along with Abruzzese but that is not why he was left out. Jack Irons (drummer on No Code and Yield) was not inducted either and he is still friendly with Pearl Jam.

He also refers to Lynyrd Skynyrd as "prog" at one point which is so far from accurate that it's comical.

He clearly has no respect for heavy metal as he places Black Sabbath at 149 and Deep Purple even lower. Um, these bands basically invented heavy metal as we know it and were vastly influential on countless bands.

Another indication of his lack of respect for metal is that in his list of biggest snubs he includes a skiffle artist (!) but not Bathory, Blue Oyster Cult, Celtic Frost, Death, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Thin Lizzy, or UFO among others.

He also lists one Krautrock act on his snubs list (Kraftwerk) instead of the much superior Can.

James Taylor is way too high. I saw him one year at Bridge School Benefit. It was all I could do to stay awake through his set each night but it was necessary because Neil Young followed him both times.

There are other things I could say but will end this post now.

[dime in the gutter]

Buddy Holly should not be in the top 10. That aside...how does he put him 22 spots above Jerry Lee Lewis? They were contemporaries and Lewis was better than Holly.

i didn't get past this. holly should be higher. the killer probably should be also...just not ahead of.

[Bill in CT]

Buddy Holly should not be in the top 10. That aside...how does he put him 22 spots above Jerry Lee Lewis? They were contemporaries and Lewis was better than Holly.

i didn't get past this. holly should be higher. the killer probably should be also...just not ahead of.

Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Little Richard, and Jerry Lee Lewis are all better than Buddy Holly. I don’t think it’s reasonable to put all 5 of them in the all-time top 10.

[John A Arkansawyer]

Buddy Holly should not be in the top 10. That aside...how does he put him 22 spots above Jerry Lee Lewis? They were contemporaries and Lewis was better than Holly.

i didn't get past this. holly should be higher. the killer probably should be also...just not ahead of.

Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Little Richard, and Jerry Lee Lewis are all better than Buddy Holly. I don’t think it’s reasonable to put all 5 of them in the all-time top 10.

Without Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Buddy Holly, you don't get the Beatles. Elvis and Jerry Lee were just the right guys at the right time.

[Bill in CT]

I’ll take the words of The Beatles wrt the influence Elvis Presley had on them.

https://www.beatlesstory.com/blog/2017/ ... e-beatles/

[Zip City]

If I were making a Bingo card that matched 3DD users with what band they think is too low:

cortez - Kinks, Shakey
dime - Buddy Holly
TC - Tom Petty
Smitty - Hank
WWCD - Dead
Tinnitus - a band that isn't even in the HoF

[scotto]

If I were making a Bingo card that matched 3DD users with what band they think is too low:

cortez - Kinks, Shakey
dime - Buddy Holly
TC - Tom Petty
Smitty - Hank
WWCD - Dead
Tinnitus - a band that isn't even in the HoF

And they're each correct.

[bovine knievel]

If I were making a Bingo card that matched 3DD users with what band they think is too low:

cortez - Kinks, Shakey
dime - Buddy Holly
TC - Tom Petty
Smitty - Hank
WWCD - Dead
Tinnitus - a band that isn't even in the HoF

And they're each correct.

[tinnitus photography]

Buddy Holly should not be in the top 10. That aside...how does he put him 22 spots above Jerry Lee Lewis? They were contemporaries and Lewis was better than Holly.

i didn't get past this. holly should be higher. the killer probably should be also...just not ahead of.

Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Little Richard, and Jerry Lee Lewis are all better than Buddy Holly. I don’t think it’s reasonable to put all 5 of them in the all-time top 10.

personal bias etc but i find that era of music horribly boring and would be in 100% alignment to have the RnR HoF start somewhere around 1965.

bill, you bring up good points re: Sabbath/Purple; i mean, everyone is gonna have biases so a committee is i guess the best way to go about it, but it's a fool's errand at best to apply exceedingly nebulous criteria to unquantifiable parameters. i mean, how do you measure this:

"Besides demonstrating unquestionable musical excellence and talent, inductees will have had a significant impact on the development, evolution and preservation of rock & roll."



also, it's typical american hubris that the HoF is based in and by and large voted by americans (an assumption i made w/o knowing the makeup of exactly who is on the nominating committee but a good guess is that it's Wenner and his circle jerk).

[tinnitus photography]

If I were making a Bingo card that matched 3DD users with what band they think is too low:

cortez - Kinks, Shakey
dime - Buddy Holly
TC - Tom Petty
Smitty - Hank
WWCD - Dead
Tinnitus - a band that isn't even in the HoF

just going by the influence criterion, it's an absolute travesty that Black Flag has never even been considered as a nominee. not only did they mutate punk rock into various new life forms, Ginn (as much of an asshole as he is, and by all accounts he's even worse than me) and company totally transformed the musical landscape wrt to how bands put out music and how they tour.

[dime in the gutter]

i didn't get past this. holly should be higher. the killer probably should be also...just not ahead of.

Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Little Richard, and Jerry Lee Lewis are all better than Buddy Holly. I don’t think it’s reasonable to put all 5 of them in the all-time top 10.

personal bias etc but i find that era of music horribly boring and would be in 100% alignment to have the RnR HoF start somewhere around 1965.

yes, your shits fucked up.

[tinnitus photography]

some like Buddy Holly, some others prefer Nurse With Wound.

[cortez the killer]

some like Buddy Holly, some others prefer Nurse With Wound.

What about Mary Tyler Moore?

[tinnitus photography]

some like Buddy Holly, some others prefer Nurse With Wound.

What about Mary Tyler Moore?

a minor but essential footnote in music history.