Tottenham Hotspur Daily Links: The Hoddle Of Coffee

The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham news and links for Thursday, May 5

The 2022 Rock Hall of Fame Inductees

By Fitzie May 5, 2022, 7:30am BST

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Good morning to all you hoddlers out there, and wishing you a happy thursday. i hope everyone enjoyed the various ball- and puck-oriented sporting events yesterday.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced its 2022 class on Wednesday and, if you’ve been following recent inductions, then you might be as bored by this class as I am.

Now - I understand the Rock Hall means very little. Who are they to determine who the most legendary acts are? But it can be a little bit of fun, particularly if one of your favourites finally gets some recognition (T Rex in 2020 comes to mind).

Dolly Parton - who notably requested to be withdrawn from consideration - was inducted, along with Duran Duran, Pat Benatar, Eminem, Eurythmics, Lionel Richie and Carly Simon. While it is reassuring to see the acts who received the most fan votes make the cut, there aren’t any surprises.

Parton, Eminem and Richie were shoo-ins. The Hall needs a headliner and Parton fits that bill. Plus it’s been diving more into hip-hop/rap and R&B, where the latter two come in. Carly Simon is inducted a year after the induction of the far more notable Carole King, and Pat Benatar is an easy choice for classic-rock purists.

Duran Duran (whose pop songs weren’t inventive enough for the a Hall until now) and Eurythmics (who were too niche for too long) are the only semi-oddball choices.

And the Hall looked brought in heavy metal through the back door by inducting Judas Priest for “musical excellence”. But Rob Halford is happy, so I’m happy.

Still, these inductees could have been so much more diverse in its selections. New wavers Devo, art pop artist Kate Bush and rock band Rage Against the Machine are three notable snubs which would have made for a more exciting class (apologies to Benatar and Simon).

Then there are the New York Dolls, the iconoclastic group that pioneered the New York punk scene. Nearly all of their contemporaries (minus Television) were inducted ages ago. But apparently the Hall favours groups that stuck around longer and were less influential.

They’ll get in eventually - like MC5, Rage, Dionne Warwick and others - but unfortunately be shoe-horned into that “musical excellence” category while the Hall attempts to broaden its definition while rectifying the past for its “performer” category.

But at the end of the day none of this matters. Nor does the phrase “rock n’ roll”. It’s been redefined for decades, and shouldn’t be a surprise any longer if non-traditional rock artists are inducted. It’s all for fun, after all.

Fitzie’s track of the day: Would I Lie To You?, by Eurythmics