http://www.billboard.com/news/rock-hall-of-fame-to-induct-alice-cooper-1004134661.story
Rock Hall of Fame to Induct Alice Cooper, Neil Diamond, Tom Waits
Gary Graff, Detroit
December 14, 2010
It's official -- Alice Cooper, Neil Diamond, Dr. John, Darlene Love and Tom Waits will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next year. The class of 2011 will be formally feted on Mar. 14 at New York's Waldorf Astoria Hotel.
All but Waits were first-time nominees to the Hall. Acts who did not make the cut this year included first-time nominee Bon Jovi, as well as multiple nominees LL Cool J, Donna Summer, the Beastie Boys, J. Geils Band, Chuck Willis, Chic and Joe Tex.
The nonination of shock rock icon Cooper and his original band seemed a long time coming given their commercial success -- four platinum albums and five Top 40 hits between 1971-73 -- and stature as theatrical pioneers.
Cooper figures it's about time the band got into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But he wasn't worried about it."I've always felt the same way about this whole thing," he tells Billboard.com. "I kind of sat back and said, 'It will happen eventually.' "
"It did get to be kind of a joke, not being nominated," Cooper (born Vincent Furnier) adds. "I got to the point where I was saying, 'OK, I'm the Pete Rose of rock 'n' roll!' So now that it's a reality, it's a different take on it. Now I sit there and go, 'Wow. Wow! We've got to really get up and play, and assume the position of being in the Hall of Fame.' It'll be great."
Cooper says the only time he was upset about not being on the ballot was in 2009, when Kiss, who he considers proteges of a sort, were nominated before him. "That one stung a little bit," he acknowledges. "I sat there and went, 'Now, wait a minute...Really? Are we invisible here, or what?' "
The original Cooper band -- guitarists Michael Bruce and the late Glen Buxton, bassist Dennis Dunaway and drummer Neal Smith -- splintered in 1974, after the "Muscle of Love" album. But Cooper, who's continued as a solo act ever since, says he would not have accepted induction if it wasn't for the entire band.
"The original band was cutting edge," he explains. "It was the original band that had all the iconic records from 'Love it to Death' on to 'Billion Dollar Babies' and 'Muscle of Love.' What I did after that was an aftermath. The original band were the guys that had to cut through that big, thick ice in order to become an entity out there. I can't see how I could just go up there as an individual."
The four surviving Alice Cooper members are currently together in Arizona rehearsing for a performance at Cooper's 10th Annual Christmas Pudding at Phoenix's Comerica Theater, benefiting his Solid Rock Foundation for children. (Rob Zombie, former Eagles guitarist Don Felder, Night Ranger, Glen Campbell, Cheech Marin and Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers are also performing). The group will perform at the induction ceremony, with Steve Hunter, who played in Cooper's "Welcome to My Nightmare" band, filling in for Buxton.
Major theatrics -- such as the guillotine or gallows -- are unlikely for the Hall of Fame ceremony, Cooper says, but it will hardly be a bare-bones performance.
"We'll play 'I'm Eighteen' and 'School's Out,' probably," he says, "but I'm sure there'll be weather balloons of confetti thrown into the audience and stuff like that. They'll know it's us."
(Additional reporting by Monica Herrera)
Showing posts with label Rock Hall of Fame. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rock Hall of Fame. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Up for Rock-God Status
http://www.eonline.com/news/article/index.jsp?uuid=864c9b51-062e-4e65-afd2-e518182584f2&entry=index
Madonna, Beasties, Mellencamp Up for Rock-God Status
by Josh Grossberg
Madonna's love may be on the borderline, but apparently her rock credentials aren't.
The Queen of Pop joined a disparate group of artists on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame shortlist, a ballot that includes the Beastie Boys, John Mellencamp, Leonard Cohen and another music royal, Queen of Disco Donna Summer, for the Cleveland class of 2008.
Rounding out the nominees, which were announced Friday: Afrika Bambaataa, Chic, the Dave Clark Five, and the Ventures.
An act becomes eligible for induction 25 years after its first release, be it single, EP or album. That means the current contenders had to have issued their inaugural record no later than 1982.
Born Madonna Louise Ciccone in Detroit, the Material Girl emerged from New York's underground club scene and shot to fame on the success of her self-titled 1982 debut album, which spawned the singles "Holiday," "Borderline" and "Lucky Star."
Her follow-up, Like a Virgin, became her first chart-topper and went on to sell 19 million copies worldwide thanks to such ditties as "Material Girl," "Into the Groove" and "Dress You Up."
Her penchant for boundary-pushing behavior, both onstage and off, and constant reinvention has kept her on the charts and in the headlines. Over the course of her 25-year-old career, the 49-year-old entertainer has logged six number one albums (including her latest, Confessions on a Dance Floor), 12 number one singles and 49 top 10 hits on her way to selling more than 200 million albums worldwide.
The Beastie Boys—Mike "Mike D" Diamon, Adam "MCA" Yauch, Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz and their deejay, Michael "Mix Master Mike" Schwartz—not only paved the way for white rappers like Eminem but are considered among hip-hop's elder statesmen after their quarter-century career.
Like Madonna, the Beasties sprung from the New York music scene in 1982, but instead of party-hearty rap, the Boys were a hard-core punk band. But under the tutelage of Def Jam maestro Rick Rubin, they switched to rap, and their 1986 debut, License to Ill, exploded onto the charts with radio-embraced anthems like "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party!)," "No Sleep till Brooklyn" and "Brass Monkey."
They enjoyed immense critical acclaim with such subsequent albums as 1989's Paul's Boutique, 1992's Check Your Head, 1994's Ill Communication (with the monster hit "Sabotage") and 1998's Hello, Nasty. The band has also gotten political, helping launch the Tibetan Freedom Concerts. Their most recent album was a dub-influenced postpunk instrumental affair, appropriately titled The Mix-Up.
Originally billed as John Cougar when his then agent thought his last name wasn't marketable enough, Mellencamp became the first artist since the Beatles to have two simultaneous Top 5 hits with "Hurts So Good" and "Jack and Diane" off his 1982 breakthrough, American Fool.
He changed his name to John Cougar Mellencamp and then eventually to just John Mellencamp while gaining artistic credibility with his Scarecrow album and such top 10 Heartland anthems as "Pink Houses," "Crumblin' Down," "Authority Song" and "R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A." He also cofounded Farm Aid with Willie Nelson and Neil Young. The concert series, which benefits strapped family farms, just celebrated its 22nd year.
A singer, songwriter, poet and novelist, Cohen achieved his first folk-rock success with a pair of songs on Judy Collins' 1966 album, In My Life, one of which, "Suzanne," became a signature hit. He eventually moved from his native Canada to New York a year later and established himself as a folk troubadour with his 1967 debut, Songs of Leonard Cohen. Cohen has influenced everyone from U2, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and R.E.M. to Kurt Cobain, Jeff Buckley and Rufus Wainwright.
Summer reworked her R&B sound to take advantage of the 1970s disco era and quickly established herself as one of its top performers. She scored three successive number one hit albums between 1979 and 1980, Live and More, Bad Girls and On the Radio. Among her best known songs are "Love to Love You Baby," "Hot Stuff," "Bad Girls," "This Time I Know It's Real," "She Works Hard for the Money" and the Bruce Springsteen-penned "Protection."
Chic was also among the biggest disco acts. Formed as a jazz-funk group in 1976 by Nile Rodgers, the band is best remembered for "Le Freak." Other hits included "Dance Dance Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)" and "Everybody Dance." Chic's rhythms also inspired earlier hip-hop performers, notably the Sugarhill Gang, which sampled Chic's "Good Times" bass riff for "Rapper's Delight."
Bambaata is credited with laying the foundations for hip-hop in the 1970s as a deejay and South Bronx community leader. He began his performing career while still in high school. He founded a collective known as the Universal Zulu Nation that sought an end to gang violence through block parties that facilitated the development of rap music.
After building the Zulu Nation into a group consisting of deejays, rappers, break dancers, graffiti artists and writers, Bam released in 1982 the seminal Kraftwerk-sampling hit, "Planet Rock," which spawned a the genre known as electro-funk. He also joined forces with former Sex Pistol John Lydon for one of the earliest songs fusing rap with rock 'n' roll, "World Destruction."
Part of the original British invasion, the Dave Clark Five scored 1960s hits with "Glad All Over," "Over and Over" and "Bits and Pieces." The DC actually appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show more times than the Beatles or Rolling Stones and sold more than 50 million albums worldwide before disbanding in 1970.
A pioneering surf-guitar instrumental act from Seattle, the Ventures' best-known hits included 1960's "Walk Don't Run" and 1969's "Hawaii Five-O." The Beatles, Stephen Stills, Joe Walsh and Aerosmith have counted the band as an inspiration.
Nominees are chosen by a 70-member committee of label execs, rock historians and journalists, with ballots mailed to an international voting body of 700 music industry types. Ultimately, the five honorees will be announced in January, with the 2008 induction ceremony taking place, per tradition, at New York City's Waldorf-Astoria hotel in March.
Chic, the Dave Clark Five and the Ventures have all appeared on recent ballots but never made the cut.
Last year's inductees were R.E.M., Van Halen, the Ronettes, Patti Smith and the Hall's first rap act, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.
Madonna, Beasties, Mellencamp Up for Rock-God Status
by Josh Grossberg
Madonna's love may be on the borderline, but apparently her rock credentials aren't.
The Queen of Pop joined a disparate group of artists on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame shortlist, a ballot that includes the Beastie Boys, John Mellencamp, Leonard Cohen and another music royal, Queen of Disco Donna Summer, for the Cleveland class of 2008.
Rounding out the nominees, which were announced Friday: Afrika Bambaataa, Chic, the Dave Clark Five, and the Ventures.
An act becomes eligible for induction 25 years after its first release, be it single, EP or album. That means the current contenders had to have issued their inaugural record no later than 1982.
Born Madonna Louise Ciccone in Detroit, the Material Girl emerged from New York's underground club scene and shot to fame on the success of her self-titled 1982 debut album, which spawned the singles "Holiday," "Borderline" and "Lucky Star."
Her follow-up, Like a Virgin, became her first chart-topper and went on to sell 19 million copies worldwide thanks to such ditties as "Material Girl," "Into the Groove" and "Dress You Up."
Her penchant for boundary-pushing behavior, both onstage and off, and constant reinvention has kept her on the charts and in the headlines. Over the course of her 25-year-old career, the 49-year-old entertainer has logged six number one albums (including her latest, Confessions on a Dance Floor), 12 number one singles and 49 top 10 hits on her way to selling more than 200 million albums worldwide.
The Beastie Boys—Mike "Mike D" Diamon, Adam "MCA" Yauch, Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz and their deejay, Michael "Mix Master Mike" Schwartz—not only paved the way for white rappers like Eminem but are considered among hip-hop's elder statesmen after their quarter-century career.
Like Madonna, the Beasties sprung from the New York music scene in 1982, but instead of party-hearty rap, the Boys were a hard-core punk band. But under the tutelage of Def Jam maestro Rick Rubin, they switched to rap, and their 1986 debut, License to Ill, exploded onto the charts with radio-embraced anthems like "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party!)," "No Sleep till Brooklyn" and "Brass Monkey."
They enjoyed immense critical acclaim with such subsequent albums as 1989's Paul's Boutique, 1992's Check Your Head, 1994's Ill Communication (with the monster hit "Sabotage") and 1998's Hello, Nasty. The band has also gotten political, helping launch the Tibetan Freedom Concerts. Their most recent album was a dub-influenced postpunk instrumental affair, appropriately titled The Mix-Up.
Originally billed as John Cougar when his then agent thought his last name wasn't marketable enough, Mellencamp became the first artist since the Beatles to have two simultaneous Top 5 hits with "Hurts So Good" and "Jack and Diane" off his 1982 breakthrough, American Fool.
He changed his name to John Cougar Mellencamp and then eventually to just John Mellencamp while gaining artistic credibility with his Scarecrow album and such top 10 Heartland anthems as "Pink Houses," "Crumblin' Down," "Authority Song" and "R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A." He also cofounded Farm Aid with Willie Nelson and Neil Young. The concert series, which benefits strapped family farms, just celebrated its 22nd year.
A singer, songwriter, poet and novelist, Cohen achieved his first folk-rock success with a pair of songs on Judy Collins' 1966 album, In My Life, one of which, "Suzanne," became a signature hit. He eventually moved from his native Canada to New York a year later and established himself as a folk troubadour with his 1967 debut, Songs of Leonard Cohen. Cohen has influenced everyone from U2, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and R.E.M. to Kurt Cobain, Jeff Buckley and Rufus Wainwright.
Summer reworked her R&B sound to take advantage of the 1970s disco era and quickly established herself as one of its top performers. She scored three successive number one hit albums between 1979 and 1980, Live and More, Bad Girls and On the Radio. Among her best known songs are "Love to Love You Baby," "Hot Stuff," "Bad Girls," "This Time I Know It's Real," "She Works Hard for the Money" and the Bruce Springsteen-penned "Protection."
Chic was also among the biggest disco acts. Formed as a jazz-funk group in 1976 by Nile Rodgers, the band is best remembered for "Le Freak." Other hits included "Dance Dance Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)" and "Everybody Dance." Chic's rhythms also inspired earlier hip-hop performers, notably the Sugarhill Gang, which sampled Chic's "Good Times" bass riff for "Rapper's Delight."
Bambaata is credited with laying the foundations for hip-hop in the 1970s as a deejay and South Bronx community leader. He began his performing career while still in high school. He founded a collective known as the Universal Zulu Nation that sought an end to gang violence through block parties that facilitated the development of rap music.
After building the Zulu Nation into a group consisting of deejays, rappers, break dancers, graffiti artists and writers, Bam released in 1982 the seminal Kraftwerk-sampling hit, "Planet Rock," which spawned a the genre known as electro-funk. He also joined forces with former Sex Pistol John Lydon for one of the earliest songs fusing rap with rock 'n' roll, "World Destruction."
Part of the original British invasion, the Dave Clark Five scored 1960s hits with "Glad All Over," "Over and Over" and "Bits and Pieces." The DC actually appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show more times than the Beatles or Rolling Stones and sold more than 50 million albums worldwide before disbanding in 1970.
A pioneering surf-guitar instrumental act from Seattle, the Ventures' best-known hits included 1960's "Walk Don't Run" and 1969's "Hawaii Five-O." The Beatles, Stephen Stills, Joe Walsh and Aerosmith have counted the band as an inspiration.
Nominees are chosen by a 70-member committee of label execs, rock historians and journalists, with ballots mailed to an international voting body of 700 music industry types. Ultimately, the five honorees will be announced in January, with the 2008 induction ceremony taking place, per tradition, at New York City's Waldorf-Astoria hotel in March.
Chic, the Dave Clark Five and the Ventures have all appeared on recent ballots but never made the cut.
Last year's inductees were R.E.M., Van Halen, the Ronettes, Patti Smith and the Hall's first rap act, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.
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