Latest Dave Marsh Rant
Dave Marsh recently called Bruce Springsteen's Working On A Dream album a "masterpiece". Now read this email posted on the Future Rock Legends site. Nothing new here. I've emailed him a couple of times and have gotten the same responses as this, but this gives you insight into the mind of RRHOF nominating member.
E-mail from D. Marsh (4/8/09)Kiss will get into the Hall of Fame as soon as they convince enough people who know the full scope of those eligible that they are as worthy/more worthy than the people who are on the ballot each year. I can’t stop them. I wouldn’t. But I won’t vote for them, and I’m certainly not going to back off on 40 years of honest criticism to say that they ought to get a past even though Gene Simmons makes Pat Boone look like a he-man when it comes to any kind of use for the music except the most contemptuous and contemptible exploitation. And I am not going to whisper it. That’s not my job. There are about 30 other votes that make up that ballot. Figure out the math. I am hardly a puppeteer. Alice Cooper bored me in Detroit. Deep Purple had a few good records, that one great single (and maybe “Hush” or something like that), but I don’t think enough to merit inclusion in the hall of fame. (I would like to see the Hall have a method of inducting singles—“Louie Louie” “Smoke on the Water,” whatever, in cases where the bands do not quite come up to the standard—or in the case of the Kingsmen, are miles away from making the standard). I didn’t like prog rock then, I don’t like it now. King Crimson is passable, ELP everything I despise about “art” in any medium (as opposed to art with less pretentious bullshit attached), if I were championing prog I’d go for early Roxy and Gabriel-period Genesis, but that’s me, not a fan (although I’d vote for Roxy and I might vote for Genesis, depending on what was on the ballot). I wrote reams about the Dolls and the Stooges when they were originally active, anyone who can’t figure out that part is totally ignorant of what I do support. (Although I will be disappointed if the Stooges get in before the MC5, because I knew both groups and their music very well and I have always thought that the Five were somewhat superior.) I didn’t like the most recent Stooges album; I have loved both of the Dolls comeback albums, and I will be somewhast surprised if I don’t at least like the Iggy soundtrack that’s coming out. Suzy Quatro is misspelled. The proper spelling is Joan Jett. DM
E-mail from D. Marsh (4/8/09)Kiss will get into the Hall of Fame as soon as they convince enough people who know the full scope of those eligible that they are as worthy/more worthy than the people who are on the ballot each year. I can’t stop them. I wouldn’t. But I won’t vote for them, and I’m certainly not going to back off on 40 years of honest criticism to say that they ought to get a past even though Gene Simmons makes Pat Boone look like a he-man when it comes to any kind of use for the music except the most contemptuous and contemptible exploitation. And I am not going to whisper it. That’s not my job. There are about 30 other votes that make up that ballot. Figure out the math. I am hardly a puppeteer. Alice Cooper bored me in Detroit. Deep Purple had a few good records, that one great single (and maybe “Hush” or something like that), but I don’t think enough to merit inclusion in the hall of fame. (I would like to see the Hall have a method of inducting singles—“Louie Louie” “Smoke on the Water,” whatever, in cases where the bands do not quite come up to the standard—or in the case of the Kingsmen, are miles away from making the standard). I didn’t like prog rock then, I don’t like it now. King Crimson is passable, ELP everything I despise about “art” in any medium (as opposed to art with less pretentious bullshit attached), if I were championing prog I’d go for early Roxy and Gabriel-period Genesis, but that’s me, not a fan (although I’d vote for Roxy and I might vote for Genesis, depending on what was on the ballot). I wrote reams about the Dolls and the Stooges when they were originally active, anyone who can’t figure out that part is totally ignorant of what I do support. (Although I will be disappointed if the Stooges get in before the MC5, because I knew both groups and their music very well and I have always thought that the Five were somewhat superior.) I didn’t like the most recent Stooges album; I have loved both of the Dolls comeback albums, and I will be somewhast surprised if I don’t at least like the Iggy soundtrack that’s coming out. Suzy Quatro is misspelled. The proper spelling is Joan Jett. DM
posted by Tom Lane at 8:27 AM
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