Sunday, October 30, 2011

Songwriter Hall of Fame Thoughts

Yep, I used to really get into the yearly nominees for the Songwriters Hall of Fame.  But as each year went by, and more and more great songwriters got passed over I lost interest.  I give them credit, they at least have recognized some names that the Rock Hall won't induct, like Hall & Oates and Randy Newman.  And they got Thom Bell and Ashford & Simpson in there.
But the fact remains that they are poor when inducting Rock and Roll names from the 60's onward.
Among names not inducted as of this writing, and the list seems to grow every year.  :

Pete Townshend
Neil Young
Cat Stevens
George Harrison
Jimi Hendrix
Sly Stone
Ray Davies
Dion DiMucci
Prince
Walter Becker/Donald Fagen
Elvis Costello
Tom Petty
Jeff Lynne
John Mellencamp
Tom T. Hall


The latest nominees for 2012 have been announced and some of the names above are nominated, so who knows if one or two of these will go through.  But my beef with this Hall is mainly with Rock-era names.  Some titanic names are missing (Young, Davies, Townshend),  and it's a stain on the whole Hall.  How on earth does Bon Jovi get in right away, ahead of the names I listed above?  I'm curious on voting demographics.

List on nominees link below:
SHOF Today: News
Add to Technorati Favorites