Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - Genesis In; KISS Out

While waiting to check out of the hospital today with our newborn, I was flipping through my Twitter feeds and noticed that there were a few Tweets announcing that KISS had been slighted by the Hall of Fame after being nominated for the first time this year.

I am not totally shocked. I was more shocked that they were nominated in the first place, because the R&R Hall is run by a group of 500 industry types. It's not a popularity contest or a popular vote that gets you in. It's a decision by an elite closed group, and that makes it fairly questionable IMO.

I thought the Rolling Stone coverage of the 25th anniversary shows in New York was glad-handingly self congratulatory. Many of the board members are RS editors and writers. But anyway, KISS didn't get in this year and ABBA did. Yeah, that makes sense. They totally rock.

But my next thought was, what about Genesis? I was equally pleasantly surprised that they had been nominated as well. The prospect of KISS or Genesis being inducted meant the possibility of reunions of the original members to accept the award and possibly perform.

KISS has done the reunion thing, so it's all good. They'll get in eventually and then the Hall in Cleveland can open a Hotter Than Hell wing with all the merch and costumes.

But the original five Genesis principals - Steve Hackett, Phil Collins, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford and Peter Gabriel - have not performed live since a one-off get-together in 1982.

So I poked around and lo and behold it was announced today that Genesis will be inducted into the Hall. So, I will be keeping an eye on that one. Peter Gabriel has been the guy who has been the most wishy washy about doing anything again with the others but maybe he could pull it together for just one night.

The one cool thing about the Hall events is that sometimes they do lead to full-bore reunion tours, or at least interesting onstage jamming. So, we shall see...

Maybe Peter could whip out some of his old costumes and they could blow our minds with Selling England By The Pound!

6 comments:

Seano said...

Tough day for you I'm sure. I'll be the first one in line for the Hotter Than Hell Wing.....and Abba is just comical.

Donald Capone said...

Yeah, heard this on the radio this morning. KISS belongs in; in fact I thought they were in. I guess it was just the nomination I had heard about.

I'm glad Genesis got in, and I think Peter Gabriel will get together with those guys for the induction.

But wait—a newborn?! Seriously? Congrats!

drewzepmeister said...

Finally Genesis is in! it's about time! For influential reasons, I think KISS should stay in. As for ABBA and Donna Summer, I'm still laughing my ass off!

Good luck with your newborn!

Dr. John said...

Isorski - too bad about KISS. I heard some DJ's talking on the radio today that they thought way more bands had been influenced by KISS than by Abba and that should count for something. Oh well. I'm just waiting for Rush to get nominated.

BTW, wasn't Bill Bruford the original drummer for Genesis? I'm not much of a fan of early Genesis, which is why I ask (and am willing to be corrected).

harmolodic said...

The one very real thing preventing a Genesis reunion performance right now is the fact that Phil Collins' is still recovering from a dislocated vertebrae. If they do get together, he'll probably have to shake maracas while they play a campfire acoustic version of "The Carpet Crawlers," which wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing.

Also, Bill Bruford was the original drummer for Yes, not Genesis. In Genesis, Phil Collins was preceded by John Mayhew (on the Trespass album), John Silver and Chris Stewart. Bill Bruford did, however, drum for Genesis on stage briefly in 1976 after Peter Gabriel left the band. After Bruford left Genesis, he was replaced on the road with Chester Thompson, who has been Genesis' live drummer ever since, except for that one album and tour in the late '90s where Ray Wilson was the lead singer.

Isorski said...

Thanks for the comments, everyone. Harmolodic, you know how to get your old school Genesis on! Love it, man. I think you are right that they won't play but just to see them all together in public will be fun. Maybe they'll cook up an all-star band to hit some Lamb Lies down in honor...