Bands that should be in the Music Hall of Fame

Bands that should be in the Hall of Fame but aren't 

An Opinion Piece by Danny R. Phillips

Now that the inductees for the 2025 class of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame have been revealed (congratulations finally to the criminally overdue inductee Warren Zevon), a question returns to this: What about the bands, singers, songwriters, groundbreakers, the Sonic champions that should be welcomed in, but for some reason or another, haven’t.

I pose the question to the Tuning Fork reader once again. Is the Hall about the shining beauty that is the rebellious soul of rock and roll? Or, is it just a popularity contest based on bank accounts and visibility?

Judging by the past picks of the Selection Committee and journalists, cultural impact, expansion of our beloved genre or creative growth is too often forgotten, traded for who’s been on the cover of Rolling Stone the most. Fashion over substance is the law of the Land.

With this piece, I give you my picks for inductees that aren’t; the rock heroes that stand outside the gates, and for some reason known only to God and the Powers That Be, are kept just out of reach of enshrinement.

Devo - Short for De-Evolution, the boys from Akron, Ohio did all they could to tear apart pop music, breaking it all down to the smallest microns and putting it back together as if sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick was at the helm.

With songs like “Uncontrollable Urge,” “Whip It,” and the lovingly robotic cover of The Rolling Stones classic, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” alongside many others over their 40+ year career, Devo are instrumental in the formation of the Alternative Music genre that so many of us love. For that, and for their influence on what came later, Devo should be welcomed.

Jim Croce - One of the most heartbreaking stories of the 1970’s. Sadly, Croce was killed in a plane crash on September 20, 1973, but not before giving the world some of the most beloved songs of the 70s AM radio gold era.
Paired with guitarist/songwriter Maury Muehleisen, the duo released a string of gems, such as “Operator (That’s Not The Way It Feels),” “Time in a Bottle,” “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim,” “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown,” “Walkin’ Back to Georgia” and others of the tear-inducing variety. At this point, Croce should be inducted and spoken in the same breaths as James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Steve Earle and Townes Van Zandt for both his songwriting prowess and the beauty of his vocal delivery.

Uncle Tupelo - I am including Uncle Tupelo here for two reasons above the others. One, the driving forces behind UT are Jeff Tweedy & Jay Farrar, two of America’s finest songwriters of the last thirty years. They are both songwriters and lyricists that helped create the genre known as alt-country. A blend of alternative, punk and country music, they embrace styles of music that are genuine with words and music dripping with the realness of the world.
And two, UT is one of my favorite bands so, there may be a bit of bias at play here.

Across a relatively short seven year career as a band, Uncle Tupelo released some of the best, door-busting records of the late 80s/early 90s. Their debut “No Depression,” featuring a surprisingly faithful cover of the Carter Family American classic “Graveyard Shift,” the exceptionally moving “Whiskey Bottle,” and the down-home tune “Screen Door,” “No Depression” is a pivotal album in the creation of many bands to come.

The albums that followed (“Still Feel Gone,” “March 16-20, 1992,” “Anodyne”) all are showcases on how a band can blend styles and stay true to themselves. After Uncle Tupelo disbanded, Farrar formed Son Volt while Jeff Tweedy formed Wilco (a band most likely headed for The Hall), both continuing the story they started, walking separately & remaining two of our best songsmiths.

Motörhead - The fact that Motörhead is not yet in the rock hall is puzzling. Lemmy Kilmister’s distorted bass, played with an aggressive style seemingly handed down from the Old Gods themselves, Motörhead were the first to combine punk and metal, in turn creating the world force known as thrash metal.

Without Lemmy and the boys, there would be no Metallica, Slayer, or Megadeth. Metal, though not respected by the Hall it seems, would be totally different without Motörhead. The little band from England spent over 40 years destroying eardrums with albums like “Ace of Spades,” and one of the greatest live albums “No Sleep until Hammersmith,” Motörhead were revolutionaries, groundbreakers and innovators to rock and culture itself. For that, respect must be shown.

Perhaps, some day, the proper tithe will be paid to the giants. When the true ones, the bearers of Rock’s flaming sacred heart are witnessed and welcomed, then all will be right.