Friday
Feb202015
Now Def Leppard Says They Will Decline The Rock Hall
Friday, February 20, 2015 at 12:01AM
Remember when Nikki Sixx said he would decline if Motley Crue was ever inducted into the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame? Well, now Def Leppard is in on the act, saying the same thing. Difference is, I actually believe Joe Elliott here. Or at least, I get the sentiment. I do believe Def Lep deserve to be in the hall. They were an absolute huge part of the NWOBHM. Agree?
Reader Comments (17)
Their forefathers must come first however and that won't happen anytime soon.
Deep Purple
Judas Priest
Scorpions
Mötorhead (don't hear them in convo much.) lemmy is a god that transcends genres.
What kills me is the amount of obscure acts that have had little cultural or commercial impact on society are in the hall. DP n JP have created eras of music with a tree that has them as the trunk with many branches. For instance, without Priest; no Maiden, Saxon, perhaps DL, and countless leather wearing clones that discovered themselves like Slayer, venom, raven, etc
Influences of both bands are way more deserving: Deep Purple, Priest, Mott The Hoople, Cheap Trick and the Runaways, among others, are way ahead of the line.
And don't get me wrong, I love Def Leppard and Motley Crüe (more so, Crue) as much as the next Glam Metallist but who do they think they are, The Sex Pistols?
As songwriters, the Leps have been at the top of their game & on their own on X & Sparkle Lounge. No Mutt Lange needed.
And... when Joe goes into coverband mode, I totally love his musical love-letter to Mott The Hoople - Both Down N Outz records are awesome !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-lrlcmNxLY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5wSL8533rY
It strikes me that the RaRHoF discussion cycles back and forth, for bands and fans. If enough people treated it for what it was worth--a museum--and left the nominating process and back-slapping show alone, it would likely wither away. So long as declining or accepting-with-reservations drums up publicity, for the bands and the hall, it only keeps organization quasi-relevant.
Funny thing is, I think some of those bands do pine for the acceptance of the hall and/or did before they were nominated. It is marvelous marketing really. Imagine if just a few of the prestige acts that have been accepted, the ones with the money, decided to form another organization that truly reflected the interests of the bands and the fans.
"I could name you a hundred other artists more important than us that aren't in [the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame]. I did one of the first-ever fundraisers to actually help build the place out in Cleveland, but for some reason that doesn't count for anything. But there you go. That's life. It doesn't bother me at all. It doesn't bother any of us. In fact, we've kind of all decided that, even if we get asked, we're just gonna — how can I put this? — politely refuse, like the SEX PISTOLS did… Unless there was some kind of online campaign by our fans 'cause they were annoyed by us."
Seems to me that he has a fairly good sense of his place in the world. I am going to assume that Sixx would second this sort of statement (and that can be read in many different ways, so I will let the posters take it as they wish).
The Sex Pistols did it because it fit their M.O. as a brand. From the beginning, they thrived on Malcolm McLaren calculation to get banned from radio, get fired from record companies, get the plug pulled or banned from playing, get in fights, even get arrested and just plain get in any kind of subversive controversy that might present itself along the way.
Others who do it at this point are in the death throws of their own pre-emptive passive aggressive posturing since they know they'll never get in and are putting the nails in their own coffins rather than have the hammer of reality do it for them.
It's one thing to refuse to show up or not play because of high schoolish band politics (which should be put aside) a la Van Halen, GNR and KISS but quite another to reject, out of hand,
... a nomination that hasn't even been offered comes off as self-important and egotistical. Both Elliott's and Sixx's bands survive intact (save for Clarke's unfortunate passing) but are further belittled by their leader's posturing.
p.s. Elliott's crying about helping to raise funds for the RARHOF and then inferring he's been somehow shortchanged makes one wonder if his motives are more self-serving than how we'd like to think of him, and that should be selflessly carrying the torch for his Glam Rock Heroes like Bowie, Mott The Hoople, Sweet, Slade, Queen, etc. Heck, he's even got Ian Hunter as his major cause celebré. Elliott should just leave it at that and focus on his last non-inducted heroes getting in the Hall rather than himself not getting in or saying he'd refuse the offer.
Influence ? Yeah, I guess only casual listeners liked their music, no way anyone wanted to be Def Leppard.
Performers ? Please.
Yeah, its not cool to admit your a Def Leppard, much easier to elect lesser cult or classic or edgy bands.
But anyplace that has Run DMC, Public Enemy, Green Day, etc... makes sense they wouldn't want these guys anyways.
My major point is that any sort of bid to integrate the RaRHoF into a discussion ends up being publicity for the same.
But I still think Elliot's comment is more balanced than you do. I think he actually thought the hall would trend in a direction that recognized bands like Mott, Lizzy, etc., and not warp and bend into a "take them as we decide to take them as they come" sort of old white guy fun fest buffet. I'd be peeved too. It might not be selfless. But it seems honest (even as, again, it serves to highlight an organization that has done nothing to deserve the credit bestowed upon it).
That said, and given who _is_ in the hall, it is very hard for me to argue against bands like PE or RDMC. They are ground-breaking in their own ways and in--and this is a larger point--their own genres. Green Day? A bid for relevance way past their (and the hall's) needed expiration date, even if you factor in dalliances with Broadway and some attempts at topical angst once they stripped back (way back) their bid at Operation Ivy-by-way-of-Rancid grit. I'd rather see Generation X on the ballot . . . if I actually cared to parse out the nuances of punk in all its glory and garishness.
And perhaps that is GNR's point: it is too dispersed, even as it is too calculated, and too arbitrary to be called a legitimate (a loaded word) representation of rock n' roll. So I circle back to my original pipe dream. Bands like DL should fund another organization that is in tighter alignment with what fans and bands consider "rock n' roll."
The only issue there is one of regress: you go back to Zep and you go back to the blues; you go forward to Slayer and you touch the edges of metal/rap hybrids. Hell, you go in any direction and you will run into the problem the hall faces (and this is the kindest I can be to the hall in this context): what constitutes the edges of what constitutes rock n' roll?
Problem is: everyone has got the answer and none of them are final. But a true collage of those disappointed rockers might strike at something that strikes a balance between the Wenner's Tower of Babel and Revolver's Bronze Gods of Marketing and Promotion. Heck, in a pinch, Zakk Wylde might supply the harmonics for the theme song!
As far as an alternative, I propose The Metal Museum, a Granite and Marble Columned Fortress with ginormous Steel Doors (think huge looking classic museum with a big concert hall attached on the back) right on Sunset Strip. If I hit the Powerball, I'll build it with the participation of all our heroes, even if some of ghem aren't my personal favorites. That last line is the difference in how to approach something like a Hall of Fame...
Leave your personal dislikes out of it, something Wenner and Co. can't seem to do, or if they are, they're listening to the wrong people who obviously do not understand what constitutes Rock & Roll.
And the fantastical idea of building a shrine to all that is good and true in metal makes sense to me. I envision it looking something like this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sin_After_Sin#mediaviewer/File:Jpsinsin.JPG
The Strip would be the perfect locale as well, as it has in recent years been pruned and plucked of much of its former sleazy glory. Parked out front? A row of your lottery-largesse funded metalmobiles, ready to make the journey to and from your yacht and plane. What's the point of dreaming if you don't dream big, right?
Not to get serious, but I hope you would let Trunk and Y&T at least visit every now and again.