Waiting For The Hall Of Fame

I should laugh, but I cry,

Because your love has passed my by,

You took me by surprise,

You didn't realize but I was waiting.

                              Laughing by The Guess Who

Yes, I’m here to complain yet again. This time it is about rock and roll injustice. Many of you will likely agree with me. Some of you might have others you would insert ahead of my picks, but this is my blog and I’ll cry if I want to!

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (hereafter referred to as RRHF) inducts a new batch of artists, producers and other music biz folk each year. Frankly, some of the acts in the RRHF are real head-scratchers. The Blue Caps – seriously? Kiss?  C’mon! The Clash? The Ramones? Grand Master Flash? What the WHAT?

Missing from this list are two stellar groups with a slew of hit singles and albums. I am referring to The Guess Who and Three Dog Night.

Three Dog Night might be getting the snub from the self-appointed rock elite because they didn’t write their own songs. They just turned songs written by others into musical magic. They also furthered the careers of great song writers like Paul Williams, Hoyt Axton, Laura Nero, Randy Newman and others.

How many hit pop and rock hit songs does a band need to get the attention of the RRHF snobs? Here are Three Dog Night’s top 20 hits:

• Try a Little Tenderness
• One
• Easy To Be Hard
• Eli’s Coming
• Celebrate
• One Man Band
• Mama Told Me Not to Come
• Out in the Country
• Joy to the World (no, not the Christmas song!!)
• Liar
• Old Fashioned Love Song
• Never Been To Spain
• The Family of Man
• Black and White
• Pieces of April
• Shambala
• The Show Must Go On

Seriously, how many hits does a band need? What a body of work! Their snubbing is a disgrace to the entire RRHF!

The Guess Who, with vocalist Burton Cummings (later with solo hit Stand Tall) and guitarist Randy Bachman (front man with Bachman-Turner Overdrive) is another band painfully overlooked by the RRHF. Maybe they are discriminated against because they are Canadian, eh?

How about this list of hit singles….

• These Eyes
• Laughing
• Undun (a jazz-rock hit, which is kind of a rarity.)
• No Time
• American Woman
• No Sugar Tonight
• Laughing
• Hand Me Down World
• Share the Land

Again, another impressive list of hits.

There are acts in the RRHF that offer such a pitifully small contribution to pop/rock music, yet are enshrined in Cleveland. Meanwhile, great acts like these Three Dog Night and The Guess Who are on the outside looking in. How about groundbreaking acts like Emerson, Lake and Palmer? Maybe they are too cerebral for the RRHF crowd.

I am convinced that there is no justice in the halls of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  

No Business Like Show Business

“There’s no business like show business,

Like no business I know.”

                              Irving Berlin

Though not very showy, I will lead off with my medical report. My prostate cancer treatments are history - yay. My first bloodwork and follow up with the doctor were spectacular. Hurray! Good news all around. A few nagging side effects are still around, but lessening. That is also good news. I am aware that these pesky problems may never completely resolve, but hey – life is good!

I am fully back to what passes as work for me nowadays. I am directing the high school musical at my old job. Our show is next week. Unlike in years gone by, I am a bit stressed this year. My stress level is much better than it was just a short time ago. A few weeks ago, I would wake up at 2:00 AM and not be able to get back to sleep. At least I am now sleeping through the night. In days of yore, I did not sweat the musical at all one week out. This time around, my shirt is just a little damp.

Dealing with the radiation treatments while holding auditions and rehearsals was more challenging than I expected. The weather has not been kind to our rehearsal schedule, either. We lost five rehearsals from an already tight schedule due to snow, ice and bitter cold with crazy wind chills. Wednesday evening religious education classes used to end in early February when I was teaching. The new director of this program scheduled classes into late March, eliminating almost all opportunities for Wednesday night rehearsals. The usual senior class trip included the juniors this year, and is occurring the week before our show as usual.

Still, the show must go on. We are performing “The Addams Family.”  It is a very funny production with catchy tunes. As you might expect, it is a dark comedy. The kids are doing a very nice job with it and seem to be having a lot of fun with it. We are doing the high school edition, which has been somewhat “cleaned up” to maybe a PG rating. I have further modified the script to avoid controversy. There are a few too many references to intimate situations for a high school show in a small, Catholic community in my opinion, even with the high school edition. I am retired, and I don't need a lot of hassles. Still, this is a very funny and the audiences will enjoy it.

I like directing the musical. I was fortunate to have had a boatload of volunteer help from my unpaid assistant/choreographer/former band student. Still, I find that it is much more challenging directing the show when one is not on the teaching staff.  I can’t interact with the kids in a timely fashion each day, I cannot talk to the principal, treasurer, scenery painter, vendors, etc. as easily as I did when I was teaching. If it weren’t for my assistant, I would still be waking up at 2:00 AM every night. Thanks, Sherri - you have been a true blessing for me this year!

This is the 32^nd musical that I have directed. Maybe 32 shows are enough.