The latest round of inductees into the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame have been announced; included in the class of 2005 are Lynyrd Skynyrd, Blondie, and the Sex Pistols.

Each year when the inductees are announced, I have to wade through dozens of emails on all the music listservs I’m on about how this band or that band doesn’t belong, and why won’t they induct That Artist We All Really Like? I’ve never liked the idea of a Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame (R’n’R HoF), and I’ve become quite sick of these annual gripefests, wherein otherwise levelheaded music fans suddenly sound like the callers on sports talk radio.

If you need any reason to mock the rock, consider that the Doors are members.

I’m having a laugh at the induction of the Sex Pistols. Personally, I never liked them and never much cared for punk rock at all (so saying “But they invented punk!” to me won’t get you too far.) But as a rock fan I understand and appreciate their place in history. And I think their induction into the R’n’R HoF can only work as a big meta-textual joke; I mean, what are they going to do, put their plaque up between the Eagles and Pink Floyd?

At the heart of what the Sex Pistols were-- and I would argue, inseparable from the music they made (which, true, I never have liked)-- was the fact that they kicked corporate rock in the ass at its most overblown and preposterous.

The R’n’R HoF is corporate rock at its most overblown and preposterous.

The Pistols do not belong in the HoF. They belong outside the hall, mocking it. Getting pissed and throwing up on it. And when I say that, it is my intent to give them their due props. If the embodiment of the Sex Pistols message was “Fuck you, Big Rock Machine!” then how do we justify “On behalf of the Big Rock Machine, you are cordially invited to fete the Sex Pistols…”

Fete??

One only hopes the band takes the opportunity to gob on the hall, right there on VH1. THAT would be a Random Note...

Labels: The tunes