I was shocked to see Lou Reed’s name on the list of 2015 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees, a class formed a full 17 years after his initial eligibility. Reed was nominated in 2000 and 2001 before finally making it in 2015.
The long delay made more sense after I learned The Velvet Underground was inducted back in 1996. Even that seminal group had to wait its turn, however, with nominations each of its first five years of eligibility before getting voted in.
These Rock & Roll Hall of Fame posts often surface acts that are musical blindspots (deafspots?) for me. Such is the case with the next 2015 inductee, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band.
Formed by Chicago-based harmonica-player/singer Paul Butterfield in 1963, the band recorded seven well-received albums before breaking up in 1971. They also made a splash as a live act, playing many festivals in the late 60s, including Woodstock.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has a dreadful track record when it comes to inducting women. TO date, less than 10 percent of the 348 artists included in the Hall have been women.
The 2015 class beats that ratio, barely, by including Joan Jett among its eight inductees. Of course, her band The Blackhearts — made up of three men — was invited along with her.
Green Day made it into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility, the only member of the 2015 class to do so.
The punk pop band has sold more than 85 million records worldwide and seen more than half of their 13 studio albums reach Gold, Platinum or Diamond status. They are credited — for better or worse — with taking punk rock mainstream in the 90s. They also tried their hand at rock opera quite successfully, turning their opus American Idiot into a Tony-winning Broadway show.
Vacation is over! I hope you enjoyed the two weeks of clips from movie musicals.
Getting back into the swing of things, I’m returning to my Rock & Roll Hall of Fame series, wherein I feature a recent class of inductees. I’ve covered the five classes between 2016-2020, so that brings me to the eight members of the class of 2015.
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