December 23, 2013
The wife has been telling me that I am too nice to-the-world! That I need to start getting meaner; or else everyone will continue taking advantage of me: my colleagues, my students, my boys, my gardener, my plumber, my house cleaners, my handyman (and even her). Indeed, I have found myself at the center of a political maelstrom that grew out of “bar talk” with a colleague (prior to my Jacuzzi accident) – that I will now have to stave off with-a-bit-of-toughness.
Be-this-as-it-may – I haven’t been able to function in an alpha state since circa 1979 (because this state seems to engender migraines for me): so the World will probably continue to capitalize on my niceness…there is one thing, however, that can still bring out the nasty in me…and that is: DEEP PURPLE’s inability to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame while the likes of HALL & OATES makes it into the 2014 class along with LINDA RONDSTADT…
Now I am very happy for LINDA, what with losing her voice and all – and service to our governor lo those many years ago – but HALL & OATES?! And, since I have promised not to skewer anyone anymore, I can’t deal with HALL & OATES like I might have back-in-the-day. So, without sounding like I am being critical of HALL & OATES’ music, I do have to say that I really, really, really detest their oeurve.
This DP discrimination has gone on far too long! This is no Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame; it’s a Rock and Roll Hall of Shame!! Deep Purple coulda/shoulda been inducted alongside BLACK SABBATH and LED ZEPPELIN: the other two members of the British Unholy Trinity of hard rock and heavy metal! My god! KISS (who will also make it into The Hall in 2014) only formed in 1973 (a year after ‘Smoke on the Water’ came out!) – while DEEP PURPLE formed in 1968!! Can anyone intimate that KISS was not influenced by DP and “Smoke on the Water”?!
What did PURPLE do wrong…did Ritchie Blackmore make a deal at The Crossroads that eschewed the Hall of Fame for rock & roll immortality? Did DP piss off somebody “huge” in the industry?? Was that DP that Rob Reiner lampooned in “Spinal Tap”???
We’ve hit (or passed) the 42nd anniversary of “Smoke on the Water”: the only song in music history to have launched 1000 guitars (how many other songs have assembled one thousand guitarists to simultaneously play a song?). Just this R & R benchmark should have propelled them into the Hall of Fame!!
It’s time that every living member of The Hall – which becomes more-of-a-joke by-the-day (Whoops! Excuse my nastiness [I am NOT pontificating]) – to get out a petition for DP! It’s time for members to protect the purity and sanctity of the sacred institution of R & R! I’ve got a good mind to contact Jack Black for this one because I’m sure that the King of the Hammond, Jon Lord, founding DP member, now departed – is twisting and turning in his grave over HALL & OATES!
DEEP PURPLE Nation – it is time to act!!
Next Installment: Hawaii! Here I Come!!