RIP Ray Thomas

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T_Bone0806
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RIP Ray Thomas

#1 Post by T_Bone0806 » Sun Jan 07, 2018 11:18 am

Founding member of the Moody Blues.


http://ultimateclassicrock.com/moody-bl ... omas-dies/


Stupid Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. They diss the Moodys for YEARS and finally elect them, and just a couple of months before the ceremonies, one of the group's members is lost and won't be around to bask in it. Nice going, jackasses.

Thomas had not been with them for awhile due to health issues, but was still on good terms with them.


Here are a couple of items from the obit I found very interesting:


"...He later confirmed that he and [Mike] Pinder sang backup vocals on the Beatles' "I Am the Walrus," and that he played harmonica on "Fool on the Hill," from Magical Mystery Tour...."


I had NO idea...
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Re: RIP Ray Thomas

#2 Post by ghostjmf » Sun Jan 07, 2018 11:30 am

Look, at least he knew they'd gotten in before he died.

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Re: RIP Ray Thomas

#3 Post by rayxtwo » Sun Jan 07, 2018 2:44 pm

They let all those other POS performers (and I use that term very lightly) and they make true musicians wait till they're almost dead before they let them in. I hope it's raining the day of the of the induction so I can say he's pissing on them from heaven.

Ray

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Re: RIP Ray Thomas

#4 Post by T_Bone0806 » Sun Jan 07, 2018 4:50 pm

ghostjmf wrote:Look, at least he knew they'd gotten in before he died.
Agreed, but not being able to get the love and tribute in person is just sad to me, especially given that this wouldn't have been an issue if the group had been inducted years ago when they should've been.
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Re: RIP Ray Thomas

#5 Post by T_Bone0806 » Sun Jan 07, 2018 4:51 pm

rayxtwo wrote:They let all those other POS performers (and I use that term very lightly) and they make true musicians wait till they're almost dead before they let them in. I hope it's raining the day of the of the induction so I can say he's pissing on them from heaven.

Ray

I knew this would especially piss you off, given your avatar and past pro-Moody posts.
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Re: RIP Ray Thomas

#6 Post by BackInTex » Mon Jan 08, 2018 6:48 am

T_Bone0806 wrote:
ghostjmf wrote:Look, at least he knew they'd gotten in before he died.
Agreed, but not being able to get the love and tribute in person is just sad to me, especially given that this wouldn't have been an issue if the group had been inducted years ago when they should've been.
But they had to wait for much greater acts than themselves such as:

Metallica
Madonna
Sex Pistols
Talking Heads
REM
Dr. John
Guns 'n Roses
Joan Jett & the Black Hearts


Not to disrespect any the above acts, but given the entire body of work, influence, and longevity.....Dr. John? Seriously?
..what country can preserve it’s liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? let them take arms.
~~ Thomas Jefferson

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Re: RIP Ray Thomas

#7 Post by T_Bone0806 » Mon Jan 08, 2018 2:43 pm

BackInTex wrote:
T_Bone0806 wrote:
ghostjmf wrote:Look, at least he knew they'd gotten in before he died.
Agreed, but not being able to get the love and tribute in person is just sad to me, especially given that this wouldn't have been an issue if the group had been inducted years ago when they should've been.
But they had to wait for much greater acts than themselves such as:

Metallica
Madonna
Sex Pistols
Talking Heads
REM
Dr. John
Guns 'n Roses
Joan Jett & the Black Hearts


Not to disrespect any the above acts, but given the entire body of work, influence, and longevity.....Dr. John? Seriously?

Dr. John is revered by many fellow artists and is a major name in N'awlins music, but yeah, shoulda been way down the list of potential inductees. I absolutely hated Guns 'n Roses due mostly to the "voice" of Axl Rose, which I've always compared to that of Granny Clampett with a chest cold. He shoulda been drawn and quartered for his desecration of "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" alone. And as far as being a major influence, I doubt very seriously that they did anything to move the needle much in rock's legacy. Metallica and REM and to a slightly lesser extent, Talking Heads definitely belong in my opinion, they have been quite influential. Madonna of course, although I have little use for her, was/is a major player in popular music, but...rock 'n roll??? Nuh-uh. Sex Pistols were a joke, especially to themselves. They were the figureheads of the Punk Rock revolution but The Clash were the best of that lot, and progressed beyond their initial categorization. I like Joan Jett, but, as misogynist as this may sound, I think she's there to balance the male/female ratio a bit more. She rocks, sure, but I don't think of her as a top of the mountain type. And since other "soft rock" artists are in, I'm thinking why Joan is in but Carly Simon and Carole King (who is in as a songwriter but not an artist) are not. If Madonna is in, those two should be as well.

Let me add to your list:

Percy Sledge
Solomon Burke
Beastie Boys
Bill Withers
Bobby Womack
Del Shannon
Donna Summer
Donovan
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five
Green Day
Isaac Hayes
N.W.A.
Patti Smith
Public Enemy
Red Hot Chili Peppers
The Dells
The Stooges
Tupac Shakur


There are more that fall into the "shoulda been in line behind..." category, but these are the ones that jumped out in my pass-through. Some of these are listed because of the "it's the ROCK Hall of Fame, NOT the POP MUSIC Hall of Fame" thing, hence Tupac, N. W. A., etc. (maybe in the future, if consistency is finally established as to what kinds of music will be honored). Others (such as Green Day, Chili Peppers) are decent but too soon or not quite Hall-worthy (Donovan), especially compared to others from the same era that have been shut out. The others (Percy Sledge for instance, who recorded one timeless classic but hardly had a major career on the mainstream charts OR a lasting impact on pop or rock)) are of the "???????" variety.

In my opinion, NONE of the above should have made it before some major housekeeping was done, inducting the following due to their huge popularity, influence on future music, or continued presence on classic rock radio. Admittedly, there is some bias on my part as well...hard not to be when doing something like this:

The Doobie Brothers
Jethro Tull
The Monkees (one could easily argue that their TV show was the birth of the modern music video..AND they were insanely popular, bigger than the Beatles for a couple of years there)
Todd Rundgren (groundbreaking artist, producer of a number of HUGE hit albums by other artists)
The Guess Who
Emerson, Lake & Palmer (hey, Keith and Greg are already dead, do we have to wait until Carl Palmer kicks the bucket, too?)
Tommy James (probably gets lumped into the bubble gum category..unfairly. Aside from the slew of hit records, several of which were covered in the 80's and made hits all over again, the records contained a lot of interesting studio innovations. He wrote hits for other artists, too)
Warren Zevon (very influential songwriter..you can't have Tom Waits in there without Warren in there as well..)
Little Feat (a big favorite of many fellow musicians..that says something right there)
Billy Preston (for cryin' out loud, he's the ONLY musician to get a credit on the label of a Beatles' 45 [Get Back/Don't Let Me Down]..he also played on TONS of songs by other big name artists...oh, and he had a couple of #1 records himself)
Glen Campbell (OK if you don't want him in 'cuz he's not rock 'n roll...first of all, make up your mind, you let other non-rockers in....at LEAST put him in as a sideman...he played on an abundance of hit records and was actually a Beach Boy at one point)
Jimmy Buffett (seriously, how many years of sold-out concerts and spawning a huge fanbase with their own name and concert culture do you need in order to recognize him?)
Joe Cocker (wow, this surprised me-I thought he WAS in already!)
Lesley Gore (no Bangles, Go-Go's, etc. without her. She also composed songs for the movie Fame, for which she recieved an Academy Award nomination. Despite recording songs of female submission like "Maybe I Know", she also did the early female empowerment anthem "You Don't Own Me" to balance the scales)
Neil Sedaka (another omission that surprised me. How is he NOT in, as an artist AND songwriter? Sheesh!)
Nicky Hopkins (another ubiquitous sideman. Who DIDN'T he play with in the 70's?)
Pat Benatar (geez, a female, a rocker, AND extremely popular in her day. What's the issue here voters?)



Critically savaged but tremendously popular:

Herman's Hermits
Three Dog Night
Grand Funk Railroad
Bad Company
Foreigner
Phil Collins (in with Genesis but his solo career was HUGE)
REO Speedwagon (another tremendously popular arena rock band. I'm not a particularly enthusiastic fan of theirs, but credit where it's due)
Styx


The Dells and the O'Jays are in, so why not:

The Spinners. Should've been in long before either of the above two.


The Rock Hall of Fame hates Progressive Rock. They also hate metal, so left out are two major bands who paved the road for modern metal:

Judas Priest
Iron Maiden

..and an even earlier influence on metal (back when it was just "hard rock"):

Blue Oyster Cult (they're still kicking around today)


Also worthy of consideration at least:

Boz Scaggs
King Crimson
Casey Kasem (obviously as a "non-performer. Practically EVERYONE listened to American Top 40)
Cyndi Lauper (for awhile there, every bit as trendsetting as Madonna. AND she was more rock 'n roll than Madge)
The Go-Go's and/or The Bangles. OK, these were all-female bands who actually DID rock. And if Joan Jett is in, then...)
The Grass Roots (a huge run of hits that made AM radio sound great)
Harry Nilsson
Joe Walsh (he's in as an Eagle, but he's got quite a body of work overall)
Johnny Rivers
Kansas
Kenny Loggins
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (mostly country but they DID cross over quite often)
Paul Revere & The Raiders (see Grass Roots above)
Petula Clark
Poco (influential country-rock band)
Richard and Linda Thompson (far from household names but major influences on many many artists)
Robert Palmer (just a damn fine vocalist. Period)
Roxy Music
T Rex (along with Roxy Music, influential and major players in the Glam Rock thing. Both groups had a much bigger impact commercially in the UK and elsewhere than they did here in the States)
Supertramp
Duran Duran (not a big fan, but very popular and one of the bands that made MTV popular as well)

And finally:

The Funk Brothers (Motown House Band. The amount of hit records they played on is staggering)
The Wrecking Crew (LA Session Musicians which included Leon Russell and Glen Campbell, part of Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound", performed on many Beach Boys songs as well as countless other hit records)


This blows my mind. Each of these bands has two members inducted as individual sidemen but the groups as a whole have been ignored. Mind boggling. If I listed all the hit records they played on I'd still be typing the list two days from now. Watch the documentaries "Standing In The Shadows Of Motown" and "The Wrecking Crew" for the full stories. They are both excellent.


So there you are. What's evident is that they love R & B and punk/new wave and are falling all over themselves to induct rap/hip-hop artists to prove they are in touch with current music..and they hate Progressive, Hard Rock/Metal and ignore massive popularity/many bands that filled stadiums. VERY inconsistent in their induction criteria. My personal opinion is to fix all of the slights while inducting the no-brainers that become eligible along the way, decide if you want to be Rock Hall of Fame or Popular Music Hall of Fame, THEN bring in more contemporary artists and forms of music. First things first.


Want to make your own list?

http://www.futurerocklegends.com/artists.php
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Re: RIP Ray Thomas

#8 Post by rayxtwo » Tue Jan 09, 2018 10:11 pm

T_Bone0806 wrote:
rayxtwo wrote:They let all those other POS performers (and I use that term very lightly) and they make true musicians wait till they're almost dead before they let them in. I hope it's raining the day of the of the induction so I can say he's pissing on them from heaven.

Ray

I knew this would especially piss you off, given your avatar and past pro-Moody posts.
The problem is they're putting in people that the only thing they can say is "Hey, I'm making the cash register ring". Rewarding quantity over quality. That's like saying White Castle is a better place to eat than Morton's because of the number of items they sell. 100 million in sales of horse crap is only a lot of horse crap.

Ray

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Re: RIP Ray Thomas

#9 Post by littlebeast13 » Wed Jan 10, 2018 7:47 am

rayxtwo wrote:The problem is they're putting in people that the only thing they can say is "Hey, I'm making the cash register ring". Rewarding quantity over quality. That's like saying White Castle is a better place to eat than Morton's because of the number of items they sell. 100 million in sales of horse crap is only a lot of horse crap.

Ray

Quantity is a fact. Quality is an opinion.

I love a lot of the Moodys' 80's music. Hate almost everything they did before that (Prog rock is not all that)...

I also love to eat at McDonalds and couldn't be dragged into a fancy restaurant (The Gridiron girls will back me up on this).

YMMV...

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Re: RIP Ray Thomas

#10 Post by T_Bone0806 » Wed Jan 10, 2018 12:04 pm

rayxtwo wrote:
T_Bone0806 wrote:
rayxtwo wrote:They let all those other POS performers (and I use that term very lightly) and they make true musicians wait till they're almost dead before they let them in. I hope it's raining the day of the of the induction so I can say he's pissing on them from heaven.

Ray

I knew this would especially piss you off, given your avatar and past pro-Moody posts.
The problem is they're putting in people that the only thing they can say is "Hey, I'm making the cash register ring". Rewarding quantity over quality. That's like saying White Castle is a better place to eat than Morton's because of the number of items they sell. 100 million in sales of horse crap is only a lot of horse crap.

Ray

I think it's more of a genre bias than anything else. There are a number of massively popular acts that are still left out. It's pretty obvious they hate prog rock and hard rock. Even most artists from those genres that they HAVE elected were made to wait way longer than they should have (Genesis, Yes, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, etc.). Election should not be based solely on THEIR tastes, it's not the "Rock Hall of Fame for Only Artists That Jann Wenner and his Cronies Like". Is this Hall for critics or the public? The reason the Moodys should've been a no-brainer is that they were both enormously popular AND creatively different. But Wenner & Co. don't like 'em, so Percy Sledge gets inducted years before the Moodys. There has to be room made for both acts that were creatively groundbreaking AS WELL AS those that were beloved by the masses. Only then will the Hall be legitimately representative of all that is R 'n R.
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Re: RIP Ray Thomas

#11 Post by T_Bone0806 » Wed Jan 10, 2018 12:07 pm

littlebeast13 wrote:
rayxtwo wrote:The problem is they're putting in people that the only thing they can say is "Hey, I'm making the cash register ring". Rewarding quantity over quality. That's like saying White Castle is a better place to eat than Morton's because of the number of items they sell. 100 million in sales of horse crap is only a lot of horse crap.

Ray

Quantity is a fact. Quality is an opinion.

lb13
Which is why all opinions should be considered, not just those of TPTB.
(Prog rock is not all that)...

Sez you :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Re: RIP Ray Thomas

#12 Post by littlebeast13 » Wed Jan 10, 2018 3:46 pm

T_Bone0806 wrote:
(Prog rock is not all that)...

Sez you :lol: :lol: :lol:

I'll save my prog rock screed for a certain future entry on my current blog countdown..... :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

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Re: RIP Ray Thomas

#13 Post by rayxtwo » Wed Jan 10, 2018 10:32 pm

Today's music(?) is our punishment for killing disco.

Ray

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Re: RIP Ray Thomas

#14 Post by T_Bone0806 » Thu Jan 11, 2018 9:55 am

rayxtwo wrote:Today's music(?) is our punishment for killing disco.

Ray
:lol: :lol: :lol:


(to be spoken in an Edward G. Robinson voice):

Disco had it comin', see? And I'd do it again, see?
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