When the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominees were announced, I made my predictions for the inductees. Today they were announced and I went three for four. Jeff Beck, Metallica and Run-DMC I predicted; Little Anthony and the Imperials I didn’t. I said if anyone else got in, it would be an older artist and not Chic or the Stooges, two of the three most important bands in the list this year. It was Wanda Jackson. The good thing about her selection? We get to see a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer at the Ponderosa Stomp this year, where Jackson will perform.

Since Metallica, Chic, Run-DMC and the Stooges affected the music that followed them, I’d vote them in. But more interesting than the ‘who goes in’ debate is what this list tells us. The only artists on that list who might be in their first year of eligibility are Metallica and Run-DMC; everyone else has been passed over before. That does call up a vision of a future in which everybody eventually gets in the Hall, as one first-time-eligible artist is surrounded by a number of musicians and bands previously deemed unworthy. 

Or, the idea has always been a reinforcement/re-enactment of the Rolling Stone history of music, and the story of music as the product of great bands is reaching its natural, short-sighted conclusion.