Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 2011 – Lista de nominados, entre ellos Tom Waits.

Tal como se puede leer en Lemon Squeezings ya se ha dado a conocer la lista de los nominados para la próxima edición del Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Un mínimo de 25 son los años que deben haber transcurrido desde la fecha de la salida del primer trabajo para poder optar a entrar en este selecto club.

Only one songwriter could be covered by the Ramones (“I Don’t Want to Grow Up”) and the Eagles (“Old 55”). Beginning with his first album in 1973, Tom Waits has carved out a unique place in rock & roll. His music mixes Chicago blues, parlor ballads, beat poetry, pulp fiction parlance and – when you least expected it – heart-breaking tenderness. His enormously influential live shows combine elements of German cabaret, vaudeville and roadhouse rock. After establishing a successful early style as a wry singer-songwriter, Waits went through a dramatic expansion with Swordfishtrombones (1983). Disregarding musical borders and commercial considerations, he set off in wild pursuit of the Muse. Waits has composed film scores, musical theatre and an operetta. He has co-written with Keith Richards and William Burroughs. His songs have been covered by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Solomon Burke, Marianne Faithful, the Neville Brothers, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss and the Blind Boys of Alabama. He has recorded with the Rolling Stones, Bonnie Raitt, the Replacements and Roy Orbison. A tribute to his great influence is how many of his songs have been recorded by artists who usually write their own – including Bruce Springsteen (“Jersey Girl”), Tim Buckley (“Martha”), Johnny Cash (“Down By the Train”), Bob Seger (“16 Shells from a Thirty-Ought Six”), T-Bone Burnett (“Time”), Tori Amos (“Time”), Steve Earle (“Way Down In The Hole”), Elvis Costello (“Innocent When You Dream”) and Rod Stewart (“Downtown Train”).

Before there was Ozzy Osbourne, Marilyn Manson or KISS, there was Alice Cooper, the original self-proclaimed “rock villain.” Born Vincent Furnier, Cooper and his mighty band of the same name – lead guitarist Glen Buxton, rhythm guitarist Michael Bruce, bass player Dennis Dunaway and drummer Neal Smith – pioneered the dark spectacle of heavy metal with their huge blues-rock sound and extravagant stage show. Drawing from horror movies and vaudeville, Cooper brought a new level of visual theatrics to arenas with guillotines, electric chairs, boa constrictors and fake blood; their 1973 tour broke box-office records previously held by the Rolling Stones, and raised the bar for major rock tours. What made it stick were some of the catchiest, most reckless hard-rock songs of all time: “Eighteen,” “School’s Out,” “No More Mr. Nice Guy.” Along with the New York Dolls and David Bowie, Alice Cooper was a starting point for the glam rock of the Seventies; it’s impossible to imagine the hair metal of the Eighties without them; you can hear and see the band’s influence in bands from the Sex Pistols to Guns n’ Roses. The original lineup split in the mid-Seventies, and singer Cooper would continue on with an evolving lineup; in the meantime, the pure shock value of America’s first shock rockers has faded ­ but their legacy is safe.

Hard-working musicians and prolific songwriters from blue-collar backgrounds in New Jersey, Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, David Bryan, Tico Torres and Alec John Such created a dedicated global following that spans every continent. Along the way, they have carved out a place on the charts with their most familiar songs – “You Give Love a Bad Name,” “Livin’ on a Prayer,” “Bad Medicine” and “I’ll Be There for You” in the 80s; “Blaze of Glory,” “Bed of Roses” and “Always” in the ’90s; “It’s My Life,” “Have A Nice Day,” the Grammy-winning “Who Says You Can’t Go Home” and “We Weren’t Born to Follow” in the 2000s. Beyond the numbers – over 120 million albums sold (more than 34 platinum titles cumulative in the U.S. alone), more than 2,600 concerts performed in over 50 countries for more than 34 million fans, including The Lost Highway World Tour, ranked as 2008’s #1 top-selling tour, and 2010’s 30-country, 135-show The Circle World Tour – there is also Bon Jovi’s enormous influence on innumerable young bands seeking to follow in their footsteps. Bon Jovi steadfastly follows their own instincts, ignoring obvious trends and providing a model for other bands and musicians just starting out on their careers.

Un pequeño recordatorio:

…..Otro de los momentos a destacar es la actuación que cierra el “show” con Page, Plant, Jones, Jason, compartiendo escenario con Neil Young interpretando por espacio de diez minutos el tema “When The Levee´s Gonna Break“, con un duelo espectacular a la guitarra entre Page y Young, acabando el primero totalmente exhausto, y con la oportunidad de ver a Plant tocando la guitarra.