As I mentioned in the 1971 results, voting has picked up recently. Let me push my luck by emphasizing that new voters are very welcome. As we get closer to the listening lifetimes of AM Forum posters, I hope more people will feel comfortable adding their voices to the mix.

And so, here’s the 1972 Hall of Acclaim election.

Select the ten most deserving artists, based on records released through the end of 1968.

When considering your vote, you may want to check out the top 50 eligible candidates. For a reminder of who’s already been inducted, see the results thread.

For your ballot to be eligible, you must submit a ranked list of your ten most deserving artists.

***IMPORTANT!***
Also, for your top FIVE artists (at least), you must explain why they deserve to be in the HOA. You may recycle your comments from past elections if you wish, but I want us to have a context for WHY we're selecting these artists. Ballots without comments for the top five will NOT be counted!

In addition, you may nominate up to three people for the Backstage Wing. This is optional; your ballot will still be eligible even if you don’t vote for Backstage candidates.

Deadline for ballots is Sunday, November 16, at 6:00 pm US Central time (midnight GMT).

Voting is now open.

1. MERLE HAGGARD – Greatest Country songwriter short of Hank Williams (but only because Hank came first).

2. JONI MITCHELL – I think Joni’s songwriting and vocal skills are underrated. Blue is a masterpiece.

3. MARVIN GAYE - Great vocalist. This is his year

4. PATSY CLINE – The premiere female country singer, with only one serious challenger.

5. TOWNES VAN ZANDT – Naturally brilliant songwriter. His legend will grow over time.

6. LORETTA LYNN – The serious challenger to Patsy’s female country dominance. (Eligible songs: Blue Kentucky Girl, Don’t Come Home A Drinkin’ With Lovin’ On Your Mind, You Ain’t Woman Enough To Take My Man, Fist City, Coal Miner’s Daughter, One’s On The Way, When You’re Lookin’ At Me You’re Lookin’ At Country)

7. GEORGE JONES – Just because I asked a friend about her. Just because I spoke her name somewhere. Just because I rang her number by mistake today. She thinks I still care.

8. THE FLYING BURRITO BROTHERS – I’d put them here for Sin City alone, but there are many other great tunes, especially on their first album.

9. THE ZOMBIES – Why are they so far behind the Byrds? Not enough Dylan covers?

10. GRATEFUL DEAD – American Beauty is an American beauty.

Backstage:

1. Stephen Foster
2. Alan Lomax
3. John Hammond

1. Leonard Cohen
2. Merle Haggard
3. George Jones
4. Marvin Gaye - What's Going On is just a flawless album, a kind of r&b symphony with movements and motifs, and it's all very layered, rhythms underneath rhythms. As Neil Young retorted when a heckler complained that all the songs sounded the same, "It's all one song!"
5. Led Zeppelin - eat a dick, jack bruce. if you've ever seen the last waltz, where clapton plays some light, white-ass blues shuffle right after muddy waters just dropped a stunning version of Mannish Boy, you know what a phony clapton was. i'm not saying page was the most authentic guy out there, but these guys knew their blues and played it with real soul, huge riffs, and an oddly (i know, some would say silly) mystical edge.

6. Woody Guthrie
7. Black Sabbath
8. Grateful Dead
9. Townes Van Zandt
10. The Flying Burrito Brothers

Backstage

1. Alan Lomax
2. Hoagy Carmichael
3. Irving Berlin

You know who I just thought about who might deserve entry... Scott Joplin. Do piano rolls count as recordings?

I doubt that's a piano roll; I believe that the earliest mass releases of music in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, were actually sheet music. Now THAT'S DIY.

Like Gershwin, Joplin is eligible for the main hall (since he has a song in the top 3000), but he probably has a clearer shot at the Backstage Wing.

1. Led Zeppelin : rock'n roll is a matter of fun, exuberance much more than integrity. Yes, they stole blues songs, but that's how blues work (except that before them, nobody made THAT money. By mixing blues, rock and English folk, they just paved the way for heavy metal and hard rock , a genre I like. I know metal is not praised on this forum thet just prefers skeletal punk rock.
2. Merle Haggard : I think every one of us should agree on one non rock act, I mean make a sort of primary for blues/country/jazz artists if we want them to be inducted. My take is Merle.
3. Marvin Gaye : not much to add to Greg has said. The guy had just class.
4. Leadbelly
5.The Doors : I'm not a huge fan of morrison, but c'mon guys, I think that not inducting them would be a mistake. "Light My Fire", "The crystal ship", "LA Woman", "LOve Me 2 Times", "Roadhouse BLues" are fucking great songs.
6. Doc Watson
7. Serge Gainsbourg
8. Georges Brassens
9. David Bowie
10. John Lennon

I'm new to this, but here's my list:

1. Led Zeppelin - The archetypal hard rock band. Monster riffs, exceptionally strong albums, and the shroud of mysticism that people on AM hate in the bands that wish they were LZ. The best band of the 70's.
2. Marvin Gaye - The greatest soul artist ever released the best soul album ever in 1971, so he gets in the AM Hall in 1972. That's in addition to great pop songs like "Ain't no Mountain High Enough" and even better, "I Heard it Through the Grapevine." MG is just class, all the way.
3. John Lennon - His output as a solo artist is still small, but he's already a living legend in 1972. On the strength of "Imagine" (as close to a hymn as any pop song in the past 40 years, save Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah") alone I put him at #3.
4. The Doors - The best psychedelic band, pre-Dark Side of the Moon. A tad overrated, I still really like their debut album. If they didn't go so much into 10-minute psychedelic ramblings, I'd have put them over Lennon.
5. Cream - Yeah, they didn't make all that much music. Yeah, most of it is filler. But at the top of their game ("Crossroads," "Tales of Brave Ulysses") they were truly sublime.
6. CSN(&Y) - A lot of people don't like these guys, for reasons I still don't know. They captured the essence of a generation with songs like "Ohio" and "Woodstock."
7. The Temptations - My girl, my girl, my girrrrrrrrrrrllllllllll, talkin' about my girrrllll, my girl! Oooo-oo-oo-oooh, these guys are good.
8. B.B. King - Mr. King is really a king. He wrote the book on blues guitar 15 years before '72, and he's still going strong.
9. Jackson 5 - I heard "I Want You Back" today, and it is probably one of the most purely enjoyable songs ever.
10. Isaac Hayes - Can you dig it? Who else can wear a shirt made of gold and still look cool? (This choice is based on music, too. Damn, right).

Runners-up: Bowie, Joni, Sabbath. Sorry, I think I've heard "Iron Man" mangled by newbie guitarists to vote for Ozzy and Co. Dave and Joni, there are better times ahead.

01. LED ZEPPELIN: hard. This British super-group are, along with other bands as Black Sabbath or Deep Purple, the pioneers of the heavy metal sound, a new style that’s breaking the moulds right now, departing from the blues-rock of the past decade but pushing away its limits by increasing the noise, the distortion, the loudness and, yes, the arrogance too.
My favourite album: Led Zeppelin IV (1971).
My Top 5 Songs: Whole Lotta Love (1969), Black Dog (1971), Babe I’m Gonna Leave You (1969), Stairway to Heaven (1971), Dazed and Confused (1969).

02. MARVIN GAYE: smooth. He was already one of the best soul singers during the past decade but his bold move of last year has taken him to higher heights. The voice of the black America is bringing social issues and peace messages to his lyrics and is developing a smooth sound flying high (in the friendly sky) with the silky strings while keeping the feet on the ground with the funky rhythm section.
My favourite album: What’s Going On (1971).
My Top 3 Songs: What’s Going On (1971), Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler) (1971), Ain’t No Mountain High Enough (1967).

03. JOHN LENNON: peace. And if Marvin Gaye is bringing messages of peace to the black America, the former Beatles member is bringing it all over the world. But, amidst those peace anthems, he’s delivering a very personal body of work not hiding his highs and his lows, his delusions of grandeur and his childhood traumas.
My favourite album: Plastic Ono Band (1970).
My Top 3 Songs: God (1970), Cold Turkey (1969), Imagine (1971).

04. THE DOORS: rise and fall. Last year we lost some of the most notorious pop stars, victims of the self-destructive rock ‘n’ roll way of life. The case of Jim Morrison is one of the most painful, just when the last album by The Doors was almost as good as their debut album. Burned too soon.
My favourite album: The Doors (1967).
My Top 3 Songs: Riders on the Storm (1970), The End (1967), Light My Fire (1967).

05. JANIS JOPLIN: another star gone too soon, this time one of the greatest (and raspier) voices and of the stronger on-stage presence. Quoting a song from last year: “I met a girl who sang the blues / and I asked for some happy news / but she just smiled and turned away”.
My favourite album: Cheap Thrills (196 .
My Top 3 Songs: Me and Bobby McGee (1971), Piece of My Heart (196 , Try (Just a Little Bit Harder) (1969).

06. CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG
07. LEONARD COHEN
08. KING CRIMSON
09. DAVID BOWIE
10. PINK FLOYD


And at the backstage:
01. JOE BOYD.
02. JOHN HAMMOND.
03. JANN WENNER: the founder of Rolling Stone magazine has developed a new style of music journalism, with a tight compromise with counterculture and rock music. Favourite song: BOZ SCAGGS “Loan Me a Dime” (1969), part 1 and part 2, with an awesome guitar solo by Duane Allman, another great musician that passed away in 1971.

1. MERLE HAGGARD. I’m a little surprised (but pleased) to be putting him here.

2. JONI MITCHELL. If you have not yet listened to Blue, log off now and go rectify the situation—it’s a stone masterpiece. (The rest of us will wait…) And arguably, Joni gets better after this year.

3. FRANK ZAPPA/THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION. If he doesn’t get in now, I think he’s going to get swamped. I’m heartened to see that Henrik’s new lists might give us a new cornucopia of post-sixties Frank.

4. MARVIN GAYE. His time has come…although I like his later 70s stuff—Let’s Get It On and Here My Dear—even better.

5. T. REX. I expect to be walking a lonely road with this one…

6. THE FLYING BURRITO BROTHERS
7. THE TEMPTATIONS. “Papa Was a Rolling Stone” is next year.
8. MC5
9. ISAAC HAYES
10. DAVID BOWIE. If he doesn’t make it, I guarantee he’ll be at the top of my ballot next year. I think the only masterpiece he’s released so far is “Life on Mars.”

****

Backstage wing:
1. JANN WENNER
2. ANDY WARHOL
3. LESTER BANGS

1. Marvin Gaye - There's nothing to add, really. Already one of the greatest soul singers in the sixties, but now he released what arguably could be called the all time greatest soul album. A no-brainer if there ever was one.

2. Led Zeppelin - Truly groundbreaking. Sure, their obsession with Tolkien and folklore made it sometimes to pretentious, but LZ IV, their magnum opus, defined hard rock and brought pop music to the stadiums.

3. Frank Zappa / Mothers of Invention - Why is this taking so long? Shouldn't he be in by now? He ranks high in the list of most gifted musicians and composers of the 20th century. And of all the people in that list, he is certainly the funniest.

4. Charlie Parker - Another genius. Bird was a major influence on both bebop and blues, and one of the best improvisers.

5. Leonard Cohen - He was a poet before he turned into a singer/songwriter, and it shows. He's one of a kind, incomparable, and his songs simply beautiful.

6. David Bowie
7. The Doors
8. Leadbelly
9. Pink Floyd
10. Black Sabbath

Backstagers:
1. John Hammond - Great to see so many support! So many HOA'ers owe their career to him.
2. Alan Lomax
3. Les Paul

While we are on the subject of 1971 music, I just listened to John Prine's first album. It's really great.

That's all.

I seriously considered including Prine. He'll never come close to the top 50 eligibles list, but he's a favorite of mine.

I think his best album came out in 1999!

It hurts not to put Bowie in after releasing one of my favorite albums (Hunky Dory) and songs (Life on Mars?) of all time. He did not make the cut this year. Lot of great soul singers to consider this time out.

1. Django Reinhardt - Sweet and nimble.

2. The Impressions -- What do I do if people start voting for solo Mayfield next year? I have been all alone on the Impressions all this time. I really do prefer his stuff with the Impressions, but should I vote for him solo to get him in the Hall? (Not to say there will necessarily be a groundswell for him solo either.)

3. Charlie Parker - Essential.

4. Marvin Gaye - Only year he ever is above Wonder... after "What's Goin' On" and before "Music of My Mind" and "Talking Book"

5. Stevie Wonder -- ... "We Can Work It Out," "If You Really Love Me" "Never Dreamed You'd Leave In Summer"...

6. Led Zeppelin

7. The Supremes

8. Crosby, Stills, Nash (& Young) - Surpassing partial progenitor Buffalo Springfield... I'm a sucker for this kind of harmony.

9. The Temptations

10. Patsy Cline

Jackson 5 may not ever come back to my list. Thought I'd get the Dead in here also, but maybe I was wrong about the wealth of artists in the early and mid 70's.

1. Led Zeppelin – Probably the single most influential band, for good and ill, of the last 40 years.
2. Marvin Gaye – One of the great Motown singles artists of the 1960s, suddenly revealed as one of the great album artists of the 1970s.
3. Leonard Cohen – Why would Kurt Cobain dream of “a Leonard Cohen afterworld”? Listen to SONGS OF LOVE AND HATE (which came out this past year) and find out. Bonus ’71 points for being utilized so brilliantly in Altman’s McCABE & MRS. MILLER.
4. John Lennon – Followed up one of the rawest, most harrowing albums ever made with one of the most finely crafted (although IMAGINE isn’t without its moments of exquisite orneriness). Never reached those heights again as a solo artist (no telling what might have been, of course), but he didn’t have to.
5. David Bowie – Much, much more to come, obviously. But he’s getting in and he’s already made HUNKY DORY, so why wait?
6. Joni Mitchell
7. Black Sabbath
8. Ornette Coleman
9. Sonny Rollins
10. The Supremes

BACKSTAGE WING
1. Nicky Hopkins – Greatest session musician ever.
2. Jann Wenner
3. Rudy Van Gelder

1. The Monkees- How are the Monkees not on that top 50 list? More of the Monkees and Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones came out in '67 (Headquarters as well, but that's not as great as those two). The only thing essential that's missing is Valleri. EDIT: And now Head is out too. It would be a shame if they don't make it in.

2. The Zombies- One of the greatest albums ever and a few other singles should put them in right now... I'm sure they'll get in later if not now.

3. Pink Floyd- The only album needed to get them in has been released. There's some good stuff on Saucerful of Secrets too and add in those early singles. This is the band that deserves to be enshrined.

4. Harry Nilsson- One of the guys the Beatles raved about and his solo career (well his only career) was better than any of the Fab Fours.

5. David Bowie- Hunky Dory is one of my favorite albums but I have to wait to push him above my top four.

6. Black Sabbath

7. Herman's Hermits

8. John Lennon

9. Neil Diamond

10. Bill Fay


Reminders for later years: Art Blakey, Nico, Cream, The Doors, Phil Ochs, The Turtles, Led Zeppelin, Lovin Spoonful, The Supremes, Paul McCartney, Cat Stevens, Funkadelic, The Groundhogs, Alice Coltrane, Rod Stewart, Donovan, The Hollies, The Bee Gees