Fire up the old Super Bass-o-Matic '76 and jump into the special Bicentennial Edition of the HOA 1976 election.

Select the ten most deserving artists, based on records released through the end of 1975.

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, December 14, at 6:00 pm US Central time (midnight GMT).

Voting is now open.

1. Bruce Springsteen : will probably stay here until he's inducted. I'm probably the only one (with Greg maybe) to estimate him at his own value, his forum scores being always under his AM performances. I guess I can see why : too blue collar ? Not "happy-few" enough ? Too popular ? Too simple ? The last classic rock hero before herds of punks stormed rock'n roll territory ? I've always wondered… To me he's a great songwriter and live performer.

2. Robert Wyatt : another good album in 1975, "Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard". Under Robert Wyatt I'm including his former group Matching Mole and the songs he sung for Soft Machine.

3. Lou Reed : His solo works are so important and good that you can't consider him as a part of Velevet Underground

4. Leadbelly

5. Curtis Mayfield : For his own works (Curtis, Superfly) and for blaxpoitation soul

6.Dick Annegarn
7.Gram Parsons
8.Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
9.Doc Watson
10.Zappa/Mothers

Sorry I'm busy and sick so my English may have been chaotic (is that an English word ?)

oh, and backstage

1. Chris Blackwell : done so much for Jamaican music
2. Brian Eno : he's got more chances to be inducted in the backstage session, and he deserves it
3. Hilly Kristal : founder of the legendary CBGB

1. Bruce Springsteen - no more hidin' on the backstreets...this way please, mr. springsteen...
2. Steely Dan
3. Jackson Browne
4. George Jones
5. John Cale
6. Todd Rundgren
7. Lou Reed
8. Randy Newman
9. Willie Nelson
10. Lynyrd Skynyrd

backstage

1. Hoagy Carmichael
2. D.A. Pennebaker
3. Norman Whitfield

1. Bruce Springsteen - There's no way he won't get in this year. He deserves to, on account of how great "Born to Run" is. One of the best of the entire decade.
2. Elton John - I'm surprised at the lack of love for the Rocket Man on this forum. Simply put, he's the best piano rocker ever, with tons of great songs.
3. Parliament/Funkadelic - Probably the greatest funk band ever, and Mothership Connection = Funk Gold. P-Funk will do it to you in your earhole.
4. Paul McCartney - P-Mac still has a very good album and several hit singles out in 1975, but he's getting closer to "Ebony and Ivory" every day.
5. Queen - How could you not love "Bohemian Rhapsody"? It's one of the most astounding songs ever set to tape.
6. Lynyrd Skynyrd - LS rock it right. They're just good ol' boys with a knack for boogie and they can write a mean ballad too.
7. Aerosmith - They released their best album and song this year, one of which will be remade into a hip-hop classic.
8. George Harrison - All Things Must Pass. Eventually, George will too if he doesn't get in soon.
9. Steely Dan - After reconsidering, I'm including them in my top 10. They have such a unique sound.
10. Kraftwerk - Now for unique sounds, this is where you go. They will only get better.

1. GRAM PARSONS – Great composer, integral member of famous bands, tragic death before 30. Here are how some albums prominently featuring Parsons rank on AM: 130. Grievous Angel (solo), 152. The Gilded Palace of Sin (Flying Burrito Brothers), 167. Sweetheart of the Rodeo (Byrds), 398. GP (solo). That’s 4 albums in the top 400 folks and 3 in the top 200. The man needs a little more respect.

2. PARLIAMENT/FUNKADELIC – The funkiest band ever?

3. LEADBELLY – Legendary.

4. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN – I guess he deserves it, as much as he bothers me. Thunder Road is a great song.

5. PATTI SMITH – Horses is better than Born To Run, or so I have read.

6. GEORGE JONES – On the same level as fellow AM Hall of Famers Hank, Johnny, and Merle.

7. CHARLIE PARKER - Maybe?

8. WILLIE NELSON - No chance.

9. HARRY NILSSON - No chance.

10. TOWNES VAN ZANDT - No chance.

Backstage

1. Les Paul
2. W.C. Handy
3. Clarence White (amazing session player and more)

01. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: who else? Springsteen is the obvious winner of 1975’s ballot and, as Jon Landau said, the rock and roll future. The overpowering sound of the E-Street Band, the impetuous stories about Romeos and Juliets of the backstreets, the enthusiastic vocal deliverances… What else can we do now? Except roll down the window and let the wind blow back our hair…
My favourite album: Born to Run (1975).
My Top 5 Songs: Born to Run (1975), Thunder Road (1975), Jungleland (1975), Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) (1973), Growin’ Up (1973).

02. LLUÍS LLACH: time for changes in my home country. The dictator Franco just died in his bed and it’s time for democracy. And time to remember the singers who fought the fascist regime with their words and music as the only weapons, time to remember Lluís Llach and his intimate anthems.
My favourite album: I si canto trist (1974).
My Top 3 Songs: Abril 74 (1975), Que Tinguem Sort (1974), Respon-me (1969) (no you tube video for “Respon-me”, the link is for 1968’s “L’estaca” instead).

03. ELTON JOHN: a man with a gift for melody, a man with the best of tastes to craft sumptuous ballads and raucous rockers and the worst of tastes to choose clothes and glasses. But maybe these were the two reasons that has made him a star.
My favourite album: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973).
My Top 3 Songs: Your Song (1970), Rocket Man (1972), Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973).

04. GENESIS: having failed to convince anybody to vote for King Crimson I suppose that no one is going to follow me now. But this band of uncertain future (leader Peter Gabriel just left the band), sums the best of the prog-rock, with complex song structures and arrangements at the service of Gabriel weird tales.
My favourite album: Selling England by the Pound (1973).
My Top 3 Songs: Carpet Crawlers (1974), The Musical Box (1971), Supper’s Ready (1972).

05. QUEEN: and, after a Top 4 of artist quite given to bombast, here it comes the bombast itself, the pomp, the operatic rock, the rock ‘n’ roll circus. But, if you look at it as humorous prog-rock, then you can enjoy the meticulous arrangements and the talent of the band members, especially the histrionic singer Freddie Mercury.
My favourite album: A Night at the Opera (1975).
My Top 3 Songs: Bohemian Rhapsody (1975), Killer Queen (1974), Death on Two Legs (Dedicated to… (1975).

06. LOU REED: “Coney Island Baby” is not as good as the previous three but it’s a great album too. Come on, let’s induct him this year.
07. STEELY DAN
08. GRAM PARSONS.
09. PATTI SMITH.
10. BRIAN ENO.


And at the backstage:
01. HIPGNOSIS: Storm Thorgerson and Audrey Powell are two British designers responsible of many of the most interesting album covers of today, for prog-rock bands as Genesis (“The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway” , Led Zeppelin (“Houses of the Holy” , 10cc (“Sheet Music” or The Nice (“Elegy” . But the main clients of Hipgnosis are Pink Floyd, with history-making covers as the cow on “Atom Heart Mother”, the prism on “Dark Side of the Moon” and, of course, the burning man shaking hands of “Wish You Were Here”. Favourite song: PINK FLOYD Wish You Were Here (1975).
02. CHRIS BLACKWELL.
03. THE FUNK BROTHERS.




I can’t resist to post too the Llach song that’s not on you tube. People like you that always lived in a free country can’t really understand the feeling of a people that recovers freedom after long years of dictatorship. In this recording from January 1976, shortly after Franco’s death, you can hear the audience demanding the amnesty of political convicts shouting “¡Amnistia, llibertat!” (Amnesty, liberty!) and applauding some parts of the lyrics, with the closest communication possible between artist and audience (think about that not many people knew the song then because it was forbidden by Franco’s censorship). The chorus of the song is the perfect sum of the feelings of Catalonian (and Spanish) people about the Spanish Civil War and the post-war period.

“Qui va vèncer?
Qui del ferros forjats per les bombes
va fer un poble nou?
Qui va vèncer?
Qui damunt de tants cossos aixafats
va aixecar eixa casa per a tothom?
Qui va vèncer?
Qui del llit s’aixeca amb el dret
d’anar pel carrer sense tenir por?
Pots dir m’ho tu?
Pots dir m’ho tu?
Saps que ningú.
Tots som vençuts,
tots hem perdut.”

“Who won?
Who from the irons forged by the bombs
built a new town?
Who won?
Who above so many crushed bodies
raised this house for everyone?
Who won?
Who gets out of bed with the right
of walking down the street with no fear?
Could you tell me?
Could you tell me?
You know that no one.
Everyone is defeated,
everyone lost.”


share your files at box.net

Woohoo! The Doors are in. Time for a new number one.

1. Bruce Springsteen - Who else than The Boss himself, the savior of rock n roll?
2. Frank Zappa & The Mothers - Induction is near! I can feel it. Maybe not this year, but at least this decade.
3. Charlie Parker - Greatest jazz genius not in the HoA.
4. Leadbelly - Terrific songwriter, responsible for some of the greatest folk and blues standards.
5. Cream - Still trying to get Clapton in.
6. Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
7. Janis Joplin
8. Queen
9. Lou Reed
10. Elton John

Backstage (same as last week):
1. Les Paul
2. Leonard Chess
3. W.C. Handy

Well, I was wrong about Springsteen...
Good news.
But now I see that his relatively low ratings at AM polls are mainly a generation thing.
By the way, I should put my geodemographic thread on top for all the newcomers here.

I'm a big fan of A Night At The Opera. However, following from my failure to vote for Bowie after Hunky Dory and Springsteen after Greetings From Asbury Park (two albums that I love even more), I can't see voting for them yet. Later on... perhaps. But things are about to get tight.

I just bought Horses recently, and it rose in my estimation upon relistening. To be frank, I don't know her other output, except the two big songs off of Easter, at all. I feel a little sheepish about possibly leaving her out of voting entirely, but that may be how it's gonna be.

The top three stay the same, but two new entries crash the top-5.

1. Django Reinhardt -- I think my last shot at getting him in has passed. I'll consider dropping him down the line, but I won't be happy about it.

2. The Impressions -- Ditto

3. Charlie Parker - Still have hope for Bird.

4. Parliament/Funkadelic -- Freaky, funny, by equal measures tight and loose. These apostles and funky practitioners of "The One" (no, not Barack Obama, I'm talking about the beat -- "Get up for the down stroke, everybody get up") provided the best prescription for living in the 70's: "Free your mind and your ass will follow"; "Shit, God Damn, Get off your ass and jam"; "Put a glide in your stride and a dip in your hip and come on up to the Mothership." And not only were they prescriptive, they were prophetic: "They still call it the White House, but that's a temporary conidtion, too."

5. Bruce Springsteen -- And at the other end of the theatrical spectrum.... Sure, Born To Run, was a conscious shot at glory. Can a rock artist achieve euphoric heights for himself and his audience while stripping away all (apparent) artifice. (We now know that he is not without artifice, he just tries to hide that fact. Springsteen is not James Dean, he just possesses a fine in-road into the psyche of Dean and his descendents.) I don't think that he gets there on the whole album ("Thunder Road," "Backstreets," and "Jungleland" all feel a little forced to me), but he certainly does on the title song, and had already done so (when he wasn't trying so hard) on "For You," "Spirit In the Night," and "Rosalita."

6. Crosby, Stills, Nash (& Young) - What can I say, I'm a sucker for their harmonies.

7. Patsy Cline

8. Curtis Mayfield

9. The Staple Singers - Their two big hits are part of it. But Pops, Mavis, et al. were doing some very different stuff in the world of gospel in the 50's and 60's. A clear inspiration for the Impressions.

10. The Grateful Dead - Still think Dinah Washington is better, but she's got no shot.

Backstage:
1. Irving Berlin
2. Norman Granz
3. Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff -- "I Can't Stop Dancing," "Only The Strong Survive," "Me and Mrs. Jones," "If You Don't Know Me By Now," "Backstabbers," "Love Train," "The Love I Lost," "Now That We Found Love," "For The Love Of Money," "TSOP." I'm not saying that the Philadelphia Soul sound reached the heights of Stevie Wonder or P-Funk or Curtis Mayfield, but it was a crucial part of pre-hip-hop soul music. And it was mostly down to those Gamble and Huff.

1. Bruce Springsteen – At the time, he really WAS rock and roll’s future, as critic/future producer Jon Landau had hyperbolically written. Now, he almost seems to be receding into rock’s past – the fact that the man is turning 60 (!) next year is probably as hard to believe for some of us as it is for the younger among us to comprehend what an object of worship he once was. Some of his music and posturing, admittedly, doesn’t hold up all that well. But the best of it – and there’s a lot of that – does, and then some. Get past the mythology and the newer stuff’s pretty damn good, too.

2. Steely Dan – The contrasts were always heady: fiendishly complex music (executed by the best session pros money could buy), performed in brilliantly crafted and highly accessible pop contexts, all in the service of a ferociously cynical and near-misanthropic view of the world. Becker and Fagen are the Coen Brothers of rock, and the early albums – made before, to borrow Robert Christgau’s phrase, pursuit of The Tasty became its own reward – are masterpieces.

3. New York Dolls – I can’t believe I’ve forgotten about them two votes in a row. They only made two albums, but they’re one of the all-time great bands, and their influence is incalculable. David Johansen and Johnny Thunders came off like Mick & Keith if they’d never taken off the drag from the “Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby” video and started gobbling amphetamines 24/7. The Dolls were unabashedly hip, but there wasn’t a cynical bone in their bodies: they may have needed both a fix and a kiss, but you always sensed that the kiss was more important (even if that sadly wasn't true for some of them in real life).

4. Brian Eno – He’s one of music’s most relentlessly adventurous and experimental figures, but what really qualifies him for the Hall of Acclaim are the solo albums he made in the years immediately following his exit from Roxy – brilliantly eclectic, highly accessible, and more often than not, funny as all hell (he’d deserve to be here just for the wicked Bryan Ferry impression he briefly whips out on “Dead Finks Don’t Talk”).

5. Lou Reed – His post-Velvets career somehow manages to brilliantly reboot itself every few years or so, resulting in an inconsistent but remarkably formidable body of solo work.

6. Randy Newman
7. Gram Parsons
8. Patti Smith
9. Frank Zappa
10. Elton John

BACKSTAGE WING
1. Nicky Hopkins
2. Brian Holland/Lamont Dozier/Eddie Holland
3. Rudy Van Gelder

1. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN. Yeah, baby. This isn’t quite the shoo-in that, say, Bowie was after Ziggy came out, but close. Most of the issues I have with Bruce don’t yet apply in 1976; he hasn’t yet let himself be convinced that he should become the Great American Bard. At this point he’s still just one of rock’s great bandleaders.
2. ZAPPA/MOTHERS. I’ve come to the conclusion that he’s going to get in eventually, maybe in a relatively slow year.
3. GRAM PARSONS. But Gram might have a harder road (seems appropriate, somehow). As far as I can tell, just about the only cool country-rocker of the 1970’s, perhaps because he’d been doing it for a while.
4. PATTI SMITH. Didn’t think I’d be putting her this low, but she has more career to come. Horses is a bit overrated, but not by much (didn’t I say that about Astral Weeks?).
5. PARLIAMENT/FUNKADELIC. Already majestic, and for the rest of the decade, they will only rise. I recently picked up the Live ’76 DVD, which is just a jaw-dropper.
6. T. REX
7. PATSY CLINE
8. LOU REED
9. WILLIE NELSON
10. ELTON JOHN

Here's a quick push poll--would anyone complain if I expanded the eligibles list to the top 100, starting with the 1976 election?

Steely Dan
10cc
Stevie Wonder
Earth Wind and Fire
Lennon
Randy Newman
Todd Rundgren
Boz Scaggs
Joni Mitchell
Dylan

hi, pete, welcome to the game

We cannot take your list into account for the moment because :

- you must justify your first 5 choices
- dylan, joni mitchell, stevie wonder and lennon are already inducted

Please summit a new list !

If it's not too much work for you, schleuse, I wouldn't mind seeing an expended eligibles list.

Nicolas, I agree that Eno should get into the backstage wing, but right now? Most of his big production credits are a few years away.

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. 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.

4. Paul McCartney- I love his debut album but not enough to make the list. Now that Band on the Run is out he's in.

5. Herman's Hermits- Back in the top 5.

6. Neil Diamond

7. Todd Rundgren

8. Bill Fay

9. Funkadelic

10. The Hollies

Backstage:

1. D.A. Pennebaker



Reminders for later years: Art Blakey, Nico, Cream, Phil Ochs, The Turtles, Lovin Spoonful, The Supremes, Cat Stevens, The Groundhogs, Alice Coltrane, Rod Stewart, Donovan, The Bee Gees, Rod Stewart

Two reminders for Rod Stewart..? That's two too many, if you ask me.

1. Lou Reed

2. Parliament/Funkadelic

3. Can

4. Nico

5. Patti Smith- Doubly dexterous as poet and raw, raucous rocker, Patti delivered one of the most compelling albums of the 70s with her amazing debut.

6. Sparks

7. Kraftwerk

Rod's been on a lot of great albums. Every Picture Tells a Story, Jeff Beck's Truth and Faces "Nod is as Good as a Wink". He stays in the honorable mention for now (twice!) because of all the crap in between.

Schleuse, go on with your bad self with that eligibles list!

schwah,

I'm impressed by your tenacity with Django. He's a great artist, one of my favorite jazzmen, but I don't know him that well in fact (only own a couple of compilations) that's why he didn't appear much on my lists.

You said you would like to hear some Brel, but i think that Brassens is much closer to the spirit of Django.
You can try this beautiful song (don't pay attention to the clip, that's all I found on youtube).
And next week, Django will be back on my list (even if I doubt it will be enough)