Songs Of Proof: The Class Of 2005

The Class Of 2005 is particularly special to me for a few reasons.  This is a class that I was very interested about knowing who made it, because a band I was very hopeful for was becoming eligible for the first year.  And that act did get nominated and inducted that first year.  And because they were going in, I was fully committed to watching the full ceremony, or at least the full broadcast as shown on VH1.  Prior to this though, I made a list of a hundred names, across the various categories, that I wanted inducted at the time.  Looking back, there are several names that I now see need to come off the list for lack of merit.  I was enthusiastic for the Hall, but I didn't really understand what the powers-that-be look for, or what really makes an artist worthy of induction.  That list was extremely heavy with '60's acts.  So some need to come off the list... some you could still argue for, and some still need very much to be inducted, in my opinion.  But every year since that original list, at least one name has come off it because a name has gotten inducted.  Just to satisfy curiosity, here are the names that have come off each year since I first created the list.

2005: the O'Jays, U2
2006: Black Sabbath, the Sex Pistols
2007: Van Halen
2008: the Dave Clark Five, John Cougar Mellencamp, the Ventures
2009: Little Anthony And The Imperials
2010: Jeff Barry And Ellie Greenwich, Genesis, the Hollies, Barry Mann And Cynthia Weil, Mort Shuman
2011: Alice Cooper, Neil Diamond, Leon Russell
2012: Donovan
2013: Rush, Donna Summer
2014: KISS
2015: Ringo Starr
2016: Chicago, Deep Purple, Steve Miller (Band)
2017: Electric Light Orchestra, Journey
2018: the Cars, the Moody Blues

Just to clarify, this is the from the list as first compiled in 2004, so a lot of acts now in were not eligible at the time.  Anyway, I find it interesting that every year, at least one name has come off.  It began with 2005, the first ceremony that I watched the entirety of.  I only saw bits and pieces of the ceremonies from 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004, but this one, I committed to watching the full ceremony, and the performances by Jerry Lee Lewis and Bo Diddley need to be remembered, too, in addition to what we got from our inductees.  This is also the first class since the early '90's where there are more inducted Black artists than White, but between two bands, there were more inducted White people than Black in the Performer category.  For this project, the selections are a little on the cliche side: four of the five Performer inductees are saluted with their biggest hit on the pop or R&B charts.  Sometimes though, the biggest hits are solid choices that should be used.  Looking at this class in more detail now, our smallest class to date, it breaks down as such.

Frank Barsalona:  To my knowledge, the first and only inductee to have been inducted by a fictional character. He's also the only inductee from this year to not perform at the ceremony.  Credited as the man who made concerts something worth going to see, his concert promotions company helped make shows properly exhibit and encapsulate the elan that the songs are supposed to give to the audience and the performers alike.  Among the acts that he helped make a spectacle to behold were the Who, so I chose a song by the Who to salute the man.  No real reason why I chose this particular song. It's a fun song, one I love, I chose "Squeeze Box."  It's not the most theatrical song, not like "Who Are You," "Won't Get Fooled Again," or "Baba O'Riley," but the lyrical double-entendre lends a certain theatricality to the song, so I'm using it.

Buddy Guy:  A fantastic blues musician.  I could have listened to him, Eric Clapton, and B.B. King jamming together for another hour.  Great speeches, fantastic jamming, he made the blues come alive on stage.  That's part of what makes him so influential, as well as the tremendous records he made.  His sole hit single on the R&B charts was "Stone Crazy," and it's a song with pained vocals, great guitar licks, a melancholy horn line, and an electrifying atmosphere.  It's a song that screams, "Damn right, I got the blues!"  Sometimes the obvious choice works beautifully.

The O'Jays:  One of my all-time favorite soul acts, the O'Jays were a stellar group that spent a lot of years paying their dues before breaking through in the early '70's.  The years spent honing their craft combined with finding the proper home as part of Gamble & Huff's Philadelphia International family, they broke through big with sweet harmony, catchy melodies, arrangements that depending on the need would underscore or enhance what's being sung, and of course, their messages.  They hit big with their socially conscious opuses like "Back Stabbers," "For The Love Of Money," "Put Your Hands Together," "Listen To The Clock On The Wall," and "Family Reunion."  Not every song was full of morals in the music, though, such as "992 Arguments," "I Love Music," and "Use Ta Be My Girl."  Their sole #1 hit on the Hot 100, "Love Train" is the song being used to represent them here because the idea of love permeating their music, whether it was religious, romantic, familial, or social; it's a powerful theme for them... you might even say it's the very soul of their music.  (Vocal Group Hall Of Fame Song Of Proof: "Put Your Hands Together")

The Pretenders:  The Pretenders are, in my opinion, the perfect example of the "No X Before Y" fallacy when discussing the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.  Most people are fine with the Pretenders being inducted; the only quibble being that they were inducted on their first year of eligibility.  But if you agree that they should be inducted, does it really matter when?  For the sake of the ceremony, probably.  And with the classes being kept purposely small, it does force people to be a bit more choosy.  All that aside, when it comes to the Pretenders, people are fine with acknowledging their brand of rock and roll that embraces the influences of both punk and the Beach Boys and makes a melodic and driving combination, topped off with the beautiful voice of Chrissie Hynde.  "Back On The Chain Gang" is the song used here, as it's a perfect example of those qualities.

Percy Sledge:  The inductee everyone loves to hate.  The inductee everyone holds to be the poster child for cronyism running the Hall.  There have only been two defenses for Percy Sledge that I've heard, and one of them is mine, and even that was argued from a devil's advocate position, an exercise in Lorenzo Valla-esque dialogue.  A friend of mine once said that Percy Sledge was a decent call because if you're going to program an Oldies station, "When A Man Loves A Woman" is one of the three songs you absolutely must have.  He didn't mention what the other two were, but based on how much the songs were overkill on Oldies stations in my area growing up, I guess that means he'd be okay with inducting Los Bravos and J. J. Jackson, as well.  My argument for Percy Sledge, again, done just for the sake of argument, is that "When A Man Loves A Woman" was a fairly innovative and influential record, and kicked down the door, making it possible for smooth soul like that of the Dells, the Stylistics, the Chi-Lites, Donny Hathaway, and many, many others to be heard by the masses, ushering the style into the conversation and the cultural zeitgeist.  And naturally, I'm using "When A Man Loves A Woman" for him, because duh.  And the man's dead now, too, so let's let him rest in peace.

Seymour Stein:  In case you don't remember, or didn't see the 2005 ceremony, when Seymour Stein took the podium to accept his induction, he sang a song, presumably one traditionally sung at bar mitzvahs.  I really don't know what the song was or if it is traditional at bar mitzvahs--if you've ever seen my picture, I'm exactly as WASP-ish as I look.  But even he sang at his induction, making the aforementioned Frank Barsalona the only one to not perform this year.  Stein said why shouldn't he sing, he felt like he was at his bar mitzvah again, and that rock and roll helped him keep young, a sentiment that Dick Clark also shared.  Ice-T said it wonderfully in his speech, about Sire Records, which Stein founded, becoming home to artists with a certain kind of edge, whatever that edge was.  The music best known for its edge might possibly be punk, and because Seymour said rock and roll made him feel young, I chose Ramones' cover of "Do You Wanna Dance" to salute Seymour Stein.

U2:  My second-favorite act, behind only the Four Seasons.  I love their music, though maybe not every song.  I admire everything they've tried to use their celebrity to accomplish, even when it seems to border on the edge (see what I did there?) of farcical.  I was a member of a U2 Yahoogroup for several years, and when they were inducted, I transcribed Bruce Springsteen's induction speech and posted it in the group's file section.  I love their music, but even in the U2 community, I'm a bit of an oddball.  U2 fans usually say The Joshua Tree or Achtung Baby is their favorite album by this band.  Me?  My favorite is one of the lesser loved albums by the community, and the one right between those two, Rattle And Hum.  Zooropa is probably my all-time favorite concept album, depicting the concept of a city with no soul, where national mottos are advertising slogans, too much is not enough, and the denizens are dead inside, living for only what they can get out of others.  I might argue that it's the perfect description of American society, but it might possibly be accurately said to some degree about most Western nations.  I also once hypothesized that the album is about a city without the Ten Commandments, and each song represents to some degree, a violation of a commandment, though they don't go straight from first to tenth, but instead jump around a bit.  Their songs have frequently been infused with the spirituality of their faith, while also had something to say about living in the world.  This is the only Performer inductee from this class that I didn't use the biggest hit as the representative.  Going a different direction, I decided to use a song that shows rock and roll still going strong, remaining current and relevant, and when U2 was inducted their most recent huge hit was "Vertigo," a song that people don't like as well as the favorites from the earlier years, but is still a powerfully driving song with a spiritual theme and shows them as a band that still has something to say.

And with that, we have wrapped up our look at the Class Of 2005.  Is there a lesser known favorite by any of these inductees that you'd have chosen instead?  Got another viewpoint to defend the induction of Percy Sledge?  Tell all in the Comments section below.  Recapping:

Frank Barsalona: "Squeeze Box" by the Who
Buddy Guy: "Stone Crazy"
the O'Jays: "Love Train"
the Pretenders: "Back On The Chain Gang"
Percy Sledge: "When A Man Loves A Woman"
Seymour Stein: "Do You Wanna Dance" by Ramones
U2: "Vertigo"

Meanwhile, the Vocal Group Hall Of Fame also had a Class Of 2005 that was quite a bit bigger.  Their songs selected are as follows:

the Angels: "'Til"
the Brooklyn Bridge: "Blessed Is The Rain"
the Chiffons: "One Fine Day"
the Chi-Lites: "Have You Seen Her"
the Crystals: "Da Doo Ron Ron (When He Walked Me Home)"
the Del-Vikings: "Whispering Bells"
Fleetwood Mac: "Say You Love Me"
the Hilltoppers: "Marianne"
the Mel-Tones: "Where Or When"
the Neville Brothers: "Dancing Jones"
the Pointer Sisters: "Fire"
the Rascals: "A Girl Like You"
the Righteous Brothers: "Just Once In My Life"
the Sons Of The Pioneers: "Tumbling Tumbleweeds"
the Spaniels: "Goodnite Sweetheart, Goodnite"
the Tymes: "Wonderful, Wonderful"