The Bert Blyleven Poll

I realize Yo La Tengo's sort of out of place--I added them because they come out the mid-'80s and they've got a large body of work. I voted for Husker Du; I'd also put the Replacements, Sonic Youth (objectively speaking; I'm only a casual fan), and, yes, Yo La Tengo in there.

I'm not sure if Bert Blyleven is the best comparison to make here. I mean, I would consider any of these bands the Bert Blyleven of anything! Amazing "underground" heroes? Maybe Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson? Anyways, I went with Sonic Youth.

I mean, I would not

I would think the Pixies and Sonic Youth have a leg up on most of these acts in terms of critical/commercial recognition.

Maybe Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson?

Huh?? Don't get this at all. The rock equivalent of those guys would have to be, like, Rufus Thomas -- somebody with race records and maybe minstrel shows on his resume. Don't think the Pixies ever did that.

Not really getting Blyleven, either, though. (At first, I saw the Huskers and Replacements and figured it had something to do with Minnesota. If we're talking the "jumping as a teenager from high school to the big leagues" thing, I can think of way better examples than a bunch of indie-rock lifers.)

Anyway, I don't pay attention to the R&R HoF much, but I'd guess if any of these bands has a shot, it'd be Sonic Youth, if only for longevity, and the fact that voters might recognize their name. And they become eligible years before the Pixies (though not before X, Black Flag, and one or two others I guess.) Yo La Tengo, to me, seems like the longest shot, by far -- do non-indie-rock obsessives have any idea who they are, even? (Though maybe you could say the same for the Minutemen and Husker Du, and a couple others. Rollins's later career probably made Black Flag a more famous name than they once were. Not sure about Replacements, but there's probably a certain small segment of industry types who came of age believing they were the world's greatest band, a claim that just seems sillier as time goes on.)

Maybe Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson?

Huh?? Don't get this at all.

My reasoning was that Paige and Gibson were incredibly awesome and yet most people had/have never heard of them.

I think SY will be first from that list, but that the Minutemen are the most deserving, not even considering the Tragic Destiny backstory.

The Bert Blyleven heading means nothing beyond the fact that he's been waiting forever to get into the baseball HOF, and that if any of the names listed above go in, they'll probably also have to wait forever--you can call it the Ron Santo poll if you want. It'd be hard to find a pop-music equivalent of Blyleven: a large body of work, and an odd combination of brilliance (his percentage stats: H/9, E.R.A., etc.) and more pedestrian slogging-away (for all the brilliance, he won 20 exactly once, and reached 17 or more wins only seven times). Too much baseball for this board, I know...

jack morris deserves it more than bert blyleven

Sonic Youth will likely be first, and no, Jack Morris is no HOFer.

jack morris was "good" but not great

in a jack morris poll i would vote for elastica. maybe icehouse.

the title is apt b/c most baseball dorks think he should be in the HOF; many music dorks think these are among the best bands of their eras

voted mats btw

he = blyleven

the real problem with the blyleven analogy is the implied equivalence between halls of fame. not that cooperstown doesn't have its blind spots and whatever, and you can argue whether there's any useful purpose served by having a hall in the first place, but the baseball institution to me is miles more relevant to the thing it's memorializing than the scattershot boomer self-mythologizing of the rock hall. the rock hall is on a par with the grammys to me, sort of marginally interesting if there's nothing else good on tv that night.

(and at least the grammys have had the sense to realize nobody cares who wins their stupid awards and make the show all about performances.)

oh, people care who win grammy awards--see sales bumps after each one (some minor, some not)

missing the point, matos. still more people care if aerosmith gets into the R&R HOF. the point of the analogy is there's some kind of line between the casuals and the ppl who know their shit

and i'm not trying to imply that you have awful taste if you are counting the days until nickeback are enshrined, rather i'm just pointing out the pretty simple analogy that "clemenza" was trying to make. a bit inside baseball but still not that hard a concept

Again, no argument that the Rock and Roll HOF is, at best, an incomprehensible mess. There's something about the voting (if there even is a vote) that interests me nonetheless, which is trying to figure out where it will lead in the coming years when they unavoidably have to step outside of whatever mindset that decided the Pretenders and the Police and Queen needed to be in there. I'm especially interested in where there'll draw the line when it comes to hip-hop and the '80s bands that led up to Nirvana. One amendment to an earlier post: I said that it would be hard to find a pop-music equivalent of Blyleven's combination of some brilliance mixed in with lots of slogging away. I forgot that that describes about three million bands from the Kinks on down.

Paige and Gibson are in the HOF.

Jack Morris WAS great, just not great long enough.

pixies will probably be first

aren't most of these bands already eligible? what is it, 25 years after your debut? Wouldn't that make Husker, SY, Replacements and Minutemen up for induction? also, Bert Blyleven, lol. Had his rookie card.

Morris should get in for that Game 7 vs. Braves alone.

To use a sports analogy, the Pixies can't hold Husker Du's jockstraps.

X seems like a shoe-in for this year or next!

And they become eligible years before the Pixies

Well, only five years, and two of those years have already passed.

I'd guess X are (sadly) pretty much forgotten by most people who'd vote on such things; it's not like they get talked about much anymore. But yeah, going by the 25-year rule, all of these bands except the Pixies and Yo La Tengo should already be eligible.

Had his rookie card.

Me too. (In fact, I probably had the entire 1971 Topps set, at one point.)

xp Actually, six years right? (1982 to 1988?)

Come On Pilgrim = 1987

who's the a-rod of music

A band/artist who is ultra-talented, but fails miserably when it counts the most? a total moron when it comes to PR? history of drug use?

a band with bitch tits

And has fucked Madonna

in that case the correct answer, I guess, is Tad

xp So Swans then.

i mean, this sort of thing is just going to increase as rock n roll gets more and more niche-y right? it's not like they inducted Television or anything, even though Marquee Moon regularly shows up in "best albums ever" polls/lists. have they inducted the Stooges yet?

Maybe the Veteran's Committee will induct these bands in twenty years.

Looking at this cynically: we could take a look at total career record sales and ask: do any of these bands stack up with the other bands already admitted or likely to be admitted, from their era? I mean REM is in, but they sold a ton in the late 80s/early 90s. I don't think e.g. Sonic Youth is even close. And I think Sonic Youth is the likeliest of these.

Thing is, there are plenty of respected '80s and '90s bands that actually sold records to choose from, even if they weren't as good as most bands above. Like, I'd expect Los Lobos (who were better than some bands up above) and Jane's Addiction and Pearl Jam and Soundgarden to have a better shot than Sonic Youth, Huskers, X, etc. Hell, maybe even Living Colour and Midnight Oil have a better shot.

Or Dire Straits. (They're not in yet, right?) Or the Cure.

Dire Straits seems like a perfect candidate for the Rock and Roll hall of Fame. Total middle of the road mediocrity.

yeah i feel like more and more, 80s/90s bands are just going to be impossible for the hall of fame to deal with. I mean, who are the shoo ins? Guns n Roses, Nirvana, Pearl Jam ... is there anyone else? Radiohead, I guess. And xhuxk is on the mark about bands like Los Lobos, or like, the Blasters or something.

Looking at the list of past inductees who were big in the 80s, it seems to me: it's going to take a while to get down to Los Lobos (which is a brilliant suggestion, thinking along the lines of the Hall), let alone Sonic Youth.

X would get in first off of this list because they are from LA and did country music and were on a major label. That equals authenticity.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Just now they showed Bert Blyleven eating worms for charity on the MLB Network.

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