It’s that time of the year again my friends and I am speaking about the fact that the nominees for the 2017 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductions have been released. I’ll share them with you below and then we can discuss in a little more detail.

Nominees: Bad Brains, Chaka Khan, Chic, Depeche Mode, Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), The J. Geils Band, Janes Addiction, Janet Jackson, Joan Baez, Joe Tex, Journey, Kraftwerk, MC5, Pearl Jam, Steppenwolf, The Cars, The Zombies, Tupac Shakur and Yes.

Fans can vote their favorites in an online ballot that lets you select up to five artists. I’ll have that at the close of this missive.

PiercingMetal Thoughts: This year like others before it finds some interesting choices in the mix and I am running out of the groups to complain about not being included since we are finally seeing Yes on the ballot along with Journey and some others that I feel are long overdue. We also see more Rap and Disco related artists being included and my stand remains the same on those types of additions to the nominees. “THEY ARE NOT ROCK!!!!” Call me closed minded or not looking deep into the roots of said artists but someone like Tupac Shakur, while a legendary music figure, is a legendary RAP music figure and not a Rock one. Yeah Run DMC made it in, but they also did Rock things during their heyday. Chaka Khan is a little harder to speak against since she is widely known as the Queen Of Funk but Janet Jackson? No frigging way is that Rock at all and is more Pop Disco stuff. The top of my long overdue list goes to Yes who in my humble opinion are the reason that Progressive Rock exists. When I think of Prog I think of Yes and ELP and the latter one has been in for a few years now. I like a lot of the Rock acts being offered up and while Steppenwolf is widely known for taking the “Magic Carpet Ride” and being “Born To Be Wild” does this merit inclusion? Joe Tex is a Soul Artist and I must admit that I only ever knew his “Ain’t Going To Bump No More With No Big Fat Woman”. I wasn’t the biggest follower of the MC5 or Bad Brains and J.Geils Band either but loved so much Journey and Cars music that I was happy to see them be a part of the mix. The same applies for me with ELO whose back catalog was a part of my musical upbringing. Pearl Jam and Jane’s Addiction was a tossup for me personally and I opted for Pearl Jam being included based on liking more of their material than the other.

So before I close out I wanted to share who I voted for in the Fan Voting process. I selected Journey, The Cars, Electric Light Orchestra, Pearl Jam and Yes. I stuck to the Rock of course since this is the “Rock Hall” after all. I’ve shared the link below for you to give your opinions a chance and help honor the groups you feel are the most deserving. You can let me know what you think of this year’s nominees in the comments section below and if you choose to, please also let me know who you voted for. It will be nice to learn who others are behind.

Official Fan Voting: https://www.rockhall.com/vote