LordofDaRing wrote:Nice article posted therer Sadie, he even mentions Styx in it.
Yawn Weener did die Sterling, at least brain dead years ago. His Rolling Stoned magazine, via its covers, keeps confusing Obama and Gore for Elvis, the Beatles and all other legit rock stars. Some other organization should legitametly start up a Real Rock Hall of Fame and start all over, leaving political correctness and politics completely out of it.
Sterling, this might be a sore subject, but did you ever try to interview him?
No, I didn't . . . I knew there was no point, he almost never grants interviews, and he would have nothing to benefit by talking about Styx. It's a pretty open secret that he and JY were friendly once upon a time, and that a falling out between them is part of why RS has singled Styx out for such special abuse over the years. If you go back and read the RS review for 'Crystal Ball', it calls it one of the best rock albums of the year, and it mentions that 'Equinox' was one of the best records of the prior year, so it's really two positive reviews in one. When you get to 'The Grand Illusion', it gets panned, and "Miss America" is singled out for invective. What happened was, when GI started to really break, Wenner was hinting strongly to JY that Styx might be the subject of an in-depth cover story. In the end he went with something else, and he and JY had a falling out, and RS has basically had an unwritten editorial policy of Styx-bashing ever since.
Mind you, I'm not saying that if not for that incident, Styx would have gotten critical respect. It would not have. Styx was part of a genre, the album rock bands, that RS hated anyway. RS bashed ALL of those bands, not just Styx. But Styx got singled out for much more abuse than even Journey or REO, and I will always believe that the JY/Wenner thing had a lot to do with that.
As for the Rock Hall of Fame, it's pretty well understood that Wenner and his circle of cronies control the nomination and voting so closely that it's basically a sham. What kind of Hall of "FAME" has no way for the public to participate, either in the nominations or the voting? The whole thing is absurd. It's a way for him to charge bands and management companies thousands of dollars per table every year for an induction ceremony that also reaps a lot of TV ad revenue for the telecast. The whole thing is just bullshit. I'm actually thinking about doing an article about this.
Sterling