Two bands who need to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame before Jethro Tull, according to Ian Anderson
Many artists have their own opinions about what the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame should or shouldn’t be, even Jethro Tull’s very own Ian Anderson.
There has been quite a lot of chatter in recent years about the Hall of Fame, much of which centres around the kinds of criticisms you’d expect of something so highly regarded in the music industry. For instance, while it’s still respected in many circles, it’s easy to question its integrity when there are many names we’ve yet to see be celebrated, many of which happen to be women.
What really puts this into perspective is that only 80 to 90 of those who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame are women, and there are close to 1,000 inductees in total. Although the music industry has come a long way when it comes to the gender gap, these numbers are pretty revealing, suggesting that there’s something deeper in the cracks of the Hall of Fame that should have been addressed long ago.
Another potential issue is its disparities in other places – while many musical legends have already been honoured and recognised, many have yet to have their names included, raising questions about why some who qualify to enter the Hall of Fame have yet to be considered… for instance, some of our biggest snubs are no doubt names like Joy Division, Björk, Phil Collins, Grace Jones, The Smiths, and so on, many of which should have been included years ago, even based on lasting cultural impact alone.
Another glaring omission is Jethro Tull – people have long wondered why this is the case, given the band’s significance and longstanding success, but their absence might also suggest a more biased explanation: one that concerns their positioning among other rock greats and what the Hall of Fame chooses to celebrate when it comes to honouring prog rock.
Drummer Clive Bunker also once suggested that their omission likely has something to do with image, and that Tull doesn’t seem to fit whatever it is that the Hall of Fame is looking for. Still, he didn’t seem all that bothered when asked about it a few years back, instead discussing how grateful he was to be performing at all, let alone qualifying for something as seemingly prestigious as the Hall of Fame.
Elsewhere, Ian Anderson took an equally diplomatic approach, saying he believed the Hall of Fame to be primarily a celebration of American music, arguing that American musicians should be inducted before British ones are even considered. He also said that, based on that logic, others like Captain Beefheart and Mose Allison should be inducted before Tull.
The fact that neither Beefheart nor Allison have still yet to be inducted supports the claim that the Hall of Fame needs some intense core rewiring before it paints a true picture of rock’s most enduring legends – especially given Allison’s impact on the likes of many of the genre’s biggest players, including The Who and The Rolling Stones, as well as Beefheart’s on many of new wave’s defining pioneers, including Talking Heads and Blondie.
Clearly, then, something is amiss when it comes to the Hall of Fame’s reign. Along with the obvious gender inequality, it seems a large group of rock icons have yet to be appropriately recognised, many of whom provided the foundation for countless others who have, for whatever reason, already had their names inducted.
