Mark Your Calendars

Rolling Stone magazine reports here that March 13, 2006, will mark this year's Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Roll your eyes or whatever, but I would kill to be at the Waldorf-Astoria that night for the shindig. This year's honorees:

Black Sabbath, Blondie, Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Sex Pistols.

And Miles Davis. Miles Davis? Wow.

Talk about some significant company. I wonder how Sid Vicious would feel about such an honor?

On a related note, Harry Potter aka Daniel Radcliffe, in the December issue of music magazine Blender, draws on his years of experience to send a shout-out to the Pistols and their classic LP Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols:

"This is my favorite album of all time, and I got into it during the filming of Harry Potter 2, when I was 12. I was obsessed with punk back then. If the Beatles were a phenomenon, then the Sex Pistols were a revolution. Punk is about rebellion, about not caring what other people think of you, and being free. And it's not about fighting. I don't fight. I don't spit, either."

I'm not a Sex Pistols afficionado but I do share Mr. Radcliffe's appreciation of this record. It does kick major ass, even 28 years after it's release. Amazon.com lists it as #2084 in music sales, and is #9 in Irvine, CA and #5 in Argentina, whatever that means. For a little perspective, amazon ranks Pearl Jam's sophomore effort Vs. #4901 in music sales. Granted these rankings could be affected by as little as one purchase, but they are fun to look at.

Anyway, I remember when we convinced a dj at an Iolani dance to play some Sex Pistols, much to the horror of the teacher-chaperones and the dispassionate students. The dj played "Bodies," an expletive-laced song about abortion, which didn't go over well at all. I still remember Mr. Kay, the science teacher, nearly running to the dj's equipment in an effort to stop the eternal racket. For those few of us who suffered through Iolani dances in the cafeteria, we were thrilled to hear anything with a guitar, let alone a distorted one. For a little perspective, Iolani is a privEpiscopalianlian school who, back in the early 1980's shot down the dance theme "Sweet Dreams" by the Eurythmics because of the lyrics "Some of them want to be used by you." Ah, sweet memories of teenoppressionsion by authority figures!

Anyway, it's nice to know Harry Potter doesn't fight or spit, but he likes good music. If you want to see what other albums Radcliffe likes, look here.