"Rock and Roll Hall of Fame" Bitching? Come on, duuuude, it's DIE-VERSE-CITY

Every year you can be sure of two musical bores:

1. Grammy Awards bitching because not every award went to Jay-Z or Beyonce or to somebody else "of color" and

2. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame bitching because not every honor actually went to a ROCK star, but instead somebody "of color."

Yes, we certainly do have a problem about how much affirmative action we still need, and who should benefit and why.

There's no reason why Whitney Houston or Notorious B.I.G. should be in a "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame" while Warren Zevon remains excluded, and yes, Pat Benatar.

Benatar is, after all, famous. Isn't she? Too bad she's white.

It's also too bad that the "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame" is not really driven by scholarship, or any attempt at teaching people the history and roots of rock. If this Cleveland pimple was an actual MUSEUM and run by a board that cared about preservation of rock music and curating to educate, GENYA RAVAN would be in. And so would FANNY.

Before there was a Pat Benatar, before there was even a Stevie Nicks or a Janis Joplin, there was GENYA RAVAN, who fronted the first all-girl band that had any success in the world, Goldie and the Gingerbreads. They played on the same stage as the Rolling Stones. Genya went on to be the woman fronting the otherwise all-male jazz-rock fusion group Ten Wheel Drive.

She went on to record incredibly raw, soulful and intense solo albums, and to even produce The Dead Boys and be part of the New York punk movement. "Urban Desire" (with a guest performance by Lou Reed) was from that era.

She's not black. She's Jewish. Oh well. Fuck diversity.

As for FANNY, they certainly picked up where Goldie and the Gingerbreads left off, and with producer Richard Perry and others guiding their albums, were whispered to be "the female Beatles," for their blend of smooth pop harmonies and hard driving forays into kickass rock. Without Fanny, there would not be The Bangles, who some seem to think were the first all-female rock group.

I could name plenty of other worthy artists NOT in the "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame," but people do that EVERY year. THIS year includes glaringly ridiculous inclusions? Wait till NEXT year...