THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 16, 1996 TAG: 9601160031
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RICKEY WRIGHT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines
ONCE AGAIN, the death of a musician has helped spur the entrance of a major act into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Just as Frank Zappa received a posthumous nod last year, the passing of Velvet Underground guitarist Sterling Morrison last summer apparently chastened voters into finally admitting one of rock's most influential bands. The new members will inducted Wednesday night in New York.
The Velvets first became eligible in 1991, 25 years after the release of their first single, ``All Tomorrow's Parties.'' They were denied until this go-round by a somewhat conservative board that no doubt wasn't crazy about the group's often abrasive sound and lyrics. Reports are that the Hall of Fame also objected to remarks made by members of the band, although Lou Reed has attended previous induction ceremonies and eulogized Zappa.
Each of the New York outfit's four original LPs was radically different, offering noisy paeans to heroin and speed, anguished paeans to betrayal and despair, and joyous paeans to perseverance, redemption and rock 'n' roll itself.
All are essential, although the key work is 1967's ``The Velvet Underground & Nico'' (Verve), featuring vocals by the late model/Andy Warhol superstar. ``Peel Slowly and See'' (Polydor), a five-CD box containing the four studio albums plus a trove of other recordings, was released last year.
Other names on the 1996 list, one of the most diverse yet, include:
David Bowie. Despite having worn out his welcome with a mass audience, partly by refusing to make anything even close to a great album for the past 15 years, Bowie's classics remain an immensely important slice of the canon. Throughout the '70s, he shifted persona and style. Any of a half-dozen studio albums, ranging from folk to glam to hair-raising avant-gardisms, are musts. The short course is on the Ryko singles compilation, ``Changesbowie.''
Jefferson Airplane. One of the San Francisco Sound's most original bands, the Airplane scored a number of hit singles and albums into the early '70s. ``Surrealistic Pillow'' (RCA) is their legacy of good-time music, screaming rock and chamber harmonies. Beware, however, of the crummy sounding CD, often spotted with a ``Wise Buys'' sticker on the shrink wrap. It's worth going for the $20-30 audiophile edition instead. The compilation ``2400 Fulton Street'' (RCA) has good sound and a couple of hysterical, massively dated radio ads the group did for Levi's jeans.
Gladys Knight and the Pips. Here's staying power. The Pips' chart clout took root with 1962's ``Every Beat of My Heart,'' then continued through a long stay at Motown that produced barn-burners like the first hit version of ``I Heard It Through the Grapevine.'' ``Midnight Train to Georgia'' (1973) was a career record; ``Save the Overtime for Me'' and ``Love Overboard'' were '80s benchmarks. Motown's ``All the Great Hits'' surveys the group's work there, while ``Soul Survivors: The Best of Gladys Knight and the Pips 1973-1988'' (Rhino) collects the later stuff.
Little Willie John. James Brown's favorite singer, William Edgar John (1937-68) is another belated entrant. Best remembered for the original ``Fever,'' Little Willie John also laid down a number of other classics (``Leave My Kitten Alone,'' ``Talk to Me, Talk to Me'') for the King label in the '50s and early '60s. He died under mysterious circumstances in prison following a manslaughter conviction. The excellent ``Fever: The Best of Little Willie John'' (Rhino) spotlights his intensely emotional style.
Pink Floyd. Along perhaps with Bowie, Floyd represents the Hall of Fame's first nod to real art-rock. Beginning as a late-'60s, psychedelic-pop act led by Syd Barrett (``The Piper at the Gates of Dawn,'' Capitol), the band followed Barrett's retreat into mental illness and retirement with the bazillion selling concept albums ``Dark Side of the Moon'' and ``The Wall.'' Even better is ``Wish You Were Here'' (Columbia), which lashes out at the music business and mourns Barrett's withdrawal. Fans will be watching to see if this ``crazy diamond'' actually shows up at the induction dinner.
The Shirelles. They all but defined the vulnerability of the girl-group style on ``Will You Love Me Tomorrow,'' one of the early rock era's most daring pleas. ``Dedicated to the One I Love'' was a similar mini-epic of plainspoken romance, but the Shirelles could also stomp it on out. Check ``Boys,'' which inspired a howling cover version on the Beatles' first album. ``The Very Best of the Shirelles'' (Rhino) is the one to buy.
Other 1996 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees are folk singer Pete Seeger in the early-influence category, and San Francisco DJ Tom Donahue, who developed free-form FM radio, as a non-performer. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Velvet Underground
David Bowie
Gladys Knight
by CNB