ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME NOMINESS ANNOUNCED

(Darryl(DMC)McDaniel; Reverend Joseph(Run)Simmons, RunDMC)

Run-D.M.C., Metallica and the Stooges are among nine nominees for next year's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class, the institution has announced.

The other nominees are guitarist Jeff Beck, singer Wanda Jackson, Little Anthony and the Imperials, War, Bobby Womack, and disco and R&B group Chic.

The list is notable for the wide range of musical genres represented - hip-hop, metal, punk, disco and R&B - and the large number of first-time candidates. Only Chic, the Stooges and Jackson have been previously nominated.

The five leading vote-getters will be announced in January and inducted April 4 in Cleveland.

The ceremony returns to Cleveland after more than a decade in New York, and tickets will be available to the public for the first time.

Run-D.M.C. was nominated in the first year of its eligibility. Metallica this month released "Death Magnetic," which marks a return to its early speed metal days.

The Stooges, recently given props in the film "Juno," last appeared on the ballot two years ago.

Left out were Stevie Ray Vaughan and Bon Jovi, both eligible for the first time. To be nominated an act must have released its first single or album 25 years prior.

More than 500 musicians, industry professionals and journalists vote on the inductions

(source: AP; SF Gate)

Songwriter Of Classic Motown Dies

Norman Whitfield, who co-wrote a string of Motown classics including "War" and "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," has died. He was 67.


Norman Whitfield was one of Motown's leading writers and producers.

A spokeswoman at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center says Whitfield died there Tuesday. He suffered from complications of diabetes and had recently emerged from a coma, The Detroit Free Press reported.

Whitfield was a longtime Motown producer who during the 1960s and '70s injected rock and psychedelic touches into the label's soul music. Many of his biggest hits were co-written with Barrett Strong, with whom he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2004.

The two won the Grammy in 1972 for best R&B song for the Temptations' "Papa Was a Rolling Stone." Whitfield won another Grammy in 1976 for best original TV or motion picture score for "Car Wash."

Whitfield also worked as a producer for the Temptations and others.

Many of Whitfield's songs from that era, including Edwin Starr's 1970 "War" and the Temptations' 1970 "Ball of Confusion (That's What the World Is Today)," have a strong political tone.

In a statement, Motown great Smokey Robinson hailed Whitfield as "one of the most prolific songwriters and record producers of our time. He will live forever through his great music."

Among Whitfield's other songs, according to the Songwriters Hall Web site, are "Beauty Is Only Skin Deep," "Cloud Nine" and "Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)," all hits for the Temptations; and "Too Busy Thinking About My Baby," a 1969 hit for Marvin Gaye.

Just last week, Gaye's version of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," from 1968, was ranked at No. 65 in Billboard magazine's compilation of the top singles of the past 50 years. It was also a hit for Gladys Knight and the Pips, in 1967.

source:ap, cnn

A Rose Is Still A Rose

I'm from Barcelona. Seems like a likely phrase to be heard from any Spaniards, but actually it's the name of a music band.

I’m From Barcelona, an exuberant, expansive indie-pop group whose mammothness is matched by its giant musical heart. Despite its name, I’m From Barcelona is a rock ensemble whose 29 members hail from Jönköping, Sweden, and sound like they’re backed by the entire population of Scandinavia. Unlike more ponderous mega-acts, they’re not too cool to drop pop-cultural references in their lyrics (“Why do we care/If good ol’ Britney wants to shave her head,” goes one catchy refrain) or compose an ode to stamp collecting. On their new album, Who Killed Harry Houdini? (out 10/14), the first single, “Paper Planes,” is as joyous and massive as anything you’ll hear this year from a band with fewer than 100 performers.

Source: A Very Short List, http://www.imfrombarcelona.com/