Estelle Axton Archives - Ramblin' with Roger

Rock Hall 2026 musical influences

“a really big shew”

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will be inducting eight more acts this year in the performer category. But I’m more interested in those selected in other slots.

Rock Hall 2026 musical influences selections include:

Celia Cruz “pioneered Latin pop for the twentieth century and beyond with her contributions to Afro-Cuban guaracha style as well as the creation and popularization of salsa.” She influenced artists such as Sheila E., Gloria Estefan, and JLo. I own one of her live albums.

Quimbara

La Vida Es Un Carnaval

“Multi-instrumentalist and Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti fused music and politics to become a singular global revolutionary voice… Fela fused elements of traditional West African highlife, jazz, and soul music and dubbed this rhythmic hybrid ‘Afrobeat.'”

Fela! The Musical “played to sold-out houses for nearly eighteen months from autumn 2009 to early 2011… During its on-Broadway run, Fela! won three Tony Awards, and the soundtrack album was nominated for a Grammy. The subsequent US and world tour included passionately well-received performances in Lagos and a sold-out three-month run at London’s National Theatre.”

He was previously nominated for the Hall in 2021, coming in second in the fan vote, and in 2022, when he finished 17th and a distant last. I have an album of covers of the musician, Red Hot + Riot: The Music and Spirit of Fela Kuti (2002)

Water No Get Enemy (1975)

Beast Of No Nation (1989)

Dana Owens

“A powerhouse multi-hyphenate, Queen Latifah is a Grammy-winning musician, award-winning actress, producer, record label president, author, and style icon. Though not the first woman rapper, Latifah is the original female superstar from hip-hop’s golden age – a pioneering artist who was the genre’s ‘first feminist’ and has spent her career breaking down barriers for women in the entertainment industry.” She influenced artists such as Missy Elliot, Lauryn Hill, and Lizzo.

I know her best from her various television appearances and her performance in the 2002 movie Chicago.

Ladies First featuring Monie Love

U.N.I.T.Y.

“Hip-hop pioneer and Vibe’s original Queen of Rap, Lana Michele Moorer, better known as MC Lyte, has spent nearly forty years redefining hip-hop. Rapper, songwriter, DJ, actress, television announcer, philanthropist, and entrepreneur, her career is defined by historic firsts. She was the first female rapper to release a full solo album, earn a gold single, and be nominated for a Grammy.” She inspired Latifah, among many others.

I Cram to Understand U (Sam)

Sweethearts of the Rodeo

Gram Parsons was country rock’s great visionary. With a voice that was plaintive, warm, and vulnerable, he bridged the raw directness of honky-tonk with the restless spirit of rock & roll. Parsons called his sound ‘Cosmic American Music’ – an adventurous mix of country, soul, gospel, and rock that introduced audiences to artists and songs they might never have otherwise discovered.” He influenced, among many others, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Elvis Costello and the Attractions, and, of course, Emmylou Harris.

Hickory Wind – the Byrds

Return Of The Grievious Angel, featuring Emmylou Harris.

Musical Excellence Award

These tend to be non-performers, such as songwriters and producers.

“Linda Creed wrote some of the most memorable love songs of all time, helping establish the Philly Soul sound with heartfelt, tender lyrics that resonated deeply with listeners. Creed’s vulnerable, poetic lyrics paired perfectly with the lush production of her long-time partner, Thom Bell, helping define a more orchestral and introspective evolution of 1970s soul music.” She died at 37 from breast cancer in 1986.

Betcha By Golly, Wow – the Stylistics

Greatest Love Of All – Whitney Houston

“Known as the Greatest Ears in Town, Arif Mardin was a visionary producer whose work shaped four decades of popular music. A master of orchestration and arrangement, Mardin was renowned for mentoring artists while drawing out their individuality.”

As an ardent reader of liner notes, I’m stunned that he wasn’t already in the Hall. “With over 150 albums to his credit, Mardin contributed to iconic twentieth-century recordings…[He] won twelve Grammy awards, including Producer of the Year in 1975, and was inducted into the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame in 1990.

Young, Gifted, and Black – Aretha Franklin

She’s Gone – Hall & Oates

I Feel For You -Chaka Khan

Gimme Shelter

Jimmy Miller helped define the sound of late-1960s and early-1970s rock. As a producer, he emphasized groove and feel over perfection – encouraging loose, jam-based sessions that captured the recording process at its most alive. He set a blueprint that would inspire generations of producers to chase that same magic.

Between 1968 and 1973, Miller produced five albums for the Rolling Stones: Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main St., and Goats Head Soup.

I’m A Man – Spencer Davis Group.

Dear Mr. Fantasy -Traffic

I Got The Blues – Rolling Stones

“As the co-founder of Def Jam Recordings, the founder of American Recordings, and co-president of Columbia Records, record producer Rick Rubin has had an enormous and lasting impact on American music…. Lauded by MTV in 2007 as ‘the most important producer of the last 20 years,’ Rick Rubin’s legacy is still being created. He remains an in-demand producer.”

Walk This Way – RUN DMC, feat. Aerosmith

Give It Away – Red Hot Chili Peppers

The Mercy Seat – Johnny Cash

Once again, they need to put Estelle Axton, the co-founder of STAX Records, in this category, as I have been nagging about since 2015. As I noted, her brother, Jim Stewart, was inducted in 2002!

Ahmet Ertegun Award

“Television host, newspaper reporter, kingmaker, and civil rights activist Ed Sullivan (1901-1974) had a profound impact on rock & roll music and American culture. With more than a thousand episodes featuring over ten thousand artists across twenty-three years, The Ed Sullivan Show (1948-1971) was a weekly national event – an American family ritual that gave millions their first exposure to Black and international performers.

The Beatles – Ed Sullivan Show full concert (TV Show) February 9th, 1964

The newest standard performer entrants, announced during the live broadcast of the “Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Night” episode of “American Idol” on April 13, are:

Phil Collins – a reasonable choice; selected on his first try, finishing 2nd in the fan vote
Billy Idol – I had voted for him in 2025, when he came in 3rd in the fan voting; in 2026, he finished 9th
Iron Maiden – they had finished 4th in both the 2021 and 2023 fan voting; in 2026, they finished 12th
Joy Division/New Order – never the top tier in fan voting, but I always voted for them as they finished 9th in 2023, 10th in 2025, and 16th in 2026
Oasis -the fan vote was 10th in 2024, 13th in 2025, and 15th in 2026
Sade– she was 11th in the fan vote in 2024, but 7th in 2026; I voted for her
Luther Vandross – the late, overlooked artist came 5th in the fan vote, which included mine
Wu-Tang Clan – they finished 8th in their first fan voting; I supported them

My big disappointments were that New Edition (#1 in the fan vote, by over 100,000 votes over Collins) and INXS (6th) did not make it.

The Motown sound and the Stax sound

The Beatles at STAX?

My friend Jon wrote: If you need ideas for topics to write about, how about a piece on the difference between the Motown sound and the Stax sound?

I wrote back, glibly, “The short answer is migration, but I’ll think about that.”

Rob Bowman wrote in Soulville, U.S.A.: The Story of Stax Records, about the differences circa 1963: “At Motown in Detroit, Berry Gordy was more than happy to put each one of his artists through an in-house charm school with the goal being that each artist could fit into middle-class white America’s image of respectable deportment, style, and grace.

“Jim Stewart of STAX was not as ruthlessly ambitious as Gordy, nor did he have the vision to build the type of vertically integrated empire that Motown became.” I also think geography does have something to do with it. Stax leaned into its Mississippi Delta roots.

1964

Bowman re: 1964: “While STAX was struggling, Motown was on its ascendancy.” In retrospect, 1964 was remarkable not just for the Beatles’ invasion of America but for the string of hits by the Supremes and many others on the Detroit label. Indeed, in ’64, the Supremes put out an album, A Bit of Liverpool, which I used to own, which features five Lennon-McCartney songs among the 11 tracks.

“The sign outside Motown probably proudly proclaimed the company ‘Hitsville USA.'” I made my pilgrimage to the site in 1998.

“The marquee outside the STAX Studio, on the other hand, was adorned with the words Soulsville USA.” (STAX artists also eventually covered the Beatles, but generally sound like STAX.) The Beatles even considered recording an album at STAX in 1966, but it proved logistically impossible.

North and South

“These slogans perfectly sum up the diametrically opposed aesthetic and operating philosophy of the two companies. Gordy was a product of the urban industrial North… and autocratic to the bone. He ran his operation very much from a master plan.

“Stewart, on the other hand, was the product of the rural fraternal South. Although he wanted to make money, he could easily be content with what seemed to be a modicum of success, not caring a wit about making further profits…

“In what had to be the greatest irony of the STAX story, Stewart was always loudly championing keeping the company sound as ‘black’ as possible while various black writers and later co-owner Al Bell were interested in crossover success, Stewart seemingly was not the least bit and interesting interested if crossing over meant compromising what he was gradually coming to understand as the Stax sound.”

Sidebar: I must note yet again the importance of Estelle Axton, Jim Stewart’s sister, and the AX in STAX, as a force in developing the sound. The fact that she’s not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – Jim Stewart was inducted in 2002, and Berry Gordy in 1998 – continues to be a travesty.

1966

Bowman, 1966: “Isaac Hayes and David Porter crafted what proved to be the breakthrough record for Sam [Moore] and Dave [Prater] with You Don’t Know Like I Know. Sam and Dave charted, hitting a giddy number seven on the R and B charts while scraping the lower reaches of the pop listening to #90

“Oddly enough, Sam Moore hated the song! ‘Fifty per cent of the songs that were presented to me at STAX I didn’t like,’ exclaimed Sam. ‘I remember saying to myself…it’s hard singing. I wanted to do stuff like Sam [Cooke] and Willie [John] and Jackie [Wilson].

“Hayes and Porter wrote and initially rehearsed the song with Sam and Dave. The melodies would be set in a comfortable lower key, but when it came to recording, they would raise the key.

Porter: “I felt if you were right above where you could be comfortably, then the anxiety and the frustrations and the soul I thought needed to be captured out of those songs would come through.

“I always noticed with the Motown records the singers are so comfortable the melodies are so comfortable one is to have a little different kind of edge and I thought that that gave us that struggling for you to get there would only enhance you to get the soul even though they would be pissed at me pushing them like that they would attempt to do it and they would work I didn’t think you would really doing the record with any kind of soul unless there was some sweat.”

Breaking out

Music critic Joel Francis was asked about the validity of this opinion: “I tend to oversimplify in the following way: Motown is sweet and smooth; Marvin Gaye is Motown’s archetypal vocalist. Stax is raw and gritty; Otis Redding is its archetypal vocalist.” Of course, these things are more complicated.

Eventually, Motown got “less comfortable.” War, initially recorded by the Temptations, but Gordy thought the song would ruin the group’s cultivated image. So he allowed Edwin Starr, lower on the roster, to record it. It went to #1. Likewise, Marvin Gaye’s music, beginning with the album What’s Going On, made Berry uncomfortable, but it was released and was a hit. Stevie Wonder’s series of albums in the 1970s falls within the same category.

So, I guess, especially in later years, the Motown “formula” was modified when the music required.

Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame 2024 nominees

Blige, Carey, Cher, Matthews, Eric B., Foreigner, Frampton, Jane’s., Kool, Kravitz, Oasis, O’Connor, Osbourne, Sade, Quest.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2024 nominees were announced recently. They are Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey, Cher, Dave Matthews Band, Eric B. & Rakim, Foreigner, Peter Frampton, Jane’s Addiction, Kool & the Gang, Lenny Kravitz, Oasis, Sinéad O’Connor, Ozzy Osbourne, Sade & A Tribe Called Quest.

Yes, please don’t tell me it doesn’t matter. I might even agree with you. But I loved visiting Cleveland in 1998 and 2016 to see the exhibits anyway.

For some years, I know precisely which three or four people I would vote for in the fan ballot, for which you can vote until April 26. I vigorously supported underappreciated artists such as Fela Kuti, John Prine, and Warren Zevon when they were recently on the ballot, but they were not inducted.

The nominees

This year, there was only one sure thing: Cher. Curiously, I don’t have any of her albums, though she does appear on compilations I own. She’s gone from being a background singer for Phil Spector to her days with Sonny Bono to becoming an icon. I watched her shows with and without Bono. Not that it’s particularly relevant here, but she was good in a trio of 1980s movies: Silkwood, Mask, and Moonstruck. Absolutely YES.

I scattered my votes – one can vote for seven instead of five this year – among 11 artists.

Mary J. Blige: I have none of her music. Yet her influence is well-documented. PROBABLY YES.

Mariah Carey – I have her greatest hits album on CD. Still, I didn’t bother voting for her because 1) she’ll get in without my help, and 2) she has a five-octave voice, which she often uses unnecessarily to the music’s detriment. NO

Dave Matthews Band – I don’t own any of the music. A funny thing about me and Dave Mathews: I saw him at the Willie Nelson 90th birthday bash and the Rock Hall induction, and I NEVER recognized him, visually or sonically. MAYBE.

Eric B. & Rakim – I don’t own their music, but I appreciate their contribution. MAYBE.

Foreigner – I have a couple of their LPs and some irritating live CD. MAYBE.

An old Ray Charles song

Peter Frampton – I have Frampton Comes Alive. But my YES vote comes from his brief tenure with Humble Pie, particularly Rockin’ The Filmore, an LP I own. Specifically, I Don’t Need No Doctor was a staple of FM radio in the 1970s.

Jane’s Addiction is a group I don’t own, but again, I recognize their importance, in this case, to alternative rock. MAYBE.

Kool & the Gang – I have one of their LPs. Of course, it contains Celebration. And Pulp Fiction brought back Jungle Boogie. I am inclined to favor older acts, and they first charted in 1969. YES.

Lenny Kravitz – There are a LOT of artists for which I have one of their albums. I have one Kravitz CD. MAYBE

Oasis – Ditto. MAYBE.

Sinéad O’Connor – I have only her albums, the one with Nothing Compares 2 U, a video that has always gutted me. And it was before she died. But she became a probably YES after I heard the Coverville tribute to her.

Ozzy Osbourne – I wasn’t into Black Sabbath. Ozzy, I know more as a personality on that MTV show. He’ll get in, I’m sure. NO.

Sade – Lovely voice. I own one of her albums. Also, Rebecca Jade will be doing a show of Sade songs plus her own in Philadelphia on my next birthday. MAYBE.

A Tribe Called Quest – They show up on a couple of my compilations, and I love what they do. YES.

Voting

So that’s six YES or PROBABLY YES, two NO, seven MAYBE. I’ll admit to a certain bias. In Bernie Taupin’s acceptance speech, he pointedly lifted up articulate women and black people. It was a clear rebuke of Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner and his comments about why his then-current book included only white men. The statement got Wenner removed from the board of directors of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation.

Who would you vote for?

The folks who decide on the new inductees can also select people in the category of Musical Excellence, which “shall be given to artists, musicians, songwriters and producers whose originality and influence creating music have had a dramatic impact on music.” Taupin, the lyricist for most of Elton John’s songs, was selected this way.

Besides Kuti, Prine, and Zevon, I’d like to see more of the Wrecking Crew picked, particularly Carol Kaye, who created the bass line for Sonny and Cher’s The Beat Goes On in the studio. They should also pick Glen Campbell, a mighty guitarist, before having success as a singer.

STAX

Finally, they need Estelle Axton, the co-founder of STAX Records, in, as I have been nagging about since 2015. As I noted, her brother, Jim Stewart, was inducted in 2002! My late friend Dustbury opined: ” So why is Stewart in the Hall and Axton not? Because Stewart, who couldn’t comprehend contract law, signed all those early Stax masters over to Atlantic, and at the Hall, Ahmet Ertegun sits at the right hand of God. Estelle, had she seen the paperwork, would have figured out the deal from day one.”

Estelle Axton for the ROCK HALL. Estelle Axton for the ROCK HALL. Oh, and Estelle Axton for the ROCK HALL.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees for 2021

Billy Preston, Kraftwerk, Todd Rundgren, LL Cool J, finally

Here are two possibly contradictory things. I know that who gets, or doesn’t get, into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame doesn’t equate with their talent, commercial success, or “worthiness.” And, for the most part, I am really quite happy who got in this season. Here was my wish list. Maybe next year for Chaka Khan and Devo.

“The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame reveals its 2021 Inductees, celebrating the most diverse list of Inductees in the history of the organization.”

Performer Category

Tina Turner – for a time, she and Fela Kuti were vying for the top spot on the fan ballot. In the end, Tina won going away. I didn’t vote for her because she was already in, with Ike Turner and I chose to vote for those who weren’t in at all. But I’m not complaining, as I have two of her solo albums.
The Best

Carole King – she ended up sixth on the five performer ballot. I didn’t vote for her either, as she was in as a songwriter with Gerry Goffin. But no complaints here, even though Tapestry is the only album of hers I own.
Jazzman

The Go-Go’s – came in third in the fan voting. I voted for them and saw them perform 30 years ago in Albany.
We Got The Beat

JAY-Z – near the bottom of the fan vote, but an understandable pick.
Song Cry

Foo Fighters – in the top five of the fan vote. I didn’t vote for them, primarily because Dave Grohl was already in the Rock Hall with Nirvana. But I like Grohl. He’s been Touring in a Van, Interviewing Rock Stars and; Performing with His Daughter.
Everlong

Todd Rundgren – YES! His third time on the ballot is the charm. He’s been my #1 or #2 pick each year. Nazz, Utopia, solo work, plus producing.
Appropriately, Just One Victory

Early Influence Award

Kraftwerk – it was on the ballot about a dozen times. Not this year, but they got in anyway, and that’s great.
A list from J. Eric Smith.

Charley Patton – Wikipedia says (April 1891 (probable) – April 28, 1934) he was an American Delta blues musician. Considered by many to be the ‘Father of the Delta Blues’, he created an enduring body of American music and inspired most Delta blues musicians.
Spoonful Blues

Gil Scott-Heron – an inspired choice. In case you don’t know, “his music… influenced and foreshadowed later African-American music genres such as hip hop and neo-soul.”
We Almost Lost Detroit

Musical Excellence Award

This is an odd category. It used to be the “sidemen” award for folks such as Motown’s James Jamerson or Hal Blaine of the Wrecking Crew. But, under the new title, it has included Ringo Starr.

LL Cool J – I’ve been pushing for him for years, and I voted for him this year, but he was in the bottom two of the popular vote.
I Need Love

Billy Preston – MY FAVORITE CHOICE. Nearly a decade ago, I made the case why he should be included.
My Sweet Lord (live)

Randy Rhoads – I must admit, I know the name, but not the body of work from Quiet Riot and Ozzy Osborne
Solos

Ahmet Ertegun Award

Clarence Avant – read the Wikipedia article about the Black Godfather, who made black music more visible.

Yeah, there are more musicians to get in. But I must make my annual appeal for Estelle Axton in this category.

2017 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominee fan vote

That first Steppenwolf album I listened to constantly

For the past couple of years, you, the popular music fan, have been allowed to select up to five Nominees you think should be Inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, from the admittedly flawed list of candidates. The aggregate vote gets tallied as one vote, along with the experts.

Last year, I rooted for Chicago, Chaka Khan, Los Lobos, The Spinners, and Yes. Chicago, which won the fan vote last year made it into the Hall, though popularity there did not assure induction. Los Lobos and the Spinners are not even on the ballot this year.

The 2017 Nominees are:

Bad Brains– heard of, but only barely. Hardcore punk band of the 1970s and beyond.
Chaka Khan – for both her music with Rufus and her solo material. And we share the same birth month.
Chic -I’ve said three years running that “its sound still relevant, though if Nile Rodgers and the late Bernard Edwards got in as non-performers (songwriter/producer), I could accept that.”
Depeche Mode – I like their moody electronic sound. Eventually, I say.
Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) – the group’s been around for a long time, back to 1970. I could vote for them, though if Jeff Lynne got noted for writer/producer, that’d be sweet, too

The J. Geils Band – another band that’s been around longer than I realized; Peter Wolf is seven years to the day older than I, so you’d THINK that would move my needle of support, but it did not
Jane’s Addiction – a group I’ve heard of, and have a couple of songs on compilations. But they started in 1985, and they can wait.
Janet Jackson – nominated last year, possibly one of the most worthy. Yet, because she’s relatively young, I think she’ll get in eventually.
*Joan Baez – an odd choice. She’s not a real rock person. I mean I LOVE Joan. An early album of hers was massively important to me. But though she was a contemporary of Dylan, I still would peg her musically more like an early influence, in the same category as Pete Seeger or Woody Guthrie. But I’m voting for her anyway.
Joe Tex – I know who the late Joe Tex was. I saw his album covers on the inner sleeves of those Sam & Dave and Aretha Franklin albums my sister and I bought in the 1960s. But I never owned his music.

Journey – for a time in the early 1980s, they were ubiquitous, and not in a good way
Kraftwerk – their influence is reportedly legendary, yet I have none of their music
MC5 – They put out one of their albums that was huge for me. They were a legendary live band.
Pearl Jam – I have three of their albums. Still, they’re too recent for me to even consider. Naturally, they’ll get in on their first year of eligibility.
Steppenwolf – that first Steppenwolf album I listened to constantly

The Cars – I found their music incredibly catchy. They were third in the public voting last time out.
The Zombies – I like their hits quite a bit, and they put out one legendary album, essentially after they broke up. They’re worthy, but when I have five to pick out of 19, I haven’t picked them
Tupac Shakur – another artist I know by name, and reputation, and how he died in 1996, but not really his music
Yes – inexplicably, they weren’t even nominated until last year, when they came in second in the public voting. The dearth of progressive rock in the Hall is quite astounding. Now that Yes mainstay Chris Squire, unfortunately, passed away this past year, maybe THAT will sway the voters.

I’ve been voting consistently for Chaka Khan, Joan Baez – can’t have too many women in a sometimes boys club – The Cars, and, of course, Yes. My fifth vote, I scattered between MC 5 and Steppenwolf, before deciding on ELO.

I STILL would like to see:

Estelle Axton to be selected in the non-performer award, now known as the Ahmet Ertegun Award. Her brother Jim Stewart, the co-founder of STAX records with her, was inducted way back in 2002!

Billy Preston to be selected in the sideman category, now known as the Award for Musical Excellence. They got Leon Russell and Ringo Starr in under that mantle. Also in that designation, put in the members of the Wrecking Crew not already in there, including Glen Campbell, Carol Kaye, and Tommy Tedesco.

Yes, there are plenty of artists that haven’t gotten in that should, including, but not limited to, the Moody Blues, Link Wray (pick him in the Musical Excellence category), and Warren Zevon.