A few evenings ago, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame held it's annual assembly of industry insiders to celebrate the lifetime achievements of this year's "winners."

What's the point?

This yearly exercise in futility only serves to underscore our fascination with awards ceremonies.  And while I take nothing away from the winners - past, present, and ghosts of future awards - I have to say that this yearly event and those that preceded it leaves very deserving talents farther and farther behind, virtually cementing the prospect that many may never see rightful HoF entry.

The initial problem is that this procedure is in great need of an overhaul.  At this point, there is no way that the HoF can induct deserving bands and artists under its present induction policies and hope to remain a viable process.

How is this fixed?  Rather easily, actually.  Enlarge the induction parade...by a lot.  Create style divisions, award based on long-term influence, etc.  At the rate we're traveling on these contentious HoF waters, many of us will not survive to see our heroes make it in.  And that's sad.

The list of the ‘not inducted’ is long, sure to become even longer.  I have no problem with Abba being inducted but c'mon...over many that were much more influential and yet still ignored?  I won't get into the naming spree that usually accompanies such articles as this.  I'll leave that for you, the readers.  However, the governing bodies of the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame needs to realize that they are woefully out of touch.  They need to address the business of who are the worthy and quit being a panel of unfettered ignorance.

HoF, you are tired.  You are laughed at.  You are now largely ignored by most fans of Rock.  You have made yourselves obsolete.  If you wish to regain any sense of relevancy, you need to greatly expand your selection process in order to "catch up."  There are far too many deserving talents ignored to let this travesty continue.

Fix it!

Please.

TAP has two new reviews, one from The Second Disc's Mike Duquette. He reviews the recently reissued City of Angels by The Miracles. Our own Robert Metcalf revisits the 2CD Legacy Edition of Santana III (reissued back in February of 2006) by Santana. We hope that you'll enjoy these reviews.

I want to alert TAP readers to the fact that I have finally put together a FaceBook page with an easily remembered URL in http://www.facebook.com/musictap.  What this offers is the exact same thing as my Twitter feeds provide and that is first buzz on upcoming releases and free offered downloads, many announcements  that beat our main post, sometimes by days.  We also provide a Google BUZZ page that expands on most of the Twitter/FB feeds. On Buzz, you can even hear the music stream if a stream is offered.  There are still things that I'm working on in the FB page, like calender notes as well as links to great sites like The Second Disc.  I invite you to join us at our FB page and bookmark it.  Visit it daily and you'll be rewarded with much news and info.  Of course, you'll still want to come to the main MusicTAP page for our noisy commentaries.  Remember, with our Twitter feeds, you can elect to receive the news bursts as text on your mobile phone keeping you effortlessly up to date with stuff.  Lots of choices.  Find one, or two, that fits.

Eagle Rock Entertainment plans to re-release Skullage Greatest Hits (2009) from Zakk Wylde's Black Label Society on vinyl LP. This is planned for May 4 (LP).

UK's Harvest Records will release a 2CD compilation with LOTS of great goodies on it for Deep Purple called Singles & E.P.s Anthology 1968-1980 (CD). This UK import is scheduled for April 5.

The Live Ultravox 2009 reunion show at The Roundhouse in the UK prompts this import UK set called Return To Eden. It will be sold in a 2CD/DVD Deluxe Edition on April 5 (CD/DVD).

The UK will release the new Paul Weller disc in several forms on April 19 for UK, and April 7 for Japan. The UK will release Wake Up the Nation on standard CD, a 2CD Deluxe Edition, and LP, while Japan has it coming on standard CD , and the higher resolution SHM-CD (Super High Material) 2CD set (CD/2CD/LP/SHM-CD).

Roadrunner Records will release the new Meat Loaf album on May 11. It is called Hang Cool Teddy Bear (CD).

The UK have three remastered and expanded reissued Sweet titles - Cut Above The Rest, Water's Edge, Identity Crisis - available for import now (CD).

Japan has an import CD title called Asia Live, a 12 performance track set by Asia, expected on May 12.

Church of Hawkwind (1982) arrives on April 26 as a UK import reissue Hawkwind title that is remastered and expanded with five bonus cuts (CD).

Blue Note Records will release the Bill Charlap and Renee Rosnes collaboration, Double Portrait, on June 8 in the US (CD).

Business is slow as long as SxSW is full swing. In case you're unaware, SxSW (South by SouthWest) is an annual film/music showcase event held in Austin, TX. It gets quite busy there and PR, labels, and other 'necessary to TAP' contacts are lost within the confines of that wilderness.