Well, we’ve come to the last 24 hours or so of voting in the 2023 Rock And Roll Hall of Fame “fan vote,” and I thought I’d start expanding my territory, so to speak, into talking more often about things other than politics, by taking a look at this year’s Rock Hall vote – in part because it’s a pretty fascinating class and the decision-making was definitely not easy.
Our next contestant is another artist who was unfairly judged as shallow and transient because of her pop roots and appeal, but who has proved over time to be a consummate professional with a stunning depth of musical knowledge and dynamics. Cyndi Lauper may simultaneously be the most and least predictable entrant this year. From the moment she broke on the scene as a solo act with her 1983 album “She’s So Unusual” and it’s catchy pop feminist anthem “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” Lauper’s wildly colored hair, thrift-shop-tornado style of dress, and unflinching and uncompromising commitment to being her unique self immediately served as a beacon to disaffected and bored teenagers of the affluent early Reagan Eighties, which eventually led to her emergence as a key advocate against homophobia and for safe sex and research in the early days of the AIDS crisis. (Her cheeky, less mainstream anthem, “She Bop,” was infamously – allegedly, I don’t know that Lauper’s ever confirmed it herself -a narrative about masturbation only nominally hidden behind paper-thin euphemisms. It’s also a pretty nifty bit of early 80’s experimental synth-pop, deceptively simple-sounding; I’ve included it below for you to check for yourself.)
Those who wrote her off as just a flash in the pan pop gimmick were thrown a hard curve when Lauper’s popularity proved much more than transient and her talent and skill proved more than sufficient to the task of validating her positive public reception. Her sophomore album “True Colors” featured a title track of that rare stripe that genuinely earns the title of “instant classic.” (Having it drilled into our heads by a decade of Kodak commercials probably didn’t hurt either!) Over the years her work on everything from Broadway show tunes to jazz standards has continued to delight and amaze, and every step of the way she’s never stopped being her essential self, this “weird little chick from Ohzoan Pawk” with the high squeaky voice, doing her happy colorful best to bring a little fun and beauty into the world and being a wonderful human being by any definition.
As the frosting on the cake, she’s always been extremely vocal and active in her support and advocacy of marginalized groups including the LGBTQ community, abused kids, and more, and again is just one of those rare people that you almost never hear an unkind word about from her peers either publicly or in “green room” chatter.
A nomination well earned, and she’s got my vote.
