First off, I want to acknowledge that one of my favorite musicians, Gordon Lightfoot, died this week. I will be doing a tribute but I want to wait until I have the time to do it right so that will be coming at a later date.

Instead, this week I’ll be focusing on the recently announced Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees. I famously have no faith in the Rock Hall voters’ ability to make good selections and this year’s crop of musicians who should have already been included just reinforces that opinion. How were any of these people on the outside looking in? It’s madness.

There were seven artists inducted in the “Performer Category” this year, plus another six for different awards. I’m dealing with the former because I don’t understand the difference and don’t want to learn. And I’m only focusing on five of the seven because I have a format and I’m sticking to it. And I’m going in ascending order of how annoyed I am they weren’t in already.

Kate Bush — “Running Up That Hill”

The two inductees I’m not getting into in depth are Sheryl Crow and Missy Elliot. I have no beef with either. That said, I’m not especially annoyed they weren’t already in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which means they don’t really fit my theme. But congrats to them! They’re absolutely deserving.

On to Kate Bush.

She’s not as big a deal in the U.S. as she is in the U.K. but that’s not for a lack of talent, that’s just our lack of taste. She’s had a long and storied career, she had a recent resurgence when the song above was included on “Stranger Things,” and most of all, the song appeared in my favorite entry in the best mixtape series of all time, CVS Bangers 3. Impeccable credentials.

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The Spinners — “I’ll Be Around”

That brings us to the oldest inductees: The Spinners were formed in 1954, their heyday was in the ’60s and early ’70s, and they’re still performing today. No, it hasn’t been the same guys for the last 69 years, but they’re kept from being a Band of Theseus by one member.

While they got their start in ’54 as The Domingoes, they lost two of their five original members before becoming The Spinners in ’61. They spent the ’60s as nobodies but broke out when they switched labels in the early ’70s, getting two Top 10 singles and another three in the Top 100. They lost replacements, and replacements of replacements—people who left came back to replace their replacements—but through it all three stayed consistent. As of their induction, of the original five, only 84-year-old Henry Fambrough is still alive, and he retired from the band earlier this year.

Are they a slam dunk induction? No. But they’re deserving. They paid their dues and stuck with it, had their work pay off with a breakout nearly 20 years into their career, and kept performing and releasing music after their star faded. And most importantly they’re really good.

George Michael — “Careless Whisper”

I can’t believe George Michael is only the third-highest inductee about whom annoyed getting into the hall so late. “Careless Whisper” is one of the best songs of all time.

Oh, you’re gonna take issue with that? Don’t bother. This is a hill I will die on. “Careless Whisper” is great in every way a song can be good and the saxophone is what brings it all together and makes it perfect. If you disagree, you’re wrong. It’s so self-evident that to put it in words would be a waste of time.

George Michael had other great songs. His first post-Wham album, Faith, qualified him alone. The singles on that album included “I Want Your Sex,” “Faith” and “Father Figure,” any of which would be the best song on most other albums. Then he kept going. Should’ve been a first-ballot lock.

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Willie Nelson — “On the Road Again”

This was definitely the most shocking, since I had no idea Willie Nelson wasn’t already in. He may not have been in the first class of Rock Hall inductees, but I’d put him in the next group. Heck, the second class included Hank Williams, Sr., and if we’re picking a country singer, I’d put Willie ahead of Hank. (I’d put Johnny Cash ahead of both, but that’s another story.)

Speaking of those early induction classes, the third class was The Beach Boys, The Beatles, The Drifters, Bob Dylan and The Supremes. Which means the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame thought there were 27 acts more deserving than The Beach Boys and The Beatles. All of the first 27 are pivotal legends but come on, those were the two bands that basically outlined what rock music would be after them.

Oh, and there’s one left.

Rage Against the Machine — “Killing in the Name”

Rage isn’t as pivotal to music as Willie Nelson. But this band has been the most galling omission for two reasons.

First, I love Rage Against the Machine so much. It’s amazing. Every song Rage recorded during its short but glorious tenure as a band is a classic and nobody, including the 75 percent of the band that went on to be in Audioslave and Prophets of Rage, has been able to replicate that genius.

Second, it was ahead of its time in pretty much every way. If you took a group of progressive musicians from the 2020s, with the advancements in music and the developments in politics and society, and transported them back to 1990, they’d be Rage Against the Machine. Their genre-bending and -blending music was obviously ahead of its time, and based on the nu-metal that tried to replicate it, it’s extremely hard to do well.

But the politics are even more incredible! “Killing in the Name” is about institutional racism and entrenched brutality in police, which was obviously a thing for most of American history but is just in the last decade cracking mainstream awareness. Their warnings of dangers of putting capital over people came before hedge funds began scrapping companies for parts. I’ve mentioned it before but I can’t stress it enough: The video for “Sleep Now In The Fire” includes a Trump For President sign… in 1999.

Forget the Rock Hall, give these people a Nobel Prize in Economics.

Follow publisher Daniel J. Willis and tweet column ideas to him at Twitter.com/BayAreaData.