Sonic Youth.

This weekend, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts its class of 2012, which consists of Donovan, the Beastie Boys, the late singer-songwriter Laura Nyro, the Small Faces and the Faces, blues guitarist Freddie King, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Guns N' Roses, although not lead singer Axl Rose, who declined the induction earlier this week. Rose notwithstanding, dozens of artists have been snubbed for the Hall over the years; it took the Stooges—the Stooges!—a half-dozen ballots to make it in. The Hall's official party line states that it honors "the influence and significance of the artists' contributions to the development and perpetuation of rock and roll." But the list of artists who issued their first records 25 or more years ago (the Hall's qualification for nomination) who would be first-ballot shoo-ins in any Rock and Roll Hall of Fame committed to the continuous, vital culture of rock music is long. Even without considering influential jazz, folk, hip-hop, electronic, dance, pop, funk, dub, and dance artists, staggering amounts of genuine and important rock artists have never even reached the ballot.

Here are 10 artists who've made legitimate contributions to rock and roll as the term is generally understood (even by baby boomers). Sure, to actually enshrine any of them would also negate the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's symbolic importance for all that is hilarious about itself, and that would be a loss. But it's only rock and roll.

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The full lineup for "Channeling Chilton," per City Winery's site, is a beast, full of friends, admirers, and longtime cohorts, including Big Star drummer Jody Stephens, now the last remaining member of the power-pop gods' original lineup in the wake of bassist Andy Hummel's death last week. Proceeds benefit the Gulf Restoration Network; the show kicks off at 8 p.m. and features the following luminaries:

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It probably didn't help. "At least twice in the week before his fatal heart attack, Chilton experienced shortness of breath and chills while cutting grass. But he did not seek medical attention," reports the Times-Picayune, in an otherwise lovely and elegiac piece on the musician's life in New Orleans, "in part because he had no health insurance." In this sad fate, Chilton joins Vic Chesnutt, whose frustration over mounting medical bills he couldn't pay may have led him to overdose on prescription painkillers. It's been said before, but musicians and other artists are particularly vulnerable to the cruel vicissitudes of the insurance industry. May that lousy fact soon change.

In the wake of Alex Chilton's death, the tributes continue to roll in (here's ours), but in at least one respect the show will go on. The Memphis Commercial Appeal's Bob Mehr reports that Big Star's SXSW engagements will be honored, with a few newly announced friends in tow:

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With apologies to our own Rob Trucks, you ain't gettin' more surreal in terms of Alex Chilton tributes today than the above brief speech from Steve Cohen -- make that Congressman Steve Cohen, D-Tennessee. He quotes from "The Letter" and everything. Very sweet, very bizarre. But of course he's not the only one to try his hand at a eulogy today.

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So as it turns out, he did not die in Memphis. But nonetheless, over the next few days, as devout fans grieve his death (at 59, of an apparent heart attack, in New Orleans), latecomers to Alex Chilton the musician (as opposed to Alex Chilton the song subject) will need recommendations on just where to begin their education. Beginning it is the only easy part.

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