Oscars fiasco is the latest injustice to Peter Gabriel

With this latest stunt by the Academy Awards -- asking him to be part of a short medley -- Peter Gabriel is now a nominee for the Rodney Dangerfield of Rock prize.

First, let's start with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Gabriel should have been inducted with Genesis some time around 1994, which would have been 25 years past the release of the band's debut.

Genesis meets more than enough criteria for entry:

1) From the Gabriel era, the band has a catalog of critically acclaimed albums, from "Trespass" through "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway," that still holds up (in its own weird way). The band then went into a whole other stratosphere, stylistically, in the Phil Collins era, which began in 1976.

2) Although Pink Floyd, King Crimson and Gentle Giant may have laid the groundwork for art-rock, or prog-rock, Gabriel was enough of a presence in his writing and theatricality to make Genesis unique. Plus, the guy could sing the phone book and make it sound good.

3) The band was sufficiently popular, especially after Collins moved from drums to vocals.

4) You can still hear Gabriel and Genesis' influence in the indie rock scene, in bands like TV on the Radio, Flaming Lips, Elbow, the Flower Kings and, locally, Zombi.

It doesn't end there. When you move on to Gabriel's solo career, you encounter some of the most disturbing and innovative work of that fertile early '80s period. The third Gabriel album ("melting face") -- with its African influence and primal drum sound (Collins playing with no cymbals) -- was an emotional scorcher and sounded like nothing that came before it (although I'm sure you'll think of something). With the onset of MTV, Gabriel adapted, producing visually stunning videos and perking up the beat on hits like "Sledgehammer," "Big Time" and "In Your Eyes" (think John Cusack with the boombox).

For good measure, throw in Gabriel's humanitarian causes and his work in promoting world musicians, and he should be in the Hall of Fame not only with Genesis, but as a solo artist, just as Paul Simon is in both of his incarnations.

Adding insult to insult is this Academy Awards fiasco. He was nominated for Best Original Song ("Down to Earth" from "WALL-E"), lined up to play the show and then told the song would be shortened to 65 seconds as part of a medley with the other songs. How could the Oscars folks not recognize that they could have put rock royalty in prime time? (They could have had Bruce Springsteen, too, if they had nominated "The Wrestler" for best song, as well, but that's another story.)

Kudos to Gabriel, as dignified a rock star as they come, for saying no to the performance. And it's perfectly reasonable for him to still honor the nomination and appear Sunday night to accept the award if he wins. The show, however, will be diminished without him.

Peter Gabriel is becoming the Rodney Dangerfield of rock.

First of all, he should have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Genesis some time around 1994, which would have been 25 years since the release of the band's debut.

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