Thoughts from the 51st Grammys...

Tonight marks the 51st Grammy Awards from Los Angeles. Here's some random observations and thoughts from the evening from my brain...

Note: My commentary picks up about a half hour into the show since I got home after it had started. I missed U2's show opening performance of their whacky, off kilter "Achtung Baby" sounding new single, "Get on Your Boots," but I'll surely Youtube it before the night is over..


A "Sign of the Apocalypse" moment: Who in Sam Hill let the Jonas Brothers onstage with one of popular music's most legendary performers, Stevie Wonder. Please, someone tell me Stevie was tricked into this, heavily medicated, or lost some sort of Super Bowl bet on the Arizona Cardinals. Say it isn't so Stevie. How could you let these musical children of the Corn butcher one of the funkiest, hop in your step songs of the past 40 years "Superstition"? Why, Stevie, why?

Jumped the shark/worst haircut of the night: I have been a big fan of Kanye West ever since he exploded onto the scene a few years back, first as the producer of some of Jay Z's biggest hits, then as he came into his own as an incredible solo artist. But Kanye is stuffing too much of his Kanye-ness down our throats as of late, and his uber-mullet hairdo tonight was about as stale as his overuse of Auto Tune music software. I was initially hooked by the uniqueness of "Love Lockdown" and "Heartless," but the biggest musical contributions Auto Tunes will go down in history for having created will forever be Cher's "Believe," and the mediocrity of T-Pain. There's a reason singers used to get signed based on their natural abilities, not needing computer technology to correct their tone and pitch...it's called talent.
Why was Morgan Freeman at the Grammys? Morgan himself answered my question-- he's friends with Kenny Chesney, who'd have thunk it. Any film Morgan Freeman is in turns to cinematic gold, so I'll give Kenny the benefit of the doubt based on Morgan's assessment of his good character.


Best fashion accessory: P. Diddy's lavender Member's Only jacket. Members Only jacket=good, Kanye's uber mullet=bad. I only wish I had the prowace and fashion presence to be able to pull off this nylon coat of yesteryear.

Deja vu moment: Coldplay looking like they scoured the dumpsters outside of Abbey Road Studios for the Beatles old "Sgt. Peppers" uniforms. At least the band was noble enough to admit this with Paul McCartney sitting in the front row when they collected one of several awards on the night.

If Kanye should stop singing, Kid Rock should stop rapping: In his multi-song medley, Kid Rock gave the crowd an old fashioned decadent rock performance reminiscent of the mid 1970's. He's got the chops to be a hard rock frontman, and should keep the hip hop on the shelf for a while. I've thought so since his great cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son" ten years ago at Woodstock '99.

Katy Perry kissed a girl, liked it, and lost her voice: This bi-curious top 40 radio smash hit sounded off key while accompanied with the stage setup of a Shop Rite can-can commercial. By the sound of her performance, it's pretty obvious her vocal lack of talent was polished like pair of Prada shoes with the help of studio magic.

Queen Latifah can't fool me into thinking "Swagga Like Us" was a Rat Pack song: Kanye, T.I., Lil' Wayne, and Jay Z aren't the Rat Pack as much as they like to reference them in their songs. Last time I checked Frank, Dean, and Sammy never had Kanye's mullet, Wayne's tone-deafness, or a pregnant M.I.A. onstage with them. I'm usually a big fan of Jay Z and Kanye, but their hodge podge, inconsistently paced performance was so choppy the crowd wasn't even sure when to start applauding.

The Walrus was Grohl?: Dave Grohl pummelled the drums backing Sir Paul McCartney, and made us all remember that before he fronted the Foo Fighters, he was the Keith Moon of the grunge era providing the backbeat for Nirvana. I was surprised at Paul's choice to play "I Saw Her Standing There," as I'm a bigger fan of the later Beatles stuff, and was equally surprised that this was the only song he performed. His appearance fee must be up there with the Super Bowl commercial rates.
Robert Plant is still a Golden God: The frontman of Led Zeppelin picked up some awards with collaborator Allison Krauss with whom he made a great album that abandoned his hard rock roots for some bluegrass ones, "Raising Sand." Recently, Plant totally killed all rumors of a Led Zeppelin reunion saying there wouldn't be anything to gain from it. I'm glad he made this decision, as he closed the door for the band to become another Spinal Tap punchline like so many others that refuse to hang it up when their time has come. As much as I love Led Zeppelin, I respect Plant more as an artist now that he refused to just fold to the financial fortune he could have made on this reunion that would have been nothing more than a nostalgic revisit of the band's mid 1970's peak. They would never sound as good, so their legend and memories can now live on.


Jumped the shark/worst haircut of the night Part II: Radiohead's performance with the USC marching band. (Also lead singer Thom Yorke's Jonas Brothers haircut deserved mention alongside the increasingly popular Kanye uber mullet.) So, what's the deal with Radiohead? I mean, I like them and everything, but why does everyone hail them as the absolute soul saviors of all things music? Their musical peak, according to most music critics, "OK Computer," I find second to what I feel is their best album musically, their previous, "The Bends." I like "In Rainbows" as well, and "OK Computer" is more than OK, but I still think "The Bends" is their best album; and I'm not budging on that stance. Sorry if I prefer melody and modern rock fare to music produced on Pluto. I continue to applaud them for abandoning the ordinary though.

T.I. and J.T. proves much better than T.I.'s previous "Swagga Like Us" debacle: The best part about the Grammy's? Most of the premier artists get countless chances to totally redeem their sub par performances that took place earlier in the evening. "Dead and Gone," was a great performance by an artist I haven't had too much familiarity with other than his music on the radio, T.I. Accompanied by Justin Timberlake, it was one of the surprisingly better performances of the night.

The President of the Grammy's, Neil-something looks like Tommy Chong of Cheech & Chong: He then went on to introduce Smokey Robinson. So, a guy bearing striking resemblance to Tommy Chong introduces a guy known to the Motown-loving world as Smokey...that's some coincidence.

Performance we could have used more of: Keith Urban, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, and John Mayer playing "Bo Diddley" in tribute to the late great blues virtuoso was a hearty buffet of guitar. This was a great performance I wish had gone on longer than it did. Maybe by next year Lil' Wayne won't have to be onstage four more times than one of the Beatles to make room for longer performances by these proven acts. Hopefully Katy Perry's out of tune 15 minutes of fame will be over by then as well.

A "Sign of the Apocalypse" moment Part II: Gary "Lieutenant Dan" Sinise introducing Lil' Wayne in one of his half dozen appearances of the evening. Even he probably asked himself what he was doing at the Grammys. Perhaps his involvement in a film with one of the greatest soundtracks of all time, "Forrest Gump," automatically qualifies him.

As the show was winding down: T-Pain's George Clinton-inspired outfit made P.Diddy's lavender Members Only jacket look like an evening coat for a United Nations diplomatic formal dinner at the Waldorf Astoria.
Robert Plant and Allison Krauss sounded as good live as they do on their record: Plant's voice is aged, and galaxies away from the high pitched hard rock wail from his Led Zeppelin days. It's a different voice, not better or worse, but one that he's grown into and made more great and alternate music with. It was fitting that less than 2 minutes after their performance they collected the award for album of the year.

The show closed with a performance by Stevie Wonder: Because the show's producers realized how royally they screwed Stevie hours before by making him share the stage with the haircare product endorsing Jonas Brothers.

"I AM A GOLDEN GOD!"- Robert Plant from the balcony of the Continental Hyatt (Riot) House in the mid 1970's. Back in town for the Grammy's tonight, he may be repeating the same proclamation.