Grammys post-mortem
Developed years ago when I cared more about who actually won and lost during the Grammy Awards, my love/hate relationship with this annual fiasco remains intact. Every year, I tell myself I won’t watch it; and yet, it’s like a train wreck that generally starts out well, but derails shortly after the first few performances are over. Sure, there are usually a few minutes of pleasurable (and surprising) musical oasis along the way, but overall there is the sense that there is something dark lurking off the side of the stage waiting to unleash itself on the public at large. This year, that could be attributed to a few of the “performances” that took place (yes, that word is in quotes for a reason).
So, without further ado, let’s hit the highs and lows and wrap this up until next February.
Best Performances: In my mind, these are no-brainers.
The Boss and the E Street Band – if you’re going to open a show with someone who can at least deliver a legitimately solid LIVE performance, he’s your man. It’s also a fitting way to pay tribute to the late, great Clarence Clemmons.
Bruno Mars – Probably my only real surprise of the evening. Chris Brown and posers take note; Was it flashy? Yes. Was it live? Parts of it. Did he need the bullhorn? No. Did I love every second of this musical, entertaining throwback performance? YES. Just call him Teflon, because all the controversial cocaine-arrest-random weirdness that seems to surround him did not follow him on that stage. Was he visibly peeved and throwing a fit backstage about losing to Adele in every category? Yes. Get over it, youngster. You’ll get yours someday.
Foo Fighters – Yes, please. Every awards show I would like to see Dave Grohl every half an hour in some capacity. They do their thing. They do it well. Was it perfect? NO. But his acceptance speech was. It was quite moving, actually. Dave Grohl does not regularly step up on a soapbox; but he speaks truths about the industry and imperfections and striving to reach people with his work. He might still be grungy to others, but to me he is in a class of his own.
The Civil Wars – Arguably one of the most entertaining 60 seconds of live talent on the telecast. Kinda made Taylor Swift appear wimpier than usual in comparison. Would I have loved to have heard a full song? YES. If we had, they would have been this year’s Mumford breakout performance. In any case, people will still be talking about them, and that’s good. I would have loved to have seen a performance from Fleet Foxes as well; but apparently, making time for dance numbers was more important. I’m including a full live performance from Jools Holland last fall to highlight their talent, along with a live performance from Fleet Foxes to prove my point about missing out on better live (and nominated) performers.
Kanye – So, here’s my deal with Kanye. I kinda love him. And his Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, in my opinion, was the best album of the year. An absolute atrocity that it wasn’t nominated in that category, and one of the rumored reasons he didn’t show. A Kanye performance most certainly would have been a highlight had it occurred, but really I just wanted a reason to state that this album is a work of art. To nominate Nicki Minaj (more on THAT further down) essentially in his place is ludicrous.
Adele – What can I say? She is the real deal. She deserved to win and did. My statements about Kanye’s album above are my opinion; but it does not detract from the elegance and phenomenal response to 21. I’m glad she won. Even still audibly nursing her chords back to health, she is head and shoulders above the rest. I love her candor. I love her genuine warmth, surprise and gratitude. And I love her massive talent. She is beautiful to look at and listen to; and at her still young age, she is “getting it right” at a much more advanced level than her colleagues. She has the restraint of a much more seasoned artist. But the bubbly personality of someone who is dealing with this celebrity as best she can. I hope the rumor isn’t true that it will be many years before we hear from her again, but I am willing to wait for another inspiring record.
Just on the basis of the opening 10 seconds of this performance, and the goosebumps I got all over again listening to it, you can see she killed this performance in spite of her nerves. (Grammys keeps blocking these videos, so I'm posting a prior Letterman appearance pre-chord surgery)
And now for the atrocities of the stage (and no, I’m not going to make you listen to/see it again):
Rihanna/Coldplay – When I first heard of this pairing, I cringed. Disclaimer: I do not hate either one of them. I like some of their stuff, could pass on the rest. To her credit, Rihanna’s normally flat-keyed harsh vocals did not sound terrible (if she were actually singing most of them it would have been more impressive); the random “interlude” in the middle could have been more interesting and pushed it more. Chris Martin, would you please get a vocal coach? Increasingly, unless it’s a song where the band backs him with a fuller sound, he sounds very wimpy and needs to learn to harness in that falsetto. And someone needs to mix them better because while I realize no one cares about the rest of the players in that band, it could use some balance. I thought it was pretty terrible on the whole and they could’ve cut half of that and made room for some of the fringe artists that were nominated.
Chris Brown/Katy Perry - Nice try, but no dice. What am I saying? It wasn’t even a nice try.
Dance mash-up/Deadmau5/whatever that was - Uh…yeah, I got nothin. It was terrible and weird and while I applaud the attempt to incorporate dance/electronic music into the telecast, why didn’t they just have Skrillex do something? He was their golden boy, so WTF Grammy people? I’m choosing to ignore the Foos involvement in this.
Nicki Minaj – It’s funny, but what I was offended by the most had very little to do with the concept of this…performance piece. Most of my confusion was directed at the short film piece that opened up the performance. Pretty awful. I get it. She’s tongue-in-cheek with a lot of her stuff, but if it had all been done in a less cheesy way and actually showed off her rapping chops instead of confusing everyone who were simply trying to wrap their brains around your allegedly “shocking” imagery and allusions to “roman” through the whole thing it might have gone over a lot better. OK, maybe I don’t get it after all. I assumed she had the talent to stand in front of a microphone and deliver. Lose the gimmicks, Nicki. Her visible irritation at losing the rap award to Kanye/Jay-Z’s “Otis” smacked of cattiness as well.
And now for the random notes:
The Band Perry/Glen Campbell tribute – couldn’t get past her skirt. I just stared at it and tried to figure out what it was the entire time they were on stage. I actually liked the Glen Campbell tribute musically until I got very uncomfortable wondering if Mr Campbell was going to just maybe non-chalantly walk off stage and start meandering around the Staples Center. I feel like the telecast cheapened his legacy in a way; and not a single one of those people on stage with him made an attempt to help reign it in.
Beach Boys tribute – it wasn’t as awful as I was envisioning it to be, but it wasn’t much better either. Foster the People, really? I’ll ignore everyone’s random infatuation with Adam Levine, but FTP? I realize they’re hot with their one hit and all, but there were better choices out there including the oft-overlooked Weezer or Rooney or some other solid California band that could do it justice.
I will make one more comment – there was no Etta James photo included in the Memoriam slide show. I realize there was a tribute early in the telecast, however, it should have been there. Same with Don Cornelius. A mention by a presenter doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be included. It just bothered me a bit. I can imagine there were others left off, as they are not known for doing the most exhaustive job of representing the industry as a whole in this feature. Whatever.
Whew! Now that the Grammys are over for another year, we can get back to the business of finding more fantastic live bands to be ignored for next year’s telecast.
So, without further ado, let’s hit the highs and lows and wrap this up until next February.
Best Performances: In my mind, these are no-brainers.
The Boss and the E Street Band – if you’re going to open a show with someone who can at least deliver a legitimately solid LIVE performance, he’s your man. It’s also a fitting way to pay tribute to the late, great Clarence Clemmons.
Bruno Mars – Probably my only real surprise of the evening. Chris Brown and posers take note; Was it flashy? Yes. Was it live? Parts of it. Did he need the bullhorn? No. Did I love every second of this musical, entertaining throwback performance? YES. Just call him Teflon, because all the controversial cocaine-arrest-random weirdness that seems to surround him did not follow him on that stage. Was he visibly peeved and throwing a fit backstage about losing to Adele in every category? Yes. Get over it, youngster. You’ll get yours someday.
Foo Fighters – Yes, please. Every awards show I would like to see Dave Grohl every half an hour in some capacity. They do their thing. They do it well. Was it perfect? NO. But his acceptance speech was. It was quite moving, actually. Dave Grohl does not regularly step up on a soapbox; but he speaks truths about the industry and imperfections and striving to reach people with his work. He might still be grungy to others, but to me he is in a class of his own.
The Civil Wars – Arguably one of the most entertaining 60 seconds of live talent on the telecast. Kinda made Taylor Swift appear wimpier than usual in comparison. Would I have loved to have heard a full song? YES. If we had, they would have been this year’s Mumford breakout performance. In any case, people will still be talking about them, and that’s good. I would have loved to have seen a performance from Fleet Foxes as well; but apparently, making time for dance numbers was more important. I’m including a full live performance from Jools Holland last fall to highlight their talent, along with a live performance from Fleet Foxes to prove my point about missing out on better live (and nominated) performers.
Kanye – So, here’s my deal with Kanye. I kinda love him. And his Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, in my opinion, was the best album of the year. An absolute atrocity that it wasn’t nominated in that category, and one of the rumored reasons he didn’t show. A Kanye performance most certainly would have been a highlight had it occurred, but really I just wanted a reason to state that this album is a work of art. To nominate Nicki Minaj (more on THAT further down) essentially in his place is ludicrous.
Adele – What can I say? She is the real deal. She deserved to win and did. My statements about Kanye’s album above are my opinion; but it does not detract from the elegance and phenomenal response to 21. I’m glad she won. Even still audibly nursing her chords back to health, she is head and shoulders above the rest. I love her candor. I love her genuine warmth, surprise and gratitude. And I love her massive talent. She is beautiful to look at and listen to; and at her still young age, she is “getting it right” at a much more advanced level than her colleagues. She has the restraint of a much more seasoned artist. But the bubbly personality of someone who is dealing with this celebrity as best she can. I hope the rumor isn’t true that it will be many years before we hear from her again, but I am willing to wait for another inspiring record.
Just on the basis of the opening 10 seconds of this performance, and the goosebumps I got all over again listening to it, you can see she killed this performance in spite of her nerves. (Grammys keeps blocking these videos, so I'm posting a prior Letterman appearance pre-chord surgery)
And now for the atrocities of the stage (and no, I’m not going to make you listen to/see it again):
Rihanna/Coldplay – When I first heard of this pairing, I cringed. Disclaimer: I do not hate either one of them. I like some of their stuff, could pass on the rest. To her credit, Rihanna’s normally flat-keyed harsh vocals did not sound terrible (if she were actually singing most of them it would have been more impressive); the random “interlude” in the middle could have been more interesting and pushed it more. Chris Martin, would you please get a vocal coach? Increasingly, unless it’s a song where the band backs him with a fuller sound, he sounds very wimpy and needs to learn to harness in that falsetto. And someone needs to mix them better because while I realize no one cares about the rest of the players in that band, it could use some balance. I thought it was pretty terrible on the whole and they could’ve cut half of that and made room for some of the fringe artists that were nominated.
Chris Brown/Katy Perry - Nice try, but no dice. What am I saying? It wasn’t even a nice try.
Dance mash-up/Deadmau5/whatever that was - Uh…yeah, I got nothin. It was terrible and weird and while I applaud the attempt to incorporate dance/electronic music into the telecast, why didn’t they just have Skrillex do something? He was their golden boy, so WTF Grammy people? I’m choosing to ignore the Foos involvement in this.
Nicki Minaj – It’s funny, but what I was offended by the most had very little to do with the concept of this…performance piece. Most of my confusion was directed at the short film piece that opened up the performance. Pretty awful. I get it. She’s tongue-in-cheek with a lot of her stuff, but if it had all been done in a less cheesy way and actually showed off her rapping chops instead of confusing everyone who were simply trying to wrap their brains around your allegedly “shocking” imagery and allusions to “roman” through the whole thing it might have gone over a lot better. OK, maybe I don’t get it after all. I assumed she had the talent to stand in front of a microphone and deliver. Lose the gimmicks, Nicki. Her visible irritation at losing the rap award to Kanye/Jay-Z’s “Otis” smacked of cattiness as well.
And now for the random notes:
The Band Perry/Glen Campbell tribute – couldn’t get past her skirt. I just stared at it and tried to figure out what it was the entire time they were on stage. I actually liked the Glen Campbell tribute musically until I got very uncomfortable wondering if Mr Campbell was going to just maybe non-chalantly walk off stage and start meandering around the Staples Center. I feel like the telecast cheapened his legacy in a way; and not a single one of those people on stage with him made an attempt to help reign it in.
Beach Boys tribute – it wasn’t as awful as I was envisioning it to be, but it wasn’t much better either. Foster the People, really? I’ll ignore everyone’s random infatuation with Adam Levine, but FTP? I realize they’re hot with their one hit and all, but there were better choices out there including the oft-overlooked Weezer or Rooney or some other solid California band that could do it justice.
I will make one more comment – there was no Etta James photo included in the Memoriam slide show. I realize there was a tribute early in the telecast, however, it should have been there. Same with Don Cornelius. A mention by a presenter doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be included. It just bothered me a bit. I can imagine there were others left off, as they are not known for doing the most exhaustive job of representing the industry as a whole in this feature. Whatever.
Whew! Now that the Grammys are over for another year, we can get back to the business of finding more fantastic live bands to be ignored for next year’s telecast.
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