Thoughts on last night's Grammy broadcast
-
- February
- 11
I missed the first 20 minutes and the three-and-a-half hour show still felt like an eternity. The first two hours I saw, though, were excellent.
As a result, I didn’t see the Alicia Keys-Frank Sinatra performance, the Prince appearance or Carrie Underwood looking hot in a black dress and big ol’ boots. Dang.
I got a little choked up with the gospel rendition of “Let It Be,” featured in “Across the Universe.”
I got a lot bored by the extended gospel segment with Aretha Franklin. At least the final number reminded me of James Brown’s scene from “The Blues Brothers.”
Even duller: The Kid Rock-Keely Smith duet.
I want to wear Kanye West’s trippy Lite Brite jacket and high-beam sunglasses for Halloween. So cool. And for what Kanye lacked in pure vocal skills, the passion with which he sang the tribute to his late mother more than made up for it.
I’m a huge Foo Fighters fan and I’m going to see them at Madison Square Garden next Tuesday. I’m hoping John Paul Jones joins them so I can hear the old-school James Bond version of “The Pretender” again. But can somebody tell me why the Internet contest winner didn’t get to solo on eight measures of the song? Seemed rather pointless to waste that talent otherwise.
I liked Alicia Keys’ performance of “No One,” but I’m surprised more people haven’t criticized the song more for sounding like a revamped version of Black Eyed Peas’ “Where Is The Love?” John Mayer, ironically, might be least known for his most impressive talent: his mind-blowing guitar skills, which were on display at the end of Keys’ second song.
Vince Gill’s gentle tweaking of Kanye West (”I just got an award presented to me by a Beatle. Have you had that happen yet, Kanye?”) was the highlight of the night. But you know that no matter how much the rapper was laughing at the joke, there was a part of him wondering, “Hmm… what rhymes with Gill?”
The “Rhapsody in Blue” segment with Herbie Hancock and Lang Lang had the potential to be boring beyond belief, but wound up being surprisingly captivating.
Amy Winehouse. Wow. Where to start? During her performance, I alternated between loving and loathing her shtick. But I was astounded and touched by her live reaction to winning a Grammy. Everyone around her celebrated like they won the lottery, yet Winehouse spent the first dozen seconds frozen like a statue. For all the cool cats in Hollywood who played their wins off like they were expected, I appreciated that someone showed some real emotion about winning a tiny gilded phonograph.
During the Josh Groban-Andrea Bocelli duet, was I the only one secretly hoping for Bocelli to announce, “Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage… OPERA MAN!”? I know that Adam Sandler character ran its course 15 years ago, but still.
In a Wachovia commercial, I noticed that the bank has trademarked the phrase “Whoo-hoo!” Somewhere, Homer Simpson’s got to be saying “D’oh!”
John Fogarty and Little Richard sounded great, but I was cringing at Jerry Lee Lewis’ performance. Vocally, he was fine, but oof—his piano solo comprised of him slapping his right palm against the same keys for about 16 bars. The dude is a legend for his wild stage antics, so it was just downright sad to see him so docile. With Fogarty and Richard flailing around him, I kept expecting Lewis to ask for strained peas.
Herbie Hancock’s a classy and talented guy, and by most accounts the album of Joni Mitchell songs is solid. But on a night when most of the awards appeared to be going to musicians relevant to today’s music scene, his Album of the Year victory felt like a flashback to Jethro Tull-over-Metallica. Maybe that’s why so many American musicians are so mellow about winning the award; as far as credibility is concerned, there’s a reason why the Grammy is slightly more revered than a People’s Choice Award.
Plus, you know Kanye West was wondering, “Hmm… what rhymes with Hancock?”
(Kevork Djansezian/The Associated Press)
This entry was posted
on Monday, February 11th, 2008 at 1:58 pm by Chris Serico.
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I also missed the first 23 minutes of the show which I thought I had set my DVR for earlier in the week.
Anyway, I couldn't agree more about the Gospel part…I like Gospel music fine but it seemed to last an awfully long time and I got bored. I thought Beyonce and Tina Turner kicked butt…hope I can move like Ms. Turner when I'm her age! Oh, who am I kidding? It's a total drama for me just to get out of bed in the morning..I'm like a slug.
Anyway, was it just me or were there more acts than awards? I don't remember so many performances before.
Overall, it was a good show and the only thing I couldn't stomach was Amy Winehouse. I don't get it. Am I missing something? I've heard a lot about her and her music but I've not heard any of her stuff on the radio. I listen to everything on the local radio stations, I've got Sirius and XM at my disposal all day…I watch Fuse and I listen to those music channels on cable…why have I not heard any of her music?? No big deal though, I was not impressed with what I heard last night and I can't understand how she managed to win all these Grammys! There were other nominees that were much more worthy. What is the deal? Is it just me?
I think welcoming FARTMAN on with Josh + Andrea would have been the Sealer*
;PPP
FOO's were Awesome – Lucky U going to see 'em*
I saw the Drummer Taylor Hawkins years ago drumming for Alannis Morissette + i knew then he was gonna be Huge – ENERGY + thensome!!