Monday, February 13, 2012

THIS RECORD WAS INSPIRED BY SOMETHING THAT'S REALLY NORMAL -- A RUBBISH RELATIONSHIP: Last night's Grammy Awards were, all in all, an entertaining mishmosh of genre mashups, worthy tributes, and the kind of overblown disasters one only gets to see at awards shows. Yes, Nicki, thank you for making my Super Bowl halftime prediction ("Nicki Minaj will be weird enough to compel my mom to call me immediately thereafter to ask me who the heck that was") correct, albeit a week late.

The best performances were the simplest: Adele's comeback, Jennifer Hudson's unadorned tribute to Whitney Houston (which was so spot-on vocally that it made one question Whitney's own singularity), and, most surprisingly, Paul McCartney and friends' rocking romp through the end of Abbey Road, the best awards-ending performance I can remember since Pearl Jam and Neil Young closed the 1993 VMAs.  Bullets:

  • Commenter Randy asked the question last night on Twitter, and I don't have a great answer: who's the last artist to have the kind of massive critical and cross-demographic popular acclaim that Adele has now? Best answer I could come up with was Lauryn Hill, but that wasn't as widespread as this.
  • I think my BRUUUCE credentials are sufficiently established that I can state unequivocally that there was no justifiable reason for him to open the show last night. (Heck, it's not like he was nominated this year.) Should've been Jennifer Hudson.
  • Twenty years ago, Nirvana couldn't win a Grammy until after Kurt Cobain had died.  Now, Dave Grohl is the Jose Oquendo of the evening, and the Foo Fighters are so industry-established as to win almost every award for which they were nominated.
  • Chris Brown, ugh.  Double performance, double ugh. Shame on you, NARAS, and this quote makes it worse.
  • It is amazing to have Lady Gaga just sit there for three and a half hours and not have her perform, or win a single award. (Seriously, why was "Born This Way" not the song she pushed for consideration?) 
  • Nice work by LL Cool J as host; he had the difficult job of establishing the right tone for the evening (we are in mourning, but we have permission to celebrate as well), and he pulled it off well. I have been warned, however, not to call it a "comeback".

30 comments:

  1. Renee8:47 AM

    I didn't watch so I don't have anything to add about the actual show, but I do have to say that I like the quote about the Grammy's being the victim of Chris Brown's assault on Rihanna.  And by "like", I mean "can't believe that moron said that."

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  2. I suspect Gaga didn't want to perform, because the Grammys would have loved to have her do so.  Since her performances tend to be rather elaborate, she may not have wanted to do so.  Her failure to enter/push Born This Way as song/record of the year was a dumb call, though, even if it wouldn't have changed the results.

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  3. gtv20008:55 AM

    I can't believe he still has a job this morning.

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  4. Joseph Finn9:02 AM

    Can we still mourn at the same time we mock LL Cool J for wearig that hat with a tuxedo?

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  5. As I noted, Cool J is the co-lead of the second-highest-rated drama on TV in NCIS: Los Angeles--old people apparently love Cool James as well--and his last musical effort was this rap tribute--NCIS ("No Crew Is Superior"), in which he makes the least gangsta boast ever--"coulda been an engineer at Lockheed Martin!"

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  6. Steve Hyden, AV Club: "<span>The “WTF”-worthy spectacle cooked up by Nicki Minaj for her new single “Roman Holiday” was  the “November Rain” of Grammy performances: There was symbolism, a dash of cinematic pretension, nightmarish imagery, a guy dressed as a priest, and not one whit of logic in the whole operation. It was the greatest, most awful, incredible, and terrible moment of the night..."</span>

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  7. KCosmo's neighbor9:42 AM

    My high points from the night: Adele, Jennifer Hudson, and Taylor Swift (how cute is she??). My lowpoints...Chris Brown, Katy Perry, and Carrie Underwood singing way too loudly over Tony Bennett's voice. But can we discuss Adele's gum chewing? Is that part of her throat therapy, or is that just a really bad habit? Oh...and Glen Campbell sounded amazing. He's no spring chicken.

    I thought L.L. did a great job--he's adorable.

    When I was bored, I flipped to OWN to watch Oprah in Crown Heights speding time with two Hasidic families. It was very interesting...she asked some very basic "why do you do this?" questions, and the families were very willing to answer her. They had no idea who Oprah was prior to the interview--needless to say the "O" found that fascinating. Anyway... it's interesting if anyone has time to catch it.

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  8. Watts9:46 AM

    I assume Gaga didn't push "Born this Way" because she didn't want to endure another round of "Oh, you mean the song she ripped off from 'Express Yourself.'" 

    Or at least I'm glad I didn't have to hear that debate again.

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  9. girard3110:11 AM

    Chris Brown's performance reminded me of what could have been, but never will be. He blew it, it's not an easily forgivable offense. BuzzFeed's republishing of the tweets from girls stating that he's free to smack them around was scarier than Nicki Minaj's exorcism.

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  10. Anonymous10:26 AM

    I wondered the same thing about the gum chewing -- first said "Seriously, you're accepting an award while chewing gum?!?!" and then thought that if it was for her throat, it was totally forgivable.

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  11. Then we could have mocked his giant Qbert game on the merits, rather than feeling disgusted over having to watch it at all.

    Seriously, two performances?  What, was Usher out of the country?

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  12. Fred App10:57 AM

    Note to Ken Erlich: Unless Chris Brown beat the crap out of you, too, you are NOT a victim. You are, however, an incredibly tone-deaf jackass.

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  13. Fred App11:03 AM

    As a huge Beatles fan who thinks McCartney jumped the shark about 30 years ago (or whenever "Back to the Egg" was released), I must admit that the finale blew me away. I didn't think he was capable of rocking like that anymore.

    Let me add one bullet to Adam's list: If someone told you one of the performers last night was suffering from Alzheimer's, and you didn't know who it was, would you have guessed Glen Campbell? Or Brian Wilson?

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  14. Nigel from Cameroon11:15 AM

    I thought Springsteens song & performance were as generic as it gets. I know those in/around Jersey will not agree, but me thinks Bruce's schtick is about over.

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  15. I assumed it's because she is (or maybe was, now?) a smoker and it was either regular gum for nerves or nicotine gum for a fix.

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  16. Poor Brian Wilson looked so dazed and frightened that I really wanted to hug him.

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  17. Stevie11:23 AM

    Watching Lady Gaga dancing and singing along to "Good Vibrations" in that netted get-up was maybe the funniest thing I saw the whole night.

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  18. Tosy and Cosh11:42 AM

    I liked what I expected to like and did not like what I did not expect to like, with the exception of the Bruno Mars number. I had no opinion whatsoever of Bruno Mars prior, and now want that song, but really, that performance, on my iPod now.

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  19. Benner11:42 AM

    Well, it's still morning in California until 3 p.m. Eastern.  Maybe they should have dug out Ike Turner (who I think is still alive for all you premorse fans out there) and had him duet with Brown.  Too bad Phil Spector is in jail.

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  20. As a fan of Adele since I heard "Chasing Pavements" in '08, I remember her chewing gum back then, too.  You can see it when she won Best New Artist:


    http://www.youtube.com/v/9ZAFxGAaj7c&feature" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="170" height="140

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  21. On a most depressing note:
    http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/who-is-paul-mccartney

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  22. Jordan12:27 PM

    Like others, I had an "ugh, Chris Brown" reaction, but as he was on stage, I couldn't help but think about John Lennon.  Specifically why he gets a pass for domestic abuse, where Chris Brown doesn't.  If, as Ralph Wiley suggested, we can separate the art from the artist, is this just a matter of scale, or era, or target audience?  Doess it have something to do with late career apologies/redemption?

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  23. Anonymous12:34 PM

    There are times when I have real trouble separating an artist from his non-performance actions.  Think Mel Gibson:  I just can't see him without thinking of his extracurricular nastiness.  Chris Brown, for me, falls into that category, especially given the indications that he still has violent anger issues.   

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  24. Jordan12:54 PM

    Yeah, I guess what I'm wondering is why we're able to do it for some artists but not others.  I don't think there's a right or a wrong here (at least on our end of things), I just think it's interesting.

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  25. By the way, didn't mean to sound like I discovered Adele before anyone else. I was just trying to say that she's been chewing gum like that for years.

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  26. Watts3:45 PM

    I liked John Ross Bowie's joke in response to that: "What's tragic about the kids who don't know who Paul McCartney is? They have Twitter, but not Google."

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  27. PAPERSITTER3:52 PM

    Good point, Jordan. I love John Lennon, but I have wondered the same thing. He was very open in the interviews: "I beat men and I hit women". I think a lot of it is that the public have (has?) more windows into the lives of public figures now than 30 years ago. There are no photos, no police reports, nothing to make it visible. Just the words of a man murdered in the street by a fan.

    I believe in redemption and second chances. People can change. But it is strange that some can shake the past and some can't.

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  28. Nancy9:49 PM

    I KNOW! He is such a showman- a true throwback to the early days of rock & roll. Performing his ass off yet making it look effortless. His was the only number I re-wound to watch again. The energy and commitment were awesome.

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  29. Imagine Chris Brown was murdered by a fan and Rhianna went to his funeral.  I imagine that would give him a pass from the general public who would want to remember him at his best.  It is easier to remember the highs and forgive the lows after someone dies as the tributes to Whitney have proven.

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  30. Stacie from St. Louis9:36 AM

    1) Springsteen has a new record coming out March 6th.

    2) "The Promise: The Darkness on the Edge of Town Story" was nominated and WON, by the way, the Grammy for "Best Boxed or Special Edition Limited Package."

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