Grammy notes: Amy's near perfect

Sunday's Grammy Awards proved again that the Recording Academy is afraid to go all the way when it comes to being subversive. How does an album/artist with six major nominations win every big award except the biggest? (And her producer won producer of the year, non-classical.)

Herbie Hancock got two other nominations for "River": best contemporary jazz album (he won); best jazz instrumental solo (he lost to Michael Brecker). But he takes album of the year? Good for him; a real musician won.

This was like in 2000, when Eminem's best-ever album got all the pre-show notoriety and lost out to Steely Dan.

Other observations:

• Live music doesn't translate well via TV, especially rap, which rarely translates well live. Neither does indie-folk (sorry, Feist). And the Beatles don't translate into abstract dance/ballet. That was the acrobatic equivalent of Yoko's singing.
• Give me Mo' Day & the Time any time. Or Prince.
• Instead of live performances, they should show videos of each song. Or commercials. One of the grooviest moments of the night was that Mary J. Blige song "Just Fine" during that car ad.
• That live on-line competition among the three string players was idiotic. The auditions lasted five seconds each; the winner won the right to sit with the two losers in a huge orchestra and not be heard during a Foo Fighter's song. Her parents must be so proud.
• Shot of the night: Kanye West telling the music to STFU while he lamented the death of his mother.
• Better shot of the night: Vince Gill's Beatle jab at Kanye West, who probably would have been pissed if he even knew who the hell Vince Gill is/was.
• Here's what Josh Groban said about Amy Winehouse: "I think it's a great, great song, I think it's a great, brilliantly produced album and I think we all hope she gets better."
• Here's what Chaka Khan said: "She's walking her walk. We all have a walk in life, we have hard and difficult times and going through that chaos often leads to clarity." Haven't tons of male stars done much worse than Amy Winehouse? Does anyone tell Keith Richards or Snoop Dogg, "I hope you get better"? Leave her alone. "Clarity" is what Josh Groban sounds like.
• The Beastie Boys beat Spyro Gyra, Dave Koz and Chris Bottin in the "pop instrumental" category. That would be like Bruce Springsteen beating out Joe Satriani and Steve Vai in the "rock instrumental" category (nevermind; that really happened, too).
• The White Stripes won in two of their three Grammy musical categories for "Icky Thump" (rock performance, alternative album). The band has now won five Grammys. Sometimes they get things right.
• Jimmy Sturr won his seventh Grammy in eight years (and his 11th in the last 13) in the best polka album category. In the world of polka, he's the anti-Susan Lucci.
• Kenny Aronoff is to the drums what Jerry Lee Lewis used to be to the piano.

| Timothy Finn, The Star

Comments

[Penny]

I actually enjoyed the Grammys last night. Much better than I expected. Good entertainment numbers like Foo Fighters and LA Symphony led by John Paul Jones and I thought Tina Turner was as electric as ever and looked fabulous. She's gotta be pushing 70. She and Beyonce' did a great Proud Mary. And the awards got spread around pretty well. I've seen worse.

[Troy]

Who Vince Gill is? The best country music artist out there today (puts Garth Brooks to shame) and probably the second greatest country artist of all time after Johnny Cash.

[Gary]

Troy, shouldn't Hank Williams be in there?

[GTD]

Amy has a nice body too had she is a damn junkie. I can do without her music.

Vince Gill's jab at Kanye was the best line of the show.

And Mr. Finn may not like the Beatles' tribute but the Cirque "Love" show is outstanding.

By the way, Ringo Starr looks damn good considering he is almost 68.

Speaking of senior citizens, Tina Turner still looks pretty good.

oh, and can someone please sign Aretha up for NutriSystem? A few years ago she looked like Jabba the Hut but she has outgrown the role.

[Vandelay]

There's a pattern to a lot of "Album of the Year" award winners lately: "Old guys collaborating with pop stars". In the last dozen years, it's worked for Herbie Hancock, Ray Charles, Carlos Santana, and Tony Bennett. Somebody needs to tell Brian Wilson about this!

[RaiderHawk]

Kanye probably doesn't even know who Johnny Cash is. The Jirque-Off du Soleil was not ready for prime-time TV. It was like somebody spoke and I went into a bad dream
I thought Ringo's wife still looks pretty hot. Brian Wilson should collabo with Sarah Bareilles. Foo Fighters rocked but they're like the Chili Peppers: they keep rewriting the same two songs.

[The Zen Philosopher Basho]

Easy, Troy. Vince Gill is just a poor man's Ricky Skaggs.

[RaiderHawk]

Vince Gill's face: Why Sony makes wide-screen TVs.