Grammys: Creaky Legends of Rock

I hate that my generation is in positions of creative control these days. Tonight's Grammys featured the unheralded reunion of The Time. Wha? Remember them? They were the bad guys in Purple Rain and had a couple of minor hits. That was it. (And wasn't having Morris Day hit on Rihanna creepy? There is a 30-year age gap there.)

And Cyndi Lauper presented the Best New Artist award as they highlighted the fact that she won the category back in 1985. She didn't sing, but still. My peers have already helped an '80s revival last longer than the '80s — I hope this isn't the start of another one.

Of course my contemporaries have nothing on the boomers, who still haven't taken their clammy hands off the reins yet — witness the performances of Aretha Franklin, John Fogerty and a much face-lifted Tina Turner. She's 68 for god's sake and looked like she was going to bust something off up on stage. She must have the same surgeon as Little Richard. Nice to see The Beatles get some recognition after all these years. Poor lads have never really gotten their due.

But while the show wallowed (celebrated?) it's 50 years, there was some concession that new music is still being made, with Amy Winhouse (who admittedly has a retro sound) being one of the biggest winners of the night. Nice to see, despite looking like she was dying to climb into a bottle after her fabulous performance (and beating out Feist for Best New Artist). I hope she manages to pull herself together as I'd like to see what comes next.

I thought of live-blogging this too late (plus the show is way too damn long and I work too early) but there are many fine places to get all caught up. May I suggest Inside the Box and The Ampersand was a dash of Dose for the best moments of the night.

5 comments:

  1. I completely forgot that the Grammys were on last night. I was too busy engrossed in the latest episode in Masterpiece Theater.

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  2. I must confess I haven't watched the Grammys in years. There have been far too many times I've seen the wrong artists and wrong songs win. A case in point, both "Sledgehammer" by Peter Gabriel and "Addicted to Love" by Robert Palmer lost the Record of the Year award to Higher Love by Steve Winwood in 1987...

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  3. And Amy Winehouse lost out to Herbie Hancock. Award shows are rarely about the awards but the spectacle and the train wrecks. Who needs someone else to validate what's the best for us?

    And Marina, you can always PVR Masterpiece Theatre. Anyway, it looks like we will all have the Oscars to kick around this year after all. Meet you all back here in a couple of weeks.

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  4. I thought it was fitting that "Jungle Love" led into "Umbrella." Our memories of the complete inanity of the former served to highlight the complete inanity of the latter.

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  5. Oh wee oh wee ella ella

    The more things stay the same...

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