The show kicked off with The Greatest Rock Band in History. The performance was not the greatest, but hey I'll never complain about an opportunity to see the boys from Ireland perform, and they do rock. Bono takes off his glasses just to show us he's wearing guyliner. Having worn guyliner before, I have no comment. "Thanks, Walter. Can we get Whitney Houston on the show?"
Whatever Bono asks for, Bono gets. Whitney presents next. Best thing I can say for her: she appeared sober. And trying to stretch her minute on the stage out as loooooong as possible. Jennifer Hudson wins the first Grammy of the night. Great girl and seems to be on a roll with the Super Bowl national anthem and now a Grammy for R&B album of the year. I believe her brother was killed recently, so her acknowledgment of family in heaven was poignant.
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson bombed. Not funny and Katy Perry seemed embarrassed to be mentioned by him.
I'm a Justin Timberlake fan, but even he bombs in trying to say something funny here. The crowd seems a little dull.
Al Green is classic and can still sing, Justin does a nice job singing with Al. Casey says, "Al Green makes me smile." We love that song too. Justin advertised Keith Urban and Boys 2 Men would be involved with this number. Keith must be the white guy and B2M the backing vocals. Wow, how B2M have fallen.
Coldplay. Great band. Nice jacket on Chris Martin (if you've seen my new one you'll know why). Jay-Z steps into "Lost" with Chris Martin?! Uh-oh, Coldplay's performance is now the coolest of the night. Chris wore himself there in "Viva la Vida."
Sorry, I've never gotten into Carrie Underwood and tonight is more of the same. Ugly dress and a country song written by a committee. Sugarland just won a Grammy for something. They're a country band that sang a song one time I liked. Best I can do there.
[BTW, DVRs rock. Boys to bed without missing a thing and now I can start skipping the ridiculous commercials anyway]
Song of the Year already? An eclectic choice of songs! All good ones, but it's apples and oranges, really. By the way, the video for that "Chasing Pavements" song is really cool if you've never seen it. Another little tidbit about a song nominee here, I heard Sara say one time that the target of her song "I'm not going to write you a love song cause you ask for it" is not a guy - it was her recording studio who told her that her album needed a love song. Nice one, Sara. "Viva la Vida" wins. More incentive for Joe Satriani to pursue his lawsuit. It's a good song, but not sure I'd call it the song of the year. That album was phenomenal music but just "okay" lyrically. Could have been so much better, oh well. Moving on.
Kid Rock. "Amen." Change really has come to America when white trash is singing about race relations, poverty and war. [FYI, I use the term white trash here in the non-pejorative as used self-referentially by white north Americans with higher socioeconomic status to jokingly describe limitations they sense in their culture] Welcome to the cause, Kid!
Taylor Swift and Hannah Montana!!!!!! OMFG!!!!!!
Taylor kicks Hannah's ass. Pop Collaboration is yet another difficult choice, but the right one is made here. I heard that song only once or twice ever, but I loved it.
Jennifer Hudson is singing. I hope she doesn't make me cry (I'm only on my 2nd beer, I should be okay). Oh no, she's singing "You Pull me Through" - I am verklempt...
Thankfully I now have the Jonas Brothers to drain all emotion from me. Soulless Disney, I ain't feelin' it. The parts where they aren't singing and only the band and Stevie Wonder are playing are okay, as long as I'm not actually looking at three 15-year old, home-schooled white bread boys.
Rock Album Grammy always throws me. I never know what they mean by "rock." Coldplay wins over Metallica, see what I mean?
Katy "bicurious" Perry performs. She's come a long way since her christian artist days, that's all I can say about that. Don't bother kissing a girl on stage, Katy, you'll never top Madonna and Britney a few years ago.
10-time Grammy winner Kanye West? I thought he was always angry that he never wins? Kanye's hair is totally Lionel Richie from the "Hello" video, dude! Well, not curled but that same shape. Not his best work, but I like Kanye. Best New Artist Grammy? Anyone but Jonas Brothers, please... Yeah! Good song, I don't know if her other stuff is good.
Does Morgan Freeman have a fake arm? Miming Michael Jackson? He's friends with Kenny Chesney?! WTF?! I never knew Morgan was gay... I kid! Just because he's friends with a gay guy doesn't make Morgan gay. About 10 years ago Kenny won me over with a song about his grandpa, I give him grace since then.
Record of the Year already? I like spreading these big Grammys throughout like this. Same song that won Song of the Year, right? So it won for the song writers earlier and now the performers and producers. Robert Plant and Alison Kraus are 2 great artists so I guess you can't go wrong there.
The next performance is a great example of something that sounded great in planning but wow what a mess on stage. Don't get me wrong, I love a pregnant rapper as much as the next person, but wow. Kanye, Jay-Z, et al. At least I just realized that MIA's song is on the Slumdog soundtrack.
Paul McCartney takes Kurt Cobain's spot in front of Dave Grohl. Can't be worse than what we just saw. Note to Bono, stop singing before age 66.
Pop Male Vocal. "Say" by John Mayer. Excellent choice.
I'm reminded what I liked about Sugarland, this is that song I couldn't remember earlier, nice song and emotion for "Stay." Hey, the last song was only one letter different. Say now Stay. Wild.
That "Chasing Pavements" song is good. That's one of the funny things about the Grammys. I heard this song a lot a long time ago, haven't heard it in a long time, now I've heard it 3 times tonight.
Radiohead and the USC marching band. Awe. Some. (I wonder what Thom has against wireless mics?)
TI and Justin Timberlake. We kinda like TI around here, the boys are fans of "Whatever You Like" (radio edit, people, please). Ooh, soon as I said that, TI got censored by the live delay. Believe it or not, the song has a positive message and is really good.
Neil Portnow. Every year this guy gets up there and wastes our time. This year he tops that by trying to ride on Barack Obama's coattails. What a douche.
Four Tops' music. 50 years from now, a botoxed Kanye West will be reliving his glory days. Out of respect for that possibility, I don't fast forward.
Josh Groban introduces Neil Diamond. I'd rather hear Josh. Will Ferrell will always be Neil Diamond to me ("my heart and my ass hurt!"). I had a friend who sang "Sweet Caroline" at every karaoke opportunity, and did a great job actually. The crowd acts like they're at karaoke.
RIP, Eddie Arnold. Isaac Hayes died? What did South Park do with Chef?
I really, really like John Mayer. He has respect for music and plays new stuff that sounds like old stuff.
Lil Wayne and Robin "Alan" Thicke. Interesting experiment: will the combination bring up Thicke's cool more than it drags down Wayne's? I believe the result cancels each other out. It's not cool and it doesn't suck. The New Orleans stuff (Terence Blanchard) is cool. I was in New Orleans less than a year before Katrina, and I'd love to go back.
You know Will.i.am wasn't going to NOT mention Obama. Rap Album Grammy to Lil Wayne. How'd he beat the Godfather Jay-Z? Congrats, Lil.
[an aside regarding the new Pepsi commercial, they stole Obama's campaign symbol and now his songwriter?]
Alison and Robert Plant finally perform live for us. I remember Alison Kraus from her bluegrass circuit days in Iowa, Missouri and Illinois. I first heard her live when she opened for Garth Brooks in about 1993. She looks better every year. Alison Buttons?
Album of the Year, the biggie. With so much love tonight, it's no surprise that it's "Raising Sand" by Robert Plant and Alison Kraus. I clearly need to listen to this album.
Well, that's it. I think the best performances were all in the 1st half. I didn't get that memorable performance we sometimes have at the Grammys, but a good music show nonetheless. We close the show with Stevie Wonder by himself singing his newest song "All About the Love Again." So on a night to celebrate the best musical art of 2008, we leave with this:
What if someone made a soda
That caused everyone to love each other
Good night!
