Grammys

The Gotham Gal and I watched most of the Grammy's last night.

But Josh missed it as he had to go to bed early.

And since it's his birthday, we are watching the Tivo recording of the show tonight.

My highlights:

Joss Stone ducking the cameras when she was announced for her Grammy nomination.  She's still a kid after all.  And her Janis Joplin tribute too.  What a voice that girl has.  And we love that she sings barefoot. I hope stardom doesn't change her.

U2 singing Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own.  Bono and the Edge never fail to entertain me.

Green Day's performance of American Idiot.  It rocked and they rock!!!!

Kanye West's acceptance speech.  His ending was awesome, "Everyone wondered what I'd do if I didn't win.  Well I guess we'll never know".  You got that right Kanye.

Ellen DeGeneres's American Express ad.  I love her and the ad.

Freebird and Sweet Home Alabama. Yes, I grew up in the 70s.

And one thing that wasn't on the show - Wilco's first Grammy for Best Alternative Rock Album.  I suspect the fact that Wilco decided to honor an obligation to play a show in Birmingham, Alabama last night had something to do with being left out of the show.

Regardless, as Bono said, it was the best Grammy's I've seen in a long time.

Comments

[Tony Alva]

Couldn't agree with you more... We had to turn away to catch "Carnival" on HBO, but came back and wished we'd differed viewing our favorite series on demand at later time. John Mayer, while doing his more accessable hit, was still most excellent. The kid looks like Skippy from Family Ties, but the dude can play guitar and write songs like nobody's business. Millisa Etheridge was my favorite. U2 was brilliant and even Usher impressed the hell out of me.

Bottom line is that all catagories had most deservant nominees for once and few if any flash in the pan's polluting the playing field (Ashley who?). We were spared the endless lip sync'd big dance numbers that seem to have ruined the Grammy's and the VMA's in favor of real players and singers. What a concept huh?

Was it just me, or was the audio quality surprisingly good in comparison to the past years?

Kills me that I missed Green Day and Skynyrd...

[JB]

Grammys were excellent. Best in a long time. My highlights:
- Jesus Walks (Kanye West) is one of the best songs I've heard in a while. If you knew Kanye's story then his acceptance speech was definitely moving.
- Janis tribute was great. Melissa Ethridge coming out to sing with her bald head (from chemo) was powerful, as was Joss Stone's voice.
- Green Day = A+++++. They are at the top of rock right now. American Idiot is a great album. I can't stop listening to it.
- As a huge Skynard/Allmans fan the Skynard/Dickie Betts stuff was a dream come true (albeit 30 years too late).

Also, was it me or did Scott Weiland sound exactly like David Bowie?

[Bill A]

I generally don't watch awards shows. I'm not interested in endless thank-you lists of people I've never heard of, nor in over-produced lip-sync acts, so I didn't plan to watch this show. Glad I watched though!

Since they can't get winners to shorten their speeches, they simply cut the number of awards on the show (sorry, Wilco). And they got some great LIVE performances.

I like Joss Stone, too, but thought she was over her head trying to do Janis Joplin. Melissa Etheridge saved that tribute.

Green Day blew the roof off, and hopefully reminded the suits and the viewing audience how rock feels.

But why did so many country singers sound either weak or just plain awful when they sang with rock bands?

[Tony Alva]

Bill A,

You know your right. My wife and I looked at each other when the featured country/pop dude did his "Live Each Day Like Yer dyin'" or whatever it was. He was flat during entire verses. It was almost like his ear monitors weren't working. Typically, these guys can hit the notes even though there songs are lyrically and subject matter challenged.

Who knows, maybe these strpping country artists have been lip syncing too all therse years...

[jackson]

Good show for all the reasons stated, and MAVIS STAPLES! Her voive was a bit rough, probably too much touring lately, but it was still the most emotive singing on the stage that night.
What about Maroon 5 beating out Los Lonely Boys...Rip Off! It was still a good show. Scott Weiland thinks he is Bowie.

[formerfan]

I am a white man who bought your new CD, but I threw it in the trash this morning. You have a right to your uninformed ignorant opinion, but last night you were supposed to be HELPING people. Who the majority needing help happened to be black people. You showed that you in fact are a racist and selfish.
Did you know the Mayor of New Orleans is a black man? Mayor Nagin could have used New Orleans School Buses to evacuate people starting Saturday? The Hurricane didn't hit until Monday, idiot. It is common knowledge that the low lying flood prone areas of New Orleans are poor people and black, but this is from the Associated Press two days BEFORE the Hurricane hit:

NEW ORLEANS (AP)8/28/05 — In the face of a catastrophic Hurricane Katrina, a mandatory evacuation was ordered Sunday for New Orleans by Mayor Ray Nagin.
Gov. Kathleen Blanco, standing beside the mayor at a news conference, said President Bush called and personally appealed for a mandatory evacuation for
the low-lying city, which is prone to flooding.
-------------------------------------

So President Bush PERSONALLY called the Mayor and Governor and asked them for a Mandatory Evacuation of "low-lying" areas, which everyone knows the majority are poor black people. I have seen pictues of thousands of New Orleans School Buses under water. Why didn't Mayor Nagin do public announcements on tv and radio telling people in low-lyng areas that the city will pick them up in, New Orleans School Buses, on every other even numbered street? That would have saved many lives. The decisions made by the state of Louisiana were made by Governor Kathleen Blanco, and the decisions made for the city of New Orleans were made by Mayor Nagin(who happens to be a black man, who was in control of the New Orleans Police Department). So if anyone gave the order "of shoot black people" it would have been this black man's decision not President Bush. I never knew you were such an ignorant racist self-centered man until last night.