Hope everyone is having a good week. Watched The Grammy’s last night on my DVR. Got through 3 hours in about 20 minutes in search of rock. I know this is a massive mainstream music show but rock and metal have been badly represented for over 25 years. Ever since they gave Tull a Grammy over Metallica they really are still lost. The nominations are so random and often make no sense at all. Don’t know much about Alabama Shakes and I’m sure they are a fine band, but the clip they played when they won didn’t sound very rock. Ghost won for metal. Of course this wasn’t dare televised! I’m sure they loved their costumes so said “let’s go with that”. If you honestly think they sat and listened to Ghost I have a bridge to sell you. That being the case in my opinion with every winner in this category (Motorhead for a Metallica cover? Priest for a live version of a 40 year old song?). It is just a mess. But they don’t care and have to give them out so they just go with whatever. Or so it seems. The Eagles tribute to Glen Frey was nice, even though Jackson Browne struggled trying to sing that song some. Lady Gaga doing Bowie was rough. Could they maybe have had a ROCK artist tribute a ROCK icon?! And please stop with the “Lady Gaga is a rocker” bit. I know, she goes to metal shows sometimes. But if that was really in her blood she’d be playing it. And she is playing the furthest thing from it! Nice job by Grohl recognizing Lemmy, AND Phil Taylor, but for the love of God can TV producers PLEASE understand there are other rock artists out there that can speak? I like Dave and I am a fan and appreciate what he does for rock. But it is insane how EVERY show runs to him as the token rock guy! Hollywood Vampires certainly came the closest to the spirit of real rock music. Obviously the Grammy’s having Johnny Depp in a band I’m sure would allow him to write his own ticket. Kudos to them for saluting Lemmy with some of the time they had, because it’s probably the only reason it happened. Major fail not including Jimmy Bain in the obits. That’s my take, feel free to post yours in comments.
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The fact that Ghost (who will see all these people in Hell >:( was relegated to the pre-show ceremony tells you everything you need to know about the Grammys. I do appreciate the procedural clarifications from Dana. The post-show buzz was all about someone named Adele, who had some kind of equipment malfunction during her big number. I Youtubed it, and can tell you that even if the song had been performed perfectly in every respect, it still would have sounded like the of music I simply cannot listen to.
Mark,
Adele, unlike most of the dreck that is popular today, has talent and a beautiful voice.
Adele’s problem is that her music is dour, boring and redundant. If she could vary her sound, she has the chops to sing almost anything, like Kelly Clarkson or Carrie Underwood.
D 🙂
Dana,
THANK YOU. Somebody agrees with me about Adele. A vocal talent, absolutely. But, like I said earlier, she’s got no songs.
Other than the Rolling in the Deep hit she had (if you get a chance YouTube the mashup with Maiden’s The Prisoner), all of her songs sound like the same dirge.
Agreed Kenneth,
Rolling in the Deep, is by far her best song, and the verse for, Rumor Has it, is good. But other than that, as I wrote before, everything else is cut from the same melancholy mold. You can thank Rick Rubin for that, by the way.
Beautiful voice, boring songs.
D 🙂
I love how Eddie pats himself on the back when he calls the Grammy’s clueless for not respecting Rock and Metal. But when people complain that Eddie does the same thing on his radio show, Eddie says “it’s my show I do what I want.” Or Eddie says “major fail for not including Jimmy Bain in the obits” which is funny considering all the people who died in thrash and death metal like the drummer from Broken Hope who Eddie failed to make any mention of in his obits.
Frank. I am not “patting myself on the back” by calling out two major figures in rock who passed away. Really strange you would term it like that? These are two artists who died recently and played on albums that sold MILLIONS. If you can’t see the difference between that and obscure death metal bands I can’t help you. Death is not a competition despite you seeing it that way. But when artists who played on MAJOR releases aren’t mentioned I called it out. Clearly it isn’t possible to mention every music related death, but one guy played on an album that sold 5 million copies. A little silly you can’t see the difference. I’d also love to know why you waste your time on me and my shows when you are a death metal fan? That’s never been my show so take it elsewhere please if that’s your scene.
I didn’t even bother watching the show this year. It’s a waste of time. I figured the Lemmy tribute would be online after the broadcast and I’d watch it then. That’s all I wanted to see anyway. I watched last year just to see AC/DC and luckily the Grammy people had the courtesy to put the band on at the top of the show so I could change the channel afterwards.
Totally agree, The Grammy’s continue not to understand hard rock/heavy metal music. I thought it was valiant of Lady Gaga to pay homage to the legend Bowie. With all due respect to the Hollywood Vampires, love Cooper, Perry and McKagan, and their tip of the hat to Lemmy, but man in my opinion, they were bad, sounded and looked ancient. When the general public watches such a performance it unfortunately magnifies the stereotypical image that hard rock/heavy metal genre is aging out.
Please forgive me for sounding harsh, but I cannot stand Lady Gaga. I think she is such a phony, and every performance she does, even one that is a tribute, becomes all about her.
Apparently Bowie’s son felt the same way, as he tweeted something very snarky about her as well.
Hi Dana! Let me answer about Lady Gaga like Eddie Trunk would. Of course every performance she does, even one that is a tribute, is about her. Who else would it be about? It’s HER songs, HER performances, and SHE was paying tribute to Bowie. And of course everything Gaga does gets Twisted. UNREAL. If you don’t like it don’t watch it and don’t listen. And for someone who “cannot stand” her, you seem to know everything about her.
FYI, I did not watch her performance in its entirety, because, as you quoted me, “I cannot stand her.”
Outside of her mediocre “talent,” what bugs me about Gaga, is she is so affected and melodramatic in her mannerisms, and uses pomp and circumstance as a way to circumvent her utter lack of originality.
Also, in this particular case, she was not performing her own music, she was doing a tribute to someone else’s legacy. So, toning down her usual antics, even though Bowie was theatrical himself, would have been nice.
Furthermore, it says something about her when Bowie’s own son said he thought she was using his father’s passing as an opportunity to further herself.
Good day, sir.
My opinion on Gaga’s tribute. As they panned into the audience I fully expected to see one of two things. Please laughing their asses off or people with the mouths hanging open in shock.
It was a total embarrassment to Bowie. As I watched it, it got funnier and funnier. Gaga was totally serious up there and that just made it even funnier.
Come one Folks! She had a stupid Elvis Costume on with a bad Orange Elvis wig. She got sillier and sillier by the moment. I know she wasn’t but to me it looked like she was making fun of Bowie. Watch the part when she starts to play Suffergate City. Totally hilarious.
Honestly, it looks like a bad Weird Al Yankovic video. I expected Gaga to start playing Accordian.
As for the singing, she did ok there. She should have however just ditched the costume. DO the songs and do them Gaga style..dress normal. The costume bit was embarrassing. I honestly had tears rolling down my face watching it, it was the funniest thing I had seen in a long time. I can not believe anyone liked it as a serious tribute to Bowie.
As tributes, I think the Lionel Ritchie and Glenn Fry ones were better.
I think the B.B. King tribute was the best part of the evening, or at least one of them.
Thanks for the info Dana I didn’t realize that was the deal on how the Grammys worked. Also totally agree about the BB King tribute.
You are very welcome, Andrew.
Cheers,
D 🙂
I actually think there should be an award called the Weird Al award, which Yankovic should win every year. He could even present it to himself. A little intentional levity might be good for the sanity. Although, he could probably trade one such award to Tenacious D for the Metal award from last year.