Kurt Loder On The Grammys: Can We Get Some Answers?
The 47th annual Grammy Awards show was a collection of indelible moments, moments we’ll not soon forget. Not for the next day or two, anyway. I do have a few questions, though.
How do Maroon 5 qualify for the Best New Artist award? The band was formed in 1995 (under the name Kara’s Flowers), and released its first album in 1997. Songs About Jane, the group’s first and, so far, only album as Maroon 5, was released in 2002. Just wondering.
Wasn’t it a little embarrassing, in a show dedicated to “the 50th birthday of rock and roll” (if indeed it is the 50th birthday of rock and roll ó a questionable assertion), to have to hand out pat-on-the-back “lifetime achievement” awards to rock pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis and to Led Zeppelin because their actual music never won a Grammy? Or, even more vaguely, to have to name Brian Wilson a “person of the year” because his classic band, the Beach Boys, was never deemed worthy of a Grammy Award, either? On the other hand, it was nice to see Iggy Pop making his first appearance on the Grammy stage ó on the “Lust for Life” T-shirt worn by Ellen DeGeneres.
Since the RZA clearly has the ear of Quentin Tarantino (having scored his “Kill Bill” movies), shouldn’t he maybe advise Quent to pull back on the gangsta look a little? He may be thinking Eminem, but I was thinking Ali G.
Is mortality a new Grammy motif? “Nothin’ in this life is promised,” said Kanye West, “except death.” The Blind Boys of Alabama came equipped with an actual coffin. And then there was the Jennifer Lopez/ Marc Anthony duet, which is the kind of thing you might see after you die. Unless you go to heaven.
ó Kurt Loder
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