True to form, the 49th Grammy Awards show from the Staples Center was a near complete vacuum in terms of worthwhile airtime, but it did offer several memorable moments. I spent 2+ hours of the broadcast playing Super Scrabble w/ friends and swilling cans of Tetley’s Smoothflow™ English Ale as scenes scrolled by as background noise. Seeing Ornette Coleman take the stage with Natalie Cole (some suit’s idea of a clever pairing hinging on similarity of surnames?) to award country ingénue Carrie Underwood with a gramophone statuette certified as a surreal moment. Coleman looked dapper as ever, mumbling through his scripted preamble and seeming a bit bewildered in the process. Underwood’s look of polite indifference in his presence, coming on the heels of her participation in a particularly painful Eagles medley, was priceless. The Red Hot Chili Peppers sole stage prop during their performance, a spray painted sign reading “Love to Ornette Coleman”, was strangely predictable, but also endearingly sincere. The earned good karma parlayed into a small boon of statuettes for their own double-album Stadium Arcadium. On completely different front, it was a guilty pleasure hearing my man Lionel running down a version of his Eighties urban contemporary ballad “Hello.” As with pretty much every Grammy encounter of the past several decades, I left the experience feeling oddly aged and out of touch with the pulse of popular music.
Posted by derek on February 12, 2007 6:56 AMNo guilt, all pleasure with Lionel.
Posted by: Michael Schaumann at February 12, 2007 9:20 AMFlea's got knobby knees.
Posted by: J. Bosco at February 12, 2007 8:17 PM"Tetley’s Smoothflow™ English Ale".
I thought you were a beer aficionado!
Posted by: Alastair at February 13, 2007 2:52 PMIt's actually the perfect brew to accompany the Grammys, thin & creamy with a hint of honeyed sweetness. Even a draught widget can't imbue it with much fizz.
On similar grounds, Corona is still my beverage of choice for the beach in Cabo. Certain circumstances call for slumming in regards to suds.
Posted by: derek at February 13, 2007 3:09 PMI think I'd totally dispense with beer and start swilling massive quantities of the hard stuff to be in the right mindset to endure the boomer wankfest known as the Grammies. No harm in being "out of touch" with those maroons, Derek.
Posted by: Captain Hate at February 14, 2007 8:44 AMlove to fucking ornette, indeed.
in nyc slaying right now, gigs with marc edwards, elliott levin, marco eneidi, henry kaiser, damon smith, mary halvorson, mario rechtern, and some recordings with reuben radding, nate wooley, mark hennen, a.o. what a goddamn trip. expect to hear the music soon . . .
ww
Posted by: weasel walter at February 14, 2007 3:00 PMCap’n, if it was still a boomer wankfest I’d probably not feel as much cultural dissonance, but when I’m lucky to recognize two names amongst the nominees in a given pop category it’s time to retreat to the basement with my INXS and Kool & the Gang records.
Posted by: derek at February 14, 2007 4:29 PMHey Weasel, I noticed your gigs over at The Stone site. Hope everything goes without a hitch & much fun is had by all.
Also spotted a couple of James Finn gigs slated for late March (one w/ Herb Robertson AND Sylvie Courvoisier in the band). The news that he’s back in the performing game made my day!
"oddly aged and out of touch with the pulse of popular music"...Christ, I've felt that way since I was an 11 year old Doors fan.
Posted by: godoggo at February 14, 2007 10:06 PMJim Morrison still gets praised regularly in high falutin’ pop circles as a “shamanic poet” and “fallen rock angel” when in reality that band wouldn’t have been nothin’ without the musicial creativity of Ray Manzarek. In other words, I think The Doors still possess plenty of pop cred in much the same way The Police do (though I have to cop to a strong distaste for all things Sting since he went solo).
Back to the Grammys: one of the most telling & candid moments for me was when Tony Bennett earnestly thanked Target for “being the best sponsor I’ve ever had.” Classic!
Posted by: derek at February 15, 2007 6:01 AMI didn't mean to imply that the Doors weren't pop, just that they weren't of my time. Come to think of it, my mom bought me that Doors album because I liked Paul Horn's version of "Light my Fire."
Posted by: godogg at February 15, 2007 8:51 PMI did love the Peppers when they used to play the Anticlub, though.
Posted by: godoggo at February 15, 2007 8:53 PM.................................................. © 2003 - 2006 bagatellen ..................................................