Official 2008 GRAMMY Awards Show Discussion Thread

[djwayne]

I may be in the minority here, but I enjoyed the show. Lot's of great entertainment and legends who we may not get to see again.

Congrats to all the nominees and winners. The Grammy award is a big deal, even a nomination is something to be proud of.

Highlights for me were, the "A Day In The Life" and "Let It Be" performance, Tina Turner, Amy Winehouse, Little Richard, and the tribute to Luciano Pavorotti......

[AMIEL]

Foo Fighters are one of my favorite Rock bands but I think the Strings and winds arragement for the Foo Fighters song SUCKED! was boring, timid, without emotion, aggression or dramatism...very boring and old fashion..was Ok for a average movie part ...not for that song.....such a waste of orchestra ...and the brasses at the end of the song were so out of place..a bit more and the director could write a congas arragement !!

[AMIEL]

Amy Winehouse and the John Mayer Guitar Solo was smoking!!

[jchas]

Originally Posted by zakco

Once again, I didn't watch any of it, but I'm curious...what did Vince Gill say that got so much attention...?

-Z-

I was just handed a Grammy from a Beatle (Ringo), Can you say that Kanye?
Some other rapper also dissed Kanye when giving the Best Album of the Year by saying "There's NO loser here.....Kanye....

Agree with most of what what was said so far:
Fergie actually can sing - not great - but better than I would have imagined.
Amy was actually sober (relatively any way), and hanging out with her mum and dad.
Could really care less what Daft Punk was using.
Missed Underwood - but I kinda like her boney knees.
I thought Feist was pretty good.
I thought Aretha looked pretty good for a 300+ older woman
And I was pretty blown away by Jerry and Lil Richard - I can only hope to sit up straight and not piss myself at their age.

Oh yea, the duet by Josh Grobin(sp?) and the blind Italian tenor - I think if the tenor could have seen him he might of smacked him up-side the head. Josh was way on top of the note all the way through. Harmonies were one thing, but Josh went unison on one line and it clashed terribly.

[chetatkinsdiet]

I liked the kid that played the Oscar Peterson piece on the piano for about a minute. I'd liked to have heard more of that.
Amy was cool. I think her performance was the highlight out of all the major ones as she didn't have all the glitz of the others since she was in a studio offsite. Her's was at least an honest performance.
I might just buy Vince's new record in support of him calling out Kanye like that. Great.
One last thing....Hey Kenny Aronoff....Joe Satriani called from 1982 and want's his sunglasses back. Seriously, when are these guys going to learn that sunglasses doesn't equal a 20 year old rock band. I mean, Kenny's been around for 30 years or so....we know he's getting up there. He's an amazing player....ditch the glasses.

m

[88fingerz]

Originally Posted by Funk Dracula

Aretha Franklin; No 300+ pound woman over the age of 65 should be wearing a shoulder free, cleavage showing chicken chick yellow dress, singing about jesus on national television; except for comedic purposes.

Agreed! I love Aretha, but...agreed!

Amy Winehouse was quite good with a unique, on pitch voice (no autotune thank god).

HAIL TO HANCOCK!!! What a name too!

[Pfraser]

For the 5 seconds chris brown was on screen I've never wanted to punch him more...

[Sigma]

again PUTRID..one shot of jackie wilson on his knees..or big momma thorton howlin..otis doing the st st utter off time... or a fat pimply janis asking for a piece of your heart..

too contrived ..too much visual gymnastics and botox hiding the paucity of musical creativity

fawk eMpTV and the hoe that the G awards pimp

[ProducerBoy]

Winehouse was good. I've seen her do much better, but she was really good. And the look on her face when she won song of the year was fantastic... not a lick of self important entitlement.
Orchestra drug down the Foo. (Saw them in concert a couple weeks ago and "The Pretender" was MUCH better.)
My highlight: RHAPSODY IN BLUE
L O O O V E that composition, and it was performed beautifully and soulfully with passion. Loved it.

[ProducerBoy]

Originally Posted by Sigma

agsin PUTRID..one shot of jackie wilson on his knees..or big momma thorton howlin..otis doing the st st utter off time... or a fat pimply janis asking for a piece of your heast..

too contrived ..too much visual gymnastics and botox hiding the paucity of musical creativity

fawk eMpTV and the hoe that the G awards pimp

There's nothing quite like a person who is unafraid to state their mind with dignity and poise.

[Sigma]

Originally Posted by ProducerBoy

There's nothing quite like a person who is unafraid to state their mind with dignity and poise.

thanks... your opinion of my views and myself is of utmost importance..you complete me

if you never saw the above mentioned acts perfornm then your loss

and i am too fat now to have poise..but i have por poise

and to be really opinionated ..if ya don't get it ..YOU are part of the problem

back to your Wii

[jmarkham]

Originally Posted by ptbarnum

all the performances sounded so squashed and polished..no fun

But I'm so glad Herbie Hancock won for Joni Letters. This album has
been my constant companion since it was released. Superbly researched,
arranged and recorded. If you listen to it and are not touched by it,
you should question why you are in the game at all.

The vocal performances of Corinne Bailey Rae, Tina Turner, and
Luciana Souza are all stunning .. especially Tina Turner on
"Edith and the Kingpin" .. I knew she was great .. but this great?
I hadn't a clue. I listened to this track for a week straight until
it sunk in .. the one phrase "small town, big man, fresh lipstick
glistening" is freaking perfect.

Congrats to Herbie, Joni, Tina, Wayne and all the great players on this
album. It is my new gold standard for sonic excellence and what a rare
thing to find jazz so prominent.

jeff

[Sigma]

Originally Posted by jmarkham

But I'm so glad Herbie Hancock won for Joni Letters. This album has
been my constant companion since it was released. Superbly researched,
arranged and recorded. If you listen to it and are not touched by it,
you should question why you are in the game at all.

The vocal performances of Corinne Bailey Rae, Tina Turner, and
Luciana Souza are all stunning .. especially Tina Turner on
"Edith and the Kingpin" .. I knew she was great .. but this great?
I hadn't a clue. I listened to this track for a week straight until
it sunk in .. the one phrase "small town, big man, fresh lipstick
glistening" is freaking perfect.

Congrats to Herbie, Joni, Tina, Wayne and all the great players on this
album. It is my new gold standard for sonic excellence and what a rare
thing to find jazz so prominent.

jeff

watermelon man and crossings were great herbie..too bad it takes a visonary artist to become a vegas lounge act to get credit on the grammys

this was worse than jethro tull getting the HEAVY METAL grammy when that category first came out

[jmarkham]

Just an observation, but I think Herbie seems to shine more on other people's
material .. and what a great wealth of music/art to draw upon
than Joni Mitchell.

I appreciate that he really wrapped his head around the meanings of
all the songs by researching with Joni's producers and collaborators. The
interpretations of the songs are crystalline.

I suppose that your reference is figurative? Herbie hasn't toured on this
one yet ... but will in the Spring .. I, for one, hope to be at one of them.

jeff

[Pfraser]

alright then so no one else shares my passion of hate towards Chris Brown.

[kadeemusic]

The Beatles tribute thing, didn't think I was going to like it, but the "A Day In the Life" segment gave me chills, most of which had to do with the song itself, rather than the Circus people, or whatever they're called. And I'm not really sure why, but my eyes started welling up when that kid sang "Let It Be" with the choir.

I enjoyed the Alicia Keys/John Mayer bit.

Can't really think of any other really highlights, although it was an entertaining show overall this year. They seemed to keep the focus more on the musical performances, rather than one award presentation after another. Although my interest did start to fade in the last 45 minutes.

That zinger Vince Gill gave Kanye was pretty amusing and perhaps deserved, although to be fair, Kanye was in the middle of a dedication to his mom.

I admit Amy Winehouse was what I was really curious to see; I was hoping, but not necessarily expecting, that she'd knock it out of the park with a great performance. Unfortunately I was crigning throughout the whole thing. She seems drunk even when sober. I guess I should cut her some slack with the difficult month she's had. At least she won a few Grammys.

And you gotta admit, any project with the name Herbie Hancock and Joni Mitchell attached to it--it would be kind of sacrilige for it not to win over the other nominees. Same with the Beatles/George Martin win.

[Tuga]

Originally Posted by djwayne

I may be in the minority here, but I enjoyed the show. Lot's of great entertainment and legends who we may not get to see again.

Congrats to all the nominees and winners. The Grammy award is a big deal, even a nomination is something to be proud of.

Highlights for me were, the "A Day In The Life" and "Let It Be" performance, Tina Turner, Amy Winehouse, Little Richard, and the tribute to Luciano Pavorotti......

Agreed! I was there. I thought the show was great!

[strings]

I missed the jazz section, mayer/keyes collab, amy and fergie, so maybe that was the highlight. Tina was cool to see again, but the parts I saw didn't do much for me.
Well this did:

[mixerguy]

Originally Posted by tnjazz

Grammy goes to Vince Gill for the best off the cuff comment of 2008.

i missed it - what did he say?

[JimmyM]

Originally Posted by Sigma

no wonder the industry is in the stae it's in SO CONTRIVED ..SO LACKING FEEL AND SOUL
SUCKS MORE THAN A 1O DOLLAR ***** ON CRACK FRIDAY

I totally agree. The problems the recording industry have, they try to blame on downloading. But it's really because of crap product.

I do love Amy Winehouse's album, though.

[Sigma]

i will say went i went and saw michael kamen and queensreich perform Silent Lucity with the full orchestra it gave me chills but that was when the grammys were at the Shriners or Radio City not some 20k plus seater..and kamens was an A+ orchestrtor...sappy and stellar at once..bringing romaticsim to power chords searing solos and pounding drums

[Sigma]

Originally Posted by JimmyM

I totally agree. The problems the recording industry have, they try to blame on downloading. But it's really because of crap product.

I do love Amy Winehouse's album, though.

agreed..she has the chicken bone dude..but she has the janis /jimi wrist slit too

read the book "churchills black dog kafka's mice"..genuis and insanity ride the razors edge..take it with salt but an interesting read!


in this collection of mini-psycho-biographies, Storr contends that Winston Churchill's brave defiance of Hitler's onslaughter owed much to another battle the politician wagedhis lifelong bout with depression, which Churchill nicknamed "Black Dog." In his discussion of the relationship between genius and pathology, the author, a well-known British psychiatrist, makes much of Churchill's wet nurse and his "oral" personality, greedy for approval. In other pieces, Kafka's existential insecurity is traced to his parents' prolonged absences during his childhood, while Isaac Newton, a self-punishing hypochondriac with a paranoid streak, is seen gaining mastery over the universe in reaction to his exaggerated sense of helplessness as an infant. If Storr's psychoanalytic profiles are at times reductionist, he cautions nonetheless that there is no necessary link between creative inspiration and mental instability. This grab-bag of essays includes an analysis of sexual jealousy (using Shakespeare's Othello as an example), thoughts on Jung's mid-life crisis and the psychology of symbols and a stinging indictment of the sensory deprivation applied to prisoners in Northern Ireland.

[joeq]

Originally Posted by kadeemusic

I admit Amy Winehouse was what I was really curious to see; I was hoping, but not necessarily expecting, that she'd knock it out of the park with a great performance.

Unfortunately I was crigning throughout the whole thing. She seems drunk even when sober. I guess I should cut her some slack with the difficult month she's had. At least she won a few Grammys.

Yes, what a storybook ending.

Is it just me, or did anyone else get the impression that the fix was in?

It seemed like they were milking the publicity on her all month. The visa thing, etc. Then, all during the show, every time they went to commercial, they teased her performance, they saved her for the end. At one point I believe they actually called it "the moment you have all been waiting for" .

And then when she actually played, they essentially let her do two songs.

THEN, unlike those other performers whose standing ovations were cut ruthlessly short by an immediate announcement "Ladies and Gentlemen,... " Amy was given the full run of her applause and an open mic at which she seemed almost prepared to give a speech.

It just struck me as odd, like she had already won, until she did win, and then it all seemed like such a perfect narrative.

Like The Bachelor handing out his last flower.

I am not even saying they rigged the vote or that she didn't deserve to win. Just that maybe someone is peeking inside those sealed envelopes.

[lucey]

Seems like they definitly peek, and make a nice show/flow from it.

Originally Posted by mixerguy

i missed it - what did he say?

"I just got a Grammy from a Beatle ... can you say that Kanye?" (Ringo was presenting.) Kanye's visuals were very interesting at times, but everything out of his mouth? He's really bad IMO. He and Josh Groban should make a record together ... call it 'Overrated and Unmusical' . Maybe get Kenny G to play on it? Groban just ruined the Pavarotti tribute for me.

Amy Winehouse's record is strong but that show was a bit of a let down for my wife and I. There's something uncomfortable about "Rehab" now that she's imploded. Great record though, great engineering that suits the performance.

Personally I love Aretha doing anything, especially that Blues Brothers tune, but for sure put on some clothes! We saw 'Blue' Lou Marini play a great jazz gig last night with an amazing B3 player, trumpet, drums and guitar (Lou's my mother-in-law's high school sweetheart) so it was a Blues Brothers weekend.

The highlight for me was probably the piano duet of Rhapsody in Blue between the young Chinese guy and Hancock. I'm not a big Gershwin fan but that was just balls out piano with the Fazioli and the D. The intro with Sinatra and Alicia Keyes was great for her voice, her original song was not as good, too much vacant belting and not enough singing. She did that vacant styling at Live Earth as well. She can do so much better than that, as the intro tune displayed.

For those who have heard the Hancock/Mitchell record ... is it all that? My wife heard one track on the radio and thought it felt very disjointed and unmusical. We both love Joni in the Hejira and Mingus era.

The guitar playing and hokey lyrics of that country player were fun, surprisingly. John Mayer can play as well, but not as diverse as hot licks Paisley. Fergie was out of her league with that piece IMO, I dont see her making a new direction in that style, but I'm just one opinion. The industrial drum intro to the Underwood tune was cool, as was the exploding bug from the 'Love' dancers.

And how about that young boy singing the Beatles? What a cool voice for a teen.

[BrianT]

Originally Posted by 88fingerz

Please, lord above, please bring back Paul Simon and Stevie Wonderful. PLEASE!!!!!!

I would take Kanye West over Paul Simon 100 times in a row. Stevie is a whole other thing. He's magic.

Paul Simon? Not so much.

Kanye's got talent. A monster, unattractive ego as well. But the production and "hit-songness" of "Stronger" on the show was slammin'.

I find myself wondering if many on this thread currently know anyone under the age of 20 well enough to get some current perspective. Old Fart Syndrome seems to be in large supply around these parts.

News Flash. Great music did not freeze in time 20 years ago. Loosen up, have some fun. Get out of the cave......... the sunlight is most refreshing