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| Dance duo Daft Punk won Album of the Year |
I got a call around five hours into Sunday night’s Grammy Awards to turn on the TV–Ringo was on.
Sure enough, there he was, looking fab for 73 and singing Photograph. Beatle-y photos flashed behind him to remind folks that CBS has a special Feb. 9 commemorating the 50th anniversary of the day Ringo first started dyeing his hair.
The whole thing was live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles. City carried it for the first time in Canada and had their Breakfast Television hosts plus Ed Robinson on the red carpet.
I came for The Beatles but stayed for the robots as the 56th Annual Grammy Awards/Twitter-fest ambled on for the next day-and-a-half. Or maybe, as somebody on Twitter suggested, it was the CBS Upfronts.
Anyhow, it was more fun reading the generational snark on Twitter than the awards themselves. The kids kept pointing out how everybody on stage was either 80 or awful. The show did seem very Boomerish, even to this Boomer.
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| Madonna and child |
A few acts my kids listen to were featured. Macklemore did that great rap anthem Same Love but then it got turned into The Bachelor as thousands of couples got married by Queen Latifah and Madonna. Madonna, cane in hand, was dressed like Yosemite Sam, or Col. Saunders, or Boss Hogg from Dukes of Hazard. Either way not a good look.
Since I came in late I missed seeing Beyonce’s ass as well as Pink doing her circus act, both well worth the price of admission. I also missed Alan Thicke’s boy singing with Chicago, which apparently came off without a twerk.
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| That’s Pink. Next year watch for Lorde of the rings |
At the end of the night, Paul Williams came back from the dead to accept an award for some French robots. Williams himself pointed out how weird this was, weirder than the shit that went on back when he was drinking.
Robot buddy Pharrell Williams lit up the Twittersphere with his Smokey the Bear stetson. The Grammys do seem to be more about the look than the music.
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| Pharrell Williams (left) with the accounting team from Price Waterhouse |
There was no tribute to the Captain and Tenille but there was a long In Memoriam segment where, among other things, they spelled Cory Monteith’s name wrong. The show went on so long there was fear half the performers might end up on the dead list before the late news finally came on.
Somebody sat Stevie Wonder in front of a typewriter before he got up half way through a song and found his keyboard and mike. Willie Nelson sounded good but them he always sang like an 80-year-old. Kris Kristofferson apparently skipped rehearsals.
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| Miranda Lambert and Billie Joe Armstrong nailed their Everly tribute |
The French Robots won for their song “Get Lucky,” which seems to me was being used in SNL sketches the past two years.Another guy who wrote a popular car ad song won an award or two. Steve Tyler decided to sing a Smokey Robinson song instead of read an intro off the TelePrompTer, which was cool and/or frightening.
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| Tyler and Smokey. What the hell, why not. |
Carole King sang, and Cindi Lauper came out dressed like Endora from Bewitched. There were several cut-a-ways to Yoko dancing in the aisles. Half way through the show we learned Yoko had broken up Daft Punk.
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The CBS folks identified this photo, above, as Ringo’s wife, Barbara Bach, with Alicia Keys and Batman villain The Mad Hatter, but that’s Harrison’s widow Olivia on the left.
Ringo joined Paul McCartney for a song on Macca’s new album New. We should enjoy these things while we can. The Beatles, as demonstrated above, used to love playing rock, paper, scissors.
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| Beyonce and Jay-Z, dancing cheek to cheek |
