Grammy Whammies!!

Whammy

For those of you who don't know what a Whammy is... it's a character from the game show, Press Your Luck. I used to watch that show almost everyday as a kid!  The Whammies made their appearances when a contestant stopped on them, and then lost the game.  "No Whammy, no Whammy.....STOP!"

That being said, I have to give a few Whammies to some (not all) of the Grammy performances.  There was good, bad, and "what was THAT!!!" in this year's show, so let's get started with some positive things about the Grammy show.

Bruce Springstein opened the show with the E Street Band, singing a semi-patriotic anthem entitled "We Take Care Of Our Own."  Although I have never been the biggest fan of Springstein's work, I can at least say that he did a decent job for his age, and kept to his signature sound.

Bringin' Back Motown

Next up is Bruno Mars... again, I am not a fan of his music per say, but I do appreciate the homage he paid to the early days of rock n' roll in the 1950's and 60's era.  His stage set and costume were brilliant in the tribute they paid to the Motown era.

I could go on listing artist by artist, but then you would all be really bored, and my fingers would get tired, so here goes the summary of my "positive thoughts"... Paul McCartney can still rock, Taylor Swift actually knows what real country is, and the tributes to Glen Campbell, Etta James,  and Whitney Houston were touching and nicely done. Props to Jennifer Hudson especially, she was fantastic in her handling of a very sensitive area in music right now.

Foos Rockin' Out!

Now, I need to take some time out for the really awesome parts of the show. Of course, anyone who reads this blog on a semi-regular basis knows that I am a Foo Fighters freak, and maybe hero-worship Dave Grohl a little too much.  To you guys I say.....you're right.  But anyway, The Foos made a great showing not once, but twice in the Grammy show, and took home an award for Best Rock Performance to boot! I love the amount of heart and energy the Foos put in to each show. It's infectious and travels right through the TV screen! I was a little miffed with the network for cutting off Dave's acceptance speech though.  If you go to the Grammy video site, you can see an edited version of speech in which Dave makes a gorgeous point of where true music comes from.  Just bear in mind it's not the whole things, cause he doesn't scream "Long live Rock N' Roll!!" at the end of it.  I wouldn't do justice to the Foos if I didn't mention their wardrobe choice for the evening as well.  Only they can pull off t-shirts under suit coats.

Moving on to another, very cool and surprising moment for me.  Adele...I really didn't know much about her before the Grammys, but I have to say that I have a whole new respect for her as an artist.  She is unlike anyone, and has a unique voice unlike anyone I have heard or known in the music industry so far.  Her come-back performance following vocal surgery was truly amazing.  You can check that out here.

Chris Brown vs. Q-Bert: See the resemblance?

Among the evening's annoyances are Chris Brown with his lip sync happy version of the video game, Q-Bert, in early Nintendo days; Rhianna with her repetitious lyric of "we found love in a hopeless place" ten-million times in 2 minutes; Carrie Underwood with her completely disrespectful upstaging of Tony Bennett; The Beach Boys Tribute which looked as thought they would rather be taking a nap than singing; Katy Perry- you're fake fuse-blowing ruse was clever, but your music still sucks, nice try. Add to the list Jason Aldean and Kelly Clarkson with their so-called country duet.  Sounds more like bad pop-music to me.  Let's be honest, country music hasn't really been country since Hank Williams Sr. But the "special" (as in short-bus) award goes to none other than Nicki Minaj.

WHAT WAS THAT!  I won't be surprised in the least if the Roman Catholic Arch-Diases doesn't sue the pants off of her for the next three decades for the amount of sacrilege that took place on that stage!  That was NOT cool. It was NOT innovative. It WAS just plain dumb.  Honestly, words fail me as to how bad this was... so if you missed it... here is the link.  May God have mercy on your soul as you watch this.

So to sum up the Grammys...the good, the great, the bad, the annoying, and Nicki Minaj - who single-handedly caused every pope to roll over in their grave simultaneously.  Congratulations!