I’ve watched parts of the Grammys here and there over the years. Enough to sometimes have contempt, sometimes be amazed, be impressed by distressed and be generally kind of overwhelmed by the 1%ers of our profession.
I’m amazed that there are sound glitches at the Grammys. I know there’s a lot going on, but come on. If I was James Hetfield, I think I’d have a hard, hard, hard time getting over not having had my mic on for the first part of my performance at the GRAMMYS. Heads would probably roll. And on the other end of that, James Hetfield is a huge man. A huge, intimidating-as-fuck man. If I knew I was at fault last night, or if I THOUGHT it might LOOK like I was at fault, I’d have probably made a hasty exit.
Still, like the pro he is he rolled with the punches and joined up with Lady Gaga on her mic. I have no idea if she knew what was happening until after they got off the stage – the band just piled through – but I wonder how much of the Lady’s antics were planned vs “fuck it, it’s all gone to Hell at this point!” After her obviously uber-rehearsed don’t-step-the-wrong-way-cause-you’ll-get-tangled-in-your-sky-wires performance at the Superb Owl the week before, it might’ve been one Hell of a relief to just cut loose and jump on Lars and stage dive and everything. She looked like she was having a LOT of fun as a metal diva, and I actually Loved their voices together…
But I’m an old school metal head. That just looked fun – and it was good to see some Pushead art on the stage. Beyonce’s performance was stunning despite being pregnant with twins. Tribe Called Quest was awesome and gave me that chill like I was watching something important. But watching Adele win album of the year and knowing she didn’t deserve it was intensely, wonderfully honest. Her snapping her Grammy in half has got to be one of the best unscripted moments on television ever…
But make no mistake, Beyonce was robbed. If you haven’t seen Lemonade, see it. Again – the chills of seeing something that feels important. Years from now people are going to be playing Adele’s “Hello” and it’s going to be part of the gestalt of this time and they’re going to drunkenly lean and say “oh MAN, I LOVE THIS SOOOOONG” and Lemonade may not persevere on oldy stations – all the more reason it should’ve won. It was NOT a safe set of pop songs. There was experimentation and courage, there was passion and there was message. There was pride in culture and ethnicity and both sex and sexuality. And it was a GROUP project, absolutely, but the creative team behind Lemonade – from the poet to the cinematographers to the choreographers to the dancers – deserve SO much credit for creating something truly epic and meaningful.
Don’t just listen to a song and tell me how you don’t like Beyonce. Take 45 minutes out of your Life and find a way to WATCH this thing. The music, the sound production, the writing is just one part of this. It’s truly a stunning work.
