50th Annual Grammy Awards: PLEASE Don't Let There Be 50 More...

By Tony Mazur

Last night the 50th Annual Grammy Awards was broadcast live on CBS from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. The ceremony honors the musical achievement of artists from all genres. The Grammys feature many performances by today's hottest singers or groups, and sometimes collaborations, and awards are presented by music legends, even though most of the awards were handed out prior to the broadcast.

I watched it. Needless to say, I wasn't impressed. Tony Mazur is not impressed by an awards show?? Preposterous! It was one of those situations where it's extremely cold outside, there's nothing else on TV (see Pro Bowl...), and I'm eating dinner. Otherwise, I would have tuned into the same reruns of Family Guy. Don't get me wrong; I love Family Guy. But Seth, make some new ones already!

Anyways, onto what I did like from the Grammys.

I do like Alicia Keys. She sang a "duet" with Frank Sinatra to start the show, and she later performed "No One", her Grammy Award-winning single. Morris Day and The Time did their 1984 hit, "Jungle Love", with Rihanna, leading into her Top 40 songs, "Umbrella" and "Don't Stop The Music". The Band, Bob Dylan's band, received a Lifetime Achievement Award, so that was cool. The Foo Fighters won Best Rock Album for Echoes, Silence, Patience, and Grace, and performed "The Pretender" outside of the Staples Center, by far the best performance of the night.

Oh, and I also loved the music playing off Kanye West was he was gloating to the world about his Grammy Award. What a pompous piece of garbage.

Now onto the bad parts of the evening.

Can Aretha Franklin never appear on a stage again? With a yellow dress, she honestly looked like a school bus.

Bruce Springsteen won three Grammy Awards. Why?! The Boss is so far removed from being that blue collar man from New Jersey. He used to be this high energy, brilliant songwriter from Asbury Park, thanking WMMS's Kid Leo for first playing his music. Now he's this cranky, Obama-supporting communist who hasn't put out anything halfway decent since Born To Run.

Speaking of Osama- I mean, Obama (who hasn't gotten that one wrong?), he won a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for his book, The Audacity of Hope. Please don't tell me this is going to be his year. I have hundreds of reasons why I do not want Barack Obama to be our next president, but I'll save that for further FDH Lounge posts.

Just a question. Why does every awards show have to be political? Can someone answer me that question?

After losing American Idol, Chris Daughtry has blown up the music world with such songs as "It's Not Over", "Home", "What I Want", and "Over You". However, he got screwed out of an award. The aforementioned Springsteen won his deserved award.

Everyone made a big deal about Amy Winehouse not being able to perform in the United States. I watched her perform "Rehab", and it didn't blow me away. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't breathtaking.

I don't know who performed The Beatles' "Let It Be", but I started cringing. They turned a wonderful song written by Paul McCartney into a Negro spiritual. And that brings me to my next point. I understand that February is Black History Month, but do we have to have a constant reminder ever ten minutes? I acknowledge the month. But please don't pound it into my head 24/7.

A miscellaneous thing I got out of the ceremony was the good time Tina Turner had with Beyonce. Now that Ike is six feet under, Tina enjoyed herself for the first time since 1962.

50 years of the Grammys. 50 years of fraud and phoniness. This must be why I watch sports. Oh wait, steroids, gambling, thug lifestyles. I guess there's no escaping it.


Meanwhile, here is a video of the Foo Fighters performing "The Pretender" in England.