By: David Schultz

When I was grade school, I used to get excited about the Grammy Awards. I didn’t realize at the time that making great music and being a talented musician can often be mutually exclusive to being an artist with massive notoriety and impressive record sales. Gradually learning that the Grammys don’t acknowledge phenomenal talents like The Beatles and Bob Dylan until decades after they deserved their accolades, I now watch them to see artists that I would never take the time to see live. Where the Oscars acknowledge the most artistic films and performances of the year, the Grammys seem to go out of their way to ignore or pigeonhole the year’s most critically appraised efforts. How do you respect a music awards show that marginalizes Radiohead, Arcade Fire, The National and Panda Bear, hardly giving them a mention on a 3 ½ hour broadcast.

Undoubtedly, the night belonged to Amy Winehouse. If she isn't willing to do it with her personal life, Winehouse cleaned up at the 50th Annual Awards. As expected, the troubled singer won Best New Artist and, in absentia, also took Record of the Year, Song of Year and Best Female Pop Performance for “Rehab” as well as Best Pop Vocal Album for Back To Black. Her success even spread to her producer, Mark Ronson, who won Best Producer mainly for his work on Winehouse's album. Even though her visa problems were cleared up in time for her to attend the telecast, Winehouse didn’t make the trip to the Staples Center. Performing by satellite from London, Winehouse turned in a relatively coherent but somewhat apathetic version of "You Know I'm No Good" before smirking her way though a heartfelt rendition of "Rehab" that scored high on the unintentional comedy scale.

The night's true surprise took place at the end of the night when Quincy Jones and Usher announced Herbie Hancock as the winner of Album of the Year for River: The Joni Letters. In beating out Winehouse, Kanye West, Foo Fighters and Vince Gill, Hancock's album of Joni Mitchell covers was a completely unexpected winner. While nice to see the jazz great getting recognized for his work, his victory deprived the telecast of one final glimpse of Winehouse or what would have definitely been a memorable victory speech from West.

As for the show itself, the Grammy Awards has become an event where perfectly good musicians seem to get talked into doing idiotic things. Alicia Keyes deserved better than to sing along with a grainy Frank Sinatra video, Carrie Underwood seemed greatly out of place singing amongst a garage-girl stage setup that seemed lifted from Stomp and sending a blitzed Kid Rock out on stage to croon “That Ol’ Black Magic” with 75-year-old Keely Smith and Dave Koz seemed cruel and flat out bizarre. The less said about will.i.am's mercifully short and extremely ill-conceived Grammy rap the better.

Not to say there weren’t some truly great moments. Jay and Silent Bob may have been the only people cheering louder when Morris Day and The Time broke into “Jungle Love.” With Prince presenting an award just minutes before, I wondered whether Apollonia was going to show up to complete the Purple Rain trifecta. I’ve always been a big Tina Turner fan. Although it was awkward to see her on the same broadcast that later honored the man best known for beating her, I loved that her return to the stage was treated as a big deal. Her duet with Beyonce on “Proud Mary” took me back to my first concert where I saw her perform it from the fourth row at Madison Square Garden. Looking like a younger version of Tina, Beyonce accepted the torch being passed by one of the true legends of R&B.

The Grammys have borrowed the Jammy formula of putting together different combinations of artists. Some made perfect sense: like Daft Punk and their signature pyramid rising up in the midst of Kanye West’s performance of his Best Rap Solo Performance winning “Stronger.” The most entertaining artist slated for the broadcast, West performed with his mother’s name etched into the back of his head and it was hard not to feel for the brash, cocky singer when he emotionally honored his mother who passed away at the end of last year. Other combinations seemed forced. It must have taken negotiations of diplomatic sensitivity to get the egos of Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis in check long enough to play together. With pissed expressions, likely from having to share a stage, they joined John Fogerty for a medley that included "Good Golly Miss Molly" and "Great Balls Of Fire." The Foo Fighters and Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones had to be part of some My Grammy Moment American Idol style sweepstakes but were lucky enough that Ian Anderson find Ann Marie Calhoun, who plays a mean rock and roll violin, won the contest.

The Best Taunt of the Night came at Kanye West's expense. After receiving the Grammy for Best Country Album for These Days, a slightly starstruck Vince Gill accepted his award from presenter Ringo Starr by humbly saying “I just got an award given to me by a Beatle.” He then searched the room until he found West and with a twinkle in his eye asked, “have you had that happen yet, Kanye?”

The Lifetime Achievement Awards, which were handed out throughout the night, have become simply ridiculous and only serve to highlight the Grammys’ cluelessness with respect to musicians that truly made a lasting impact on our society. Doris Day received one such honor this year but despite a full medley honoring The Beatles, the Grammys have yet to give them this honor. Maybe they’re waiting to see if The Beatles music takes on the same type of cultural relevancy as Doris Day's before they pass judgment on their legacy. Ringo Starr did get to accept an award during the show, coming on stage with George & Giles Martin when they won the award for Best Soundtrack Album for Love. Levon Helm - a Grammy winner this year for Traditional Folk Album – opted against travelling to L.A. to receive the Lifetime Award, hosting a Grammy Ramble in Woodstock instead. Robbie Robertson was in attendance and got to accept Tom Hanks’ kind words and praise on behalf of The Band.

In the rock categories: Bruce Springsteen snared Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance and Best Rock Song for “Radio Nowhere” as well as Best Rock Instrumental Performance for “Once Upon A Time In The West;” The White Stripes won Best Rock Vocal Performance By A Duo or Group with Vocals for “Icky Thump” and beat out Arcade Fire for Best Alternative Album. Foo Fighters won Best Hard Rock Performance for “The Pretender” and Best Rock Album for Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace.

Other winners of interest were; J.J. Cale & Eric Clapton getting Best Contemporary Blues Album for The Road To Escondido; Steve Earle taking Best Contemporary Folk/American Album for Washington Square Serenade; Robert Plant & Alison Krauss snagging Best Pop Collaboration for “Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On)” and The Beastie Boys leaving with Best Pop Instrumental Album for The Mix Up. After beating Hillary Clinton in the Maine Caucuses, Barack Obama edged out her husband to take the Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album.

Labels: Amy Winehouse