Putting Lipstick on a (Non-Political) Pig

Last night, those of us who were unable to avail ourselves of cable television, and were left to watching the broadcast channels were ‘treated’ to a new presentation of the Grammy nominations. Usually announced in the early morning, on some nondescript news program, the news of the performers slated for the faux competition was announced in a grandiose manner during prime time television.

The hour of ‘entertainment’ was part commercial excess, part news announcement, and part tourist announcement. You see, the opening of a museum in Los Angeles was announced with the show, making those wanting to visit California during their vacations have yet another reason to visit the City of the Angels. The museum will devote itself to the wondrous excesses of the Grammy awards, all 50 years extant.

We were given the announcements of the nomination process, a few looks back into the past winners, and some moments of songs that had previously won the award.

Certainly the past songs were truly spectacular, however, the choice of the performer looks as though it was done by a few sticking points on a dart board.

The horrendous treatment of the Carly Simon classic ‘You’re So Vain’ by the Foo Fighters was similar to asking Britney Spears to substitute for Luciano Pavarotti.  While I am no fan of this group, my young daughter, who is, admitted that this was an egregiously poor performance.

Later, the (literally) flat and one-dimensional performance of a Brenda Lee signature tune, by the waifish Taylor Swift, proved that she appears to benefit tremendously from ‘studio sweetening’, perhaps owing her entire career to it.

The highlight of the hour (yes, there was one) was the performance by B.B. King and John Mayer. The one time that a tune was matched to those performing it. Mayer was perfunctorily good, B.B. was great, and Lucille has never sounded better.

Perhaps the worst abuse of the night was having LL Cool J act as emcee, a chore for which you might think he would be equipped, but unfettered from the bonds of rhyme, he showed none of the abilities required for polite repartee with the others on the (endless) hour of entertainment.

Perhaps next year they can go back to phoning it in. (at least until they can acquire some talent to occupy more than 10 minutes of the hour)

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We made too many wrong mistakes.Yogi Berra