For someone who likes music as much as I do, I usually avoid the Grammys. I'm not sure why, but I assume it has to do with the fact that I don't listen to and/or dislike a lot of today's pop music. That's probably not fair, though, given that the Grammys usually have a pretty diverse lineup of performers and give out awards to many different genres.
I had no intention of watching this year's Grammys. I watched a little bit probably 45 minutes to an hour into the show, but then I decided I would rather finally watch the last episode of Masters of Sex on my DVR, so I did.
When I finished watching that, I realized that somehow, the Grammys had been paused with over 90 minutes left to go. So I watched, fast forwarding where appropriate. I'll be damned if I didn't enjoy the hell out of the show. Pretty much every performance was great, and the star power of the performers was about as good as it gets: Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Metallica, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Stevie Wonder, Chicago, Taylor Swift, Carole King, Lindsey Buckingham, Madonna, Queen Latifah, and Willie Nelson, just to name a few.
Before I delve into my favorite performances of the evening, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the SNAFUs, most notably the "in memoriam" segment, which, for some reason, featured comedian Jonathan Winters and various entertainment lawyers and agents, but failed to include Slayer co-founder and guitarist Jeff Hanneman (who died May 2, 2013) or former Iron Maiden drummer Clive Burr (who died March 12, 2013).
Hanneman wrote or co-wrote many of the band's songs, including "Raining Blood" and "Angel of Death," arguably Slayer's two most popular songs. You would think that the Grammys would have been aware of Hanneman, since Slayer has been nominated for five Grammys during their career and won Best Metal Performance twice (both in the last 7 years -– 2007 and 2008) for songs co-written by Hanneman.
Burr was Iron Maiden's drummer on the band's first three albums, Iron Maiden, Killers, and Number of the Beast, which are my three favorite Iron Maiden albums, and probably the most widely known and influential albums by the band. He was a huge influence on many metal drummers that followed.
The other major SNAFU was when the Grammys ran ads during the final performance of the night, by Nine Inch Nails, Queens of the Stone Age, Dave Grohl, and Lindsey Buckingham. Trent Reznor was understandably pissed off about that.
And the other SNAFU was Jared Leto's incongruous speech about Lou Reed that was used to introduce . . . Metallica and classical pianist Lang Lang pairing up to peform Metallica's "One." I love Lou Reed and I love Metallica, and I know Reed's last album was Lulu, which he made with Metallica a couple years ago, but there was no mention of any connection between the two. It was a weird moment, and honestly, I was fully expecting a performance of a Lou Reed or Velvet Underground song at some point during the Grammys, and I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't one.
But aside from those SNAFUs, from what I saw, it was all good. I didn't see every performance at the Grammys. I heard Jay-Z and Beyonce were great, but didn't see it. I would have like to have seen Gary Clark, Jr. play (and glad that kickass blues guitarist are still getting some recognition), even if it was with k.d. lang lookalike Keith Urban, but I didn't. So, with that, here are my ten favorite from what I did see. I was going to try to include videos of each, but it looks like neither the official Grammys website nor the CBS Grammys website has any videos of the performances, and they have apparently been pulling them off of YouTube. I found a few videos or links, though.
10. Kendrick Lamar and Imagine Dragons
Not a pairing I would have imagined (pun intended, motherfuckers), but it worked.
9. "Okie From Muskogee" by Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, and Blake Shelton
As you may know, I'm not a country music fan by any means, but I do enjoy Willie Nelson's voice, and I liked this performance.
That was cool.
7. Nine Inch Nails, Queens of the Stone Age, Dave Grohl, and Lindsey Buckingham
It was nice and rocking, even if it did get cut off prematurely.
6. "Try" by Pink and "Just Give Me a Reason" by Pink and Nate Reuss
Once again Pink did her high-flying, suspended-from-the-ceiling thing. Yes, I know she did it a couple years ago, but it's still more impressive than anything you did Sunday night.
5. "Photograph" by Ringo Starr
Anytime a Beatle performs, I like it.
Anytime two Beatles perform, I like it even more, especially when it's a song about a Liverpudlian children's game.
I like "Get Lucky" to begin with. It's about vampires, after all, or at least that's what I assume. And, of course, Stevie Wonder is a welcome addition to any song, ever. I thought the stage set-up was cool too. Steven Tyler's dancing in the crowd was an added bonus.
2. "One" by Metallica and Lang Lang
You would think this would be #1, given my love of metal and all, and the fact that it was only Metallica's second performance at the Grammys and first since 1989, when Metallica famously lost the inaugural Grammy for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance to . . . Jethro Tull, a rocking band, but a band with a flute nonetheless. Anyway, I very much enjoyed Sunday night's performance of "One," and I think the pairing with Lang Lang worked surprisingly well, but I thought James Hetfield looked like he was reaching a little bit on some of the vocals. Here's a link to a video someone took while watching it on TV.
1. "When Will I Be Loved" by Miranda Lambert and Billie Joe Armstrong
I'm not sure what it was about this that I liked so much. It was right after the "in memoriam" segment, which ended showing Phil Everly, who died earlier this month (and who wrote the song). When Lambert and Armstrong were first announced, I through it was kind of an odd pairing –- a female country singer and a punk/alternative guy –- and I was even a little skeptical when Billie Joe started playing. But as soon as they started signing, I thought they really nailed it. Great harmonizing (and it's tough to try to emulate the Everly Brothers' harmonies) on a great song. Here's a video, assuming it doesn't get yanked off of YouTube:
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