Music Blogs

I've always enjoyed the Grammy Awards best by not watching them. That way it's always a fresh and new experience when I hear about how wonderful they were. Damn! I missed them again!

But I went searching for ten bizarre moments that just seem wrong somehow. More wrong than usual. More odd than the Rolling Stones not winning an award until 1994's Voodoo Lounge. It was tough getting it down to just 10, but I wanted each one to really count!

10) "We Are The World" Winning Anything In 1985.: What was that about there being people dying? We're saving our own lives? Not by forcing radio to play this song at regular intervals we weren't. Put a roomful of stars in a recording studio each to sing a line of a tune and then market it as a charity record and wouldn't it really be better if we all just "gave at the office" instead?

9) Herbie Hancock Winning Album Of The Year In 2007 For River: The Joni Letters.: I know the music industry is in a bad way these days and Herbie Hancock is certainly a deserving musician for all he's done. But somehow this album doesn't seem like it would be the best album of any year. I'm sure it has its fans, but does anyone feel that strongly about it? I'd think it'd get a solid "OK" from Joni fans and a "pretty good" from Herbie's people. You mean to tell me U2 didn't make an album this year? No Sting? No wonder.

8) Bruce Springsteen Winning Best Rock Instrumental Performance In 2007 For "Once Upon A Time In The West": I'd missed this Springsteen work. He never won anything for Born To Run, but he's won for this, which upon researching is described thusly:

"Longtime Ennio Morricone fan Bruce Springsteen contributed his own instrumental version of 'Once Upon A Time In The West' for the tribute album We All Love Ennio Morricone. The track features Springsteen playing electric guitar over Morricone's original score recording."

OK, sounds great!

7) Sting Winning A 1983 Grammy For Best Instrumental For "Brimstone And Treacle.": "Every Breath You Take" is a surefire winner. And the Police won pretty early on, so the Academy were always aware of Sting. And since entering their Rolodex, he gets called upon quite often to win and accept these awards. Considering the Who have never won an award, you gotta feel a little weird about these things. Sure seems to me like there should've been a Jazz instrumental that could've beaten out Sting for this one.

6) 1976 Record Of The Year going To "This Masquerade" By George Benson, Beating Out "Afternoon Delight" (Though The Starland Vocal Band Did Win Best New Artist): You kinda expect the wrong song to win the "Record of the Year" Award. It's part of the tradition. "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" never won an award and neither did "My Old Man's A Fatso" by the Angry Samoans. So obviously they were robbed. But nothing seems more wrong than George Benson defeating the Starland Vocal Band's "Afternoon Delight." Sure, SVB won the Best New Artist award and went on to many years of sterling success, but this kind of misevaluation of talent makes you wonder if there should really be anything called democracy!

5) The Swingle Singers Winning Best New Artist In 1963: In 1964, the Beatles would win this award. But 1963 belonged to the Swingle Singers! Ward Swingle was one proud man. But, sadly, those angry, bitter Englishmen with their "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah" propaganda would quickly lay to waste the future success of the stunning and deserving Swingle Singers.

4) Awarding No Best New Artist In 1966.: From everything I've ever read, 1966 was considered a pretty good year for music and yet it's the one year there was no Best New Artist? Why don't we do this more often? I'd say 2008 could be a good year to start a new tradition of ignoring all young people everywhere! Let them riot in the streets if they want to be heard.

3) Milli Vanilli Having Their 1990 Grammy Revoked For Not Performing Their Own Vocals On Their Debut Album.: A big OOPS! But really shouldn't the award have been given to the men who really did perform the song? Wasn't the music just as good regardless of who performed it? Or do we all pretend to like music that has the right name on it? Would Lamb of God fans not like Lamb of God's music if it was suddenly called The Jonas Brothers? And would Jonas Brothers fans not like their boys if they went by the name Lucy Pietro-Andelseki and Her Swinging Nuns?

2) 1980, The Year Of Christopher Cross For Record Of The Year, Album Of The Year, Song Of The Year, Best New Artist, Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) For "Sailing" And His Self-titled Debut Album.: Christopher Cross' self-titled debut album beat out Pink Floyd's The Wall and Billy Joel's Glass Houses among the competition. Cross went on to beat out just about everyone that year proving that he had a lasting career to bring us, much as Starland Vocal Band before him and Lauryn Hill after would prove. When it comes to predicting longevity, the Grammys have it!

1) Jethro Tull Winning Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance Vocal Or Instrumental In 1988 For Crest Of A Knave.: Just ask Metallica. Who was more deserving of this Hard Rock / Metal Performance more than those Heavy Metal Gods themselves, the Jethro Tulls? Ok, maybe it should've gone to the Moody Blues, but they didn't have a record that year did they? I would've just assumed U2 would win by default, or maybe Bruce Springsteen. You say these aren't heavy metal bands? Yes, I agree. But what does that have to do with anything?