Tuesday, February 15, 2005

Grammy Review

I have a little secret about this Pirate that I have to divulge. I like award shows damn it. I know it doesn’t sound right. I have no doubt your saying, “What the fuck?” But it is true I love when artists are awarded for their work and I love the fact that these pompous asses like parading around on TV bragging about it. I certainly understand the conflict. Here is this guy that has traveled about destroying most of the beauty he encounters. I have raped, pillaged and plunder all over the west coast. Leaving nothing but despair and ashes in my wake. I have eaten babies, ran over dogs, bitten off the heads of rats. I have lived my life in the gutters no man or woman dare to venture, but I also like shows like the Grammy’s and the Oscars. Maybe there is a little bit of a light in me, but I doubt it.

This brings me to the fiasco last Sunday night that they called the Grammy Awards. What a bunch of crap. Aside from Queen Latifa who is always a class act, the tribute to Ray Charles and some of the country singers (hell all of the country singers) and John Mayer the rest of the show sucked.

The Black-Eyed Peas, Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez and Green Day along with Bono bored the absolute shit out of me. I am not trying to sound like some old fart that doesn’t appreciate other genres or music bent toward the youth. I understand that. I have three teen-agers at home. I have gone to a Green Day concert. I grew up on KISS and all of that era of music. I have listened to Punk and metal until I couldn’t stand up anymore. But at least I could appreciate the cutting edge of their stuff when it was happening. Now most of the stuff from Green Day and Black-Eyed Peas sounds so manufactured and disconnected. Bono sounds like he has gone completely over the top on himself I doubt if he can pass his reflection without stopping and admiring his own image. Nora Jones and Alicia Keys are very talented but their stuff is also passé.

When listening to today’s music the only genre that seems to be bending the norms, pushing the edge and bringing excitement to their genre is country. But the academy of music butt kissers only seems to want to rehash the anti-social genres and ignore the growth of country cross over. There are few pop artists, rap artist or rockers who are pushing the envelope like Montgomery Gentry, Tim McGraw or even old Loretta Lynn. Who can deny that there is ground breaking happening in country music when the coal miner’s daughter out there banging heads with Jack White? When Tim McGraw is hitting a range that Whitney would have a hard time attaining and no body is kicking ass as much as Gretchen Wilson and Montgomery Gentry and none of these people win, there is something terribly wrong. If anything Gretchen Wilson should have gotten an award for having the nicest ass.

Enough bitching already. I need to go kill something.