Grammy Update - Best Peformances Ever

Usually, the Grammys involve slogging through three and a half hours of mediocre or stunningly bad performances for 2 or 3 good ones. Overall, this year's performances were the best I can recall. The people picked to perform had truly strong and gifted voices and were excellent musicians. Even the hip hop pieces - normally bogged down by the lack of a singer and real instruments - were successes with Jay Z teaming with Linkin Park and Kanye West pulling off a brash and over-the-top performance in which he teamed up with Jamie Fox as two brilliantly exaggerated drum majors.

The show lacked the awkward moments in which I typically delight but granted us one of the more bizarre moments in Grammy history --- Sly Stone actually showing up on stage sporting a silver jacket and blonde mohawk but with the body language of someone who was more like 91 years old than 61.

It's hard to pick a best performance - John Legend was jaw-droppingly good, Kanye blew the roof off and the Sly medley was mostly quite fun and well-performed. Paul McCartney started out with a snoozer but that served to contrast an awesome version of Helter Skelter (and what a brilliant decision to pick that as the oldie to play). I also enjoyed the combination of Herbie Hancock and Christina Aguilera on "A Song for You" (though no one can ever come close to the Donny Hathaway version - a Macswain ATF) and the NOLA closer, anchored by the under-recognized Allen Toussaint, was the right note on which to end.

The good performances went on and on - Coldplay delivered, as did Mariah Carey and the opener with the Gorillaz and Madonna was visually stunning.

Keith Urban was the biggest surprise to me ... I didn't realize the guy was such a talented guitarist. Following his acoustic performance by teaming him up on a Southern Rocker with Faith Hill's huge vocals was masterful. I have got to take a closer look at some of this guy's recordings.

The weakest performances --- the we-sound-like-ever-other-PopTry-band Sugarland (?) and the annoyingly mismatched performance by Maroon 5 and Ciara doing Sly's "Everyday People."

As to the actual award winners --- who cares? The voters are so conservative in their choices as to make the awards virtually meaningless. U2 winning for best album? Please. This year's U2 album isn't close to being one of their best and, in my opinion, isn't even one of the 10 best albums of the year.

Bono was right to tell Kanye that he would have to wait for his best album award, what he didn't tell him, is he'll have to wait probably about 15-20 years until he is surrounded by an aura of nostalgia. Only then will they give him the award over some more deserving youngster.