[Post all your Grammy comments on this sticky. Any other Grammy threads in this forum will be and redirected to this sticky - luv4u]

Link to 1st Grammy thread http://www.prince.org/msg/8/176952

Here's the link to the "official" Grammy site http://www.grammy.com/

Night brings some surprises and mostly flat performances
By Rashod D. Ollison
Sun Pop Music Critic
Originally published February 9, 2006
The year may have belonged to Mariah Carey and Kanye West, but last night's Grammy Awards show did not.

Surprisingly, U2 owned it, winning all five awards for which the Irish rockers were nominated, including album of the year for How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. Carey and West garnered eight nominations apiece but each walked away with just three golden gramophones and none in the major categories. Last night's show, which refreshingly didn't feature a host, was a mix of the surreal and the mundane.



On a mammoth screen, Gorillaz, the creepy-looking 3-D hip-hop cartoon band, kicked off the show with a short but fun performance of the vibrant "Feel Good Inc." featuring seminal hip-hop group De La Soul. But the momentum stalled as Madonna - resplendent in her new millennium disco queen look with a purple, studded painted-on leotard and Farrah Fawcett flips - gave a surprisingly tame performance backed by an army of street dancers. That was followed by another boring, contrived effort as the slick British supergroup Coldplay took the stage.

Unfortunately, the early performances didn't get much more interesting. Soul newcomer John Legend, who picked up a golden gramophone for best R&B album for his debut Get Lifted, sounded strained and overwrought on "Ordinary People." But that didn't seem to matter as the Stevie Wonder-influenced song won Legend his second Grammy of the night for best male R&B vocal performance.

U2 was on autopilot during "Vertigo," and things barely perked up when Mary J. Blige joined the Irish band during "One." The hip-hop soul queen's wailing was flat and off-key, and Bono sounded lost toward the end.

Playing at the Grammys for the first time, Paul McCartney performed "Fine Line," the lamest cut from his album Chaos and Creation in the Backyard. After telling the house he wanted to "rock," he then launched into a hard-hitting take of "Helter Skelter" from his Beatles days. It worked.

The most surprising moment last night was the appearance of soul-rock recluse Sly Stone, who hadn't been seen in public since his 1993 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Sly, looking frail and weird with a blond mohawk, didn't sing much of "I Want to Take You Higher." He came and went. But his shocking appearance was still a thrill.

Kelly Clarkson, the first American Idol winner, beat Carey and Grammy darlings Sheryl Crow and Bonnie Raitt in the best female pop vocal performance. The singing sensation whimpered through her first acceptance speech and rambled through the second. (Clarkson's triple-platinum album Breakaway won best pop vocal album.)

Though the cringe factor of her speeches was high, her wins legitimized Clarkson's status as a pop superstar. She also gave a by-the-numbers performance of her affecting Heart-esque hit, "Because of You."

It was no surprise when Kanye West picked up the Grammy for best rap album for his critically acclaimed sophomore effort, Late Registration. The famously arrogant hip-hop star, decked out in aviator shades and black leather gloves, pulled out a big white card boldly marked "Thank You List."

It was also no shock that U2 beat Coldplay and the Rolling Stones in the best rock album slot for How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, an essentially well-executed set, if a tad predictable in spots.

Overall, the telecast was woefully anti-climatic, peppered with go-nowhere performances, ending with a bland tribute to New Orleans.
[Edited 2/9/06 5:34am]

Three top worst performances at the Grammy:
1. Sly tribute
2. Jay Z, Mc Cartney and Cía.
3. Xtina Aguilera

MTV.com: Who was that weird guy with the mohawk @ the grammys

Who, Exactly, Is Sly Stone? (That Weird Guy With The Mohawk At The Grammys)
02.09.2006 12:42 PM EST

You'd never know it from that 'performance,' but Sly is one of the great musical innovators of the last 50 years.


You'd never know it from his "performance" at the Grammys on Wednesday night, but Sly Stone is one of the great musical innovators of the last 50 years.

During his all-too-brief creative peak — between the mid-1960s and early 1970s
— he and his group, the Family Stone, fused soul, rock and funk into a dynamic sound that changed all three genres forever and played a profound role in the creation of hip-hop (his songs have been sampled and covered many, many times).

A young person today might know his songs only from oldies radio or the long-running Toyota commercial that used his 1969 anti-racist hit "Everyday People," but his influence is so vast, and his sound has been so incorporated into so many different styles, that it's simply part of today's musical language. His band's contribution to funk music is every bit as enduring as James Brown's, and Parliament-Funkadelic, Rick James, Prince, D'Angelo and Jermaine Dupri — not to mention every single funk band since the late '60s — all owe the essence of their sounds to him.

And before Sly's outlook turned dark — with 1971's haunting, paranoid There's a Riot Goin' On — his message was one of positivity, unity and self-empowerment, exemplified by just a handful of his song titles: "You Can Make It If You Try," "Everybody Is a Star," "I Want to Take You Higher" and "Stand!" With "Everyday People," he coined the term "different strokes for different folks." And as the electrifying 1969 performance captured in the concert film "Woodstock" shows, he and the band could hold tens of thousands of people in the palms of their hands.



Madonna & Gorillaz, Kelly, Coldplay, Mary & U2 Highlight The Grammys

Gwen, Kanye, Jay-Z, Peas, Linkin Park & Others Hit The Green Carpet

Roots, Kelly, Foxx, Ashlee & More Party For Grammy Week


Wednesday night's performance (see "Kanye And Mariah Win, But In The End U2 — And Curveballs — Rule Grammy Night") during the Grammy tribute to him — which found him attired bizarrely in a silver-and-purple robe, dark shades and a foot-high platinum Mohawk, pawing befuddledly at his keyboard, at times seemingly unaware of where he was — showed just how far he's fallen.

To understand how revolutionary Sly's music, image and message were, you have to consider the America in which the band was formed in 1966. It was still largely a segregated country, in terms of both race and gender. A controversial war in a far-off land, Vietnam, was dividing the country. And pop music was made mostly by single-race, single-gender groups who'd only just begun to let their hair down.

Sly was born in Dallas in 1944 but raised on the mean streets of Vallejo in the San Francisco Bay Area. A prodigious talent, he had his first hit single at the age of 16 and studied music at Vallejo Junior College. He honed his chops in the early '60s as a massively popular DJ on San Francisco's KSOL and KDIA, as a producer (helming a national hit for the Beau Brummels, "Laugh Laugh"), and with his group, the Stoners. He combined that band's trumpet player, Cynthia Robinson, with his guitarist brother Freddie, his keyboardist sister Rosemary and bassist Larry Graham (who pioneered the thumb-popping funk bass style that has since become a signature of the genre) to form the Family Stone. Their formation coincided neatly with the city's burgeoning psychedelic scene, and Sly seized the moment, fusing the sounds and attitudes of the era into something he called "psychedelic soul." The group signed with Epic Records in 1967 and released its first LP, A Whole New Thing, later that year.

While the title track of Dance to the Music brought the group its first hit, 1969's Stand! remains its definitive statement. The album contains many of the positive songs above, yet it also did not shy away from talking tough, via the confrontationally anti-racist "Don't Call Me N-----, Whitey" (the chorus of which replied, "Don't Call Me Whitey, N-----"). The album became the group's first gold disc, "Everyday People" was a #1 single, the group arguably stole the show at Woodstock — and just as the Family Stone were reaching the top, it all started to unravel.

The group began 1970 with a bang: the single "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)," indubitably one of the funkiest songs ever laid to wax. Yet Sly's increasing drug abuse led to erratic behavior, and the group missed 26 of 80 scheduled concerts, many of which found the entire band present and ready to play, with Sly simply refusing to go on. Stories of his drug-fueled antics are legend: He obsessed maniacally with There's a Riot Goin' On, missing many deadlines and recording and re-recording so many times that the album has a dull, hissy sound (the tapes simply began to wear out). The album also had a dark, claustrophobic, doomed vibe, although Sly's powers of social commentary were as strong as ever on "Family Affair," which held the #1 spot on the U.S. singles chart for five weeks. By the time the album was done, the group's brilliant drummer, Greg Errico, had left, and Graham was not far behind.

The hits continued for another couple of years — 1973's Fresh, containing the excellent single "If You Want Me to Stay," was a strong effort — but 1974's "Loose Booty" was the group's last charting single, and it dissolved the following year, with Stone filing for bankruptcy in 1976.

And that, sadly, is largely where the story ends. Sly made comeback attempts in the late 1970s and early '80s, releasing three mediocre albums. P-Funk's George Clinton brought him on tour with Funkadelic in 1981; he also appeared on former Time guitarist Jesse Johnson's 1987 single "Crazay" — the title of which is so Sly-influenced that it verges on parody. The drug problems continued, with Sly being arrested three times on cocaine charges and ending the '80s in prison on a 55-day charge for driving under the influence of the drug.

Apart from the occasional impromptu appearance — in 1993, he surprised his former bandmates by joining them onstage when the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — Sly has kept a very low profile in the years since; his royalties presumably bring in significant income. He signed a contract with Avenue Records in 1995, but no releases followed. In the late 1990s, the creator of a Sly fan site claimed to have met with Sly at the artist's behest. He reported that Sly was lucid and friendly, and said that he played new material that ranks with his best work. None of that material has yet emerged.

Last summer, Sly was reported seen in the crowd during a tribute concert in Los Angeles, wearing a motorcycle helmet throughout the performance. His behavior was no less unusual during rehearsals for Wednesday night's Grammy performance: According to the Los Angeles Times, on Monday he participated in just two of three run-throughs of the song while dressed in a hooded raincoat and camouflage pants.

The Grammy performance — Sly's first with the original Family Stone since 1971 — was a halting, confused affair and a complete disservice to his music. For a taste of his and the band's greatness, Stand! and The Essential Sly and the Family Stone collection are probably the most definitive testaments.

Indeed, his legend is such that some defended even Wednesday night's bizarre showing. Adam Levine of Maroon 5 — who took part in the all-star tribute that preceded Sly's appearance — said to The Washington Post, "Can you really argue with an unbelievable-looking Mohawk and a silver jacket?"

hey I didn't watch the end of the grammy's.....what did Dr. John do? I heard he was supposed to perform with the New Orleans tribute.

Regarding Sly's mediocre albums, I have a few of them and they are pretty weak. I wonder if that contributed to his downward spiral. It was still cool as hell to see him there. There were far too many lame singers on stage before he arrived though. I mean do we really need to see Black Eyed Peas or Joss Stone doing Sly and the Family Stone? Yikes! Kanye's performance was the best. And U2 was great but Mary J Blige sang much better than her dramatic performance.

AnckSuNamun said:

He played and sang with Bruce springsteen, Yolanda Adams and others. It was nothing spectacular.

It was great to see Van Hunt back in the thick of things. My eyes were on him the whole time.

Ok, for all those mutha fuckers complaining about Mary J and Bono's performance.... http://www.rhapsody.com/grammys - peep pre grammy show

apparently, they never got a chance to rehearse the song (One Love) because Jamie Foxx's performance on the Clive Davis Pre Grammy special went too long and actually cut into their rehearsal time - Clive Davis admitted to this during the party.

Shame on U Jamie,

Firstly, I'm amazed that everyone's complaining about the standard of the performances at the grammys this year. It was just the standard second rate slop that I've come to expect over the last few years. Part of it is due to this ridiculous insistence on pairing up artists of different genres/generations and putting together "all-star" bands. One or two rehearsals the day before is not going to produce a high quality performance. There's a reason the best bands rehearse for weeks or even months before a tour. The whole thing is obviously done to appeal to the widest possible demographic i.e. the kids might switch off when they see Paul McCartney so throw the latest halfwit crotch-grabber on stage with him to keep them interested, brilliant!

Secondly, Coldplay = U2 on valium....am I right, or am I right? The Grammys are generally pretty dull anyway, but with their "too much reverb is never enough" coma-inducing yawn-o-pop surely Coldplay have set a new benchmark in blandness.

Apparently Paul MacCartney was totally pissed off at having lost out 2 U2!!


http://www.digitalspy.co....29049.html

"Insider Roger Friedman told The Sun how the bad loser refused to congratulate the Irish winners, then walked out. The ex-Beatle got up and left with his very arrogant bodyguard," he said. "They weren’t exactly subtle about it, either."


Why do I remember him shaking his hands on TV then?

"McCartney apparently went backstage and ignored fellow stars. “He walked right past Sting without saying hello," added Friedman."

Bo-fucking-ho.

U2 sucks

calldapplwondery83 said:

Hello?! This article is from the Sun. I would take this with a grain of salt. The New York Post claimed that Mariah Carey spent the rest of the night sulking in her dressing room and refused to go to her own afterparty because she didn't win album of the year, yet she told Extra and Access Hollywood on camera that she was quite happy with the Grammys she won, and said that God sometimes witholds some rewards in order to appreciate the struggle of success and work harder the next time.

Well for the most part of this yrs grammys.....

First thing WHAT was up with the sound? granted i only tuned in here and there, Lost was on; and a good Lost at that,. But the sound was horrid, and im not talking who ever was trying to sing or play. Everything from the first live act
which i think was Sugarland or something, past Sly and whatever was going on there, till Bruce. It was just horrid sounding

I have still expect the Grammy people to come out with a press realease and say something to was horrible wrong with the sound system, or faulty wires or a drunk sound guy. The whole thing was just off.


And i know that Gory and Maddy were on first but i dont count cartoons that phone it in

ThePunisher said:

yeah....I heard that it wasn't.

Bruce's performance was the only one I'd watch again.

goat2004 said:

Man, puh-leeeeze! Do you really think that would have mattered? Mary CANNOT sing live, and it's not our "opinions" as you stated in the last thread. To not be able to sing in the correct key of the song is to not be able to sing, just like 2+2=4. You're a fan...FINE! Defend her if you feel so compelled...but that won't help her voice much.

Adisa said:

Yes, she can
Listen to The Tour Album, one of my favorites.

dammme said:

I just finished listening to Uptown "Unplugged". In fact I listen to it every month. Those were the good ol' days. But I'll feel you in on a little secret:
Almost every live LP ever recorded has some serious over-dubbing and remixing to it before it's released. Protools and voice comping aren't immune to these situations. Artists aren't as fortunate when they perform LIVE and in realtime (minus the delay for the purpose of censorship) in front of millions of viewers. Everytime I've seen and heard Mary in this realm, she's been horrible.

Blond Mohawk?!? I wanna see, any pics?

Folks, I think we have exhausted all dialogue about Mary J.Blige. If your not a fan, U probably think she can't sing, and visa versa, it's whatever. I mean, she has a diff style of singing. I think a lot of folks who complain bout her (#1 song for 4 weeks and counting) don't like her brand of R&B. But I am curious, the poeple who think Mary cant sing...what do U guys think of Fantasia? Also, do U guys listen to todays modern R&B music? And if you do, who do u think can sing? Do U think Prince's protege, Tamar sounds better than Mary?

But the bottom line is people like who they like.

The Grammy's is over so let's move on....

Gold319 said:

Oh really.. was it my imagination, or did paul mccartney sit directly in front of u2 and when they won.. he shook their hand.


what a dumbass article

Mary can sing her ass off but the over-dramatization wasn't necessary. She also did that song numerous times already with U2 so she should have been ready. Perhaps she was too ready and hammed it up because she is bored with the song already. I hated that song before Mary sang it. Now I like it. Her Hurricaine relief performance was better though. Anyone who thinks she can't sing just doesn't like her style and knows nothing about voice.

pkidwell said:

dammme said:

That is not true.

I love true soul singers, like Patti Labelle, pre-drugs Whitney, Jennifer Holliday, etc.

And I don't like Mary J. Blige. Her sounds is very raw, and she OFTEN sings off key or pitchy in live performances.

And don't say it's just cuz she's emotional. No one gets more emotional than Miss Patti and she NEVER hits a wrong note or goes off key!

GaryMF said:

Miss Patti "Oversings" Labelle better singer than Mary?
Got my doubts

dammme said:

If you actually think Mary J has a better voice or can sing better than Patti, then there is no point in having a discourse.

Patti may "oversing" sometimes, but her range, technique, and natural ability is acknowledged by pretty much everyone in the business.

not to mention that she doesn't hit wrong notes or go off key, which is like the point-of-entry for a professional singer.

In contrast, it's a well-documented fact that Mary J. does both of these things fairly often. Even Chaka Khan said that MJB needed to get some lessons after she was going around butchering her song Sweet Thing.
[Edited 2/17/06 12:14pm]