Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Whitney, Bruno & The Grammy's

Unfortunately I wasn't able to view the Grammy's on Sunday night as I was driving home from my daughter's hockey practice in Cleveland, Ohio. All you rockers know that Cleveland Rocks and especially the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which we were able to visit briefly. The vibe there was heavy with the news of Whitney Houston's death, however, in a spin of hilarity, a news reporter nabbed Abby & I for some comedy footage in his piece on Whitney. I told him "hey, if you wanna include a couple of hobos from Indiana..that's cool, especially since we don't know anyone in Cleveland" . His footage included everything except the kind words I had to say about Whitney Houston.  I am saddened for the family of that beautiful, talented woman.

Turning to the Grammy's.......I have heard a lot of chatter about this year's Grammy's, and would LOVE to hear reports from you friends. In my mind, the Grammy's are kind of like the sprinkles on a cupcake. They glitz it up, give you something extra to nibble on, but they aren't really necessary for the basic flavor & substance of the cake.  The performers are usually the most popular stars that you hear on mainstream radio and I love that...but it's the little guys that I miss seeing as well.   I do love getting to see all of the performers - especially my faves like Foo Fighters and Paul McCartney.... But ever since I was a little girl it seemed to me that the people who really made music rock were never on the stage. I vividly remember the year that Fleetwood Mac won all those awards for "Rumours" (I think).... and all I could think of was ....c'mon "Detroit Rock City" is WAYYYY better than that !

The most awesome Bruno Mars performed at the show and also was nominated. I have to say that I think

Bruno Mars is absolutely the bomb-- I love his voice which reminds me of the unmistakable Stevie Wonder. Bruno's writing partner, Philip Lawrence, is an Evansville native and attended the same high school that my kids now attend. These guys write some of the GREATEST pop songs which are clean, clear and chock full of superb lyrics. I had the extreme pleasure of interviewing Philip for a magazine article in Evansville a couple of years ago. Philip & Bruno had been writing together for quite sometime and their careers were just getting crazy.  Philip was gracious and kind in speaking with me for the mag. A couple months after that he was in Evansville visiting family and he called me up & invited me to his newborn son's baby shower. You have no idea what a spin my daughter & I were in when we got to meet him (and his family) . I proudly shook Philip's hand and I told him that he had unlimited talent and his career was going to skyrocket. I also thanked him for writing songs that I will allow my daughter to listen to. This was one of those great memories that I get to share with my daughter and I'm so grateful.  I'm also so happy to see the success that is coming to those boys who have worked hard to get there. 

Check out this photo of Philip with his partner Bruno, along with Ari Levine.

http://www.grammy.com/photos/the-smeezingtons-0

So...since I don't have much information to offer you on this year's Grammy's (except for the fact that YES.... Dave Grohl deserves any and every award available) .... why don't you leave a comment & tell ME your thoughts on the Grammys.

Watch for my blogpost tomorrow about an upcoming chef competition in Evansville ....

Peace & Rock & Roll,
Lanea
Recipe Records




3 comments:

Katy B said...

Okay, Lanea, you know I'm the first one here to comment! Your post containing the Foo Fighters and Sir Paul were basically what I thought you might mention, but I love the bit about Philip Lawrence, too. It's great to learn some more about the growing success of talented musicians' careers.

You also probably expect me to offer my own two-cent rant, which I did at (http://katybkatydidnot.blogspot.com/). Suffice to say here, I recognize the schmaltzy hubris, but I'm one of those suckers who watches it all through a twisted lens of my parasocial relationship with "those people." I guess it's the wow factor of how dreams come true for some talented (and sometimes talentless) performers. Maybe I'm just a glamour-gossip whore. :)

My final thoughts are that it's so refreshing to sense a measure of genuine humility of someone like Adele still left in the world, snot in the acceptance speech and all. Meanwhile other idiots with their obvious false modesty make naive comments that disenfranchise them from the fan base of other more talented musical legends (ahem ... Taylor Swift, you wanna talk smack on Branson again?).

I also found it appalling that the Grammy producers invited #downwithchrisbrown to perform. Not being a Miranda Lambert fan, I was pleasantly surprised to just this morning hear that the consistently dirty look on her face throughout the night was expressing the same sentiment.

Let Alicia Keys, Bonnie Raitt, Rihanna, and Bruno Mars put on a show instead!

Lanea Stagg said...

Katy - you ROCK!!!!!! I LOVE your review & commentary - it's dead on!

Lanea Stagg said...
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