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By Ken Barnes
Special to MSN Music
If you've heard the official party line, the Grammys are all about moments.
So here's a selection of the best and worst moments during the three-and-a-half
hours of the 54th Grammy Awards telecast.
On the positive side:
Giving good love: The awards celebration was inevitably clouded by the
death of Whitney Houston the previous day.
Producers had to scramble, but the tribute was handled tastefully: a brief
eulogy and a past Grammy clip at the top, and a hastily arranged performance by
Jennifer Hudson toward the end, not to
mention scattered mentions by artists. Hudson's a cappella opening of "I Will
Always Love You" was chilling.
Adele adulation: Otherwise, it was pretty much all Adele all the time. A clean sweep
(six nominations, six wins, plus one for her producer), a triumphant return to
singing with a heartfelt "Rolling in the Deep" (Song of the Year and Record of
the Year), two airings of a Target ad featuring the song, an interstitial
airing: She was so dominating I feel I should be typing this on Adele laptop .
Well-deserved honors, though: "Deep" is one of those increasingly rare universal
hits (up there with OutKast's "Hey Ya," Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" and very few
others) as a song that transcended the formidable boundaries of isolated musical
tastes.
Dance fever: The actual dance music spectacular was a mixed bag, but
it was amusing to see the Foo Fighters taking part after
speaking out for traditional rock values during one of their five award
acceptances, and Deadmau5 may have found the secret of
making deejaying interesting to watch. Even better: Chris Brown's earlier athletic
display of dancing gymnastics and Bruno Mars' slick James Brown moves (including the
obligatory splits).
Photo Gallery: Grammy Awards Show Highlights
The ultimate revenge: Don't ever mess with Taylor Swift - she'll write a song
about it and sing it on the Grammys. Lambasted for shaky vocals on an earlier
Grammy appearance, Swift wrote "Mean" in response. It won awards for Best
Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance, and she sang (quite ably) a
triumphant version, looking quite pleased with herself.
Averting a train wreck: The segue from Rihanna's rapid-fire "We Found Love"
to Coldplay's "Princess of China" was
jolting, but the quality of the songs (plus Coldplay's concluding "Paradise")
outweighed the shaky moments.
Causing a train wreck? It's hard to tell whether Nicki Minaj's bizarre exercise in
exorcism was a triumph or a disaster, but it certainly will become a talking
point. In any case, her audacity for perpetrating such an outre piece of musical
theater should be applauded.
Doin' it again: The Beach Boys reunion of Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine,
Bruce Johnston and early guitarist David Marks was fraught with uncertainty, but
came off well enough, with Brian looking no more uncomfortable than usual and
supplying a credible falsetto on "Good Vibrations." Support bands Maroon 5 ("Surfer Girl") and Foster
the People ("Wouldn't It Be Nice") came off admirably. A later salute to
Alzheimer's-afflicted Glen Campbell couldn't really go
wrong, especially with the Band Perry, Blake Shelton and Taylor Swift (on
banjo) assisting, but nearly foundered thanks to the choice of Campbell's most
banal material. A "Wichita Lineman" really would have helped.
More: 2012 Grammy Winners gallery
And in the end: Paul McCartney, who won perhaps his
oddest Grammy as producer of Best Historical Album "Band on the Run (Deluxe
Edition)," got two performance slots. The new song "My Valentine" was on the
soppy side, but his performance of "Abbey Road"'s concluding medley, which
closed the show, thrilled the crowd and doubtlessly most viewers, and concluded
with a fun-filled guitar war featuring the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Joe Walsh and Dave Grohl.
And now, time to turn on your lowlights:
Predictable awards: Grammy voters didn't exactly cover themselves with
glory, or independent thought, this year. Time and time again they opted for the
obvious choice, most familiar name or trendy pick du jour. A rap sweep for Kanye West, giving him 18 Grammys to
date. Two more for Tony Bennett, bringing him to 16 -
and one of those was truly galling: Had Amy Winehouse not died, her wobbly
duet with Bennett would never have stood a chance. The Foo Fighters are an
admirable rock band, but did they deserve a near-sweep (losing only when they
finally had to go up against Adele for Album of the Year)? Even Betty White's
win (for Best Spoken Word Album) seemed like crass bandwagon jumping.
Rank injustices: On the subject of awards, probably the cruelest
miscarriage of justice was the shutout of Swedish dance-pop wizard Robyn, who was up for two dance awards
for her brilliant "Body Talk" project and lost both to trendy DJ Skrillex. Lady Antebellum, the blandest act
among the six country album nominees, continued their inexplicable love affair
with Grammy voters. Also galling: the Band Perry, creators of country's most
groundbreaking song in a decade ("If I Die Young"), losing Best New Artist
honors to Bon Iver. But Justin Vernon's
acceptance speech was gracious and sincere, a nice, non- artificial moment.
Hard to care: It's great that Bruce Springsteen opened the show with
an energetic premiere performance of his new single, "We Take Care of Our Own."
Too bad the song was so static and, well, drab.
Outstaying its welcome: Jason Aldean and Kelly Clarkson delivered what seemed
like the 12th awards show performance this year of their duet, "Don't You Wanna
Stay."
Ken Barnes is a veteran music journalist who was music editor of USA
Today, senior editor of Radio & Records and has contributed to numerous
consumer music publications.
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