Monday, February 1, 2010

Neil Young wins Grammy

(Haha, we couldn't resist writing that straight headline today.)

Neil Young has long taken a stance on the Grammys that many of us have come to embrace. And like his music, few can state it so eloquently. Young's quote from a 1987 interview:

"I'm not Grammy material. I hate that shit. It has nothing to do with rock 'n' roll. It only has to do with Hollywood, and it's jive -- a buncha people handin' each other awards and talkin' about how they made the best record ... There is no best in music."

We're not sure what to think now that Young finally won a Grammy -- for "best art direction on a boxed or special limited edition package." (He shared this award with two "fellow" art directors.) Guess we'll leave that for him to ponder.

We do think his acceptance speech at the pre-telecast ceremony will go down as one of the greatest in history: “Thanks a lot, everybody,” he said.

So, of course we didn't watch the entire show. (Without popcorn, there was no chance.) But we did tune in to watch Eminem, Lil Wayne, Drake and Travis Barker tear up the stage after a crazed introduction by our favorite director, Quentin Tarantino. To paraphrase Young: Hey, hey, my, my, hip 'n' hop will never die.

And while we agree that there is no best in music, we were happy and surprised to see Taylor Swift snag the Grammy for Album of the Year. And quite relieved that she didn't get shouted off the stage by some madman.

1 comment:

  1. In the late 60s you loved country...the first among our "group" to do so. We all thought you had lost your mind. Forty years later (having grown to love country too), we were both happy for Taylor Swift also. She was refreshing after a show of off-the-wall "music." As my son says, "You can't spell crap without rap." BTW, I agree with Neil's earlier assessment of the Grammys.

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