Dear Readers, Since last month I made such a production out of the categories and winners at the "25th Annual American Music Awards," and alluded to what the Grammy Awards would bring, I decided to follow up on that remark this month. Although I wasn't overly impressed with the nominees - except maybe Paula Cole because I like her ". . . Cowboys Gone" song - I thought there was more excitement generated by the "stage crashers" than by the awards or performances themselves. Wait, I have to make an exception to that. I was very pleased to see Will Smith win as Best Individual Rap Artist, and the opening of the show with the "Men In Black" production was really cool. As far as the categories go, like I said, I wasn't very impressed with the nominees, but at least people were nominated in the categories where they belonged. If Puff Daddy ended up in the rock category again I was ready to scream. Then again, I don't think of Sarah Mclachlan as a rock artist even if she was the one to win for record and album in that category. I guess Sean Colvin deserved to win her Grammy, and I really did feel sorry for her when the dude from Wu Tang Clan got to the microphone before she did for his little song and dance. The poor girl really was confused, and to win an important award and have somebody crash your acceptance speech must be a real downer. I absolutely don't think Bob Dylan should have won. He may still be a great songwriter, but the guy hasn't been able to sing for 20 years. I thought his performance number was pretty sad to begin with, and then the "soy bomb crasher" just made the whole thing sadder. Bob Dylan was, is and always will be a terrific American icon, and his contributions to the world of music and rock 'n roll should be acknowledged - but not with a Grammy for the way he sounds now - like what he is. A burned out hippy. Give the guy a lifetime achievement award or something, but don't give him album of the year. Even with a distortion mic he sounded awful. Then we had Aretha Franklin stepping in for the ailing Lucciono Pavarotti. I know she was asked at the last minute, and I give her a lot of credit for getting up there and singing opera, but that soul twist just didn't fit. Neither did switching back and forth from Italian (?) to English and back again. She gets points for trying though. On the other hand, Celine Dion's last minute changed performance was truly beautiful. It has to be a bit embaressing to be advertised forever as performing a duet with Barbara Streisand and then at the last minute la Streisand backs out. Now, how many of you really believe she was sick? And poor Celine, does she think Streisand didn't want to share a stage with her? So, the Grammy's are over for another year. A definite passing of the guard (except for Dylan) has occurred and we'll just have to wait and see what happens on the music scene over the next year. The opinions expressed in this editorial are mine as Editor of this magazine. If you agree or disagree with anything I write here, whether you're a fan, band, label, P.R. Firm or anyone else associated with the music industry, feel free to write to me at the address below and your comments will be published. Please send your comments, questions, or anything else you can think of to ACCESS to the MUSIC ZONE at marellg@music-reviewer.com See You In Cyber Space! Mary Ellen Gustafson, Editor

 

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