# The "Is anyone else actually watching the Grammys" Thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 14, 2005, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-is-anyone-else-actually-watching-the-grammys-thread/289942 "2005-02-14T00:51:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![RancidYakButterTeaParty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/53a042/32.png) [@RancidYakButterTeaParty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RancidYakButterTeaParty)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-is-anyone-else-actually-watching-the-grammys-thread/289942/41 "2005-02-14T03:24:20Z")
> [@Big Bad Voodoo Lou](#): > > Awesome! One of the best albums of the year, and their collaboration on “Portland, Oregon” was amazing. I agree, very cool. I knew we had a lot in common! U2 just won for best performance by a rock group for Vertigo. I have to sign off, (sick and need my sleep) so maybe a West Coaster or one of you super Straight Dope addicts can take over. Goodnight ---
**Author:** ![look\_ninjas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b2d939/32.png) [@look\_ninjas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/look_ninjas)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-is-anyone-else-actually-watching-the-grammys-thread/289942/42 "2005-02-14T03:39:28Z")
That whole Tsunami Tribute song was a little… weird. It worked for the most part (although I wish Stevie had actually learned the words), but going from Billie Joe to Tim McGraw to Scott Weiland was kind of surreal. I liked that Ravi Shankar’s daughter got the first “Jai Guru Deva.” That’s pretty fun. ---
**Author:** ![kka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/54ee81/32.png) [@kka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kka)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-is-anyone-else-actually-watching-the-grammys-thread/289942/43 "2005-02-14T03:57:23Z")
I thought _Across The Universe_ was hideous. Too many singers that seemed ill-preapred. ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-is-anyone-else-actually-watching-the-grammys-thread/289942/44 "2005-02-14T04:13:12Z")
> [@duffer](#): > > Who was the guy that just performed with Sarah Evens? I think it was _Free Bird_ And before anyone jumps on my case, it’s Sarah Evans, not Evens. And the singer I meant was Gretchen Wilson. :smack: :smack: :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Wing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/51bf81/32.png) [@Little\_Wing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Wing)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-is-anyone-else-actually-watching-the-grammys-thread/289942/45 "2005-02-14T05:07:56Z")
I dunno…I managed to watch maybe the first five minutes of the opening act but had to turn it off because I kept hearing my parents’ voices whispering to me, “What the hell is that noise?!” I’m sure there was some great performances later in the show but they lost me very early. It’s a bitch getting old, ain’t it? I’m just glad I’m an old school rocker (and apparently pretty set in my ways). 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-is-anyone-else-actually-watching-the-grammys-thread/289942/46 "2005-02-14T05:11:32Z")
> [@duffer](#): > > And before anyone jumps on my case, it’s Sarah Evans, not Evens. And the singer I meant was Gretchen Wilson. > :smack: :smack: :smack: I knew that, but due to your long and meritorious service here I thought it would be rather poor form to point it out. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Othersider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/cab0a1/32.png) [@Othersider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Othersider)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-is-anyone-else-actually-watching-the-grammys-thread/289942/47 "2005-02-14T05:38:52Z")
I’m not saying Ray didn’t deserve to win anything, because that’s just not true - especially considering much of the “competition” (which, imho, mostly sucks)…but still, it’s hard to see this and not think the grammy organization was throwing nominations (and wins, I suppose) at him because he passed away. It wouldn’t be the first time they’ve given someone an award that, realistically, is more due to the cumulative audience appreciation factor based on previous works than the one for which the honor is being bestowed (John Wayne in _True Grit_, anyone?)…of late, George Harrison and Warren Zevon, I think, were recipients of these “pity nominations”. ---
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-is-anyone-else-actually-watching-the-grammys-thread/289942/48 "2005-02-14T06:29:34Z")
The opening act had some great songs, but it all just seemed thrown together. A little odd. I turned off the TV during Queen Latifah’s little thing. I somehow missed the Freebird thing (greatest. song. ever 😃 **jimpatro** , looks like we wont be getting together anytime soon!). Bummer. Kanye West seemed…on something. He was acting odd and that was really distracting to me. I thought the best performance that I have seen would have to be Ms Ethridge and Ms Stone. Awesome. Blew me away. ---
**Author:** ![I\_can\_t\_believe\_that\_s\_butter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@I\_can\_t\_believe\_that\_s\_butter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_can_t_believe_that_s_butter)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-is-anyone-else-actually-watching-the-grammys-thread/289942/49 "2005-02-14T06:42:19Z")
I enjoyed John Mayer’s small-group thing. Damned if I want to see (or hear) another one of those stinkin’ biscuit-tin snare drums, though. And I was simply _overjoyed_ to see Loretta Lynn win that Grammy with Jack White in tow—and his respectful nature was ridden with class, I thought. Most of the rest—eh. Too much melisma and the usual theatrics. ---
**Author:** ![Vision\_of\_Love](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Vision\_of\_Love](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vision_of_Love)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-is-anyone-else-actually-watching-the-grammys-thread/289942/50 "2005-02-14T07:12:02Z")
> [@Joe K](#): > > And I was simply _overjoyed_ to see Loretta Lynn win that Grammy with Jack White in tow—and his respectful nature was ridden with class, I thought. Jack White was incredibly charming up on stage. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-is-anyone-else-actually-watching-the-grammys-thread/289942/51 "2005-02-14T07:18:18Z")
He really was. (So much so that my sister thought he was her son.) 😃 One thing I’ll say for young (and middle-aged, for that matter) musicians is that they don’t hesitate to show props where due. Whether it’s Stephen Tyler or Eric Clapton talking about B.B. King or Jack White showing respect and deference to Loretta Lynn, these guys know and respect great talent that has paid its dues. ---
**Author:** ![RancidYakButterTeaParty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/53a042/32.png) [@RancidYakButterTeaParty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RancidYakButterTeaParty)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-is-anyone-else-actually-watching-the-grammys-thread/289942/52 "2005-02-14T12:05:56Z")
Jack White was great on stage, definitely a class act. I didn’t care for the Tsunami tribute song either, it just didn’t sound well put together. It was incredibly funny when Stevie Wonder pretended to read the envelope for best song, then moved on to using brail. All in all I thought it was less than satisfying. It would be nice if they stopped trying to hype things up so much by combining acts for every single performance, and instead just let some talented artists do their thing. ---
**Author:** ![look\_ninjas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b2d939/32.png) [@look\_ninjas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/look_ninjas)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-is-anyone-else-actually-watching-the-grammys-thread/289942/53 "2005-02-14T13:21:07Z")
> [@kka](#): > > I thought _Across The Universe_ was hideous. Too many singers that seemed ill-prepared. I thought one or two seemed ill-prepared (sorry, Stevie), but I don’t think the rest of them could have done any better than they were doing. It was just a weird combination of voices, and not all the voices were necessarily appropriate for the song in the first place. Rather than try to figure out who might sound good together or who would be more appropriate for the song, they just grabbed people with a lot of noms and/or previous Grammy wins and shoved them together. It probably couldn’t have worked any better than it did. And it probably could have been worse. Basically, I’m just glad Slash didn’t shoehorn in a massive guitar solo. That would have sucked. The Ray stuff - it was pretty obvious he was going to be one of the big winners, because the Grammys like their posthumous awards. On the other hand, it is Ray Charles we’re talking about. He’s a legend for a reason, and it’s hard to begrudge him the awards. I was more annoyed that U2 won for “Vertigo,” considering that their competition included Elvis Costello, Franz Ferdinand, and Green Day. Heck, I even liked the Killers better. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-is-anyone-else-actually-watching-the-grammys-thread/289942/54 "2005-02-14T14:04:47Z")
I missed the first half hour, then turned it on for a while. JLo and Marc, he has an incredible expressive voice, her not so much. Can she not sing without making some production out of it? Maybe they thought that those of us who don’t speak Spanish would need a little show to follow since we didn’t understand the lyrics but the whole scene was just distracting and looked like JLO just trying to show off her pretty dress to prove to the world that she can dress nice without showing off all the goods. The Southern Rock tribute might have been more enjoyable if they left the Country singers out of it and had more of the “old guys” singing. Although Keith Urban seemed to be better able to actually rock than his country co-horts. Queen Latifah almost put me to sleep. I like some jazz but those songs that sound like someone just rambling on and on with no actual melody or chorus bug me. If it did have an actual melody or chorus I guess I missed it because I was half asleep by then. They totally lost me at the Gospel and Rap thing. Talk about antithetical! And not in a good way. Then again I may be biased, I can enjoy some good gospel singing but I hate rap with the burning passion of 1000 suns. I turned it off around the rappers second burst of rapping and I went to bed because I was still drowsy from Latifah’s song. And I am annoyed because I was so tired from a 10 hour work day that I didn’t realize Desperate Housewives was on opposite this and wasn’t being preempted by it and so missed DH. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Honey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honey/32/5074_2.png) [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-is-anyone-else-actually-watching-the-grammys-thread/289942/55 "2005-02-14T14:26:53Z")
Alycia Keys’ incredible voice actually made me cry. Holy cow, that girl sure can sing. ---
**Author:** ![Legolamb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4491bb/32.png) [@Legolamb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Legolamb)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-is-anyone-else-actually-watching-the-grammys-thread/289942/56 "2005-02-14T14:40:41Z")
> [@Wile E](#): > > And I am annoyed because I was so tired from a 10 hour work day that I didn’t realize Desperate Housewives was on opposite this and wasn’t being preempted by it and so missed DH. :mad: It was a repeat so you didn’t miss much. J-Lo was awful. I mean really bad. If her duet with Marc Anthony did anything, it showed everyone how weak her voice really is. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-is-anyone-else-actually-watching-the-grammys-thread/289942/57 "2005-02-14T15:23:39Z")
Congrats to Howard Shore for winning 2 Grammys. [http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/cpress/20050214/ca\_pr\_on\_en/music\_grammys\_4](http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/cpress/20050214/ca_pr_on_en/music_grammys_4) > [@](#): > > As for the Canadian contingent, Toronto-born Howard Shore won another two Grammys for Lord of the Rings. The first was for best score soundtrack album for Return of the King - his third consecutive year picking up that trophy. > His other was for co-writing Annie Lennox’s Into the West I knew there ware a lot of categories, but I just read on the official site that there are 105 :eek: Soon to include “best sea chanty performed by a mixed gender group with a prime number of singers” Brian ---
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-is-anyone-else-actually-watching-the-grammys-thread/289942/58 "2005-02-14T16:00:00Z")
> [@Legolamb](#): > > It was a repeat so you didn’t miss much. Nu uh. It was new. ---
**Author:** ![chefjef](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e480ec/32.png) [@chefjef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chefjef)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-is-anyone-else-actually-watching-the-grammys-thread/289942/59 "2005-02-14T16:12:46Z")
> [@](#): > > It was a repeat so you didn’t miss much. It was new - and great! I bet they re-run it on Sat night though – they sometimes do that. I thought J Lo and Marc Anthony were so bad it hurt to watch it. I thought the highlights were, in this order: 1. Dicky Betts, 2. Seeing how drunk Adam Sandler seemed, 3. Alisha Keys performance (amazing) 4. Melissa Etheridge and Joss Stone singing that Janis Joplin song - effing amazing! ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-is-anyone-else-actually-watching-the-grammys-thread/289942/60 "2005-02-14T16:27:04Z")
> [@chefjef](#): > > It was new - and great! I bet they re-run it on Sat night though – they sometimes do that. > > I thought J Lo and Marc Anthony were so bad it hurt to watch it. > > I thought the highlights were, in this order: > > 1. Dicky Betts, > 2. Seeing how drunk Adam Sandler seemed, > 3. Alisha Keys performance (amazing) > 4. Melissa Etheridge and Joss Stone singing that Janis Joplin song - effing amazing! I hope they rerun it, I seem to have a mental block with Desperate Housewives show times lately. So much with the hijack, back to the Grammy’s: 2) Adam Sandler, he always seems drunk to me and not even a funny drunk but an annoying drunk. Nelly was more amusing than he was and Nelly is not a comedian by trade. I thought Nelly wanted to slap him, now that would have been funny. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-is-anyone-else-actually-watching-the-grammys-thread/289942.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-is-anyone-else-actually-watching-the-grammys-thread/289942.md?page=4)