Feb 9
Bowie and the Grammys
Last night the Grammys honored Bowie with the lifetime achievement award. Here’s a couple of pics:
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Oh, wait. Sorry. That’s not last night. That’s 31 years ago. He didn’t seem to enjoy the Grammys very much that night. In fact, this is what he had to say about it:
“The Grammys were very significant for me. It was like walking a tightrope. There were mostly aging middleclass show business people in that audience. It was a question of entertaining them or coming off like just another rock singer. I really did feel I was David Bowie and not a rock singer. It was very strange. Strange, strange, strange.”
And, from a later interview:
A couple of nights later [John Lennon and I] found ourselves backstage at the Grammys where I had to present “the thing” to Aretha Franklin. Before the show I’d been telling John that I didn’t think America really got what I did, that I was misunderstood. Remember that I was in my 20s and out of my head.
So the big moment came and I ripped open the envelope and announced, “The winner is Aretha Franklin.” Aretha steps forward, and with not so much as a glance in my direction, snatches the trophy out of my hands and says, “Thank you verybody. I’m so happy I could even kiss David Bowie.” Which he didn’t! And she promptly spun around swanned off stage right. So I slunk off stage left.
And John bounds over and gives me a theatrical kiss and a hug and says “See, Dave. America loves ya.’”
That was 1975. The Grammys totally ignored Bowie throughout the most productive years of his career. Setting trends is never rewarded by the Grammys, mimicking them is. “Under Pressure” was never recognized as a great song. “Ice Ice Baby” won a Grammy in 1990 using the Under Pressure bass riff. At that count Vanilla Ice led the Grammy race with Bowie 1-0. Artists who didn’t even sing their songs won. Milli Vanilli ( with an asterisk ) led David Bowie 1-0. On and on it went. People with no talent, no writing ability, and absolutely no concern for music kept winning. Artists like Bowie kept handing them the awards. In 1983 Bowie gave the Grammys what they always wanted, a very typical pop song that soared to #1 and stayed there forever. So, the Grammys nominated him for “Let’s Dance”. He got beat out by the king of pop, Michael Jackson, across the board. Now, you gotta ask yourself this, how many people consider “Let’s Dance” his best album? He had to crank out the most mundane stuff he could think of just to get nominated. A year later, he actually won a Grammy for a short video he did. His music was not an issue. Twenty years later, 30 years after the albums Rolling Stone consider some of the most influential ever made, a decade after the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted him, the Grammys once again nominated Bowie for an award, the Lifetime Achievement Award.
After snubbing every creative effort he ever made, and rewarding one of the very rare commercial efforts he did, the “Lifetime Achievement Award” just rings shallow to me. I mean, at one point they truly considered Vanilla Ice and Milli Vanilli better entertainers. Where are their Lifetime Achievement Awards?
IMO, the year Bowie should have won it would have been 1980. No one knew what the hell to think of “Low”, a lot of people questioned and panned it. So, Bowie comes right back with “Heroes” and spawns a pretty damn good song with minor hit status. There was no way on this planet, according to everyone, that ‘Heroes’ could even get released. Needless to say, it’s one of my favorites to this day. The album’s hard to take, but that’s the best damn song Bowie ever did. Album of the year for 1980? “Sailing” by Christopher Cross. Song of the year? “Sailing”, by Christopher Cross. Possibly the most boring song ever recorded by man. Nix that, it IS the most boring song ever recorded. Once again, creativity trumped for sales only.
For what it’s worth, I can’t see where Bowie even attended the awards. I’m quite sure I wouldn’t have either. For that matter, I didn’t even watch them. When the Grammys start rewarding musical talent and creativity, then these awards will mean a lot more to me. And, I’m sure, it will to musicians as well.
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Just an observation: Bowie’s tie in the color photo appears white and in the b/w pic with Lennon it is black. I thought these were taken the same evening?
As we discussed earlier, I noticed that as well. My only guess is he did a quick change before re-appearing to the public with Lennon. Given his penchant for changing clothes, that wouldn’t surprise me in the least.