The 2012 Grammys, with enough of a stockpile of anticipation to make a music hoarder go insane—How will they handle Whitney Houston’s untimely death? What will Bruce Springsteen sound like post-Clarence Clemons? Will Adele still have an incredible voice after throat surgery? – were primed to be something even more incredible than most years. These larger than music plots dominated over the usual categorical subplots—the reason for having The Grammys in the first place. Maybe that’s because it was already predicted that Adele was going to run off with most of the categories in a year where popularity and artistry were synchronized.
One of the major questions was answered from the opening notes. The first single from Bruce Springteen’s new “Wrecking Ball” CD, “We Take Care of Our Own,” opened the Grammys as Bruce provided a blistering performance as only he can do! This shouldn’t have been much of a surprise since Bruce performed for almost a decade without Clarence Clemons in the band once before. He came out swinging and never “retreated or surrendered!”
LL Cool J was gracious and sincere as a host—especially with his opening prayer.
In a sense, the rest of the show—except for the Whitney Houston tribute, which registered one of its highest ratings ever, was fairly anticlimactic. Adele ended up winning six Grammys, The Foo Fighters snatched five. Taylor Swift deservedly won two–as did The Civil Wars. (ODWITS! I still don’t see what they’re attraction is.) Finally, when everyone’s attention started to wander, Jennifer Hudson emerged to perform an understated performance of Houston’s signature song, “I Will Always Love You.” Aretha Franklin, Whitney’s godmother, was supposed to perform, and then Chaka Khan was picked to substitute. They both opted out—surprisingly since Aretha performed an incredible “Nessun Dorma” as a substitute at the 1998 Grammys.
Jennifer received some criticism for her performance as not being dramatic enough. I disagree with that opinion. The song is hard enough to sing without the extra emotion attached to it. I’m astonished that anyone could have sung it at all without cracking. Her restrained version of “I Will Always Love You” seemed to be just the right touch. Excellent job Ms. Hudson!
And then there was Adele’s “chills up the spine” acapella opening to “Rolling in the Deep” to prove that her voice had recovered! I think my jaw involuntarily fell open once I heard the notes!
The Glen Campbell medley as well as The Beach Boys reunion were entertaining and pleasant, but the remaining suspense for me was the Paul McCartney performance. It was well worth the wait because he finished The Grammys off with one of the greatest medleys ever recorded. I am referring, of course to “Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End” from The Beatles’ “Abbey Road.” This was one of those moments that people tune in to The Grammys for! Ironically, I really only heard two other people mention it. I thought it was insanely incredible! Maybe people had started to check out since it was almost three and a half hours into the show.
But it was Paul McCartney’s amazing performance of this Beatles’ medley from Abbey Road that drove me crazy! And you can tell by the smiles on the faces of Bruce Springsteen, Joe Walsh, and Dave Grohl that they could cross off an item from their bucket list as they were having the times of their lives! And the image of Paul just pointing at any of the guitarists onstage for their solo was unbelievable as if he was teaching a guitar class and the pupils were expected to show what they could do while the master took turns himself! It was only in front of a billion people or so! And he looked so cool walking from behind the piano to strap on his guitar while Abe Laboriel, Jr. recreated and improved on Ringo Starr’s drum solo! What a jam!!!!!!!
This absolutely was one of the best Grammys ever, even with the overriding sadness. As usual, it was the music that pulled everyone through the hardest moments.
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