Los Angeles – The 48th Annual Grammys Awards were a rock revival for U2, a fizzled comeback party for Mariah Carey and a bizarre return to the real world for Sly Stone, the funk icon who emerged from the hermit’s life with a shiny suit and a towering bleached-white Mohawk.
Irish rock band U2 won five Grammys on Wednesday night including song of the year for “Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own” and album of the year for “How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb,” which was competing with collections from Kanye West, Paul McCartney, Gwen Stefani and Carey. Carey won three awards but didn’t hear her name in the major categories after earning eight nominations – a disappointment considering her “The Emancipation of Mimi” was the best-selling CD of 2005 and a stunning rescue of her floundering career.
In his acceptance speech, U2 lead singer Bono did a roll call of the other nominees.
“This is our second album of the year, but we’ve lost two, ‘Achtung Baby’ and ‘All That You Can’t Leave Behind,’ so we know how it feels – Kanye, you’re next,” Bono said. “And he’s a great artist, being on the road with us. Extraordinary. To be in the company of Paul McCartney, who discovered the country that we’re all living in, is a true honor indeed. Yes sir. Mariah, you sing like an angel, really something else. And what about Gwen? This is the heart of Hollywood. She’s like Carol Lombard, she’s this extraordinary girl.” West, who many see as a cutting-edge figure in hip-hop, also came into the night with eight nominations. His “Late Registration” was a favorite of critics, and, after his surprise loss last year to Maroon 5 for the title of best new artist, many observers thought he would walk away with an armful of awards Wednesday during the Staples Center show. While performing “Gold Digger” with Jamie Foxx, West even made a sly joke about the expectations.
“I’ve been here two years in a row, and if I don’t win it’s fixin’ to be a problem,” the 28-year-old said dressed as a drum major during an elaborate marching band sequence for “Gold Digger.” (Which, in deference to the sensibilities of CBS censors, was performed without the racial epithet usually in its chorus.) West did win for best rap album and his protege, John Legend, took the coveted trophy for best new artist and two other awards in R&B categories. A beaming West watched Legend on stage as he held aloft the award and thanked a long list of supporters for his debut album, “Get Lifted.” The CBS broadcast had moments of intrigue that didn’t require the opening of envelopes. Bruce Sprinsgteen performed his ominous war song “Devils & Dust” and punctuated it with a yelp of protest. “Bring ’em home.” McCartney performed his newer music, but he also returned to the Beatles songbook with an incandescent version of “Helter Skelter” and, later, a version of “Yesterday” that was meshed with a live performance by L.A. rock band Linkin Park and rapper Jay-Z.
Then there was the matter of Sly Stone, the eccentric music hero who had not made a major public appearance in 13 years. Stone’s music was the subject of an all-star medley at the center of the show and, for Grammy producers, there was more than a little anxiety in recent weeks about whether Stone himself would actually show up for the segment.
He did indeed appear. With one hand in a cast and barely acknowledging the other artists on stage, Stone chugged through a clipped version of “I Want to Take You Higher” and then, just like that, he was gone again.
Sly “Stone” Stewart didn’t come back stage, but other members of the Family Stone did, and promised there will be more to come from the group and their leader, though in typically vague terms. “There’s some stuff that you haven’t heard yet, and Sly has evolved and it’s great,” said original member Freddie Stewart, Sly’s brother.
U2’s win was the first time a rock band has claimed the best album award since 2001, when Steely Dan was the surprise pick for its CD “Two Against Nature – and that jazz-leaning duo is hardly the classic rock prototype. Before Steely Dan, the last band to win the award was U2, which won for its 1987 CDs “The Joshua Tree.” The bounty of awards on Wednesday brought the Irish rock veterans career total of Grammys to 22. Steve Lillywhite, a key studio figure in “Atomic Bomb,” also won producer of year honors.
Green Day, the Bay Area pop punk band, took record of year honors for its pulsing, forlorn hit “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” off their “American Idiot” collection, an album that already had earned Grammy last year for best rock album.
Country and bluegrass singer Alison Krauss and her band, Union Station, won in three categories including best country album for “Lonely Runs Both Ways” and may be needing a closet to keep her gramophone statuettes – her career total is now 20, the most by any woman and seventh overall among all-time winners.
For Carey, even being nominated represented a career comeback that, for melodrama, rivals any in the history of pop music. In 2002, EMI’s Virgin Records showed Carey the door and swallowed a $28 million payout to do it. In the months leading up that decision, Carey saw her semi-autobiographical film “Glitter” get savaged by critics and watched the tie-in soundtrack limp down the music charts. Then there were whispers of a nervous breakdown and suicide attempt. Before Wednesday, she had not won a Grammy since 1990.
One person who won but could not attend was Les Paul, the 90-year-old electric guitar pioneer has been hospitalized in New Jersey since last Friday with a bout of pneumonia. Paul, whose only previous Grammy win was in 1977, won Wednesday in two instrumental categories for tracks off the album “Les Paul & Friends: American Made World Played.” The man whose name graces one of the most popular guitar models in rock also could not attend the Tuesday night tribute to him in Los Angeles that featured Buddy Guy, Slash and others. From his hospital bed on Wednesday, the nonagenarian said the distant accolades are bittersweet.
“I’m so sorry I can’t be there,” Paul said. “I’m so happy about the Grammys. I feel like a condemned building with a new flagpole on it.” In the Latin music field, Miami singer-songwriter Willie Chirino surpassed more widely recognized artists to take award for best salsa/merengue album for his independently produced “Son Del Alma.” It marks the first Grammy win in the Cuban-American’s 35-year career.
“Bolcom: Song Of Innocence And of Experience” won three awards in the classical music field including best album.
The show opened with an odd mix of live performance and high-tech animation as five-time Grammy winner Madonna and the Gorillaz – the rock and hip-hop collective that is represented in music videos only as cartoon characters – meshed their respective hits, “Hang Up” and “Feelgood Inc.” The performances ended with Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Allen Touissant, the Edge of U2, Dr. John and others collaborating on a tribute to New Orleans with the Toussaint-penned song “Yes We Can.” They also belted out “In the Midnight Hour,” a signature hit for Wilson Pickett, who died last month at age 64. Before the show, producer Ken Erhlich joked that “hopefully it won’t be midnight when that airs;” the show, which aired live on the East Coast, didn’t stretch that long but it did clock in at three hours and 30 minutes.
The 48th Annual Grammy awards were for recordings released between Oct. 1, 2004 and Sept. 30, 2005. Awards were given out Wednesday in 108 categories, most of them before the CBS broadcast began. Awards in 12 categories were handed out on the show.
