GRAMMY VOTERS: MAKING MOST OF 2ND CHANCE

The 6,000 members of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences made the most of their second chance.

After years of being criticized for favoring safe, mainstream commercial music over challenging new forces, the academy began battling back a few years ago. The organization launched an aggressive campaign to recruit new, younger members who presumably would give a more contemporary slant to the balloting.

Things had looked promising in 1985. Even the nation’s pop critics--who have long ridiculed the Grammys for ignoring artists like Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones--had to toast the record academy for its key nominations.

The Grammy voters had recognized what were clearly the two most acclaimed albums of the year: Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” and Prince’s “Purple Rain” sound track.

Alas, the voters ended up giving the award to Lionel Richie’s far more conservative “Can’t Slow Down.”

And the critics shrugged.

This year the Grammy voters again raised critics’ hopes by nominating what were unquestionably the two best studio LPs of 1986: Paul Simon’s warm, embracing “Graceland” and Peter Gabriel’s arty, richly woven “So.”

This time, the Grammy voters came through.

When Simon’s award was announced at the podium, it may not have been as poignant as in 1983 when a tearful Yoko Ono accepted a best-album award on behalf of her late husband, John Lennon.

It also didn’t match the drama of Michael Jackson’s 1984 sweep when he won a record eight awards for his mega-selling album “Thriller.”

Still, Simon’s victory Tuesday marks an important--perhaps even historic--moment in the 29-year line of Grammy ceremonies.

Though Simon had won best-album honors earlier for “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and “Still Crazy After All These Years,” “Graceland” was an altogether different, more challenging work.

Unlike the earlier LPs, “Graceland” was not crammed with hit singles and familiar rhythms and themes. It was a sophisticated mixture of Western pop tastes and lively, unpredictable South African strains--an album that may be looked back upon as instrumental in opening U.S. musical ears to wider international styles.

Speaking with reporters backstage, Simon underscored that point: “I think there’ll be more interest in a lot of different cultures. And I think that’s already begun.

“I think there is a strong interest already in the country, (but) I don’t think you see that reflected in radio. And if radio would begin to open up to other cultures and the diversity within our own culture, then we would feel this interest to a greater degree than we feel it now. But the interest is already there.”

Simon’s victory meant that the voters also had to pass by Barbra Streisand’s “The Broadway Album,” which seemed tailor-made for the academy’s old-line constituency.

In the best-record balloting, the Grammy voters also sidestepped another obvious choice--Dionne and Friends’ saccharine “That’s What Friends Are For,” which surely would have won in the old days--for another more contemporary record: Steve Winwood’s “Higher Love.”

I’d have preferred Peter Gabriel’s more adventurous “Slegehammer,” among the records nominated, or, even better, Run-D.M.C.’s “Walk This Way,” the rap ‘n’ metal record that did the most to reshape pop tastes in 1986. But “Higher Love” was definitely a step beyond the predictability of “Friends.”

Academy president Michael Greene was pleased with what he feels is the more contemporary outlook of the Grammys.

“All you’ve got to do is pull out a nomination list from five years ago and pull out this one (1987) and see that the cross section of membership is very reflective of the broader spectrum of members,” he said.

It’s too early to declare the Grammys a stronghold of artistic judgment. But the key choices Tuesday night left little doubt that progress is being made.

The “Graceland” victory also meant the 6,000 members of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences sided with Simon in seeing his teaming up with black musicians in South Africa as a positive, rather than negative, move.

Because the LP was recorded partly in South Africa, some observers had criticized Simon on the grounds that he had violated a United Nations cultural boycott.

Though he was cleared of misconduct by the U.N. Special Committee on Apartheid, Simon has also been accused by a small, but vocal corps of detractors of exploiting the black musicians and has been attacked for not writing any explicit anti-apartheid songs in the album.

Among Simon’s defenders are singer Miriam Makeba and jazz trumpeter Hugh Masekela, South African exiles who are on the “Graceland” tour with him. They both say that Simon has done all South African musicians an invaluable service through the album and tour by opening the world’s ears to South African music.

The “Graceland” tour begins a five-day run at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

It was cold and rainy much of the afternoon outside the Shrine, so there were fewer than usual star-gazing fans on hand. In fact, there only about 75 die-hards braved the lightning and thunder as limos began arriving around 2 p.m. Unlike the Oscar ceremony at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, however, most of the stars arrive at the Shrine early in the day at a backstage area blocked from the public. So, the fans generally only get to see the arrival of less identifiable faces in the record business--executives, producers, songwriters, arrangers, session musicians.

Activity inside the Shrine began around 3 p.m. with the presentation of Grammys to winners in 54 of the 68 categories. To save time during the three-hour CBS broadcast, time delayed for the West Coast, only winners in 14 categories actually received their awards on camera. Winners in the other categories simply had their names read. While there was ample time to present all the awards during the show, the extra time was used to present music--giving the affair more viewer appeal.

Simon, looking buoyant as he stepped on stage, got the telecast off to a festive beginning, singing “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes,” one of the most inviting numbers from the “Graceland” LP. He was joined in the number by several of the musicians who worked with him on the album, including the colorful, 10-member South Africa a cappela gospel-oriented group, Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

The audience reacted enthusiastically and emcee Billy Crystal even got in a quick quip. Referring to Simon’s old partnership, he said, “Is it just me or did Art Garfunkel look different?”

But Simon didn’t have the early moments of the telecast to himself. Streisand and Winwood also appeared on stage to pick up Grammys for best female pop vocal and male pop vocal, respectively.

Accepting her award, Streisand described her album, a collection of Broadway tunes, as a “reaffirmation” of the timelessness of the material.

Then, she confessed good-naturedly, that she felt she might win something Tuesday because it was Feb. 24--and 24 is her lucky number. She said she was born on the 24th, gave birth to her son on the 24th, and it was 24 years ago that she took home her first Grammy.

“With a little bit of luck and your continued support, I’d like to see you 24 years from now,” she added.

But Streisand’s luck ran out with “Graceland.”

On this night, the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences was the real winner.

This was a victory that the Grammy organization needed for its credibility more than Simon needed for his bookshelf.