TV REVIEW : It Wasn’t MTV, but This Grammycast Had Energy

It’s always the most performance-oriented of the awards shows, and thus the truest to its roots. So Wednesday night’s Grammycast on CBS rocked.

Mostly.

The MTV revolution has so dramatically altered the way much of America receives its popular music that live performances at music awards shows inevitably suffer by comparison with the best of the multimillion-dollar maxi-videos that continually reach us through TV.

No wonder, then, that some of Wednesday night’s live numbers came across as lower-case music videos, projecting neither the driving physicality and sweatiness of a live concert nor the precision, climate-controlled cinematic quality of a studio production. Whatever the impact of some of these performances on the audience in Shrine Auditorium, no magnetism transferred to TV. Too much Milli, too much Vanilli.

Yet. . . .

From Billy Joel’s energized opening to Bette Midler’s energized thank-you speech for record of the year that closed the evening, there were many more riffs than raff.

Credit executive producer Pierre Cossette with a good concept and Walter Miller with crisp direction. Although there were some obvious misfires--pairing Olivia Newton-John with Sam Kinison was like pairing Jessica Lange with King Kong--the talent blend mostly worked.

A small but memorable moment: Presenters Ella Fitzgerald and Natalie Cole singing “Straighten Up and Fly Right.” A big moment: Lifetime achievement award recipient Miles Davis working his magic. An eclectic moment: A chorus collaborating with Mike + the Mechanics on “The Living Years.” A soulful moment: Harolyn Blackwell singing “Summertime.”

For sheer electricity, however, nothing topped the tribute to Paul McCartney--a lovely, lingering interlude on a medium that too infrequently takes the time to linger.

What inspired choices: Meryl Streep to present McCartney with his lifetime achievement award, after recalling her worship of the Beatles; Ray Charles, who inspired a young McCartney, to sing “Eleanor Rigby,” and Stevie Wonder to pump out a moving, stomping, clapping, hothouse, Shrine-shaking rendition of “We Can Work It Out.” Whew!

It wasn’t Garry Shandling’s show. From his opening monologue, however, host Shandling was funny (“The updated score is Bonnie Raitt four, the Denver Broncos nothing,” he cracked at one point about four-time winner Raitt) without being intrusive.

If only he hadn’t had such a bad hair night.