A Smashing Reminder of What the ‘M’ Stands For

Wouldn’t you just know that those cagey folks at MTV would have another ace up their sleeve on Wednesday at the 13th annual Video Music Awards telecast?

No, the surprise kickoff this time wasn’t the welcoming back of a celebrity who had fallen from grace--a la Pee-wee Herman in 1991. And it wasn’t the public kiss of a private couple--along the lines of lovebirds Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley in 1994.

The channel that revolutionized pop music by making videos a dominant part of the pop experience caught us off guard by, of all things, reminding us of the power of live music.

Realizing they didn’t have anything to match the drama of the first television appearance by the Smashing Pumpkins since the band was sent reeling in mid-July by two heroin incidents, the show’s producers turned the stage over to the Pumpkins--and the band responded splendidly.

Though the best-selling quartet resumed its concert tour in Las Vegas last week following a break to regroup, Wednesday’s show was the first chance most of the Pumpkins’ fans had to see the band since it fired drummer Jimmy Chamberlin for recurring drug use and lost its tour keyboardist, Jonathan Melvoin, to a heroin overdose.

Backed by an orchestra, Billy Corgan and his mates delivered a passionate version of “Tonight, Tonight” that expressed self-affirmation and hope so joyously that the song, from the group’s “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness” album, seemed written especially for the evening.

“We’ve had an interesting year,” Corgan said in accepting one of seven awards that the band’s videos received during the three-hour telecast, which was held at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. “We lost a friend. We lost a drummer. But I hope we haven’t lost any fans. To anyone who wonders, we’re fine.”

From the beginning, the Video Music Awards have been more about exposure for artists than the man-on-the-moon statues. The winners haven’t been the award recipients but those who made the biggest impression, often simply by wearing the most colorful or exotic costumes or by saying the most outrageous things at the podium.

There was the Van Halen reunion--the first time that David Lee Roth has stood on stage with his old cohorts in a decade. And that moment might have been showcased first in past years. But the instinct to go with the Pumpkins was correct--and the band helped set a tone in which the musicians dominated the proceedings.

That’s good, because the humor was generally lame--starting with host Dennis Miller, whose smirking, self-congratulatory manner was even more annoying than usual. Sample of the stale humor: “You people down in the mosh pit: Calm down or I’ll bring John Tesh out.” There was even another O.J. joke.

By contrast, there were so many strong musical moments that the MTV brain trust ought to think about putting together a real highlights program next year as part of its ridiculously long pre-show countdown.

Instead of showing 15 or so seconds of what seemed like everyone who has stepped on the stage at past shows, as they did in Wednesday’s pre-show highlights package, the staff could vote on the best 20 or so musical performances and play them in order. There were half a dozen performances Wednesday that could be contenders for such a countdown.

After the Pumpkins, the most poignant moment was from Neil Young, who performed a solo acoustic version of “Needle and the Damage Done,” a song from the early ‘70s that decries the loss of lives to heroin. Young performed it remote from a darkened room at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum in Cleveland, photos of such rock fatalities as Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain and Jimi Hendrix on the walls behind him.

Other countdown candidates would be Alanis Morissette’s striking, acoustic “Your House”; Oasis’ cocky “Champagne Supernova”; Metallica’s growling “Until It Sleeps”; and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony’s ambitious staging of “Tha Crossroads.”

The only other possible highlight occurred during the pre-show ceremonies when Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler responded heatedly to recent rumors about his using drugs. In his typically outrageous fashion, the veteran rocker denied the rumor and offered to send free urine samples to anyone who called a fictitious 1-800 number.

As for the rest of the evening, including yet more KISS pyrotechnics and LL Cool J’s superstud gyrations, the only value in saving the tape would be for researchers someday trying to figure out how you can stretch maybe 30 minutes of genuine entertainment into three hours. Of course, the researchers could also just look at any Academy Awards or Grammy telecast for that.

* A SPLIT FASHION SCENE: At the MTV Awards, some dressed to impress, some did not. E1