Grammys: mistakes, oversights and doggerel

WELL, it just saddens me to the quick to learn that Times pop music critic Robert Hilburn is once again heartbroken because his favorite multimillionaire Caucasian rapper and poet of the streets, Marshall Mathers, has had his Grammy snitched by the undeserving (“More Idols Than Ideals,” Feb. 24).

A couple years back, it was those overnight sensations Steely Dan who took top honors away from Bob’s favorite angry young man.

This year, a singer whom old, has-been warbler Tony Bennett dubbed “not just good, but great,” robbed the scowling Eminem of top honors.

Norah Jones eked out five wins, including best album, and the next day Hilburn wrote that Eminem’s loss for best album was “the evening’s most serious misjudgment.”

I guess some voters are still under the delusion that the Grammys are for musical talent, not rhythmic doggerel. Whether you like rap or not, Eminem has about as much claim to the top Grammy as the winners of best spoken word or liner notes.

John Corcoran

Calabasas

*

I don’t know how Robert Hilburn could have missed acknowledging the magical performance of James Taylor and Yo Yo Ma at the Grammys. The synergy between these two musical geniuses was riveting, an unquestionable highlight of the evening.

Alitta Kullman

Laguna Hills

*

THE selection of Norah Jones for best album, record and new artist was more than a well-deserved honor: It signaled a turn in the road -- away from harsh, over-engineered, post-production artificiality so common today toward sweet, natural, live recordings.

William K. Solberg

Los Angeles

*

I can’t believe Norah Jones took home all those Grammy Awards based on one song! Bruce Springsteen and Eminem definitely had much more challenging and culturally defining work.

How could this happen? The Grammy voters can only answer: “Don’t Know Why!”

Gil DeGloria

Seal Beach

*

THE Grammy Awards are a big deal. Sadly, it’s such a big deal in the minds of the organizers that no tribute was made to the fans who died tragically last week in Rhode Island. Nor did any of the performers or award winners put forth a kind word of understanding or compassion.

How could this appalling oversight occur? The insensitivity was reinforced during one of the performances that featured smoke, flames and dramatic light flashes -- looking very much at times like a real fire.

Fans are the people who attend concerts, buy CDs and support the artists and the recording companies.

I sincerely hope that the Grammy Awards are boycotted in the future.

Christopher Passehl

Deep River, Conn.

*

THERE are so many to thank for such an entertaining Grammy night, but let’s start with Fred Durst for his eloquent antiwar statement, delivered in language our Ivy League president can relate to (“I just really hope we are all in agreeance that this war should go away as soon as possible”), and to that sensitive artist Nelly for the flaming backdrop to his music that certainly must have had special meaning for the people of Rhode Island.

Charles Andrews

Santa Monica

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SO Fred Durst is “outspoken”? “I just want it to go away” is his comment about world events?

What a slap-in-the-face, spit-in-your-eye insult, especially in New York City. Does this twit honestly think we don’t all wish that time had stopped on Sept. 10, 2001?

Well, let’s all chip in and send him a Candygram -- the world is not the same and the troubles will not just “go away.” Only a wimpy jerk rocker would be stupid enough to think they might -- and to say so in public.

Nancy LeMay

Los Angeles

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AND so the voices of dissent were silent at the Grammys. Could those so-called artists be any more pathetic and spineless?

On the eve of a war, those corporate toads didn’t have the backbone to take a stand. All of them too scared to upset their company masters, they sat idly by, co-opted and fearful, silenced by their own greed and cowardice. Their role is nothing more than marketers of merchandise for multinationals.

Corporate lackeys one and all.

Maxwell Gardiner

San Diego