Slog through the Grammys blog

​1. We may lose and we may win. It’s Grammy’s 2016 and Jackson Browne’s doing a rendition of Take it Easy with members of the Eagles and what looks like Joe Walsh. You can find out who it is tomorrow on Twitter.
 
Lookin for a lover who won’t blow my cover. She’s so hard to find. Take it Easy. 
 
Easy, Easy
Blank space, blank space
If you hurry too much, you’ll finish
The race, the race.

Wow. Jackson’s version was pretty much perfect, as far as Grammy performances go. Glenn Frey of the Eagles died this past year. That’s what this is all about.
 
2. During the break, there’s commercials to buy the Grammys 2016 CD. I don’t get it. Who buys CDs anymore?
 
3. There’s a commercial for #ThroughtheLookingGlass, which is a movie that’s a takeoff on Alice in Wonderland. There’s only so many movies in this world and so many songs and so many good ideas. And the idea of a young woman falling through a hole and going on an acid trip is as good as any, I suppose.
 
It reminds me of Berkeley.
 
4 So what’s really happened in the past five minutes is I’ve heard two songs from when I broke in the leagues as a rock-and-roll snob. You can’t get into the club until you’ve listened to each of the top 100 rock-and-roll songs at least a thousand times. And then out of what can only be termed “pleasurable brainwashing,” you start to develop your own judgment of what is good music and what is not.
 
Elton John is good. Lionel Richie is not as good.
Black Sabbath rocks. Metallica tries but no soup for you.
 
Soup soup
Music music
If you don’t use your carelessness, you
Lose it, lose it
 
5. There’s Tory Kelly and James Bay on the Grammys. I have no idea in Sam Hill who they are but she’s a hot blond with a soothing voice and a guitar. He wears a funky black hat and black shirt. If he didn’t have such long hair, you might think young Johnny Cash.
 
6. My wife has been watching the Grammys for more than an hour. I was sitting in my room editing old recordings of WJOB stuff to lay as a background for my JEDgolf videos. I really wish the three or four of you wouldn’t ask me about JEDgolf. I’m getting the sneaking suspicion that we’re developing a bond (and since it’s with me, it’s a James bond) and I wouldn’t want to jeopardize that trust.
 
The truth is, I JEDgolfed today with a few inches of snow on the ground. It wasn’t that cold, as far as JEDgolf days go. It was maybe 18 degrees out with a slight wind. It was so slight that I really couldn’t tell what way it was coming from. With JEDgolf, you take one club and you take only two golf balls and you either walk or run your way around the golf course. Works for me.
 
7. LL Cool J. He’s the host. Stephen Colbert has joined him live from Broadway. Something about Hamilton, the musical. We’re gonna see the opening number called – “Alexander Hamilton.” It’s at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in New York.
 
Wait a second. It’s three guys wearing Revolutionary War drag… and they’re rapping. If you thought Lewis Carroll was messed up when he wrote Alice. What can you say about a bunch of guys rapping about the Revolutionary War? Here they go. The white woman has brought some standard Broadway lack of rhythm to the music. Tell you the truth… the rap is better. I don’t like Broadway music. It reminds of an ex-girlfriend’s mom whistling show tunes while cleaning the bathroom… right next to me and the daughter in the next bedroom. Sometimes you gotta be quiet, sometimes you gotta whistle showtunes while you scrub the sink.
 
8. So as I said, Alexis was watching the Grammys for a full hour before I came down. It happens like that. I go up to sit on my bed to edit radio files and it’s two hours before you could shake a stick.
 
Stick, stick
Bull, bull
Sassafras candy is
Cool cool
 
Sometimes I escape to re-read stories by Joseph Conrad or listen to old Jean Shepherd tapes. Once in a while, I write in this blog to three or four of you.
 
Tonight, I was editing tape for two hours and it felt like ten minutes. I walked down at 8pm.
 
“Let’s watch the first hour and I’ll talk about it tomorrow on the show,” I said.
 
“You idiot, the Grammys started at seven.”
 
“Oh.”
 
9. I didn’t do the show today. It’s Presidents Day and that’s why. Tomorrow morning it’ll be Verlie at 6pm to “co-host” with me and then a couple of guests around 715 and 730. By 8am, NIPSCO will come in Nick Meyer and Rick Calinski and then at 830 it’ll be Joe Simonetto and Dave Nellans from the town of Munster. And then at 905am, Teamsters Local 142 guys Richard Knipp and Harvey Jackson will sit down. I’ll pretty much do radio from 5:30am to 10am, leaving the captain’s chair only to go the bathroom. Once.
 
10. Kendrick Lamar is on the screen of the Grammys. “You hate my people… I’m a proud monkey.” Kendrick is black and dressed as if he’s in prison and in chains. It’s a lot of energy and some colorful costumes that glow in stripes from a black light. Glowing in the dark. Bongos. Native American dancers. A big fire on the stage. A huge freaking bombfire. In the middle of the stage. You get the feeling that there’s a bunch of LA firefighters off-stage in full gear… anxious, holding the end of a hose. And pitchforks. Kendrick is finishing his song… a little bit of jazz now. Reminds you of Gil Scott Heron.
 
Revolution, revolution
Pink dress, pink dress
Visit your Wampum to
Think best, think best
 
11. While we’re waiting for Kendrick to finish what Don Cheadle introduced as “genius,” I’m gonna sign off of this here computer. Thanks as always to the three or four of you for going out of your way to slog through the blog.
 
Blog, blog
Grammys Grammys
Slip in the shower, pull your
Hammies hammies