The Black Republican

Did anyone watch the Grammy Awards this past weekend? Judging from this article (hat tip: The Drudge Report), not many of you did. But if you had you would have seen a classic example of what is wrong with the Artsy-fartsy, Hollywood, celebrity, elite crowd - style over substance.

In what I consider to be a Herculean effort to feel good about themselves, the members of the Recording Academy decided to award Ray Charles the two most prestigious Grammy awards available - album and record of the year.

Now, please don't misunderstand me - Ray Charles was an excellent and inventive musician. I have been a fan of his music since I was old enough to know what good music was, went to see Ray the first night it was out and ask for, and received, Genius Loves Company for Christmas. But I must say, having listened to both that CD and Alicia Keys' Diary of Alicia Keys, there is no way Genius Loves Company should have won either of those awards! It is a good album, but Diary of Alicia Keys is great!

IMHO, Alicia Keys is the best musician in a generation or more, and it is a travesty that her CD was pushed aside just so the members of the Academy could honor a great musician who just happens to have died this past year - because it made them look good to the people they feel are important, and made them feel good about themselves. I guess their rational is (write this down, and mark the date 'cause it will happen!) that they can always make it up to her by giving her those awards next year.

Ray Charles' music does deserve recognition - it always has! That's not my point. My point is, if the Academy really thought that Ray Charles deserved an award for is music, why didn't his Ultimate Hits Collection (my fav) win one? Why didn't more of his earlier work? Look, I was a musician in High School and have (or at least had) nominal talent - not a great deal, but not zero either - and I knew way back in the mid seventies that Ray Charles was exceptionally great, just as I know now that Alicia Keys is exceptionally great. Why give a good album awards that should go to a great album? Why not just do a big tribute to honor him and leave it at that? Or better yet, why not just play clips of Ray playing the songs that we all know and love? Clips from when Ray was at his best - being Ray.

Perhaps the Recording Academy saw an opportunity to make themselves look good, feel good, and at the same time, to assuage some of their guilt for past oversights, and it was just too sweet to pass up. Too bad really. Ray Charles should have been lauded more during the years he was alive, and Diary of Alicia Keys should have been recognized - this year - for being what it truely is... album and record of the year!