Beech Tree News Network

The 56th annual Grammy Awards kicked off Sunday January 26th with a strip-tease, I mean performance, of “Drunk In Love” by Beyonce.  She was joined halfway through by her husband Jay Z, because he has to be involved in everything she does these days.  Best New Artist was presented by actress Anna Kendrick and Joe Cool, I mean Pharrell Williams.  To get that reference, you really had to see Williams’ hat.  The award went to Macklemore & Ryan Lewis.  I’m definitely a fan. They are very grateful, which is a refreshing change from the norm.  Another favorite of mine, Kacey Musgraves, was up for the award as well. She’d get her Grammys later in the evening.
There were lots of performances.  There were times I was wondering if this was an awards show or a performance show (Not that I’m complaining, just pointing that out). Best pop duo/group performance went to Daft Punk featuring Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers for “Get Lucky”.  I do love this song. I have it on my iPhone. Steve Coogan from Philomena introduced Katy Perry, who though extremely talented, gave somewhat of an odd performance of her song “Dark Horse” from her album Prism.
Robin Thicke and Chicago collaborated for the group’s 1970 hit “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is”.  They also broke into their 1972 hit “Saturday In The Park” before ending with Thicke’s catchy yet over-played “Blurred Lines”.  And thank God Miley was nowhere to be found.  The lights went down and came back up on Keith Urban and Gary Clark, Jr. performing Urban’s song “Cop Car”.  I’d rather not fall in love in the back of a cop car, by the way.
R&B legend Charlie Wilson and actor/comedian Kevin Hart presented (that’s right, finally another award) best rock song to Dave Grohl and Paul McCartney for “Cut Me Some Slack”.  The song is from the album Sound City-Reel to Reel.  Taylor Swift then gave what was definitely top 5 in the oddest performance of the night category.  It’s not a great sign when your song includes head banging while seated at a piano.  And, continuing the trend of writing songs about her exes, the song she performed, “All Too Well”, is reportedly about ex-boyfriend Jake Gyllenhaal. 
Bruno Mars introduced Pink, who did her Cirque De Solei performance of her song “Try”, just as she did in a prior year at the Grammys.  In fact, Josh Keown shared my sentiment on twitter of haven’t we seen this before”? The answer of course, is yes, yes we have.  Then Nate Ruess, lead singer of the band fun, joined Pink for “Just Give Me a Reaon”.  Good song and good performance. 
Best Pop Solo Performance was presented to 16 year-old Lorde for her song “Royals”.  Her acceptance speech was very gracious.  Ringo Starr and friends performed his classic hit “Photograph”.  Who couldn’t like that? Well, I did run into one or two online, believe it or not. What else could naturally follow this except for Best Rap Collaboration? Jamie Foxx presented this award to Jay Z and Justin Timberlake for “Holy Grail”.  His funniest line is telling his daughter Blue Ivy “Daddy got you a gold sippy cup”.  LL Cool J commemorated Def Jam Records’ 30th anniversary by giving some history, then introducing Kendrick Lamar and Imagine Dragons.  That’s why I like Tivo.  I can fast forward through anything at lightning speed. 
Country artist Kacey Musgraves (who I love, by the way) performed “Follow Your Arrow”-a cool song if you haven’t heard it.  The Academy then recognized Trustees Award honorees: record producer Rick Hall, who did a lot to put Muscle Schoals, Alabama on the musical map, the late Jim Marshall-legendary music photographer, and Ennio Morricone-prolific film music composer. 
Julia Roberts honored the Beatles, bringing up February 9, 1964, their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.  A special Grammy tribute, The Beatles: The night that changed America” will air at the exact hour of that Ed Sullivan performance on CBS.  She introduced Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr performing “Queenie Eye” from Sir Paul’s great album called New. 
Best Pop/Vocal Album went to Unorthodox Jukebox by Bruno Mars.  This is indeed a most awesome album! The 2014 Lifetime Achievement honorees are the Beatles, king of Zydeco Clifton Sheneer, The Isley Brothers, And German Electronic Music pioneers Kraftwerk, singer/songwriter/actor Kris Kristofferson, multi-talented Mexican composer Armando Manzanero, and legendary violinist Maud Powell. 
Merle Haggard and Blake Shelton joined Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson for the classic “Highwayman” and “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys”.  Admittedly, the last song was a bit muddled. Best Country Album went to Kacey Musgraves for Same Trailer Different Park.  On the total opposite of the spectrum, but I also dig, Daft Punk/Pharrell Williams/Nile Rogers and Stevie Wonder performed “Get Lucky”.  Carole King and Sara Barreiles presented Lordes’ “Royals” with Song of the Year.  Record of the Year went to Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky”. 
They did their yearly “In Memorial” piece, followed by a performance of “When Will I Be Loved (Everlys) by Billie Joe Armstrong and Miranda Lambert.  This was a fantastic tribute.  The Album of the Year went to Daft Punk for Random Access Memory.  One of the funniest/most embarrassing moments of the night was when the “R” of Daft’s album was read and Taylor Swift opened her mouth wide and started to get up as if hers was the album getting called. Oops!
The night ended with Nine Inch Nails, Queens of the Stone Age, Lindsey Buckingham and Dave Grohl in a performance that was cut off because of time constraints, which didn’t make the Metallica lead singer happy at all.   It was a pretty good show, all in all.
Hello.  My name is Andy Sullivan.  I received my bachelor’s degree in business from Mid-Continent University in June 2009.  I began writing for beechtree in July 2009.  I enjoy writing, photography, watching basketball and football, and playing guitar.  I also write a blog that encompasses sports and entertainment, called Sports and More, at http://andyuk79.tumblr.com If you have any comments, please leave them in the space below.  Thanks for reading!