Dude, where's my Grammy?

The Grammies' long list of snubs raises questions whether or not the NARAS really knows what it's doing

Nigel Britto

The Grammies are the holy grail of the music world. No other trophy carries the glamour of the golden gramophone. And yet the award, handed out every year by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) has been notoriously inconsistent in distinguishing the 'good' from the 'trendy'. 

Classic rock tops the list of Grammy casualties. Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd need no introduction. Neither do Bob Marley, Diana Ross and The Who. The Grateful Dead radicalised the concept of 'jam-band';Rush pioneered progressive rock. Jimi Hendrix is the greatest guitar player of all time. Queen could do anything from rock to jazz to opera. Bohemian Rhapsody is one of the most intricate pieces of music created in the last 50 years. 

Evidently, NARAS wasn't impressed. Not by them or by The Doors, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, Buddy Holly, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Yardbirds or Neil Young. 

The rot set in in the '60s. 1966 was the year of The Beatles' Eleanor Rigby and The Beach Boys' Good Vibrations. But Winchester Cathedral by The New Vaudeville Band won the award for Best Rock 'n' Roll recording. Few people have heard either the song or of the band since. Of late, NARAS has started doling out Lifetime Achievement awards to the artistes they refused to honour. The Who and Jimi Hendrix are two beneficiaries of these 'consolation prizes'. In the '60s, The Beatles were at the top of their game churning out hit after hit. People fainted at the sound of Paul McCartney's guitar, but the NARAS mandarins weren't among them. The Grammy only acknowledged their presence by naming them 'Best New Artist' in 1966. 

When Rolling Stone magazine released its definitive list of the greatest 500 songs of all time, The Beatles made it to the list 23 times. None of their songs were good enough to win a Best Record Grammy. Yesterday is reportedly the most covered song in history. John Lennon's Imagine could have won the Nobel Prize for Peace. But the golden gramophone went to You've got a friend by Carole King. Strange decision, but not quite as ridiculous as obscure disco band A Taste of Honey pipping Elvis Costello to be named best new artiste a decade later in 1978. 

Two years later, albums of five artistes were nominated for Record of the Year. Four of them are recognised legends: Frank Sinatra, Billy Joel, Barbra Streisand and Pink Floyd. The fifth name won. Christopher Cross. Not one Grammy, but five. Record of the Rear, Song of the Year, Album of the Year, Best New Artist, Best Arrangement. Again, few have heard of him or his music since. 

In 1988, heavy metal was added as a Grammy category, thanks to its growing popularity, largely due to the world's biggest metal band: Metallica. If Black Sabbath's Tony Lommi invented heavy metal, Metallica's Kirk Hammett and James Hetfield improvised on it, and were largely responsible for the metal epidemic that conquered the world in the mid- '80s, where kids grew their hair long, sported tattoos and flashed the devil horns sign. So when metal entered the Grammy fray, there was only one real contender: Metallica. If there was another, it was Iron Maiden. But metal's first Grammy went to Jethro Tull. Many argued that a band whose frontman stood on one leg and played the flute could neither be considered heavy nor metal. And when Metallica finally did win their first Grammy in 1992, drummer Lars Ulrich thanked Tull "for not putting out an album this year". 

In 1992, music faced a revolution of sorts. Nirvana, led by the iconic Kurt Cobain, released Smells like teen spirit, a song that Salinger's Holden Caufield would have been proud to sing, and one that inspired hordes of subsequent rock bands and single-handedly symbolised the grunge era. It wasn't deemed worthy of the Record of the Year award, though. That accolade went to Eric Clapton's mellowed-down version of the '70s hit, Layla. In the '70s, it would have been a fair comparison. In 1992, the knives were out. It was as phenomenal a goof as giving the King, Elvis Presley, only one Grammy, that too in the Gospel category! 

Many fans, especially those who love classic rock, have lost faith in the Grammies. Nitin Malik, frontman of Parikrama, India's biggest classic rock band, says, "The fact that the greatest bands have not really been honoured by the Grammies only means that something is very, very wrong." 

The Grammies aren't the only awards playing truant. Slumdog Millionaire winning eight Oscars to City of God's none is somewhat akin to Rakhi Swayamvaar winning an Emmy over The Sopranos. For the record, Alfred Hitchcock never won an Oscar. In this context, Sant Chatwal's Padma Shri last year seems an appropriate choice.

This article was first published in The Times of India's Crest edition dated February 19, 2011.