Friday, January 23, 2009

Showing Your Ass

I'm not someone who normally cranks on kidsthesedays and their lack of historical sense, but sometimes the only way to learn not to reveal your ignorance is to be called out. RollingStone.com has musicians handicapping the Grammy races, and in his commentary on Record of the Year, Nick Jonas says:

"Chasing Pavements" brings me back to great songwriting and classic, big-band sounds — Ella Fitzgerald comes to mind. There's a great chorus, and a beautiful string line that makes me smile every time I hear it.

Adele sounds like Ella? Really? Or does it sound like a song from some point in the past sung by an African-American woman? That is so not-close that it's hard not to think of it as an unintended variation on 'they all look alike to me.' Or, more accurately, Jonas pulling respected names out of his mental rolodex even though he's never heard them. And he should know that songs with lots of instruments and big band jazz aren't the same thing.

Funny in its own right is Bruce Springsteen's "Girls in Their Summer Clothes" being nominated for Best Rock Song. Does it rock? And the girls in their summer clothes pass him by because he looks like a dour, middle-aged man on the cover. Of course they'd pass him by.

No comments: