Hey Eminem … that’s Steely Dan with the Best Album award.
The controversy over the lyrics of “The Marshall Mathers LP” blew over Tuesday night at the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles with a surprise victory of the pop-jazz duo’s “Two Against Nature,” though none of the meandering, long tracks on the CD ever made it to air play.
Along with a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance, it was the first two Grammys of Steely Dan’s 30-year career.
Eminem, the 28-year-old rapper whose latest album created a brew of criticism for its lyrics attacking gays and lesbians along with advocating violence against women, did win three Grammys Tuesday for Best Solo Rap Performance, Best Rap Album and Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for his collaboration with Dr. Dre.
“I want to thank those who looked past the controversy and saw the album for what it was, and what it wasn’t,” he said after winning the Best Rap Album award early in the night.
Eminem then put in a plug for his new group, D-12.
The venerable rock band U2 then went on a impressive run of winning three awards, including Best Record and Best Song, both for “Beautiful Day,” which they performed earlier in the night. The group spent extended time at the podium, waxing comedy about the new century and God.
In the last half hour came the long-awaited performance that paired Eminem and Elton John on duet of Eminem’s song “Stan,” the story of a deranged fan who goes to desperate lengths to contact the artist.
The duo played on a rotating stage. Eminem walked out and sang the initial verse while John played obscured behind a partition. John was then revealed to sing the chorus originally sampled from the song “Thank You” by Dido. John wore a yellow suit with pink polka dots while Eminem wore a backwards visor and his trademark white T-shirt.
Enimem changed several words in the song, using “messed” and “crummy” to replace stronger language in the song. On a few occasions, the CBS broadcast whiffed on attempting to blank out the artist’s use of the word “shit,” instead muffling sound about 1-2 seconds before he said the offending phrase.
As the performance ended, he and John walked to center stage and hugged, then clasped hands in a curtain-closing style display. After a few seconds, Eminem appeared to flip off the Los Angeles crowd while CBS cameras shot his torso instead. The crowd responded differently to the gay protest groups outside the Staples Center by giving a standing ovation.
Before the duet, Michael Greene, president of the Recording Academy, made a lengthy speech that started out as a career-effort tribute to artists such as The Who and Bob Marley and finished as an extended justification for Eminem’s award nominations, largely invoking the power of the First Amendment.
“We can not edit out the art that makes us uncomfortable,” Greene said, adding that an earlier generation did the same with The Rolling Stones and The Beatles.
Not long after the speech and duet was the Best Album award, presented by Bette Midler and Stevie Wonder. Eminem stood behind stage nervously chewing gum while long-shot nominees Beck and Radiohead lounged in their seats. It was a three-horse race between Mathers, Steely Dan and Paul Simon.
As Steely Dan was announced as the winner, a light applause went through the crowd, and the duo gave a subdued thank you. Host Jon Stewart, who took numerous opportunities to make light of Eminem’s lyrics on gays, quickly closed the show, and so ended the fury.
The first award of the night, Best Female Pop Vocal, featuring both Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears, was won by Macy Gray with “I Try,” which emerged as one of the largest singles of 2000.
Relatively unknown Shelby Lynne won the Best New Artist Grammy, although she’s had six albums already over 13 years. She won the award thanks to recent changes in the award rules.
“Be an individual,” Lynne said. “And I stand here tonight representing nothing but music.”
Destiny’s Child not only gave a spirited performance, but won two Grammys for Best R&B Group Performance and Song. D’Angelo won two awards as well.
Faith Hill won for Best Country Album then gave the longest thank you speech of the evening, approximately three minutes longer than Steely Dan’s, who did not perform Tuesday night and therefore remained an unknown musically to the most of the watching audience. Their most popular song was “Hey Nineteen” more than 20 years ago; it’s often played on adult contemporary stations.
Copyright Daily Nebraskan Online
Steely Dan takes top award amid Eminem controversy
Daily Emerald
February 22, 2001
0
More to Discover