February 10 – Monday – Grammy Ramming

You know how I was grousing about the Grammys a while back, about the disappointing so-called Beatle reunion with Paul and Ringo? Well I had no idea they were planning last night’s tribute extravaganza, and I was not alone as I was far from the only grouser. I attended my friend’s wake yesterday, so this was a very special and pleasant diversion for me afterwards.

I loved most of it, but fortunately some of it gave me time to blow-dry my hair. I loved seeing Stevie Wonder doing his own 1970 cover of “We Can Work it Out,” I got misty watching Jeff Lynne and Joe Walsh, who both have Beatle ties, together with George Harrison’s son Dhani, doing George’s “Something.” I didn’t like Katy Perry’s version of “Yesterday” at first, but soon thought it was amazing. Imagine Dragon’s rockabilly rendition of “Revolution” was brilliant. But of course, you must realize that my favorite part was hearing the old stories from those that were in the Ed Sullivan Theater 50 years ago yesterday when the Beatles first appeared on Ed’s stage. Oh, and the stories Paul and Ringo told David Letterman right from that very same stage – I was hanging on every word. And then their performance, each separately and then together in a logical transition of Paul singing “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” leading into Ringo singing “With a Little Help From My Friends,” which is how it is done on the album, did not disappoint. Not in the least. So while there was no workout last night, there was a little exercise. I could not sit still. I wondered, for a moment, if my friend was watching this or an old episode of Columbo, which we had discovered at the same time was playing every Sunday night at 8 and would talk about. And in that moment I thought of calling her. I guess I’ll be doing that for a while.

And so, this is called Grammy Ramming tonight because I wanted to devote most of this post to the Grammy’s Beatles salute, and that wouldn’t be fair to The Rolling Stones and the second record of Exile on Main Street. So, I brought out Ram, which I actually had not put away from last time, and worked out to Paul.