Some random thoughts about the Grammys

By now we all know the recording academy voters are a very conservative bunch. So it's no use crying over who got robbed and who got a statue they didn't deserve. But the academy did try to put on a good show last night - even at the expense of the actual awards and, thankfully, the acceptance speeches. Here's how I saw last night's festivities...

Album of the Year. You can't really have any complaints with the choice of Raising Sand by Robert Plant and Allison Krauss. I mean, Radiohead was never gonna get the award in a million years, even if their In Rainbows was the best album of the bunch. And Plant/Krauss put out a really good record, neatly produced by the very tall T-Bone Burnett (his second Album of the Year after the surprise award to the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack a few years back). Plus it was a chance for all the boomers in the academy to give their biggest award to a genuine rock god.

The Coldplay/Radiohead debate took a surreal turn when Gwyneth Paltrow, the fifth Coldplayer, basically called Radiohead the greatest rock band in the world - and seemed to mean it. If we had a Coldplay-Radiohead Soundcheck Smackdown, I'm suddenly not sure which side she'd be on...

Speaking of Radiohead, it wasn't really Radiohead performing '15 Steps' if you only had two of the five guys on stage. But man, did the USC Trojans marching band sound good. Terrific, inventive, and a one-time-only affair.

Coldplay's Chris Martin and Jay Z. This worked for all the reasons that Coldplay doesn't work for me. Intimate, restrained, inviting you in to find the emotional core rather than ripping it out and thrusting its still beating heart under your nose.

Al Green and Justin Timberlake doing 'Let's Get Together.' Nicely done, I thought last night. This morning I have to upgrade the performance to truly remarkable, as we've learned that it was put together on no notice to replace a Rihanna/Chris Brown duet that was cancelled when Chris Brown turned himself in to police on an assault and/or battery charge (depending on which accounts you read).

Paul McCartney and Dave Grohl. Also worked well, and both guys seemed to be enjoying themselves. The choice of song ('I Saw Her Standing There') was a surprise - I would've expected something recent.

U2's opening song? Eh. So Bono took off his sunglasses. That's what we'll remember. M.I.A.'s bulging bumblebee outfit? Lots of fun, masking the very real fear that she could go into labor at any moment on the stage and that Jay Z or Lil Wayne would have to deliver the baby.

There's lots more to talk about, so tell us what your reactions to the awards ceremony last night were. Got a highlight or a lowpoint to share? Leave a comment.

Hear Album Of The Year winners Robert Plant and Allison Krauss on Soundcheck.