Herbie Hancock on the Grammys

John Coltrane was a heroin addict but made his best music after kicking the habit. Miles Davis was a heroin addict for much of his adult life. Keith Richards was, too, and thank God he could afford regular blood transfusions (not that we'd miss him much if gone). Hendrix and Joplin (along with Jim Morrison) were drug addicts/alcoholics. We thought they were cool when we were kids, hopefully we all grew up at some point. I believe that current thought holds that Mozart was probably an alcoholic.

Tragic, no. Pathetic, yes. When I first saw Winehouse's "Rehab" video I thought, "Jeez, retro 90s heroin chic", what with all the slouching and slurry faces and bodies. What an amazing thing to be proud of - heroin addiction!!

I'm sick and tired of drug addicted, alcoholic, hygiene challenged celebrities being held as today's heroes. Winehouse has attained three times as much popularity because of her proud drug addict stance. And that is why she was NBS's most advertised performer on the Grammys. That is truly pathetic.

Just my rant this week...

I think 12 days without sunshine (and it's snowing again right now - 8 times in 12 days) has made me testy. I am sick of spoiled brat rich kids that get addicted to narcotics. Especially sick of them being portrayed as people "we should get to know!".

Oh well, got to go shovel (snow that is).

Tomryan, I understand your revulsion with the culture's adoration of celebrities and the decadent celebrity lifestyle some practice, but don't let that interfer with your enjoyment of good art. Despite the way the media portrays Amy Winehouse, or even in spite of how she really may be, she still has produced an excellent album. As a consumer I can purchase and enjoy the music, but unless the artist knocks on my door and ask to use my bathroom, well, I really don't care about them anymore than I care about Steve Job just because I'm typing on a Mac.

I agree with Audiofeil. If you are familiar with Joni's original rendering of the songs, her phrasings and giving underlying meaning to her texts, you'll find both music and singing pathetically exaggerated and unintelligent, because of the singers' missing more than just the subtle points. This is not quite true of some of HHs piano though. Which just goes to show, that he could have known better. He's gone commercial, perhaps not to be blamed for this, with the cost of living nowadays. Just my personal opinion of course. I was deeply disappointed. For me, it was like spoiling good wine by filling up the bottle with cheap booze. And yes, I used to like Herbie Hancock, but obviously he has gone ahead with the times. I haven't it seems. I suppose I can prove this in so far as Amie Winehouse's singing just simply bores me to death. I need enlightenment, I don't get it what is supposed to be so great about her..... her writings, her voice, the music???

I have to agree with Detlof. I'm not getting the "Amy Winehouse" thing. What am I missing musically? The music video I saw was dopey (don't know in support of what song...she's walking down a sidewalk with a beehive hairdoo). Sorry if I'm offending someone...don't mean to. I just don't get it.

Being a child of the British Invasion and Beatles...I used to kind of laugh at guys that were still in love with and fixated on '50s doo wop. Now add 20 years and maybe I be one of them. I get that part of it. I think I get doo wop more than Amy.