Dixie Chicks-The Peeps Of Country Music

The Grammy Awards have always been the biggest joke in all the awards business. They almost never get it right, and in my opinion their awards are based on sentimentality and politics, or both, not actual merit. Plus, as evidenced by the past win of Jethro Tull for the “Best Metal Band” award some years back, the judges are obviously unlearned in the kinds of music they are charged with presenting awards for.

Another case in point was the past award for “Album Of The year” for John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s album “Double Fantasy”. Now admittedly, as a Lennon fan, I don’t have so much of a problem with this award, I feel it actually has some merit, but at the same time I wonder, had Lennon not been killed that fateful December day in 1980, if this album would have even received a nomination, let alone won the award.

A more appropriate Best Album nomination for Lennon may have been his first, the self-titled “John Lennon” which contained such awe inspiring tracks as “Give Me Some Peace”, “Working Class Hero”, “Love”, etc. Yet, unless I’m mistaken, this album was not nominated, and it certainly didn’t win if it was.

All of this goes to my point that the Grammy Awards are much more about making statements than about actual reward for musical excellence. If this last criterion were the main one, then where the hell was Ozzy Osbourne's nomination for “Blizzard Of Oz”? I may have to dig a little to make sure, but I am fairly certain the Beatles were likewise never nominated, not even for Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. Ergo with Ledd Zeppellin II, III, or IV. How’s about Metallica, at their height? And I am barely scratching the surface here.

The Rolling Stones? The Doors? I’m talking here now at the height of their careers, when it would have really mattered, not when the awards were taken over by aging hippies, who replaced the similarly myopic presenters of past generations.

To be sure, I have no problem with the Dixie Chicks receiving some kind of recognition, in fact, they deserved it. They were very unfairly maligned, in my opinion, by the trash that passes for thoughtful dialoque and opinion on the majority of the so-called right wing talk radio programs. They expressed their opinion, and I will say here, I don’t particularly agree with the way Natalie Mains said what she said or where she said it, but she said it.

If her detractors wanted to criticize her for it, fine. If people wanted to express their own opinions by not patronizing them any longer, then that is fine as well. But the way the animosity against them was purposely ratcheted up by the talk radio people and by certain country music stations had nothing to do with simple protest, and everything to do about pounding the drum beat as a means of attracting more listeners, and perhaps more ominously, by demonstrating what could happen to those who deviate from the party line and oppose and criticize the plans of the preferred people in power.

It was totally unjustified and uncalled for. Yet, the Dixie Chicks stuck to their guns, for the most part, and actually had the temerity to fight back, refusing to be cowed, though I think they might have initially offered an apology to those they might have unintentionally offended. I’m not sure of that, but if they did do this, that was certainly appropriate.

To this end, yes, they deserved a degree of recognition and appreciation in some form from the presenters of the Grammys.

But, Country Music Album Of The Year? Song of The Year? Five different awards all together? Isn’t this something a little along the lines of overkill? I called them the Peeps of Country Music for a reason. They might be fun and filling, but too much of them can leave you feeling bloated and might even make you sick. You wouldn’t put them on the same level as cordial cherries, a high quality box of mixed chocolates, or even a bag of jelly beans or a Milky Way bar.

I doubt that most of the Grammy presenters are into country music. They probably sit and listen to a relative handful of standards from the top names. Loretta Lynne, Patsy Cline, Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Buck Owens, etc. Then, they pick a handful of current artists according to sells or reputation, listen to a few songs by each one, and ask, ok, which one of these is most like the old guard, only maybe a little more modern?

In the case of the Chicks, they were presented with an easier task, their music only had to be of a high enough quality to justify rewarding their political activism and courage. Fine, but that’s not the way to present an award, in my opinion.