There was a scary couple of months there where I thought I liked Sam Smith’s music. Turns out I only like the songs he steals from Tom Petty.
Phew—huge relief. I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if I were truly a Sam Smith fan, riding the subway, blasting his melancholy diary entries in my earphones loud enough for me to escape to a really, really sad time but quiet enough so it wouldn’t make me cry. No, I couldn’t lead that type of life.
Luckily for me, it was revealed that Smith bit the Tom Petty song “I Won’t Back Down” real hard when he wrote “Stay With Me.” The hooks are basically identical. Now, if I so choose, I can listen to that Smith song whenever and wherever I want and tell people I’m listening to Tom Petty. That works just fine for me.
But here’s the kicker: that Sam Smith song won the Grammy for song of the year.
You probably weren’t watching the Grammy Awards this past weekend. Neither was I. Instead, I was doing laundry because it seemed like a more fun, better use of my time. However, the way the internet hurls useless “news” at us these days, I came to find out about Smith’s wins—four in total. The problem with the song of the year win is that it’s an award presented to a songwriter for the best written song, as opposed to the record of the year, which rewards a song’s performance and production.
So can someone explain how a song that isn’t original and straight up stole the melody for its most recognizable and catchy portion wins that award? Doesn’t seem to fit the criteria. Give him the best stolen song of the year or most whiny British singer of the year, but not best song. Tom Petty didn’t even win a Grammy for “I Won’t Back Down.” I think that has to be a prerequisite if any stolen song wins a Grammy—the original must have also won a Grammy.
Sam Smith could probably care less. Sure, he’s got to give Petty and Jeff Lynne (Petty’s co-writer) a 12.5% stake of the song’s royalties, but he’s now a multi-Grammy award-winning artist who will use that superlative to make all that cash back and then some. He’ll presumably continue rising in popularity and wind up connected to some type of noble cause until he’s one of the more respected musicians in the UK. Put him on a mantle next to Elton John and Boy George, two men whose composite image would probably produce an exact replica of Smith. And as far as gay British musicians go, that’s a comparison to royalty—the Queen and the Queen. But he doesn’t get there without the help of that damn patriot Tom Petty. You think Smith would have given Petty a nod in one of his four acceptance speeches because, you know, he’ll be knighted any day now as a result.
Nope, no acknowledgment. No respect. Which segues perfectly into the other piece of noteworthy discussion that the internet told me happened at the Grammys. Apparently Kanye West did that really cute thing he loves to do where he interrupts people’s acceptance speeches because he believes his opinion is not mere opinion but fact, and he will insult a person right in front of his or her face to let his fact be known. What a lovable son of a gun!
The only difference between this spectacle and the other time he pulled this stunt is that this time he didn’t actually steal the microphone and tell everyone who he thought should have won. I guess his stroll up to the stage and then very noticeable realization that he shouldn’t go through with it again was enough for people to realize that he thought Beyoncé should have won. We all get it, Kanye, you looooooove Beyoncé.
But what if Kanye was right? It’s not something people usually say, I know, but I didn’t listen to Beyoncé’s album or Beck’s album, which won the award for best album of the year. So what do I know about which album was better? What I do know though is that Grammys aren’t always given to the most deserving nominee. In 2001, Steely Dan won the best album award when Radiohead’s Kid A was clearly the best album. I mean, that Steely Dan album was, for all intents and purposes, some old guys getting the band back together to see if they still got it, and Kid A was one of the best albums of all time! Kanye knows what I’m talking about. Similarly, in 1998 Will Smith won the Grammy for best rap solo performance with “Men in Black” when there were a lot of real rappers nominated alongside him. You mean to tell me that a corny theme song to a movie he also starred in was better than even the worst tracks Busta Rhymes, LL Cool J, Missy Elliot, and Biggie, the other nominees, ever released? That’s just flagrant. Biggie had been murdered less than a year before the award was given out. You think they would’ve given it to him to honor his life if nothing else, not to mention how much better his “Hypnotize” was than Smith’s brand of sterile, doesn’t-scare-the-white-people rap. Even Chris Rock, who presented the award that year, couldn’t believe it.
I read portions of the rant Kanye went on after the ceremony where he explained why Beyoncé should have won. In short, he says that if real talent isn’t recognized by the voters and the awards are handed out because of legacy, or artists earning their due, or simply because the voters aren’t eclectic enough to consider all forms of music, then why should the artists continue to put so much stock in the award? Of all the Kanye rants I’ve heard, this is certainly the best, if not most coherent.
Ultimately, I don’t listen to music based on how many Grammys an artist has won, so it doesn’t matter to me who got snubbed. It just bothers me how much money is tied up in an operation like the Grammys and how people will steal, cheat, disparage, profile, or worse to get their hands on it. Not me though. I’ll be on the subway, earphones in, not listening to Sam Smith.
colin.d.kennedy 