Across the Universe

I was crawling the cable the other night when I came upon the Grammys and heard "Coming up next, an all-star tribute to the tsunami victims..." blah, blah then I heard they were doing "Across the Universe," so I stayed with it. Wow, what an awful version of a great song... As soon as the "all-star" version of this infectious Beatles (Lennon) tune began, my thoughts turned to the inevitable SNL parody that will doubtlessly happen. A quick check online and I found someone who shares my thoughts,

If it's bad form to criticize do-gooders, well, then, we'll just take the karmic hit as we state what seemed obvious: The tsunami-relief song - a superstar performance of the Beatles' "Across the Universe" - was flat-out terrible. It was a surprising outcome given all the talent on the stage: Stevie Wonder, Alicia Keys, Brian Wilson, Norah Jones, Bono, Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong, Steven Tyler, Tim McGraw who, for some reason, performed three different times on the night. Now being sold to raise money for the tsunami-relief effort, the performance was so sloppy that it might have passed for a "Saturday Night Live" skit had we not known better. In fact, somebody more crass might say that this disaster of a performance deserves its own benefit concert. But not us. (Oops.) To get more of these insights, go here.

Yikes! Half the singers were off key and the rest just sucked. Good cause or not, have some respect for the original piece. Playing the original version while montaging some hopeful images of the aftermath would have impacted me. Instead, this ear-scratching display of self-promotion only cemented my lack of respect for this milquetoast awards show. It also made me glad that I had already donated for the cause. I would hate to have my sincere empathy for this tragedy linked to the starpower involved with this embarrassing effort...