I spent the holidays with my family in Sanibel, Florida. One night we wound up watching The Kennedy Center Awards. They were inducting Diana Ross, Martin Scorsese, Steve Martin, Brian Wilson and some guy whose name I can’t remember.
They start trotting out friends, admirers, etc. to induct each individual. Martin Scorsese had Cameron Diaz, Bob Deniro and Francis Ford Coppola. Steve Martin had Steve Carrell, Martin Short & Earl Struggs. Diana Ross, looking particularly nutty that night had Smokey Robinson and Vanessa Williams.
So begins Brian Wilson’s induction… Art Garfunkel heads out and lauds Wilson’s life and contributions to the landscape of American music. Then something shocking happens. Hootie and the Blowfish take the stage to perform. Hootie and the Blowfish! Are you kidding me? They had one album 15 years ago that was so insipid that words can’t describe it… and then the quality of their work went downhill from there. To say they sucked would be an insult to all things that suck in the world today.
Hasn’t Brian Wilson suffered enough? He had an abusive father, suffered from drug dependency, depression, and lost a couple of his brothers. He hasn’t had a terribly easy life, but I could argue that the Hootie performance on this night might be his rock bottom. It was certainly one of mine.
As I was ranting and raving my wife asked me who I would suggest, stating that the average person hasn’t heard of the majority of the music I listen to. That was a fair point because I was about to say Dr. Dog. After due consideration, my response to my wife was, “I would rather have the homeless guy on the corner, stick his hand in his armpit and make fart noises in the tune of Good Vibrations.”
Here is the performance in all it’s glory.
[youtube]xdHhsAC6hqA[/youtube]
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I would like to clarify one thing about this post: I was drunk and filled with rage when I wrote. Upon further reflection, I don’t think my point of how much I can’t stand Hootie and how mortified I was by this performance was made clear enough.
Thanks for listening.
for some reason i couldn’t help but watch the youtube clip even though it was clearly against my better judgement. upon reviewing the footage i am struck with equal parts awe and surprise by how well you tempered your abhorrence. this is a travesty. and wtf is brian wilson doing bobbing his head along to this blasphemous rendition? they didn’t even do a faithful cover. is he simply being a good soldier or has he truly lost it? did he approve of this? did he hand pick the hooties? these are the questions i demand answered. toute de suite.
Great clip. Steve Martin can’t believe what he’s seeing. You can tell he really doesn’t want to stand toward the end. Or maybe he’s too busy thinking, “I can’t believe I’m sitting next to the President of the United States and getting a Kennedy Center Award for starring in ‘The Jerk’, ‘Roxeanne’, and ‘Three Amigos’”. That’s the equivalent of Weird Al Yankovic getting inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
And what are team hootie wearing?
I have to admit that I was excited to watch this clip as I am most Hootie clips because they rank so high on the unintentional comedy scale……and this one doesn’t disappoint.
On the “So bad its good” meter I would have to rank this one above the Tom Waits “Closing Time” cover that Hootie did…..but way, way, WAY below the Hootie duet I saw with John Daly (yes, that John Daly)after a “celebrity” golf tournament that I watched one Sunday on VH1 while smack dab in the middle of a crippling hangover.
Brian absolutely had nothing to do with the Hootie choice. He just showed up. Brian’s band was schedualed to go and perform as backup band for whomever was to sing but the plug was pulled last minute and to everyones shock and horror…Hootie was the replacement. No one knew what hit them. The clothes are the Pendelton shirts the BBoys wore in the very, very early days. In the business that’s known as “art direction”. So in the end, Brian watched and accepted the honor with grace. He couldn’t give a rats ass who’s playing his shit. He just wants to enjoy life with his wife and kids and have a good time. And he did. He had an awesome time. The British kids at the end of the show made up for the Hootie nightmare completely. They were precious to say the least.
Best, *********
Clams,
Thanks for the insight. And I agree that the British kids were a treat. I should have made mention of that. But as I mentioned, I was drunk when I wrote this.
Woody
In today’s day and age where a cracked out Amy Wino…uh, Why-NO can win a Grammy for singing a song about saying NO to rehab and the Grammy lifetime achievement award winners don’t even get to be on stage for acknowledgment, I appreciated the fact that Hootie could actually hold a tune and didn’t slip in a few pointless “uh’s” or try to rap “California Girls.” And good for Brian for enjoying himself – it’s definitely tremendous to be acknowledged at something as prestigeous as the Kennedy Center Honors even if he does have to sit next to our buffoon of a president.
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