That may have been....

[franktangredi]

.... the best Kennedy Center Honors show ever.

And the highlight was the Townsend/Daltrey tribute, and how much those two seemed to be enjoying everything.

But one of the things I love about this show is seeing the respect that people from different musical genres have for each other's work.

And the Twyla Tharp dance sequence was outstanding.

[kayrharris]

It was certainly a diverse sector of entertainment, wasn't it? I'll have to say,
it was quite entertaining.

[franktangredi]

It was certainly a diverse sector of entertainment, wasn't it? I'll have to say,
it was quite entertaining.

As somebody noted after one of these programs years ago, "Only in American can they honor Merce Cunningham and Bob Hope in the same ceremony."

[ghostjmf]

My prollem with the tribute to Tharp part (other than "Tharp always gave me the willies", which is neither here nor there vis a vis tributes) is that they were playing Sinatra through some sound system that came through on TV like it was being piped through a 50s transistor. Or a tin can, which would be the same thing.

Fortunately, the people who got tributes by live bands backing live singers playing/singing sounded great. It was just the canned music behind Tharp-tribute dancers, understandably canned since Frank or course couldn't make it for this one, that really did sound canned.

[KillerTomato]

.... the best Kennedy Center Honors show ever.

And the highlight was the Townsend/Daltrey tribute, and how much those two seemed to be enjoying everything.

But one of the things I love about this show is seeing the respect that people from different musical genres have for each other's work.

And the Twyla Tharp dance sequence was outstanding.

OK, I just had to resurrect this thread. I FINALLY got a chance to watch this -- I had DVRed it last month, and kept putting off watching it for some reason. I did see the George Jones and Streisand portion, but tonight I watched the Morgan Freeman, Twyla Tharp and Daltrey/Townsend tributes.

Last year, during the tribute to Brian Wilson, Lyle Lovett sang "God Only Knows," and while I've always liked that song, it never really....I dunno....connected completely with me until Lovett did it. I thought his performance was like lightning in a bottle; never again would I see what is undoubtedly a very good song turned into an EXCELLENT song, just by the strength and talent of the performer.

I was wrong, though. Tonight, while watching the Daltrey/Townsend tribute, Bettye LaVette took a very good song (I've always liked the way Daltrey laid down "Love Reign O'er Me," but the song was always just "real good"), and made it into something so much better. It gave me chills, literally, so much so that I had to rewind and watch it three times in a row. Just outstanding.

Then there was the moment when the set rose during Rob Thomas' OK performance of "Baba O'Reilly" to reveal the NYPD/NYFD "chorus"....and I gotta admit, I got a little choked up.

This reminded me of why I'm a Who fan (although, I was disappointed that nobody sang anything from "Tommy").

[TheConfessor]

.... the best Kennedy Center Honors show ever.

And the highlight was the Townsend/Daltrey tribute, and how much those two seemed to be enjoying everything.

But one of the things I love about this show is seeing the respect that people from different musical genres have for each other's work.

And the Twyla Tharp dance sequence was outstanding.

OK, I just had to resurrect this thread. I FINALLY got a chance to watch this -- I had DVRed it last month, and kept putting off watching it for some reason. I did see the George Jones and Streisand portion, but tonight I watched the Morgan Freeman, Twyla Tharp and Daltrey/Townsend tributes.

Last year, during the tribute to Brian Wilson, Lyle Lovett sang "God Only Knows," and while I've always liked that song, it never really....I dunno....connected completely with me until Lovett did it. I thought his performance was like lightning in a bottle; never again would I see what is undoubtedly a very good song turned into an EXCELLENT song, just by the strength and talent of the performer.

I was wrong, though. Tonight, while watching the Daltrey/Townsend tribute, Bettye LaVette took a very good song (I've always liked the way Daltrey laid down "Love Reign O'er Me," but the song was always just "real good"), and made it into something so much better. It gave me chills, literally, so much so that I had to rewind and watch it three times in a row. Just outstanding.

Then there was the moment when the set rose during Rob Thomas' OK performance of "Baba O'Reilly" to reveal the NYPD/NYFD "chorus"....and I gotta admit, I got a little choked up.

This reminded me of why I'm a Who fan (although, I was disappointed that nobody sang anything from "Tommy").

Hmm, Lovett and LaVette in consecutive years. Coincidence? God only knows.

I had to look these up. Fortunately, YouTube has 'em:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAg9vOQWAzQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LL2XMSuQkfs

I saw Bettye LaVette last year at a small club near my house. I've also seen Lyle Lovett and Pete Townsend play small local gigs in recent years. Lyle was on my flight to NYC the first time I was on WWTBAM. But he was sitting in first class with a hot babe and I was sitting in coach with the hoi polloi.