Ghost of Clive Davis and the MTV Zombies

No real reason to bring this guy up, but having grown up during the Granola-rock nightmare that was the early-1970's, you store various tunes and images away, to only be unlocked by someone else's nostalgia.

In this case, it is the RIAA, or whomever is in charge of making sure we all know every song by Alicia Keys. THEY want us to know only certain musicians and a rotating roster of crappy, middle-of-the-road dusty old lite-rockers.

The 2010 Grammys --in presentation and accompanying advertisements-- were a host of tired old hits and 80's rehashes, followed by a chiding by some industry hack telling us illegal downloading is the reason music sucks so bad and all those underground groups can't get a break. I didn't catch if he was wearing a skull/crossbones "Home Downloading is Killing Music" t-shirt, but he might as well have been.

Further proof of the music industries' pathetic desire to cling to its coked and payolaed past was the Pinto vs. PT Cruiser crash known as Taylor Swift getting whacked over the nose with the warbling dissonance of Ms. Stevie Nicks herself. Sad to hear Fleetwood Mac anytime, especially 30 years after they were briefly relevant, but this was just plain mournful. Stevie had no business singing her own song under any circumstances.

But that's not all! If you looked at the faceless sidemen involved in this "dragged from the free and easy 1970's kicking and screaming-fest" you could clearly see the walking epitome of the James Taylor/Carly Simon/Jackson Browne/Linda Ronstadt earth-tone w' fringe-wear era: Seasoned session-hack guitarist Robert "Waddy" Wachtel.

Like G.E. Smith after him, Waddy could not be avoided from 1973 to 1978 no matter what. Saturday Night Live?...he was on it. No Nukes?...you betcha'. You didn't know WHAT he was doing; none of those milquetoast anthems to Gaia, or whatever, but he must have been doing something right. Right? Was it really just the hair? Was it that he didn't look as scary as his oft bass mate Leland Sklar?