I mostly agree with 1 and 2.
#2.1966: Best Rock & Roll Recording
The Best Rock & Roll Recording category in 1966 was so jam packed with awesome that even the "blindfolded man chucking darts at nominees" method could have yielded a deserving winner. The list included several future classics: "Eleanor Rigby" (The Beatles), "Good Vibrations" (The Beach Boys), "Last Train To Clarksville" (The Monkees), "Cherish" (The Association) and "Monday Monday" (The Mamas and the Papas). Take your pick, it's all magic baby! Here we have arguably The Beach Boys' and Beatles' finest moments ever squaring off, head to head, one night only!
Who will take home the gold? Oh yeah, some bulls**t novelty single called "Winchester Cathedral" was nominated also, but, they wouldn't dare. Right?
And the Winner is ...
Yes, they would. "Winchester Cathedral."
By 1966, a full 10 years had passed since Elvis and his hips took to the Ed Sullivan Show stage and brought America a version of rock 'n roll music it could finally feel kind of comfortable with (that is, the kind that comes without black people). You would think after that much time, the people who picked the Grammy Award winners in 1966 would have had a fairly decent grasp on what rock 'n roll music actually was. But as it turned out, either they had no idea or we've been rocking completely f**king wrong for the past 42 years. Because apparently, in 1966, nothing rocked quite as hard as this ...
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv_RfFmJ5nA[/video]
If you stuck it out the entire 5:36 waiting for the rawk to come, you'll note that it never did. That's because the Grammy for Best Rock & Roll Recording in 1966 didn't go to a rock band. It went to a group of studio musicians who recorded a goofy slice of pop-zaniness that mixes the kind of music your great-grandmother used to do the Charleston to with vocals sung through a megaphone to make them sound old-timey. Actually, according to AllMusic.com, the vocals were sung through a hand to approximate the sound of someone singing through a megaphone. Trying to replicate the sound of Good Vibrations over an entire album eventually drove Brian Wilson insane, and these guys couldn't even be bothered to buy a f**king megaphone.
When The Monkees are nominated for a Grammy and they still aren't the least credible choice, you know it's a dark day in Grammy history.
#1.1988: Best Metal Performance
It could be argued that without Metallica, there would never even have been a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance. It had been nearly 20 years since Black Sabbath pretty much invented heavy metal, but most agree that Metallica perfected it, and spawned a whole genre of imitators.
So when the NARAS decided to add an award for Best Metal Performance, as far as most everyone was concerned the ceremony itself was just a formality. This was the award that Metallica built, giving it to anyone else would be unthinkable. Plus, their bass player had just died, and the Grammys rarely fail to jump at a sentimental opportunity like that.
They should've just mailed the d**n awards to Metallica and called it a year. Right?
And the Winner is ...
Jethro Tull.
What the f**k?!?! That was pretty much the universal response when Tull's name came out as the winner of the Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance. Seriously, Jethro Tull? Like, "Aqualung" Jethro Tull? There is an old saying that goes "you can fool some of the people some of the time, but you'll never fool anybody into believing that a band that has a motherf***ing lead flautist is even kind of metal." Or something like that.
Sure, Jethro Tull could crank out tunes about dragons and ancient beasts with the best of them, but that doesn't make them Dio for f**k's sake! Did we mention the lead singer played the flute? THE FLUTE!
Granted, these days every metal band on earth has an album floating around on which they are backed by a symphony orchestra of some sort, but that s**t wasn't going down in 1988. Metal at that time meant you stood on stage, played as loud and fast as humanly possible in between shots of Jack Daniels, swung your shoulder-length mullets in unison when appropriate and just rocked the f**k out. That's what Metallica was all about at the time. If they had dared to take the stage wearing fancy ruffled shirts and vests and started monkeying around with flutes, there would've been a riot.
Speaking of riots, the fact that one didn't break out when Jethro Tull was announced as the winner of the Grammy for Best Metal Performance is a minor miracle. Like no other band before or after, Metallica was robbed at the 1988 Grammy Awards, marking the first and last time anybody would ever feel sympathetic to the plight of Lars Ulrich.
) but yeah, the award should've gone to Metallica.