Ok, so the timing on this isn't very good. It was just about a month ago that the Grammys once again completely offended the metal community, this time by awarding the "Best Metal Performance" of 2014 to the comedy duo, Tenacious D. But bear with me here. I think the Grammys might have been able to get away, generally, with granting their only award in the genre to The D if they hadn't done a number of other things wrong to lead to that moment. Metal fans generally like Tenacious D. They're pretty good musicians with an uncanny knack for mimicking the genre, while both parodying and paying homage to it. Songs like "Dio" and "The Metal" do a great job of distilling the qualities of fervent, innocent loyalty, theatrical melodrama, zealous devotion to musical integrity and bombast that make metal equal parts ridiculous, endearing and impressive. Plus, they're hilarious.
But the Grammys have a long history of insulting the metal community, mostly in that the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences hasn't the faintest clue about the genre and refuses to make the slightest effort to learn, despite years of criticism and miscue after miscue. It started when the award was first introduced in 1989. In that year, Jethro Tull's unremarkable prog rock album Crest of a Knave (and I like Jethro Tull) beat out releases by Jane's Addiction, Iggy Pop, AC/DC and, shockingly, Metallica's fantastic ...And Justice for All. They then overreacted to the blunder by awarding the next three Grammys in the genre to Metallica, including one for a cover of a Queen song, somewhat inappropriate in a genre where the recording artist's musical composition is at least as important as the recorded performance. Overall, Metallica has won the award six times. It seems the voters are just glad the one band they've heard of is nominated so they can quickly cast their votes and get back to Beyoncé. Since that first fateful award, the recipients have generally been great bands, but the most widely recognizable names whenever there's the slightest piece of production by any of them: Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Slayer, Ozzy Osbourne, Motörhead, Nine Inch Nails and Tool have won almost all of them and been nominated multiple times. This year, Tenacious D's winner was a cover from a Dio tribute album from which another band (Anthrax) was also nominated. Talk about lazy. And again, neither of them actually wrote the music.
Back to The D. First, let me warn you that the links and videos below are not for anyone offended by foul language or adolescent humor. I first heard Tenacious D (or rather, saw them) back in 1997 when they first appeared on an HBO sketch comedy series called Mr. Show. I was playing in a brass quintet + drummer in San Diego, and the drummer brought a VHS tape (remember those?) with the first episode on it to a rehearsal. We all loved the show, but the best part was a ten minute skit at the end of the episode featuring none other than Tenacious D in "The Search for Inspirado". They later appeared at the end of another episode with the equally hilarious "Angel In Disguise". These two skits later combined for the first episode of their own, short-lived television series about a pair of delusional losers who believe themselves to be the soon-to-be-revealed Greatest Band In The World while meanwhile honing their craft at a sparsely attended open mic night at the local bar. Their cluelessness and immature bravado are hilarious and over-the-top, but more subtle is their surprising musical understanding, nuance and chops, further revealed on their debut album in 2001. The album featured many songs revamped from the TV series, performances by the brilliant Dave Grohl on drums and guitar and Page McConnell of Phish on keys plus some really funny short comedy bits. I'm going to share with you my favorite, and probably the most popular, song on the album, "Tribute". The song chronicles the duo's encounter with a demon who challenges them to a rock-off a la "Devil Went Down to Georgia", and tells of their musical masterpiece, "the greatest song in the world", composed and played on the spot to defeat the beast. Unfortunately, they've forgotten the song and so wrote "Tribute" as an ode to that great song. It's really funny and nails the rockin'-against-the-devil cliche, while simultaneously actually rocking, displaying some clever writing chops and paying a little "tribute" to Led Zeppelin. The same clever understanding masked by sheer idiocy is also apparent in the opening sequence from their movie The Pick of Destiny. The song, "Kickapoo", tells the story of a young Jack Black, raised in a conservative family environment where his passion and talent for the rock are woefully misunderstood. Punished by his unappreciative father (played by Meatloaf), he cries out to the image of Ronnie James Dio on his wall poster, a surrogate father figure who charges him to follow his dream in the "land of Hollywood". Unfortunately, he doesn't tell him that it's not Hollywood, Florida, nor is it Hollywood, North Carolina. Now go my child, and ROCK!
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