Music world

Mick Jagger can’t recall who recommended Gimme Shelter as his model symbiotic exercise with U2 for last year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame shows in New York.

When Jagger and Bono were discussing Gimme Shelter seem to be good one. And it worked too. And Jagger said that they rehearsed the night before and tried different tempos and a few different arrangements.

The 1969 Rolling Stones classic, with Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas undertaking Merry Clayton’s role, is among 67 performances on The 25th Anniversary Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Concerts (Time Life, $40), a three-DVD set out this week.

Their glowing version is an undeniable highlight on the all-star collection, but it may have been a rematch.Jagger has got a sly feeling that Fergie’s guested on it with the Stones before, when we did shows with the Peas.

At the Madison Square Garden event, Fergie was very good. She’s not fazed by anything. She’s right there, happy in every situation.”

He also joined Bono on U2′s Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of, a single from 2000′sAll That You Can’t Leave Behind. Bono’s suicide-themed song, an imagined argument with late INXS singer Michael Hutchence, wasn’t entirely unfamiliar to Jagger.
Jagger was the third act to sign on after Rock Hall chairman Jann Wenner enlisted U2 and Bruce Springsteen for two historic music marathons of big hits and fantasy collaborations by an ambitious roster including Jerry Lee Lewis, Smokey Robinson, Aretha Franklin, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Billy Joel, Ray Davies, Buddy Guy, Sam Moore, Sting, James Taylor, B.B. King and Crosby, Stills & Nash.

The two-night stand, which aired a month later as a four-hour HBO special, raised roughly $5 million for Cleveland’s rock shrine and served up such choice combos as Jeff Beck and Billy Gibbons on Foxey Lady, Springsteen and John Fogerty on Fortunate Son, Metallica and Lou Reed on Sweet Janeand Paul Simon and Dion on The Wanderer.
A bonus disc of mash-ups not shown on HBO boasts Springsteen and Tom Morello’s London Calling, Stevie Wonder and John Legend’s Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology) and Simon & Garfunkel’s Mrs. Robinson.

He’s pleased that rock’s big tent accommodated genres from soul to metal to blues but wishes the shows had been less Boomer-centric.
There are always one or two people who get nervous. But everyone was vibed up to do it, and it was well put-together. Most of these people know each other, so it was very friendly. It was a real enjoyable experience.

Boycott of awards based on removal of ethnic music categories picks up steam

A group of musicians are intimidating a boycott of CBS after the Recording Academy sliced 31 awards from this year’s Grammys, according to the Associated Press. An official Grammy press release said the result to lessen the categories from 109 to 78 “carry on evolution” for the Recording Academy, but Grammy-nominated Latin jazz percussionist Bobby Sanabria, who is leading the alliance, says the reform is a racist decision that unfairly shorts ethnic music. Specific categories like best Zydeco or Cajun music album, best Latin jazz and best classical crossover all got the axe in favor of more universal ones.

Support for the society is growing. This morning, the Honolulu Star Advertiser reported that Hawaiian musicians like slack-key king Dennis Kamakahi support the boycott after that Hawaiian music was bumped into a vague “regional roots” category alongside Native American music and polka.

On Thursday, the Academy subjected the following statement: “The Recording Academy’s board of trustees and its committees — made up of chosen, qualified voting members from The Academy’s 12 chapter cities around the country and a broad range of music makers — spent two years researching and eventually making the decision to restructure the Grammy Awards categories for reasons that had everything to do with recognizing fineness in music and the integrity of our awards and nothing to do with ethnicity or race.”