On the surface it must have seemed logical to the Grammy show producers to serve up a combined posthumous salute to early rockers Chuck Berry and Fats Domino.
But the minimalist segment with guitarist-singer Gary Clark Jr. and New Orleans pianist and "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert" bandleader Jon Batiste missed a golden opportunity by a country mile.
Their medley of Domino's "Ain't That a Shame" and Berry's "Maybellene" settled for simple nostalgia. This should have _ and could have _ been an unforgettable and relevant collaboration akin to the Eminem-Elton John Grammy performance of "Stan" in 2001.
The focus should have been squarely on Berry _ no disrespect to Domino intended, but his feel-good million-selling hits pale next to the colossal genius of Berry's music. As a singer, songwriter and guitarist, Berry created the template for the rock star that's still being used today.
His astounding gift for wordplay and creative rhyming also set the stage for the coming decades later of rap. That point might have been made with Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar and Childish Gambino reimagining Berry's proto-rap hit "Too Much Monkey Business," which itself was a foundational influence on Bob Dylan's similarly dazzling "Subterranean Homesick Blues."
Lurking below the surface of the lighthearted-sounding song, Berry touches on African Americans' struggles in the white-dominated society surrounding them:
"Runnin' to-and-fro, hard workin' at the mill/Never fail in the mail, yeah, come a rotten bill."
Or they might have picked "Brown Eyed Handsome Man" or "Thirty Days," other sharply observed songs in which Berry sang about the same kinds of issues rappers are addressing today.
The Grammy show's pro forma constituted, as Berry himself put it, "too much monkey business ... don't want your botheration, get away, leave me."
