A Grand Grammy Disappointment

“I get by with a little help from my friends”

Where were the Beatles songs?  While I didn't watch the Grammy's on Sunday night, I found it a bit bizarre that the two surviving Beatles didn't sing or play any of their classics. Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr were on stage together for a rare live television appearance and no "Yellow Submarine" or "Octopus's Garden"?

It's ironic that they received their Lifetime Achievement Awards, two weeks before, the fiftieth anniversary of their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, on February 9, 1964. Yet no duets, no "Do You Want to Know a Secret?" Why?

Ringo could have sung "Act Naturally"; after all, he sang "Photograph", right?  "What Goes On" here?

What about Paul? He could have told us about "A Fool on the Hill" or "Lady Madonna”, songs he wrote. If he were afraid of copyright infringement, "Yesterday" would have been a safe choice. We all believe in "Yesterday".

We understand that Paul wanted to sing "Queenie Eye" since it is from his latest album, "New". But an old classic like "Let It Be" would have hit the mark also.

There are hundreds of songs which would have revealed why the Lifetime Achievement Awards were deserved. Instead, they sang songs from their solo careers. They didn't want to "Get Back" to their roots. That was too bad.

By doing so, they would have indirectly paid tribute to the two missing and deceased members of the band that transformed music as we knew it at the end of 1963. They probably never would have received their awards without the talent of John Lennon and the philosophy of George Harrison.

The pair is set to tape, The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to The Beatles, which is scheduled to air on CBS, February 9, 2014. Perhaps they are saving it all for that performance?   

Let's hope that the special on February 9, 2014, will not be a “solo event”; that would just be a drag.