Classic Rock Wins Four Awards, Loses 10 at the 2016 Grammys
Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and contributors to projects from Roger Waters and David Bowie took home classic rock's only awards at the 2016 Grammys.
Paul McCartney, Don Henley and James Taylor were among those who left empty-handed (or if they were smart, never bothered to attend in the first place) as the genre won just four of the 14 trophies for which it had been nominated.
Dylan won the Grammy for The Basement Tapes Complete: The Bootleg Series Vol. 11 in the Best Historical Album category, an award he shares with the Band. However, Dylan's 2015 Frank Sinatra-inspired collection Shadows in the Night lost in the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album category to Tony Bennett & Bill Charlap's The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern.
Mitchell's Love Has Many Faces: A Quartet, a Ballet, Waiting to Be Danced won the award for Best Album Notes. Maria Schnieder was rewarded for her work on Bowie's "Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)" with the Best Arrangement, Instrumentals and Vocals Grammy.
Similarly, James Guthrie and Joel Plante won the Grammy for Best Surround Sound Album for their work on last year's remastered version of Roger Waters' 1992 album Amused to Death. Waters was also nominated in the Best Music Film category for his recent big-screen version of The Wall, but lost to the Amy Winehouse documentary Amy.
Taylor's Before This World was honored with two nominations – for Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Engineered Non-Classical Album – but was shot down in both categories, by Taylor Swift's 1989 and Alabama Shakes' Sound & Color, respectively.
Kendrick Lamar's "Alright" made a two-time loser out of McCartney, as well. The Beatles legend was nominated and defeated in both the Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance categories for "All Day," his collaboration with Kanye West.
Henley, who will perform during the main Grammys telecast as part of a tribute to his recently fallen Eagles bandmate Glenn Frey, received a Best American Roots Song nod for "The Cost of Loving" from his Cass County album. Alas, Jason Isbell took home the gold for "24 Frames."
Both the Grateful Dead (for 30 Trips Around the Sun) and the Rolling Stones (Sticky Fingers: Super Deluxe Edition) were nominated for Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package – and they were upstaged by The Rise and Fall of Paramount Records, Volume Two (1928-1932), an acclaimed box set from Jack White's Third Man Records.
Finally, Blood on Snow by Patti Smith was passed over for Best Spoken Word Album. But at least she lost to beloved former President Jimmy Carter, who won for A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety.
Here's Who Should Have Won Every ‘Best Rock Album’ Grammy Award