Oh, just shut up, Sarah

I’ve written and edited hundreds of stories about popular music, and taught popular music history, for three decades, and have helped launch and organize musical events. So

it’s not without substantial background when I say that Charlotte Observer writer Sarah Aarthun’s comment today about Herbie Hancock taking Album of the Year honors at last night’s Grammys was the single most ignorant thing I’ve ever read from a supposedly legitimate music writer.

Hancock upset favorites Amy Winehouse and Kanye West with his River: The Joni Letters album. Here is what Aarthun — she of four photos in the first four pages of last week’s E&T — said about Hancock’s award: “Has anyone heard the album? It’s not even original material! He ripped off Joni Mitchell.”

“Has anyone heard the album?”!? Umm, yes, Miz Sarah, in fact lots of people have heard it — maybe because the music press has written it up repeatedly since it was released in September. “Ripped off Joni Mitchell”? That’s hard to do when Joni Mitchell actually sings on the album — and was reportedly thrilled with the Hancock project.

Now, I was hoping Amy Winehouse would win album of the year, and, along with many other music fanatics, didn’t think Hancock’s River album deserved it. But not even to have heard of one of the most talked-about albums of the year (at least in the real music press, not in the gossip columns that are Aarthun’s specialty) and to flaunt that ignorance, not just publicly but in a smug way, is more than this one music fan can tolerate. But that’s what the daily paper gets for sending a mannequin to do a real writer’s job.

This article appears in Feb 6-12, 2008.