Shocking Musical Moments Caught on Tape

By Douglas
July 16th, 2008

Awards ceremony broadcasts are usually dull, staid displays of self-congratulations. However, once in a while there are some entertaining, unplanned occurrences. Perhaps the Godfather (no pun intended) of all award ceremony shock tactics is Marlon Brando, who for his 1973 acceptance speech for The Godfather, sent a Native American woman, Sacheen Littlefeather, dressed in white buckskin and leather headdress, to read a speech blasting Hollywood for its treatment of Native Americans in film.

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The music world has seen its fair share of amusing award ceremony hi-jinx in recent years.

“Soy Bomb” and Bob Dylan
The 1998 Grammy Awards ceremony’s first bomb occurs during Bob Dylan and his band’s arousing live performance of “Love Sick.” Too bad it’s ruined by Michael Portnoy, who decides to make his deep cultural statement about art (“soy bomb is what I think art should be: dense, transformational, explosive life”) during a particularly absorbing (and rare) television appearance by Dylan. I kind of like Portnoy’s ploy, but couldn’t he have done it during LeAnn Rimes’ performance?





Ol’ Dirty Bastard “duets” with Shawn Colvin
In another tired display of rap star bravado (looking at you, Kanye), Wu-Tang Clan member Ol’ Dirty Bastard interrupts Shawn Colvin’s Song of the Year acceptance speech at the 1998 Grammy Awards to protest the Clan’s loss in the Best Rap Album category. “Wu Tang is for the children.”





Blow My Horn!
The inspiration for ODB’s stunt was most likely Nathaniel Hornblower, aka Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys, who crashed the stage at the 1994 MTV Video Music Awards to protest R.E.M.’s “Everybody Hurts” winning Best Direction over Spike Jonze’s video for “Sabotage.”

Rage Against the Set
In what is now becoming a tradition in the pop world, artists are continuing to find interesting ways to complain about their losing an award to less-deserving colleagues. Case in point, at the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards, Tim Commerford of Rage Against the Machine climbs a piece of set scaffolding and refuses to come down after his band lost the award for Best Rock Video to Limp Bizkit.

Our Lord, Michael Jackson?
At the prodding of our trusty columnist, James, I’m including a less well known (at least on this side of the pond) awards ceremony shocker. At the 1996 BRIT Awards (the British equivalent of the Grammy’s), Jarvis Cocker, lead singer of Britpop band, Pulp, stormed the stage during Michael Jackson’s over the top performance of “Earth Song.” In it, the King of Pop portrays himself as a Christ-like figure surrounded by children. Cocker mounted his invasion in protest. Here’s the video to prove it, along with commentary by Cocker himself.





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For all intents and purposes, careerism has trumped bold political protests by musicians. The following are a few rare exceptions.

Sinead O’ Connor rips the Pope
I can see why this was a shocking and offensive act, but I also commend Sinead for her unflinching protest of the Catholic Church’s hypocrisy. An amazingly talented artist, Sinead has never shied away from controversy, and this is her crowning achievement in that realm. The incident effectively destroyed her career, at least as far as topping the charts, but Sinead has persevered and remains a powerful voice in rock and folk music today.





Check out Sinead’s side of the story.





Kanye Beats the Bush
I normally have little tolerance for Kanye’s childish antics, but his nationally-televised impromptu rant against George Bush and the media for its blatant racism in the face of Hurricane Katrina was absolutely priceless (and right on the mark). A Concert for Hurricane Relief, just another self-absorbed benefit spectacle, was suddenly made relevant with the unpolished, but unapologetic barbs from hip-hop’s biggest star. Check out Mike Meyers’ reaction. Not very impressive for a supposed improv master.





Check out Kanye’s response to his off-the-cuff political rant.





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There have been many instances of rock stars freaking out when a performance is interrupted by misbehaving fans (Ryan Adams) or technical glitches (Kanye West). The following clip falls into the former category and will be hard to top.

A Queen of the Stone Age goes royally apeshit
I had written about this tirade in a previous post. Josh Homme’s epic tantrum after a fan throws a shoe at him is one for the ages. Apparently fighting a high fever, the sickly lead singer of Queens of the Stone Age wasn’t going to put up with any shit from a rowdy festival fan. While his words were way over the top (and even offensive), it’s hard not to sympathize with him. I mean, would you want a hard object hurled at you while you’re trying to work (or ever)?





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I’m sure there are more shocking moments in rock music that have been caught on tape. If you know of any, let me know!