In case you missed the twenty-two hours of Live Earth coverage over the weekend, I've decided to post one the performances that I felt stuck out among the rest. This performance took place during the Police's set when they were playing "Message in a Bottle" (one of my personal favorites in the Police canon). What makes said performance intriguing isn't so much that they allowed John Mayer sit in on the song (I've heard Mayer cover the song live in the past by himself, and he does a nice job). What is somewhat eyebrow-raising, however, is when they brought out Kanye West from backstage after the first third of the song and allowed him to freestyle his own verse. All in all, it was a bold, if not completely well thought-out, idea. The freestyle had potential, and my hopes were high, but ultimately the execution was less than inspiring. In fact, for lack of things to say, Kanye started rhyming about Al Gore and and sinking into generic hip-hop performance buzz-phrases like repetitive "uh-yeah's" and imploring the crowd to wave their hands around "like they just don't care." And while it was disappointing to see Kanye stoop to spitting such rap cliches (a move that has never been a problem for the "Louis-Vuitton-Don"), I believe there are actually two ways of viewing this performance. The first is as a veritable train-wreck, which it kind of was. The second is to look at it as somewhat refreshing, if for no other reason, then for the the genre-bending, ego-obscuring effort of it all. It's pretty respectable for the Police, who are everyone's favorite classic rock legends of the moment, to not only share the spotlight with a young, budding rock star in John Mayer, but also sharing it with an explosive, egotistical, brash young hip-hop star, who also happens to be one of the most polarizing figures in popular music. In a way, for me, it reaffirmed that maybe some of the acts that participated in this global festival actually did care about the cause more so than the spotlight. Why else would these three huge acts be plowing through a classic song that they clearly didn't rehearse together (hell, Sting couldn't even pronounce Kanye's name correctly)? Maybe that's naive logic, but remember, sometimes it's naivety that allows people sleep at night. You can judge for yourself.
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