Last night was Motown night on American Idol, and quite the show it was. There were so many questions hanging in the air, like how country boy Scotty McCreery would handle the urban sounds of Detroit—For Once in My Life, with a distinctive country twang, of course. How would Paul McDonald, a Rod Stewart wannabe with glow-in-the-dark teeth, handle Smokey Robinson’s Tracks of My Tears? And then there was Thia Megia, who had never heard the Beatles and never heard of Charlie Chaplin, tackling My Love is Like a Heat Wave by Martha and the Vandellas, especially since one of the Vandellas, Sandra Tilley, died 15 years before Thia was born?
But the number one question on everyone’s mind last night was What Would James Do (WWJD for those with fan bracelets)? Stevie Wonder, obviously. His song choice was “Living for the City,” which shows that James knows more than something about music. The song was practically autobiographical, and James seemed to know all of that. It talks about a poor boy, encouraged by his family to pursue his dreams. It talks about the frustration and anger that comes with poverty, and even about the racism that Stevie Wonder faced … or the obstacles that James faced as a boy with Tourette’s and ADD. It was the perfect song, and the perfect performance.
The tension was thick and made only thicker when I realized that James would perform last. Someone in Idol’s production office apparently took a course in plot build-up, so I was forced to watch the entire two-hour show. It was worth it, thanks to James.
By the time he finished, you could see that James was rivaling Mark Anthony for J Lo’s affection, and Steven Tyler was ready to retire to give the new kid some space. And then there was Randy Jackson …
“It started a little rough,” he began, and I stood ready to smash all my Journey CDs. Alas, I realized I have no Journey CDs because, well, Journey kinda sucked. Nevertheless, unlike the kids from Glee, I stopped believing.
Then the unimaginable happened. Like a momma grizzly protecting her young, J Lo was ready to pounce. Randy quickly retreated, and concluded that the song was “unbelievable.” Steve Tyler stepped to the plate, saying that, “Sometimes it takes a little bit of being crazy in the world, leaving me to wonder whether he was talking about himself, James, or both of them. With Aerosmith guitarist Brad Whitford in the audience, I was left wondering whether Tyler was plotting to get James into the band. With Tyler’s daughter Liv in the audience, I was left wondering what he was using to tempt James.
