A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

SWAGGER LIKE SOMEONE: It's about that time again when I exhort y'all to ignore the nominations and awards at Sunday night's Grammy Awards and just hope for great performances, pointing you to the list of YouTube clips we've compiled over the years.

This year, however, it looks like most of those longtime links have been axed by their claimed copyright holders, and so we've got to scramble -- yes, 14 Minutes of FUNK! is still out there, as is the Melissa Etheridge/Joss Stone tribute to Janis Joplin and Springsteen/Costello/Grohl/Van Zandt collaboration on "London Calling", but I can't find the Prince/Beyoncé medley from five years ago.

Worse, all our 2008 links are busted. Thankfully, no one's touching the 1985 Thomas Dolby, Howard Jones, Herbie Hancock and Stevie Wonder "Tribute to Synthesizers," and you can still show your love for a pre-ubiquitous-will.i.am "Where's The Love?" and the Kanye West/Jamie Foxx/FAMU Marching Band "Gold Digger". Indeed, even the Jay-Z/Linkin Park/Macca medley and my favorite tribute to the power of the Isro can be found, phew. This year's scheduled performers are, just in the order of latest the press release:

Terence Blanchard; Neil Diamond; M.I.A. (if she doesn't burst); Smokey Robinson; Robin Thicke; Allen Toussaint; Stevie Wonder; a tribute to Bo Diddley featuring current nominees Buddy Guy, B.B. King, John Mayer and Keith Urban; Adele; Chris Brown; Kenny Chesney; Coldplay; Estelle and Kanye West; Jennifer Hudson; Jonas Brothers; Kid Rock; Lil Wayne; Paul McCartney (with special guest drummer Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters); Katy Perry; Robert Plant & Alison Krauss; Radiohead; Rihanna; Sugarland; Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus; T.I. and Justin Timberlake; U2; Carrie Underwood; a Four Tops Tribute featuring original member Duke Fakir; Jamie Foxx and Ne-Yo; and Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, T.I. and Kanye West in a special performance of their hit single "Swagga Like Us."

Nominees can be found here (and our previous discussion here), but all I'm rooting for is a good show -- even if they're not bringing Vampire Weekend and Peter Gabriel together as they should.

e.t.a. I'm not doing my job if I don't re-link to the late ODB's bumrushing of the stage during the 1998 Grammys, same year as Soy Bomb. Wu-Tang is for the children.