The 2012 Summer Olympics have wrapped. Finally. No longer we will all be imbued with the tales of athletic heroism, dramatic finishes, or shattering defeats that NBC has essentially shoved down our collective throats for the past few weeks.
As things in London return to normal and cleaning crews extricate the Olympic Village of an allegedly staggering number of rubbers used to keep future Olympians from swimming to zygote gold, one question lingers on the minds of British music fans everywhere: What the fuck happened with that closing ceremony?
Annie Lennox sailed in on her ghost ship with the same grace and talent that she has always possessed, and even pushing 70, the remaining members of the Who rocked the arena like it was Leeds all over again. Ray Davies finally got the big stage he has always deserved when he performed the Kinks classic "Waterloo Sunset," and Eric Idle's performance was super funny, though Idle could punch a puppy and somehow still make us laugh.
We'll start with Mike Rutherford of Genesis performing a Pink Floyd song. Though there is obviously no ill will between Rutherford and the members of Pink Floyd -- as he has performed with various Floyd alum over the years -- watching a founding member of another wildly important, prog rock pioneering group strum along to "Comfortably Numb" behind a singer/songwriter, Ed Sheeran, born in 1991, feels just plain wrong. Even with Floyd's Nick Mason on drums.
Like how Jessie J was selected to perform the Queen tribute. And even with George Michael in the building (for those of you who don't recall, Michael swung his nuts all over this Queen classic at the original Mercury tribute). Yes, J sang well -- of that, there is no argument -- but, there are just so many people better(cat)-suited to pay homage to one of the most revered bands of all time than a flavor-of-the-week pop singer, as British as she may be.
We would discuss Russell Brand's extremely childish take on the Beatles
in detail, but apparently he's very funny, and the kids just love him.
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