Bowie, Cream to get Lifetime Grammys
Veteran rock acts David Bowie and Cream will receive Lifetime Achievement Grammys next month.
The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences announced it will also honour the lifetime achievements of country outlaw Merle Haggard, blues legend Robert Johnson, opera singer Jessye Norman, late comedian Richard Pryor and folk group the Weavers.
The awards will be presented at a ceremony Feb. 7, the day before the annual music awards ceremony.
Pryor, who died of heart failure last month, is being recognized as a sharp-tongued and ingenious comic who opened doors for future comics by tackling controversial subjects. He has won five Grammys.
Johnson, who died in 1938 at age 27 under mysterious circumstances, is often called the greatest blues singer of all time. His complete recordings were reissued in 1990 and became the first blues album in history to sell more than two million copies.
After a rocky start in life, Haggard became one of country music's most prominent songwriters and performers, first finding success in the 1960s.
Norman, who earned renown as a soprano beginning in the 1970s, is also being honoured for her international humanitarian work. She has previously won four Grammys.
The Weavers, composed of Ronnie Gilbert, the late Lee Hays, Fred Hellerman and Pete Seeger, were a 1950s quartet who helped make folk and protest songs mainstream.
Cream, the powerhouse rock trio of guitarist Eric Clapton, bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker, fused blues and rock and influenced many of the great bands of the 1970s.
British singer-songwriter Bowie won a Grammy in 1985, but occupied an unusual musical niche throughout most of his career. His work as an innovator is to be honoured.
Academy Tribute Awards will be presented to Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records, country music producer Owen Bradley and Al Schmitt, an engineer who worked with dozens of top recording artists. Tom Dowd and Bell Labs/Western Electric have been named recipients of the Technical Grammy Award.
The Grammy Awards ceremony will be held Feb. 8 in Los Angeles and broadcast on CBS.