The Grammy Awards: Baby Boomer-palooza

February 9, 2:20 PMBaby Boomer ExaminerPaul Briand

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Robert Plant and Allison Krauss accept Grammy

It wasn't the young guns who walked away with the Grammy Awards. It was one of us -- Robert Plant, who as singer with Led Zeppelin used to wail through such classic hits as "Whole Lotta Love."

Talk about a Baby Boomer makeover: He almost croons on the album that won so many awards last night.

Against the competition from Cold Play and Lil Wayne and others, Plant and collaborator Alison Krauss won the coveted Album of the Year for their "Raising Sand." The album definitely is not retooled Led Zeppelin, rather it's a country/rockabilly/easy listening mix that seems contrary to Plant.

Upon getting the Grammy for Album of the Year -- their fifth of the night -- Plant at 60 years old seemed as surprised as anyone, saying: "I'd like to say, I'm bewildered. In the old days, we would have called this selling out." The Plant/Krause duo garnered more of the awards than anyone last night in Los Angeles.

But it was a night that often looked in the rear view mirror at the music that defined and shaped the Baby Boomer generation.

Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney played "I Saw Her Standing There" with Foo Fighter drummer David Grohl. Curiously, there was no mention of the fact that the song was part of the set the Beatles played during their historic appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" 45 years ago today.

The reason for the performance was that the song had been nominated in the best solo rock vocal performance category after appearing on an obscure 12-inch vinyl release, "Amoeba's Secret."

Even Cold Play got into the retro act, not so much in their music, but in their attire that very much paid homage to the Sgt. Pepper's look of the Beatles in 1967.

The Grammys rolled out other Baby Boomer-era performers as well:

• U2 (for the younger Baby Boomers among us) opening the show with their new "Get On Your Boots";
• Al Green, performing "Let's Stay Together" with Justin Timberlake, Boyz II Men, and Keith Urban;
• BB King paying tribute to Bo Didley with Urban and John Mayer;
• Smokey Robinson and Levi Stubbs paying tribute to the Four Tops with Jamie Foxx and Ne-Yo;
• Neil Diamond singing (talking through, really) "Sweet Caroline";
• Stevie Wonder singing "Superstitious" with the Jonas Brothers.