Best Songs Ever

SW VandeCarr

One more post of Winehouse BTB (Before the Beehive). Her unquestionable talent is best heard in the jazz medium. I grew up in a house filled with jazz, but like a typical teenager, I grew to hate it. I wanted rock 'n roll. Later I grew fond of "progressive" jazz, but I never had much interest in jazz vocals until I listened to Winehouse beginning just last year. I've come to realize that if you can sing jazz, you can probably sing most anything. It is the most demanding music genre except for maybe opera. I still haven't graduated to that.


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Ivan Seeking

Cool. For me, she just kept coming at me and wouldn't let up. About the time I expected the enthusiasm to start waning, she would completely blow me away all over again. The night I attended the concert was right up there with the night we saw Phantom. It was such a GREAT night! Having a chance to meet her and talk for a moment of course made it quite memorable. Funny thing, she is such a fearless powerhouse on stage, but in person she is extremely shy. I only got a big heartfelt smile out of her for the photo by using a planned punch line [albeit truthful] that I wispered just before they took the shot. Also, her full depth and range is lost in most vidoes. You really must have good sound to fully appreciate her talent. Some of her best notes, when heard with good sound or in a live performance, just don't make it in online vidoes. I think the high frequencies are getting clipped based on what I hear, but I can't be sure of the difference.

Ivan Seeking

Imo, in order to fully appreciate the music from Phantom, you have to watch the movie or go see the play. Opera is not intended to be one-dimensional. You really need the visual element and the context of the plot to get the full impact. They come as a package deal.

I said modern opera. I do actually appreciate classical opera as well as claissical music, but I prefer modern opera and classical crossover by far.

Obviously part of the fascination with Jackie is her having such incredible abilities at such a young age. But I have to admit that she got under my skin like no performer ever has before. I think the combination of her phenomenal raw talent, her intuitive understanding of the music, which still just leaves me shaking my head, and her drive and desire to perform, just won my heart. To me, so far at least, she is the definitive natural talent of my lifetime. Hopefully she will get better with age but it could go either way. I know many pros were quite concerned that could do permanent damage if she reaches too far too fast.

I will have to spend some time listening to Winehouse. I've only heard a handful of her performances so far.

SW VandeCarr

Yes. I've thought about that. Fame at such a young age can be damaging. I wonder if in another year or two, she should quit public performances (but maybe still continue to record) and try to live a normal life until she's an adult, than re-evaluate.

Tastes vary. She has two albums plus a number of live performances, demos and unreleased gems on You Tube. I suggest you start by listening to the the one I just posted above #2519 (Diana Washington cover), and one on p155 of this thread #2468 (blues/soul, Donnie Hathaway cover). I really like this one.

There's also a lot of stuff on YT documenting her disastrous decline. I don't think it's widely known that she was likely bipolar and suffered really deep "black" periods of depression interspersed by manic episodes. Anti-depressants don't work very well in bipolar disorder because it's cyclic. She took lithium (I think) and anti-convulsants with only some success. She got herself off illegal hard drugs by 2009, but not the booze. It was the alcohol that killed her.

Ivan Seeking

Oh yes, fame is an issue, but I meant damage to her vocal cords. There is one song that she had done, I think it was either Nessun Dorma or perhaps Pie Jesu, that by convention no one her age should do. Other people think this is not really such a concern.

She was obviously a unique talent and I like what I've heard so far. Her unique style definitely jumps off the page as one of the greats. Janice Joplin comes to mind...

I was impressed also by Lady Gaga's performance in this video with Tony Bennett. Very good Gaga!!!

SW VandeCarr

Her voice is described as a "rich throaty alto". Some are warning her that she is not using her voice properly or adjusting to different styles. I think these warnings should be taken seriously. There's too much to lose here.

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Yes. Lady Gaga really is very talented despite her over the top publicity seeking behavior. Who in the world would think of wearing a "dress" made of raw meat?!

BTW, Amy was near the end her rope when she did her Duet with Tony. I saw some decent reviews, but , sorry. I thought she looked bad and sounded worse. She always said that singing with Bennett would be the highlight of her life. I couldn't watch it all and still can't.

SHISHKABOB

even though it's honestly pretty mediocre metal music to be frank, this song and others from this game will always have a place in my heart for being *the most perfectly fitting video game music ever made*

each time I play this game, and I hear this music, it's like the very first time

Ivan Seeking

I am glad to see that her schedule is moderated. I may try to catch her California performance again this year but there is only one option for Northern California. Last year I think there were at least 4 options but they still had large gaps between sets of performances. Honestly, if it looked to me like they were working her like a dog I wouldn't have gone.

A performer who is now a household name? I was turned off by all of the Gaga hype but she really is talented. I tend to think she knew exactly what she was doing. EVERYONE has heard of Lady Gaga.

Yes, it is sad to see this sort of thing. Just one of many.

[I had to laugh when I noticed I had written "vocal chords" instead of "vocal cords". Now corrected]

SW VandeCarr

Prodigies like Jackie are very vulnerable and need to be protected. There's the Judy Garland model (not making direct comparisons) and the Mozart model. Mozart wrote his first symphony when he was 5 and performed for the Hapsburg Emperor at the same age. He had a very productive adult career but died broke in his mid 30's. Of course, Mozart didn't sing professionally afaik. Garland had problems in her adult life including addictions and never equaled her childhood success. I hope people who really love Jackie and who are not more concerned with the $ are in charge of her life. She is such an extremely rare person. There's no handbook on how to raise someone like her.

That meat dress certainly got my attention. I'm thinking, what did she do with that meat afterwards? BTW, she's a real musician and pianist; trained at the prestigious Julliard School in New York City.

I didn't suffer like so many of her very loyal and devoted fans who had to witness the train wreck in slow motion that was her life starting in about mid 2007. I knew almost nothing about her until she died.

She became an object of ridicule and even hatred. She didn't deserve it. Her probable bipolar disorder was severe and often incapacitating. I say "probable" because her handlers have never allowed the likely diagnosis to come out. She said she was told she was bipolar on several occasions. She had the classic symptoms, was being treated with the indicated meds, and is listed on sources for "famous people with bipolar disorder" with Kurt Cobain, Axl Rose and others. Her major commercial success, the album "Back to Black", is well named because nearly all the songs in it were written as a catharsis when she came out of her "black" episodes. She got to the point where she couldn't sing her own songs because they brought her back to the feelings that inspired the songs.

rootX

FreeMitya

Well, going by the strict definition of the word "song", this is the most beautiful song I've ever heard: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJrqV-2r3Hw

Howells was, in my opinion, the only musician whose work could rival Bach's in sheer beauty.

Ivan Seeking

She certainly qualifies as the first performer ever to actually Meat the Press!

I'm thinking it was a BBQ at Gaga's house.

Ivan Seeking

I've been listening to 40s jazz lately. [Long story]. Here is one of my favorites.



Okay, two of my favorites.

SW VandeCarr

Ella is the best jazz singer ever IMO in terms of technical execution. Here she is with one of the greatest jazz pianists, Oscar Peterson doing the classic 'Round Midnight".


Here's Amy Winehouse doing Moody's Mood for Love. She couldn't have more than 19 when she did this notoriously difficult song based on an improvised saxophone solo by James Moody around 1948 with lyrics added by songwriter Eddie Jefferson in 1952. I have to say I'm not pleased with the intrusive percussion that mars this and a few other Winehouse recordings.

OmCheeto

turbo

My favorite Fogelberg song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEL_qqXGjHU

fuzzyfelt

Nice.
Apropos of nothing really, I'm not sure about the lyrics, just like this song at the moment.