Whose runaway popularity don't you get?
And as long as I’m throwing gas on the fire...rap. Don’t get it as music at all. Never will. Yeah I’m old. But I get Mahler and that’s not exactly my era either. And a bunch of professional musicians from different genres have tried to convince me that I’m just missing the boat on rap. Could be. But it meets this thread’s title for me.
Just curious - for those of you who do not like Billy Joel - did you take piano lessons when you were young? It was pretty much Billy and Elton out there to admire. Just wondering if there's a correlation. I'm not a fan of his pop stuff like Uptown Girl, Tell Her About it. I tend to like his older stuff.
I started this thread stating that I don’t get Billy Joel’s appeal but I do love this song:
I’ll stand by Cold Spring Harbor, Piano Man, Turnstiles, The Stranger and The Nylon Curtain.
annielou said:
“Audience members” and “other musicians”?? There are many many artists who were, and are, lauded by audiences and other musicians. So what? Is it then a factually correct statement to say they could/can sing? Compared to what? I should reveal that I grew up listening to singers like Sam Cooke and Sarah Vaughn. To me, Paul and friends are not even in the parking lot of the ballpark. (Opinion)
that's a different thing altogether. Of course none of the Beatles could sing like Sam Cooke. Or a hundred other virtuosic singers. But the last chord they sing on She Loves You pretty much proves that as a group they can sing. Here's how musicologist Allan W. Pollack described it:
The first iteration of the yeah-yeah-yeah motive in the outro is purely instrumental, with the voices singing only the final two repeats. Their pride in the sound of that final chord, with their three voices singing B, D, E, close together, is manifest in the way they sustain it a brief instant after the instrumental sound has died away. The sensuous experience of single three note like that with two of your friends is worth having at least once in a lifetime; something about what acousticians call the rapid "beats" that result from small intervals that are not perfect consonants.
and this:
Have you ever noticed the peculiar property of the voices of John and Paul heard in close harmony? Sometimes they sound like a third voice which resembles neither of their own, and sometimes they quite simply make vocal "sparks".
For some reason, the sparking variety seems to particularly show when they sing open fifths or fourths. It's a wonder that they ever stumbled onto this. Open fifths in most Western music sounds like an archaic allusion to Medieval times; thirds and sixths being the typical means of harmonization.
Nonetheless, they somehow went out of their way to sing open fifths and though it's an incidental detail, it is also a tell tale signature of their early sound. In "She Loves You", there's a pair of sparkling open fifths in every verse; in the second measure (as on the word "love)" and in the tenth measure (on the word "bad.")
There's not much more your learned astronomer (shades of Walt Whitman) can say about this effect; the theoretician stands in awe of a natural, miraculous phenomenon
Re the mention of the other "piano man," Elton John, my assessment of him in retrospect is the exact opposite of my take on Mr. Joel. His golden age early 70s albums up to Goodbye Yellowbrick Road (an overstuffed and mixed bag, truth be told), still sing for me. I regularly stream gems from those old albums. Tumbleweed Connection, one of the first albums I ever bought, has never ceased to be a favorite.
From the aforementioned Tumbleweed Connection, this soaring soulful ode to lost love/lust. You just might remember it from the soundtrack of the great 70s flick Dog Day Afternoon even if you don't know this album:
Adele doesn’t always hit her notes, that’s for sure. I definitely miss Amy.
bub said:
From the aforementioned Tumbleweed Connection, this soaring soulful ode to lost love/lust. You just might remember it from the soundtrack of the great 70s flick Dog Day Afternoon even if you don't know this album:
Come Down In Time. Another beautiful song from this album.
annielou said:
Adele doesn’t always hit her notes, that’s for sure. I definitely miss Amy.
This.
And singing isn't just about hitting the notes. It's about style and feeling and inflection and interpretation. Otherwise how could I love the singing of Bob Dylan? or Tom Waits, fercrissakes?
The_Soulful_Mr_T said:
annielou said:This.
Adele doesn’t always hit her notes, that’s for sure. I definitely miss Amy.
And singing isn't just about hitting the notes. It's about style and feeling and inflection and interpretation. Otherwise how could I love the singing of Bob Dylan? or Tom Waits, fercrissakes?
And Joe Cocker and Leon Russell.
jeffl said:
bub said:Come Down In Time. Another beautiful song from this album.
From the aforementioned Tumbleweed Connection, this soaring soulful ode to lost love/lust. You just might remember it from the soundtrack of the great 70s flick Dog Day Afternoon even if you don't know this album:
https://youtu.be/a_yc231bMIk
I love Come Down in Time and streamed it this a.m. right after posting Almoreena.
Someone mentioned Adele in connection with the question of not getting someone’s “runaway popularity”. I agreed and gave a reason. Joe Cocker, for example, has a super unique voice that is not necessarily reliant on “hitting the note”, where Adele actually wants to hit the note and isn’t always successful. Personally I like singing that doesn’t sound like effort, or on the precipice of disaster.
bub said:
From the aforementioned Tumbleweed Connection, this soaring soulful ode to lost love/lust. You just might remember it from the soundtrack of the great 70s flick Dog Day Afternoon even if you don't know this album:
Tumbleweed is definitely a keeper, an album I play as much as any other from that period. And you nailed my favorite track of all from it.
(Perfect, unconventional choice for the opening shots of Dog Day, too. Which, by the way, is the only context in which the late, great Sidney Lumet would spring to mind in this thread.)
The_Soulful_Mr_T said:
annielou said:This.
Adele doesn’t always hit her notes, that’s for sure. I definitely miss Amy.
And singing isn't just about hitting the notes. It's about style and feeling and inflection and interpretation. Otherwise how could I love the singing of Bob Dylan? or Tom Waits, fercrissakes?
This is why I dispute the notion that Beatles couldn't sing. Sure John's voice on its own could be grating, and George's voice was pretty thin on its own. But ensemble singing is a very important aspect of being a vocalist (IMHO, beautiful tight harmony singing is far more powerful than individuality virtuosity, but YMMV). The Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Jacksons, The Everly Brothers, CSNY were all beautiful ensemble singers, even if not all of them were powerful individuals. And as reviled as The Eagles are by many rock & roll fans, there is no denying that those guys could sing harmony as well as anyone.
a lot of people don't "get" the popularity of these guys, but this is something:
and somebody mentioned artists that we think should be more popular than they are. What about Raul Malo? This is some singing:
ml1 said:
and somebody mentioned artists that we think should be more popular than they are. What about Raul Malo? This is some singing:
Malo? I've seen him many times, with and without the Mavericks (at Maaplewoodstock, too). A great singer, indeed.
ml1 said:
a lot of people don't "get" the popularity of these guys, but this is something:
I'm not an Eagles fan, but those guys can sing.
I've never understood the popularity of Adele's Someone Like You, which is a downright creepy stalker song.
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Exactly my POV.