Oh, the horror!
I can testify to the fact that Kelly Clarkson has a great voice. I was in the recording studio when she recorded vocals for her 2004 album Breakaway, which has sold over 6 million units. It's a very good album. Hearing her isolated vocals live, in-studio was fantastic! This was the last session at Kevin Gilbert's Lawnmower & Garden Recording Studio before it was sold.
I'm fine with anyone replacing Paul Stanley/KISS.
I haven't followed Aiken's career; I've never even heard him sing, to my knowledge. But I heard of him. Many of the country artists, or pop artists who started in country music, I have heard because every week they have a country music awards show on TV. Pat themselves on the back much? I don't try to watch, but seeing parts of it are unavoidable. Kellie Pickler has a daytime talk show called "Pickler And Ben." I don't know who Ben is, and I don't care for daytime TV, but my wife watches sometimes. Clarkson, Pickler, and Underwood are all decent singers I have seen on the idiot box, Clarkson being the best of the three, IMO. I have seen CDs by Katharine McPhee in the thrift store, but so far I have not purchased one, and thus have not heard her sing. Taylor Hicks is a country singer, as far as I know. I don't recall how I heard of Jennifer Hudson, but I did, so she must be well known.Originally Posted by JKL2000
I'd prefer to work in silence rather than have someone else choose workplace music. I can tolerate Adele and Peter Paul and Mary if not played incessantly, but I have come to loathe hearing Katy Perry's bellowing. I have nothing against her personally, and she's not hard on the eyes, but she needs to STFU.Originally Posted by GuitarGeek
Last edited by spellbound; 12-06-2018 at 11:12 AM.
I'm sure all of them have great voices. The problem is that a great voice needs a great song to sing, and the ones that I've heard are decidedly "not great". Supposedly, Adele is one of the greatest pop singers of her generation, but if the rest of the stuff she does is on the same level as Rumor Has It, I'll take a pass on it. I don't know when the last time I heard a really good pop song, maybe not since I'll Be The One by The Backstreet Boys, and that was like 20 years ago!
Aiken has also done quite a bit of musical theater. I know he was in a touring version of Spamalot for quite a while, and may have even done it on Broadway (not sure about that though). He did a holiday Christmas show here in town a few years ago that was a touring production.
Idol has produced a few very talented people, McPhee, Clarkston, Hudson, and Underwood to name a few. Last weekend I saw 2013 winner Caleb Johnson singing with Trans Siberian Orchestra and he slayed the place. I had seen his solo band open for Black Stone Cherry last year, and the kid has got the goods, and is a major talent. He is one of the few hard rockers that have ever done well on Idol.
The problem is, a lot of stores and restaurants, etc have bought into this thing of having music playing non-stop, but the music services, at least the one we use at my job, tends to be extremely repetitive. The Peter Paul And Mary song I only heard once, so it didn't get too aggravating, but some of the other things like the Katy Perry and Adele songs I've heard so many times, I just don't have any interest in ever hearing them again.
But there's a few weird things I've noticed, though. I go to other restaurants and I hear way cooler music over the PA there. At Five Guys (a hamburger chain) I've heard In Thee and Burnin' For You by Blue Oyster Cult, Heroes by David Bowie, and Blowin' Free by Wishbone Ash. Wait, WISHBONE ASH?! Yeah, and in fact, the restaurant in question has PA speakers on the outside of their building, and for a time, I noticed I hear Blowin' Free at pretty much the exact same time of day, while I was waiting for the bus.
At Walgreens, I've heard both The Who and Television. Yes, they played Television at Walgreens, it was Hear No Evil.
At one place, I heard a Genesis song (I think it might have been That's All or Invisible Touch), followed by Something's Going On by Frida Lynstadt, followed by Abba (So Long, maybe, I can't remember now). Now, this is notable because Phil Collins produced the Frida song (and in fact, that's him playing drums, and he also dragged Daryl Steurmer along to play guitar), and Frida of course was in Abba. I thought that there's no way that was an accident! Somebody had to have programmed those three songs to play in that order on purpose. I mean, that's the kind of thing I would have done if I was doing it.
So I don't understand why we can't get that kind of musical selection at my place of work. I mean, it's not like I'm asking them play Iron Maiden or Judas Priest, I know they "can't" do that, that have to be "family friendly" or whatever. But you can be "family friendly" or at least choose music that's "easy on the ears" without playing the absolute throwaways they choose to play.
And another aspect of this is the Xmas music they play during December. They play stuff like Duke Ellington, Jimmy Smith, Los Straitjackets, Wes Montgomery and other exceptional musical artists, doing Xmas numbers. Now, my question is, if you can play Duke Ellington, Los Straitjackets and Wes Montgomery in December, why the frell can't you play the rest of the year?! It's not like Duke Ellington only ever played Xmas themed music!
And if you're gonna step out of your usual playlist for Xmas, why not throw in Solstice Bells by Jethro Tull and Christmas With The Devil by Spinal Tap. OK, I'm being facetious about the latter, but surely Solstice Bells is "mild" enough to be played.
Damn, if I ever own a business, all we're playing in the store is old jazz, blues, soul, and rock music. And if you can't hang with Thin Lizzy, I don't want your business.
I didn't see it live in person, but the visual evidence suggests that Queen/Paul Rodgers offered a good live show. Rodgers is of course one of rock's best singers. It was the album The Cosmos Rocks which I thought was dreadful. I kept an open mind, played it 15-20 times or something but it was big-budget pub rock. Fell flat on its face commercially and in this instance, I think that was completely justified.
I do remember May/Taylor appearing on American Idol with Lambert in 2009, 'We Are The Champions' was what they played, maybe, I'm not certain. There was a buzz about it back then. The writing was really already on the wall for the collaboration with Rodgers when the album flopped.
I've only seen a video, and thought it worked very well.
IIRC, he also did a great job on "The Show Must Go On."
He also ran for Congress in 2014, in North Carolina. He ran as a Democrat in a very Republican district, and the results were pretty much as expected.
She's an incredible talent, IMO. She's also been a star on the CBS TV show "Scorpion."
Another great talent. I don't like everything I've heard from her, but she has some pipes.
Completely agree.
I do wish that they would record with Lambert, but I would think that the failure of this album with Rodgers would rule that out, at this point.
Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally
sidenote: Katherine McPhee is engaged to David Foster/songwriter/entertainer.
Soundcloud page: Richard Hermans, musical meanderings https://soundcloud.com/precipice YouTube: [https://www.youtube.com/@richardhermans4457
I'm always surprised when my wife tells me two famous people are married to each other. Not surprised that people get married, but surprised in that I never heard about it. I don't expect to be invited to their weddings, but as far as I know they happen without publicity. Or maybe I'm just out of the loop. If people only publicize things on facebook or twitter, I'm unlikely to hear about it.
I know a lot of people, myself included, who have nothing against Christmas music, but just hate the type of Christmas music they play in the stores. That kind is quite annoying. I don't know if it is supposed to make you want to spend money. It makes me want to leave the store just as fast as my feet can carry me. I have better holiday music at home, which I specifically obtain to have it be as different as possible from the kind they play in retail stores.Originally Posted by GuitarGeek
Katherine McPhee posted this today on her twitter feed, and the response was... interesting.
Well......I just bought tickets for the Detroit show today. My sister really wants to go, and I thought, what the hell it should be fun.
I don't speak twitter. What's "ngl?"
The guy with the beard is actually younger than her husband.
Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally
>So maybe Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, and those other people are among the perpetrators I have to endure when I'm putting away the truck.
>>Oh, the horror!
I was quoting someone else - I'd never own a truck!
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