John's latest, Roger's voice, Keith's voice

[Jim Topp <jtopp@indiana.edu>]

>Or, you can click on the Van-Pires graphic on the Website front page,
>click on the "broken license plate" graphic on the resulting page to
>get the enlarged scan, then click on the individual song titles.

Alan,

A better answer than mine. Not very obvious web page navigation though.

>Has everybody got this?  If not, I certainly recommend it.  It's is a little
>unusual for JAE, a concept album, at least.  The show suggested some of the
>elements, of course, but then the specifics have been put together by the
>band.  Luongo adds an interesting depth to it--I hadn't thought about JAE
>being such a pragmatist.  Anybody else have comments?

keets,

It's better than The Rock, and that's mainly what I was looking for. 
Unfortunately, with Pete's MP3s and the new eelpie discs, I've only 
listened to Van-Pires 2 or 3 times.

>ML also said  "Daltrey's voice sounds better to ears in a hall than when you
>can hear everything. It's a shame, but his vocals are now the weakest part
>of this band. Still not bad for a 50+ year old, but it's what you hear when
>you listen to these tracks."
>
>Sadly, I agree with you.  Roger has commented recently about how hard it is
>to age.  I noticed (and I think others have pointed out) that there were
>times during some shows when Roger seemed genuinely bummed out.  I wonder if
>the condition of his chords is weighing on his mind.  Wouldn't be horribly
>ironic if Roger was the one to pull away from performing with The Who now?

Jeff,

My impression is that it's not hard to for a 56-year-old to sing Rock 
& Roll, but it's harder for a 56-year-old to sing like Roger does on 
stage with The Who. I'm hoping that any problems would be 
unnoticeable for a studio recording. So let's discuss this again in a 
year when we all have the new Who album.  :^)

>There IS a solution, although I'm probably getting myself in
>everyone's bad graces by suggesting it. Sorry, just keep in mind I do so in
>hopes of a better-sounding and longer-lasting Who. Anyway, if Rog took a
>hint from Ray Davies when Davies did the Talmy-produced albums, that is to
>day he ran his voice through a device which made it sound different, then
>he could sound pretty good. It wouldn't give him artificial highs or
>anything, just change in much the way a distortion pedal does a guitar.
>Let the bullets fly...

Mark,

The problem with that is that then someone on drugs would complain 
that Roger is lip-synching to backing tapes.  :^)

But slightly more seriously, are you suggesting this for the stage or 
studio or both? So far, I'm not convinced this is a viable solution.

BTW, can you give examples of Kinks songs that used this device and 
others that didn't?

>With Keith, The Who would have him sing 'Bellboy' or rather Keith's 
>parts in 'Bellboy' and most found it amusing, Keith would often 
>change a few words here and there, and let's face it. Keith was not 
>a singer.

Derick,

True, Keith was not a singer. But I think his finest vocal 
performance can be found on the bridge of "Bell Boy" (studio version, 
of course): "Some nights I still sleep on the beach...licking boots 
for my perks." I remember listening to this years (decades?) ago, and 
a friend asked me, "How'd they get Keith to sing that well?"

Jim

"For 7-1/2 years, the Vice President has been the second biggest 
obstacle to reform in America. And now he wants to be the biggest."
	- George W. Bush, 10-21-00