Re: Roger's voice 2000 vs 2002

[Sroundtable@xxxxxxx]

> >Beginning with CFNYC and going through 2002 Roger's> voice sounded MUCH better than it had in 2000 or on> > Ken:> > So...who was that singing for the band, then? I just put BBE from CFNYC on DVD, and his voice is clearly NOT as good as it was in 2000. And, too, I've heard the Shoreline and Detroit shows. I hear what I hear. Sure, both of us can cite > individual moments but I'm talking overall concertwide performance.
True, his voice was not up to par at CFNYC, at least after Who are You (in which I thought he sounded great).  He sounded terrible in WGFA (but no one seemed to care).  At that show I think he was just rusty and hadn't been singing much since the 2000 tour.  He seems to always struggle with BBE, anyway.  In fact, I have a video clip of BBE from a 1979 show and he flattened out on several notes and seemed to struggle even there.  I think it's just a hard song to sing live.  I also heard a number of criticisms on this list of Roger on BBE from 2000, to the effect of never wanting to hear them play it again.
In regard to his voice on the tour, I was at several shows and have a number of the encore CDs, in addition to having RAH 2000 on video and Denver 2000.  IMHO, he sounded stronger in 2002.  His voice was good on the RAH video, but the sound was clearly produced much more carefully in that than on the raw board recordings of 2002.  Even so, I thought he sounded as good if not better in 2002 than RAH 2000.  In addition, his voice was atrocious on that Denver CD (makes me wonder why they released THAT one), and even his worst night in 2002 wasn't THAT bad.  Hell, in the 1996 video clip of LROM I have, his voice doesn't sound any better to me than the 2002 versions of that song. This whole discussion made me go back and listen to several 2002 CDs, and despite my reservations about HOW he sings a few of the songs, I think he sounded damn good.  Clearly his voice isn't even close to his 1977-78 peak (see Baba O from TKAA), but after watching Plant try to sing Misty Mountain Hop on the last Page/Plant tour as well as Kashmir on the Atlantic Records anniversary show, Roger has held up considerably better because he still has the power.  Plant has retained his basic voice tone, but he can't wail at all anymore and he lacks considerable power.
I will concede Roger's struggles with Bargain and BBE and Baba O and 5.15, but he actually does a better job these days with songs like Relay, Who are You, YBYB, ATD, and AAA than in days of old (IMHO).  Plant can't even sing half of Zeppelin's songs the way they were originally written, and I actually enjoyed his opening sets for the Who in 2002, but the power is not there.  Rog can still scream his ass off and go balls to the wall.  That's enough for me.
Mc