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Great voices in rock

cookieman15061

By cookieman15061
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NeoConMan

NeoConMan

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Eddie Money - before he went all soft in the eighties.

 

His album No Control had several good tunes on it, title track and Shakin'.

 

Earlier albums were loaded with goodies.

 

Problem is, Eddie was loaded too.

In the video for Shakin' that was no act.

Killed his career.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA1wDgPZCDA

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cookieman15061

cookieman15061

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Eddie Money - before he went all soft in the eighties.

 

His album No Control had several good tunes on it, title track and Shakin'.

 

Earlier albums were loaded with goodies.

 

Problem is, Eddie was loaded too.

In the video for Shakin' that was no act.

Killed his career.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA1wDgPZCDA

 

Yeah saw him live few years ago and it was pretty sad. He couldn't hold any notes and he apparently kept running out of air because he would hold the mic stand out to the crowd so someone in the audience could sing a verse.

 

Used to play Two Tickets to Paradise, Rock n Roll Star and Give Me Some Water in an band when I was in college.msp_thumbup.gif

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jaxson50

jaxson50

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Thankyou, I always wondered who sang this...I had speculated it may have been Billy Preston...Many good and obscure posts...

I'm suprised Rod Argent hasn't been mentioned yet ( Zombies and Argent ) Hold Your Head Up and God Gave Rock and Roll to You.....

 

( Has anyone mentioned Paul Carrik yet ? [scared][blink][wub][-X#-o[omg][lol] )

I saw Lee live back in 1971, just him and his drummer (Frosty), they put on one hell of a show. He had a stack of Leslies, made my ears bleed...when he hit the last note on his last song, he laid over the B-3, I was sitting in the first row right in front of him. As he was adjusting one of the pulls holding the note a guy with a camera walked up on stage and was right in his face trying to get a pic. Lee came up with a glass of water and drenched him...it was funny as hell.

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jaxson50

jaxson50

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Roy Orbison had a great voice...the guy went through so much pain in his life I can't imagine how he kept going...he and his first wife were riding their twin Harleys in Tenn. when she was run over by a semi and killed instantly. Then a few years later while on tour in Europe his home burned down killing his two eldest sons...hi popularity ebbed and flowed through the years, and just when he was making a solo come back he died...

When he was first signed to a recording contract he insisted that his songs be recorded live in the studio, no dubbing, in one take...When he toured Great Britain with the Beatles in 1963, the first night he asked Lennon "what's a Beatle?" Lennon said "I am". He then went on before them and had 14 encores! The crowd was chanting "we want Roy", Paul held him back so they could get their set in.. Roy along with Billy Dees wrote "Pretty Woman" in 12 min.s

This was the orig. demo for Careless Heart..

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kyHXvwcQ5g&feature=related

 

 

This is one of his best..

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9MAXR4K3ac

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Hall

Hall

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Okay...

 

There's one "great." Recorded for decades. Incredible voice, unique songwriter...

 

Roy Orbison. Even Elvis, as I understand it, considered Orbison "the" rock singer. Rock hall of fame, of course... Top 10 records nine times in four years... Often covered, never matched.

 

Others are poor to awfully, awfully good...

 

Orbison, at least the voice... and the unique music...

 

m

 

 

milod,

 

I am with you. Nobody could touch Roy Orbison's voice. Remember, "Mama" , "Evergreen", "Uptown", "Blue Bayou", "Workin For The Man" , "Leah" and on and on, all before "Pretty Woman". He worte his lyrics. Elvis was plain jealous and acknowledged it openly more than once. Time to go watch, 'Black and White Night'!

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jaxson50

jaxson50

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milod,

 

I am with you. Nobody could touch Roy Orbison's voice. Remember, "Mama" , "Evergreen", "Uptown", "Blue Bayou", "Workin For The Man" , "Leah" and on and on, all before "Pretty Woman". He worte his lyrics. Elvis was plain jealous and acknowledged it openly more than once. Time to go watch, 'Black and White Night'!

 

I have Black and White Night too, I love it...it is hard to grasp how powerful his voice was as he held it back so often... Bono witnessed the recording of the song "She's a Mystery to Me" and recalled:

 

"I stood beside him and sang with him. He didn't seem to be singing. So I thought, 'He'll sing it the next take. He's just reading the words.' And then we went in to listen to the take, and there was this voice, which was the loudest whisper I've ever heard. He had been singing it. But he hardly moved his lips. And the voice was louder than the band in its own way. I don't know how he did that. It was like sleight of hand."

 

Jeff Lynne discovered the power of Roy's voice the first time he worked with him on "You Got It", he set all the controls to mid power, and Roy overpowered the panel...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dysmg6j1vMw

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milod

milod

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Another point about "voice" is that of the songwriter.

 

One reason Orbison's stuff has stayed around a long time, even though a whole generation pretty much lost touch with the name, is the way his material wasn't the typical form of a pop song. Musically it's comparatively complex and the lyrics are micro-stories.

 

I'll predict that many Orbison songs will be performed for decades more as virtuoso material.

 

m

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NeoConMan

NeoConMan

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I was too late to catch Orbison the first time around.

Heard about him all the time from people remaking his songs.

"Old folks" talked about him a lot.

 

Honestly could not stand the Traveling Wilburys - partly because I was irritated Tom Petty had mellowed so much.

 

Orbison's voice ranked way up there with Geddy Lee's on the "chalk board" scale.

 

Once I started studying him more, his influence on all those after became more and more clear.

 

Then THIS SONG hit me like a sledge hammer between the eyes;

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDyX9QGRmVw

 

Isaak cited Orbison as a huge influence.

The dots were finally connected for me.

The man is indeed a legend.

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milod

milod

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neo...

 

Good catch. Good voice and yeah, I think the Orbison influence seems apparent.

 

But try this to see the songwriter voice: Put on anything on Youtube, so you can watch Roy's pickin', from "Crying" to "Mystery Girl" and try to figure the chords. Try to figure the "pattern" of verse, chorus, verse, bridge, etc. It just ain't there the way most stuff is.

 

......... Jax...

 

Yeah and worse than that in ways were some of his first wife's apparent "habits" when he was on the road...

 

m

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cookieman15061

cookieman15061

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Sorry Neo I have to disagree here. I found the Wilbury's to be a gas.

 

 

Friends playing and writing together without giant egos getting in the way. Exactly what a band should be in my opinion.

doing it all with a sense of humor.

 

This latest release with both cds and a dvd of a lot of home movie footage is a great incite into how it happened and how much joy these guys had making it.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUUps5uXxmQ

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jaxson50

jaxson50

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Neo

"Honestly could not stand the Traveling Wilburys - partly because I was irritated Tom Petty had mellowed so much.

 

Orbison's voice ranked way up there with Geddy Lee's on the "chalk board" scale."

 

I respectfully disagree. If you want to talk about "chaulk board" we can start a thread about heavy metal=headbangers= ](*,)

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milod

milod

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Please, please, please don't take this as a cut at current or past 20-years singers, but...

 

Don't forget also the recording methods and equipment available for Orbison in the studio and the stage environment and rather crude amplification available for him into the 70s. Some newer singers with relatively similar range might have been able to cope with it. But that's a personality thing more than a "talent" thing per se. Orbison overcame.

 

Guitars... I really find it interesting how Sam Phillips was more impressed by Roy's guitar pickin' than his singing - and yet, Roy's songs mostly didn't have much obvious picking and frankly I can't quite figure what he's doing on most stuff, obviously excluding "pretty woman."

 

The package was pretty special. Yet even in the mid 1960s I was pretty put down by folks suggesting any Orbison stuff was old fashioned crap that should be forgotten and no "good band" (they figured we were) would want to play that junk.

 

m

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NeoConMan

NeoConMan

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Yeah Jax, Orbison was an acquired taste for me.

I was one of those "metal" kids.

 

 

David Clayton Thomas. ^ ^ ^

 

[thumbup]

 

 

 

 

Same for Burton Cummings of the Guess Who.

 

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

 

 

Honorable mention to Randy Bachman and his 1959 sunburst Les Paul with a Bigsby.

(Not in this clip)

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