Vocals and Emotional In Songs

[aimeeandbeatles]

The discussion in the covers thread got a little diverted to talking about vocals so I decided to make another thread for it. Heres the posts:

I just finished it. I gotta say, musically it wasn't half bad considering they learned it that very day, but good lord Tom... if you can't sing right, just let someone else do it.

What do you mean? Petty's somewhat known for his garbled vocals. Its said that (I think) Linda Ronstadt once had to call him because she couldnt figure out the words to "The Waiting."

EDIT: Although from listening to some of the Fillmore shows, they seem pretty garbled and the vocals are bad compared to some other ones.

It's not so much that they're garbled as that he's just talking his way through the lyrics. It's a style, I guess - Dylan obviously does the same, more incomprehensibly - but it's a Dead tune so I'm just being demanding. Jerry himself wasn't an especially adept singer in the technical sense, but my lord did he ever sing with feeling and soul.

I probably like the Dead's versions of Tangled Up In Blue and Not Fade Away more than I like the originals, but yeah. The Grateful Dead were a musician's band. They had such deep roots in so much American music - esp. blues and folk - it's no wonder they had such a huge repertoire of what we call "covers."



NO WAI. Just playin bro!

Oh god, here we go. Found that Dead cover that Aimee mentioned... Battle Royale time:


Link to video.

Yeah, the Fillmore shows arent really the greatest vocal-wise. And although Petty's a better singer than a lot of people give him credit for, his best vocal work is on the originals IMO.

EDIT: But theres some pretty good covers covers from 1987-07-24 show, which I believe might've been a radio broadcast (not sure, but there's a few clues that it might've been). But that might be hard to find.

Good lord this. People hate Jerry's voice, but I'm a huge fan of it. Sure he was out of tune more often than not, but jesus did the man know how to sing with soul. Take this for example:


Link to video.


Link to video.

Yeah, for TP&HB, "Refugee" has some feeling. I mean, for vocal performance, the studio version beats pretty much every live version Ive heard, its so damn powerful the vocals. But thats not a cover.

But the thing with Petty, Im not sure if everyone feels the same way but at his best he sings it and you actually sort of feel it inside. I broke down crying the first time I heard "Trailer" (b-side from Southern Accents, was on Playback). Im not sure if another singer doing that song would cause the same thing.

Ah, here it is. Its an original and one of the songs that sorta stretches out of rock 'n' roll:

Spoiler This isnt a cover :

Link to video.

But that was a diversion. Back to the covers.

So, lets discuss this.

For me, as I said, I think Pettys most powerful/emotional vocals are on his originals. "The Wild One Forever," "A Woman in Love (It's Not Me)," and of course "American Girl" and "Refugee." Although people like to mock him in a whiny nasal voice, he can really wrap his vocal around an emotion at time.

Like, for example, A Woman In Love. I'm gonna do a little critique of the studio version. In the background of the verses, its mostly empty -- mostly just Duck Dunn's bass and Stan Lynch's drums, very light, showcases Petty's vocals. "She laughed in my face, told me goodbye." Its very blunt and hits you (well, if youre the same kinda person as me) hard, especially the way he sings it.
And then you get to that explosive chorus, which I cant get into words too well. But here's the video (I think the black-and-white sorta gets the bleakness of the verses pretty well)... oh and they show Ron Blair on bass in the video, which actually isnt so.

Link to video.

 

[madviking]

Thom Yorke's vocals are pretty...distraught...at times (cf. Fake Plastic Trees, Karma Police)


Link to video.


Link to video.

A lot of people give Billy Corgan a lot of crap for his nasally voice. I personally don't mind it. It's actually pretty well suited to singing angsty music (cf. Jellybelly, Silverf***). But he also can sing slower, softer vocals too (cf. Crush, Luna).


Link to video.

3-jSS-WPRHY


Link to video.


Link to video.

 

[Japanrocks12]

I think Yorke admitted to composing "Creep" out of self-pity, so that would fit the "emotional" moniker quite well.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

On the third album there's a TP&HB song called "You Tell Me." Not terribly well-known, but its a great song which the vocals I find rather emotional. Its a little buried under all the instruments (in the documentary they were talking about it being "unintentional chamber music") but still. Pity the bitrates rather low here:

Link to video.

As of yet Ive not found a live version.

Live? Well if you can find the Live Anthology version of "Lost Without You" (another original) its pretty raw. Id link to it myself but he swears a few times. I actually have the version from the original radio broadcast (Live Anthology version was remastered or something and sounds a bit different). It also hits pretty hard when it comes right after the rocker "Drivin' Down to Georgia" -- the Live Anthology thankfully takes this into consideration when they did the sequencing.

 

[Kyriakos]

I think that this is a bit of a hyberbole. Why do you insist on starting new threads which ALL are about TP? Don't you realise that this becomes irritating?
Nothing against you or your favourite band, but this is not a forum owned by you, and each subject should get the representation in it that it has logically, that is in accordance to how many people actually care for it.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I am not responding to that. I will just say that Im not preventing anyone from posting other artists.

 

[warpus]

I usually don't pay attention to lyrics in songs. People don't seem to get that about me. Am I weird, or what?

When I listen to a song my brain focuses on the rhythm melody and harmony.. not on the actual words being said. If you asked he what the lyrics were to some of my favourite songs, I would have no idea. When I go to concerts I am unable to sing along, cause.. I have no idea what the lyrics are. Sure, if I really try I can pay attention to the lyrics, but it doesn't seem natural to me.

 

[SuperJay]

I think that this is a bit of a hyberbole. Why do you insist on starting new threads which ALL are about TP? Don't you realise that this becomes irritating?

If Aimee only wants to talk about one artist's vocals (or covers, or what have you), she's allowed. You may find it irritating, but as long as everyone else is able to converse about other artists and the threads don't get derailed into Pettyland, I don't see a problem. Anyway, got some vocalists you'd like to share?

One of my all-time favorite singers is Maynard James Keenan of TOOL. He has incredible vocal range and control - can do the metal-screaming parts and sound amazingly precise and aggressive, but can also convey vulnerability, sorrow, hope, triumph, and all points in between.

Here's an example - "Wings for Marie" and "10,000 Days (Wings pt 2)," which are effectively two parts of the same song.


Link to video.


Link to video.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I usually don't pay attention to lyrics in songs. People don't seem to get that about me. Am I weird, or what?

When I listen to a song my brain focuses on the rhythm melody and harmony.. not on the actual words being said. If you asked he what the lyrics were to some of my favourite songs, I would have no idea. When I go to concerts I am unable to sing along, cause.. I have no idea what the lyrics are. Sure, if I really try I can pay attention to the lyrics, but it doesn't seem natural to me.

Youre probably not the only one. For what its worth, sometimes I hear a song and Im so stricken by a specific part in the arrangement (vocals, guitars or wotnot) and actually have to tell my brain to pay attention to the other parts. Reminds me of the time I did that and I went "Wait, there's an ORGAN in this song?!"

And also reminds me... well sometimes I sing along to songs without realizing. And one time apparently Petty's vocals even got me because I was told I was actually singing nonsensical stuff. "A Wasted Life," if memory serves. I still have trouble comprehending what hes trying to say there.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

Here's an example - "Wings for Marie" and "10,000 Days (Wings pt 2)," which are effectively two parts of the same song.

Those two songs, along with "Viginti Tres", can be combined to form a new song.


Link to video.

 

[Plotinus]

Here's an interesting example that might have gone in the Covers thread.

A 1944 song by Leadbelly. (This is an old folk song, but this version of it was the source for the one I will post next.)


Link to video.

Now Nirvana's famous version of it:


Link to video.

Kurt puts far more emotion into it than Leadbelly did. The question is - does that make it better? I'm inclined to think that Leadbelly's calm delivery of "My girl, my girl, don't lie to me" is much more sinister than Kurt's strangled cry. Either way, they are both great versions.

And when it comes to emotional delivery, it doesn't come much more so than this:


Link to video.

He always looked like either he or the guitar would collapse from the strain. That's commitment to the material!

 

[.Shane.]

Great links Plotinus!

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I forgot It'll All Work Out. The Bridge School version is ... heartbreaking (pun not intended). I can only watch it about once every three months. The album version is also painful to listen to -- at least two or three people I talked to said they broke down crying the first time they heard it.


Link to video.

Oh great. I'm crying now. Better keep the tissues handy.