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Re: lag time



(edited, to fit the screen, and time alloted...)

christa (rist@acpub.duke.edu) wrote:

: On 25 Sep 1996, rousseau d'igou wrote, of frank sinatra:

: > he sings of days in which the voice was instrument.
: > 
: > today, voice is only instrumental. just part of the music.

: depends.

: i mean, there are still -vocalists- out there.  though the instrumental 
: parts have simply changed.  (chris knox, john howie, and uh, i dunno, 

: and.

: i mean, there are still -voices- out there.  where the voice is still the 
: instrument, but it's the *oddness* of the voice that is the music.  
: (stephen merritt, david byrne, tom waits, neil young.  god i love this 
: topic.)

yes.

but what i'm thinking is the time when the music would be composed or 
arranged *around* the voice, whereas now, it seems to me, the voice is 
just a part of the arrangement or the composition. (not apart, 
mind...that's not what i'm thinking.) 

: though.

: i wonder if there really *is* sinatra-esque music still being produced 
: today, and we're just not aware of it?  i mean, are there any modern-day 
: peggy lees?  any nat king coles?  anyone?  (and don't say john tesh, egad.)

: are there?  any songs, new and wonderfully heart-rending, delivered with 
: full strings and lush vocal whispers?

no, not in the sense that i am thinking. it's a skill, perhaps an art, 
that is lost to us just as stone-cutting and the film-musical has been. 

: or are they all singing newfangled country music?

whatdoyoumeanbythat?

lyle lovett comes closest in my current mind to what i am thinking.

and, no, harry,connick,jr. is not even in the ballpark, alan.

(did you ever notice that if you scroll back over the entire buffer of 
your session that it clicks by like those hip films of the late 60's and 
early 70's, where images would be presented for frames-at-a-time? life 
imitating art.)

: anyhoo, i would argue with you, ri, that "the voice is only instrumental" 
: these days.  
: clearly it can, and is, important.  simply important in different ways.

still, no argument. 

1.      my grandparents never could abide sinatra, or peggy lee, the 
andrews sisters or the mills brothers. lived for another day, a rudy 
valli day.

2.      i once heard the widow of a former conductor of the nc symphony 
speak with derision of "that vaughn woman."

3.      one night, late, when i was the closing manager of magdalena's 
and still in lawschool, i had a table of two, a man and a woman, both in 
their 60's, perhaps their 70's, who were staying, late. in order to chase 
them out i put janis joplin's _greatest hits_ in the thing and waited for 
them to leave. after a few tunes, the woman waved me over to their sole 
table, and i, elated, approached, anticipating her complaint and ready to 
excuse myself of the power to stop the music, so to facilitate her exit, 
with companion. "is that janis joplin?" she asked, and i hesitated, in 
wonder; how did she know janis?  "yes, it is," i said, and i waited, less 
elated, but still confident. "it's really too bad she died so young; she 
had quite a remarkable voice, didn't she? i wonder what she could have 
done with more experience."

-r my night got later i

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