lizzytysh wrote: . . . perhaps comparing male & female vocalists is apples vs oranges (or "wmds" vs "regime change" as the case may be) and preference is in the ear of the beholder . . . Yup, Natural Born Killers had a significant impact upon my future listening sessions & the title gave me ideas for future foreign policy.
These lines were very humourous for me
... in a perverse sort of way, of course.
~ Lizzy
gloppppp....
Well, of course down here in bunker land we wouldn't want it any other way than perverse.
It is interesting, when discussing voice, different listeners perceptions. I recall when wolfy & rummy & I were enjoying
Natural Born Killers on one of the gop bigscreens (all the while contemplating "the future," haha) how mesmerized I was by LC's voice. Not too terribly long ago, on a critical writing site I participated on, a discussion arose about voice. A particular individual claiming to have perfect pitch (who lives in Canada, otherwise she would be under fbi investigation) stated that she could not stomach LC's voice. I'm like holy-cow, because I always found LC's voice as smooth & rich as those 500$ of Scotch whiskey junior likes to keep in the castle on the tax-payers dime. But this afore mentioned individual went on to tell me I was not only wrong about LC, but nearly all of my other favorite vocalists. Springsteen & Lucinda Williams were a couple of other ones, "if you like them that's one thing, but don't tell me that they have GOOD voices." An interesting comment, imo, because not only do I like those two for their lyric writing ability, but I also feel that their lyrics are strongest when expressed by those particular artists, as I also feel about LC's lyrics. I love Henley's cover of
Everybody Knows, however I still feel that song loses impact during the interprative process. "Contrived," was the word this individual used to describe the voices of Lu & Bruce, & I forgot what unflattering term she described Leonard Cohen's voice. I make no claims at perfect pitch (I have picked up a good ear for detecting how my pace-maker is running) but I thought her description was unfair & inaccurate. However, as I stated above, beauty may at times be in the ear of the beholder.
I won't stray too far from Leonard Cohen's music in this forum, as this is not "everything else," & I have a healthy respect for the basic purpose of this board, but I will throw out a plug for The Cowboy Junkies if anyone is not familiar &/or interested. My opinion was that the best part of
natural Born Killers was the soundtrack, & in particular, Leonard Cohen's two contributions which contrasted beautifully (goose-bump level, actually) with the ethereal cover of "Sweet Jane" by The Cowboy Junkies (also of Canada), vocals exclusively by Margo Timmins. (Again, just my opinion, I think the Michael Timmins & the CJs true excellence was in interpretation of the work of others, notably their first two cds. It is noteable that Lou Reed remarked that he liked the CJs cover of "Sweet Jane" better than his own original presentation.)
I'll leave this topic alone, for now, except to say that I love male/female vocalists harmonizing. One of my favorite examples (killer lyrics combined with performance) of this is "Joan of Arc," but maybe someone can help me out here? I always assumed that the female voice was that of Perla Batalla, but perhaps I'm incorrect? Regardless, I can't help but ponder what a killer duet it would be if Leonard Cohen & Margo Timmins were to record a song together.
Oh well....
Ydc
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