Everybody loves ANNIE

IF the fund raiser for the 50th anniversary concerts is successful and the Skype chat is on, I will try to ask her specifically about Ashes are burning.  But she said in an interview that in general, the vocalise was devised by her.  And yes, not only is the Ashes 'solo' technically stupefying, it's also well constructed, especially so for somebody who was not a composer.  

I get that her virtuosity by itself didn't attract the attention it should have.  Because the Park West performance was just shown on a small TV network; she had no godfather like Clive Davis to put it on the big networks.  'Immortality' in popular music is only earned through non stop hyping up by the labels, TV channels, press etc.  And from the few reviews from back in the day I have come across, I can glean that the press was hostile to the band (hence, Vultures Fly High).  

But even keeping aside her virtuosity... I mean, this is progarchives where people think Petrucci is no great shakes just because he doesn't play the blues like Gilmour.  But Annie isn't even all about technicality.  I don't know how anyone can listen to her incredible interpretation of Going Home and think she is just a technical singer.  And this goes back to the confusion people have between songwriting and singing/performing.  I really think when people say Annie is meh, they mean Renaissance is meh.  Because it's not like there was a better way to sing those songs that she eschewed. Maybe on the first couple of albums but not thereafter.  

If Annie wasn't good at constructing a song, you know building a story around it the way great singers can, surely a great singer like Judith Durham would have come up with an interpretation of Northern Lights that was miles ahead of Annie's.  But she didn't.  Her cover was lovely, I liked it.  But you'd have to be pretty biased against Annie to think Judith sang it way better or something.  Or...if we compare Annie's interpretation of If I Loved You to Barbara Streisand's, it holds up really well and has an earthiness and almost a naivete that Streisand's polished take lacks and I say this as someone who like Streisand from before when I first came across Renaissance. So, basically, I don't think it is widely known or understood what a WELL ROUNDED talent Annie is.  She isn't about one or two things like range or power, she does a whole cornucopia of things related to singing really, really well, like amazingly well.

In fact, just the title track alone has incredible range.  And when I say range, I don't mean just octave range but the variety of attacks she uses in that song with some really fast, acrobatic phrases to boot. Her singing on the chorus there is so punchy, like rock sans the distortion.  I am just going to post it there as there may be people who haven't heard it (a lot of fans stick to the classic albums from Ashes through to Scheherazade).