Singers that take an acquired taste to get into?

Hi,

I wonder about this.

I think that Jon had a nice path going, and was ready for more and he did with CTTE and then TFTO ... but then, when RW and the media trashed TFTO because it was not a pop song, his idea of something better and stronger than just a song, went out the window, with some thanks to Mr. Curry and Cape for his comments which were really sad, considering that what he added to CTTE and TFTO was vastly superior than the over rated material he did as a "solo" artist ... 

It was a sad time, and I did not dislike RELAYER but you could see the effect right away that Mr. Curry and Cape's comments added to the record company wanting something that would get played on radio a lot more, and sadly, I think this took its toll. RELAYER, is not, in many ways, an improvement on TFTO at all, and I tend to think that some parts in the album are simply allowing a player or two to go totally crazy and that was that. While there is a lot to like from Mr. Howe, I would think that if he had toned it down some, it might make a better album, but at that time, the golden god guitarist from Mars was more important to the music business than the music itself.

To me, what was meant as "progressive music" was hurt and destroyed right there. The "meaning" was now meaningless and no lyrics were EVER going to save it!

You're so right. It's about placing the vocal style in the proper context of the music. Tim Smith's vocals were absolutely an essential ingredient for creating that bizarro effect that Cardiacs excelled at.

Hi,

There are a couple of others, these days, but they are kinda lost in the shuffle, and folks are not that great about listening to new things. In the Space Pirate Radio show, there are a couple of things that are insane, and have vocals that challenge the best of FZ and other "weird" or "strange" kind of vocals. Nobody else, but Guy Guden will play these things, since most folks don't know how/what to follow it up with ... oh yeah ... let's play this YES piece, which tells you that those folks don't know music from farts! And farts make excellent music backwards ... ask Guy about that!

Dagmar, for me, is a left over from the Brecht/Weill school of music, that also went on to develop its own version in France with Ange doing Jacques Brel as well.

Peter Hammill, in my own words, is the best of the "pure" actors and I think that everything he does is just so well defined, which tells you that all the lyrics are written off his own expression first, not his ideas. I don't think he can write a song about this or that ... he just seems to write and if it is about this or that, oh well, so it is ... but it's hard to see this in Bernina and some of the material at that time, but when you hear his album that includes noises and such, you get the idea that he learns about expression by experimenting, and some new things always arrive.

Robert Wyatt, for me, is the ultimate kid in a sandbox ... and his playfulness and appreciation for it all is crazy, and sometimes it is difficult to appreciate ... for most rock fans, and even jazz fans. But his intuitive side, and ability to do something different (all the time!!! You must read his book!!!!!) is probably second to none, and my guess/bet is that he will even do it onstage to take the safe side out of most musicians simply reading a script! 

Play with heart, not a script!

Hi,

I've always thought that this is the case because of the record companies and their advertising, and eventually, the fans "believe it" ... there is no record company in the last 50 years that was not going to take advantage of Ozzy and his this or that on the stage ... which helped sell a lot more albums than anyone expected.

As you mentioned and I have stated it several times, the fan base of these things is all about the "sound" and many of them do not care about anything else ... and, you know that is true, when they make their favorite statement and say absolutely nothing about the music and its mechanics. Ozzy may be this and that, but BS was not exactly a 2nd rate band, and they made a lot of their work come alive very well, and they deserve the credit for it. 

In my book, specially for a location like PA, I would like to see the ADMINS do a bit more making sure that folks learn how to discuss music, instead of likes and dislikes and no comment, or worse yet, the comment about someone else's comment that has nothing to do with the music or the artist ... which even a couple of "admins" abuse many times, which (in my book!) needs to stop, but some folks think they are bigger than cheesecake and take advantage of their "power", and this is the case for a lot of record companies and specially rock music, that has always been "based" on its live appeal, and insane moments ... like you find a lot of books on groupies for jazz folks ... but there are hundreds (if not thousands) of these on rock bands, and you can just about tell how many of them are fake ... not that miss "now I'm a do goodie wife", is not as fake and silly as all the others. Their books would have been better with the complete sexy shenanigans, to help dispel something or other about the band ... and instead, it perpetuates the myth, by hiding the real thing. 

The one sad thing, when you really look at the top listings for the past 40 years, is that not very many singers are actually that good, and in fact, many of them can not carry a note. Suddenly you hear a Joe Cocker or a Roger Chapman, and you don't even realize that they did not need to carry a note ... they were ACTORS that also sang ... or as Meatloaf said in his bio ... "I happen to be an actor that sings. You have a problem with that?" .... and it is really easy to say ... yep ... "fans" have massive problems with that because they got attached to something that was not there in the first place!