Derry, Northern Ireland

Derry, Northern Ireland
A book I'm working on is set in this town.

Friday, July 20, 2012

Crappy voices sell on KCRW

I'm listening to an archive of Raul Campos' program from yesterday, and this woman is singing a cover of U2's "One" and doing it so badly, I almost think it's supposed to be parody. Her voice cracks and waves, and she goes off in directions that add nothing to the music...and it's not the first time I've heard this version.

It's by someone named La Santa Cecelia, and I'm stunned into silence at the understanding that they think this cut is good. Needless to say, I ain't buying nothing of hers.

Of course, Bob Dylan's hardly a great singer, but he knows how to write great music and can phrase with the best of them. Even Paul Simon and Madonna have voices of limited range, as did Marilyn, but they kept within their limits. Plus as good as Barbra Streisand is when it comes to vocal ability and range, her renditions of songs come across as soulless and cold, to me.

So it's not that big a deal not being able to sing. Rex Harrison made a major career out of it with "My Fair Lady" and won both Tony and Oscar for it. But this rendition of a beautiful song was like something out of a high school musical in a backwoods town in West Virginia.

But she got air time. She has an album. While I got eight books out there that aren't exactly burning up the bestsellers lists. You have to start to wonder if it's not people like Santa Cecelia who're untalented, but it's yourself who is and it's because your sense of taste is skewed totally wrong.

That or it's just plain fucking luck, of which I only have the bad or indifferent kind. And not even my Dragon or Lion selves seem able to change it.

I'd roar, but what's the point? If I am a cat, all that'd come out is a nice long yawn...and then a nap.

Hmmm....sounds good.

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