i’m worried alive
…and the whole time I was listening to soul music — music where you can actually hear a man’s heart break - Taylor Hicks
I didn’t realize it until about an hour ago, insomniac that I am, but I think it’s time for me to actually start talking about Taylor Hicks’ music on this blog.
But, where should I start? Do I talk about a genre, a lyric, an album, an influence, an improv technique? Those are all tempting because they are analytic and concrete, and frankly, not prone to lead me into something maudlin. I do want to get to those things (except the maudlin part), and soon. But, I find in all honesty, I’ve got to start where Hicks’ music started for me, because it both defied and justified my analytic tendencies: sometimes when he sings… when he finds a way to get into a mental space where he is alone with the music, I cannot separate in my mind the music I am hearing from the emotional release I am feeling. Is this “soul music”? I don’t know, but it’s a good starting point for understanding what that is.
The following performance, though definately rough in some ways, reaches that place for me. If you’ve been listening to Hicks awhile, it’s one you’re familiar with: Ain’t No Sunshine, Smith’s Old Bar, Atlanta, ~2004? I’m starting with this because it has a lot going on in terms of interpretation, but with a minimal instrumental underlay.
So I’m wondering, what happens in a performance that creates an emotional transfer? When it happens, it’s art, not magic. So what makes it happen? One example for me in this song is the insistent harp solo, relentlessy beating down on the note, evoking pain and futility like no improv on the melody ever could. He riffs the emotion, not the tune.
When a performance reaches you on a gut level, what’s going on in the music that brings you there? What’s an example, from this song or another, that shows that?
categories: music
tags: Ain't No Sunshine, Bill Withers, harmonica, taylor hicks
posted by what at 03:16 am
I wish I knew. I don’t have a musical background. And I’m not very analytical about it. I just tend to like what I like. I’ve often got ideas for playlists scratched on scraps of paper and never get around to making them, but I wonder what makes me think of grouping those songs. I think it’s often the feeling they evoke.
There was a discussion recently about the revival of Don’t Let Me Down. Is it the funky version that he did before? No. Is it the Beatles ballad-y version? Kinda. Mostly. Someone used the words “heart-wrenching” in conjunction with it though. I heard that in it. And that’s the reason I’m bringing it up here. It was the first real strong example of that end of the spectrum that I’ve heard from him since his rise. He was pleading. And even the vocals that weren’t pleading seemed…something. Someone said ‘free-er’. I guess that captures what I’m trying to say. Perhaps more ‘real’?
I think what’s reached me in nearly everything he’s done in ‘06 and ‘07 has been energy and passion. Fun. Energy. Spontaneity. Passion. That’s what he’s been about, to me, at least the majority of the time. And I’ve loved every second of it. There have been a couple moments where he’s veered off that path a bit. And there’ve even been some very touching moments I can think of in a few encores where he slowed down and conveyed something different to the audience. But I think that those would have mostly been experienced by the people there, not on a recording (audio or video).
I think both ANS and DLMD did what they did, strongly, audio only. And DLMD was definitely in the vocal. I’ll have to see if it’s the harp that does it for me in ANS.
Calypso - if you have a pointer to the version of Don’t Let Me Down that you’re talking about, would you post the link? It would be interesting to hear what’s going on in the music to convey the passion. I’ve heard other people say that he’s getting freer again. This is good to hear
Also, I didn’t want to leave the impression that the harp solo in the performance I played is the prime source of the emotional force in that rendition for me. It is just one place in that performance where I can tell that I’m reacting to a particular musical choice.
While I sometimes have a general feeling of being involved in a performance because of an overall feeling of passion from the performer, the performances that grab me most are the ones where there is a range of feeling over the course of the piece. I’m not just swept up, but taken on an emotional journey, so to speak.
So that’s the kind of analysis I’m thinking of - not pinning down proper musical descripions, but noticing what was happening in a piece that took me from hope to heartbreak. Was it a crack in the voice, a plaintive flute solo, a choking rhythmn?
This, of course, is only a start in understanding what makes an authentic performance. Just like a person can mask their true feelings with words they don’t really mean, you can string any of these elements together by formula and convince people who are not really listening or who are ready to believe whatever you say.
But on a performances where my gut is telling me that this is really all there, I get a deeper understanding when I try to hear the messages within the whole, especially those conveyed in the music.
Of course, people, feel free to talk about it in whatever terms make sense for you. The lack of a common tongue, or even a common need, is one of the things that makes this interesting.
When I was an infant I knew when I was hungry before I had the word for hunger. I knew it from a primal need and I knew when that need had been satisfied. Later, I studied biology and could ascribe terms and diagram a cellular process that surrounds hunger and satisfaction; still the immediacy of the visceral experience is bigger than the attempts to explain it. I love words and yet even the best words remain only a pastel representation of experiences that are saturated bright colors. When I think of trying to explain what happens when an artist really connects with my gut it feels like trying to catch a waterfall of feelings in a thimble — so much lost.
I had a friend who’s favorite band was a Bluegrass group called the Seldom Scene; they are still around with some different members these days. The group had a singer named John Duffy who had an amazing range. The group was/ and still is noted for killer harmony. They have a new tenor these day since Duffy past away. This example, however, is about my friend trying to explain what Duffy’s voice did to him during the harmony parts. It was 1980 in the grass at a festival. My friend was telling me that he could talk for the rest of his life and never fully touch with words what harmony did to his soul. Then the set started and I listened and watched. Part way through when a harmony was formed that had the crowed reeling my friend got my attention and pointed to his own arms to show me how all the hair on his arms was standing up. He whispered to me that his arms spoke the words his tongue could never quite accurately form.
In another topic on this blog it was mentioned that: “Stanley Turrentine …, is a man that sings through his horn.” Taylor Hicks is a man who talks with his harp. He also tears his soul open with his voice–right in front of you–no shields no protective armor. Sometimes the soul has unbridled joy — sometimes, desperation, sometimes an almost school boy wonder. That’s a thimble full of my waterfall. It says so little.
What’s the difference between an excellent performance that has you on your feet — or has you quietly hardly breathing to take it all in — and yet is something you kind of leave at the venue with a nod that ‘man that dude was great’ and an artist that does something more - something that drafts you –changes you–even against your will -your choice in the matter is lost. They have you!
Taylor Hicks can sing with a personal intimacy so extreme that I almost feel like a stranger who just walked into his bedroom. When he sings with a joy — there is a heartbreak behind it and when he sings with sorrow there is some kind of shadow of joy at the chance to share the pain. It’s like what Kahlil Gibran said in his piece on joy and sorrow.
“Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.”
Some great artists tear their heart out in front of you —-show their ecstasy in front of you and leave the audience honored for the chance to witness their disclosure.
Then there are, for me at least, the select few with a nameless component that takes the journey further. When they tear their heart out — they tear mine out too — when they revel in joy or passion they pull me naked and open with my own joy and passion. They strip away (at least for a while) the line between their heart and mine and we are one. Yikes this is awesome when it happens. Sometimes it hurts so much I want to run — but I always have to return. For me, this dude Taylor Hicks is one of these few artists. The step beyond explanation. Gestalt: the whole is much more than the sum of its parts.
Meg - I’ve often said that when Hicks is really on his game, I feel like a voyeur. That’s where I want him - away in his head and into the music. It’s funny. I’ve heard some other people lament the fact that he often doesn’t make eye-contact with the audience. To me, that’s a godsend. I’m more drawn into the world an artist is creating when they are focussed internally and don’t notice my prying ears. It’s that fourth wall - the barrier that sanctions the communion.
I can’t begin to understand how an artist gets to that place in their head. But I would like to understand how they communicate it. What is the musical vocabulary of this conversation?
My enjoyment of music has always been a result of two things: melody and voice. Following a true melody, a voice that can wring the emotion from the lyrics is what has always resonated with me. That, however, changed when Taylor Hicks’ live music entered my life. With his performance style, melody actually takes a back seat to the interpretation of the emotions in a song. His voice becomes an instrument and, on stage, his body moves to that instrument within. While I can’t completely define authenticity in a performance, I know that what Hicks does in that ANS performance is indeed authentic. As many times as I have listened to it, it has never failed to move me. Maybe, then, that’s at least one way of defining authenticity: the performance moves the performer himself so completely that the listener cannot fail to be drawn in. Would that more performers could bridge that gap between their experience of the music and the listeners’ experience of the music.
Here’s the recap I did of the DLMD soundcheck last week in Massachusetts:
The band bus had just pulled up, we hadn’t seen Taylor get out, my friend had gone back into the hotel to let the others know, then I clearly heard Taylor’s voice, so I move out to the boulevard. I make out the words and it’s Dont Let Me Down. OMFG. I just sit down in the grass and listen. As far as I can tell it’s just the voice and the electric guitar, not a full band. I can’t see anything, and I’m not close to really make out the instrumentation, guessing it’s Taylor and Josh. It’s got a slow sway, like the AI Tour version but quieter instrumentation. The voice is loud, clear and plaintive. I’m in love for the first time, Don’t let me down.
No one else is around me. It’s about 50 weeks since the last time I heard this live, maybe 10 months since anyone else has. It’s always on the top of my fantasy set list. And here it is.
(end of quote)
===
I just listened again to the Council Bluffs DLMD performance with full band, and to my ears the same stuff isn’t there. In Hyannis his audience is the one who was recently there. The night before in Cohasset the Soul Serenade tag had the fearless intimate intensity, watch starting at 8:00 here…
http://www.gofish.com/player.gfp?gfid=30-1126176
Meg’s description “personal intimacy so extreme that I almost feel like a stranger who just walked into his bedroom” applies here. Watch how he pulls the curtain closed with his hand, and draws himself inward with “shhhhh…” we the audience voyeurs.
The other live performance worked in a similar way for me was the debut of Compared to What in Myrtle Beach — there was the music and the message Making it Real, the performance — sound and movement — that pogo cowbell attitude conveying as much the lyrics. Restricted no longer “This is who I am”.
What, I think it’s very difficult to be analytical about something that comes from the guts. The artists themselves probably couldn’t tell you how they “get to that place in their head”. It comes form a willingness to open yourself up, to make yourself vulnerable. The audience in turn receives something that they find hard to explain, but they know is unique. What I wonder is can Taylor ever replicate that special chemistry in a studio performance?
Okay, I have an issue with our boy that so far no one has been able to help me resolve. I am of the “when Hicks is really on his game, I feel like a voyeur” opinion that Meg and What described above. And I totally agree that when he’s on his game he does something to me that I don’t even understand. My dilemma is this: how do you account for the times that he’s not ‘on’? I don’t mean when he’s obviously having a bad night and giving a lackluster performance. We’re all human, we all have off days. I mean how do you account for the seemingly two sides of Hicks’ talent? How can the person who is responsible for the City Stages rendition of “Will It Go ‘Round in Circles,” the Smith’s Olde Bar “Georgia” last summer, and the entire Workplay show last August be the SAME person who put out that (let’s admit it) sappy CD and seems quite happy to play the pop music flavor du jour with a grin and a wink? Does anyone see this as a very odd juxtaposition? I just can’t reconcile these opposite ends of the spectrum occupying one body.
Do I just expect too much from my musicians? I don’t think so. Others wander, going from really great periods in their careers to not so great ones, and often back again, but with Hicks it all seems to happen simultaneously. How can he be this REAL as someone said above, yet also this phony?
Is anyone else with me on this?
mamaforpeace - I agree with you, but I’m not trying to be analytical about what comes from the singer’s gut, I’m trying to be analytical about the effect it has on me. It’s like this. If I’m in a conversation with someone and they say something that delights me and then goes on to something that hurts me, I don’t have an overwashing feeling that the conversation brought me pain. I’m well aware that at some moments I was interested, some moments delighted and some moments in pain. And if I think back on it, I can remember the word or look or gesture that caused those changes of feeling.
Listening to music is the same. When I hear Ain’t No Sunshine, I don’t have a uniform emotional response throughout. Different musical events cause changes in my emotional state, and when I think about it, i can tell which events caused what. That’s the kind of analysis I’m doing. How Hicks or anyone else gets to that place, I don’t know.
I think music can affect us not only by the caliber of music but also are effected by the state of our emotions, it can depend upon how we are feeling that day. There are days when I only feel like listening to faster tunes that make you want to Runaround and Dance!
And then there are days when I am bummed or tired and need nothing but sad in your face music. Either way Taylor can take me there. He has a way of provoking feeling and emotions into his songs. Do I think Taylor is a fake because he has produced different kinds of music, hell no, I think is human and has experienced all kinds of emotions. And puts them forth in his music.
In listening to Aint No Sunshine you can tell the lonliness of this song by the first lone guitar riffs. Which the feelings of sadness explode when Taylor breaks into the harmonica which is almost haunting. Makes you want to cry, was he sad that day? I don’t know but he sure has a way of evoking feeling into his songs. And for that I am greatful!
I think that Hicks or any artist that evokes a visceral response does not consciously set out to do this. There is no engineering about it; trying to engineer it would come off fake — we’ve all seen that in entertainers as well. I think the audience reacts like a mirror. We mirror the depth of the feeling the artist is having. What I mean is for me to be that raw I believe the artist is coming from an even more raw place. It’s their willingness to share that naked place in all its real ache and burn that tears the listener open.
“When a performance reaches you on a gut level, what’s going on in the music that brings you there? What’s an example, from this song or another, that shows that?”–WHAT
I am a great Bill Withers fan. He is at a very basic level a story teller. But on deeper level he doesn’t just relate a tale with his songs he makes you experience the emotions that go along with the tale. One of my favorite songs is, “Who is he (and what is he to you)?” It is a simple tale about a man who upon seeing his girl and a another man exchanging glances questions the nature of their relationship. Mr. Wither’s ability to relate the frustration, anger and saddness of his suspicions take me back to times in my life when I felt I was being betrayed. Bill is neither melodramatic nor playing to the audience he is simplying laying bare his own soul.
“Do I just expect too much from my musicians? I don’t think so. Others wander, going from really great periods in their careers to not so great ones, and often back again, but with Hicks it all seems to happen simultaneously. How can he be this REAL as someone said above, yet also this phony?
Is anyone else with me on this?”–Julie
I agree, I liked but did not love Taylor’s Cd. Nor do I use it to sell or promote Taylor to friends. I have seen performances that he seemed lackluster and others where he really shined all in a span of days of each other. Perhaps when Taylor makes reference to a learning curve and asks his fans to look long term he realizes this lack of consistency on his part is the short coming he needs to work on. I have never felt his heart and soul was truely committed to this CD and Taylor performs songs other then those songs on the CD better and with more emotion. I am curious as to what he will come out with next time.
I’m with you, Julie, but I think it’s a matter of an artist being an artist vs an artist being a puppet. I know this sounds familiar probably but it’s exactly what I believe. Let’s see if I can come up with an analogy in case my over simplification isn’t understood. It’s standing naked on stage, the transparency of his skin exposing the beats of his heart vs dressed and covered from head to toe in the snow with snowflakes falling on him in the form of producers, writers, record company execs, fans’ expectations, and the like. His creativity is almost non-existent in the recording studio until he can be a “commercial” power player. He’s successful with his fans when he performs as himself and lets it all hang out. He’s successful with the execs when he sings established songwriters’ material. There must be so many things that play into all this, the least of which is a possible debt he is re-paying from a studio head to a writer. As we all know, he went from backroads bar performer to international recording artist in a year’s time. From the schedule he’s kept, I just don’t know how he has been able to come to terms with it. Obviously, I don’t have THE answer either but I’ll leave this for the sake of discussion:
Garden Party
- Artist: Rick Nelson
- peak Billboard position # 6 in 1972
- inspired by Rick’s experience at a Madison Square Garden concert
- Words and Music by Rick Nelson
I went to a garden party to reminisce with my old friends
A chance to share old memories and play our songs again
When I got to the garden party, they all knew my name
No one recognized me, I didn’t look the same
CHORUS
But it’s all right now, I learned my lesson well.
You see, ya can’t please everyone, so ya got to please yourself
People came from miles around, everyone was there
Yoko brought her walrus, there was magic in the air
‘n’ over in the corner, much to my surprise
Mr. Hughes hid in Dylan’s shoes wearing his disguise
CHORUS
lott-in-dah-dah-dah, lot-in-dah-dah-dah
Played them all the old songs, thought that’s why they came
No one heard the music, we didn’t look the same
I said hello to “Mary Lou”, she belongs to me
When I sang a song about a honky-tonk, it was time to leave
CHORUS
lot-dah-dah-dah (lot-dah-dah-dah)
lot-in-dah-dah-dah
Someone opened up a closet door and out stepped Johnny B. Goode
Playing guitar like a-ringin’ a bell and lookin’ like he should
If you gotta play at garden parties, I wish you a lotta luck
But if memories were all I sang, I rather drive a truck
CHORUS
lot-dah-dah-dah (lot-dah-dah-dah)
lot-in-dah-dah-dah
‘n’ it’s all right now, learned my lesson well
You see, ya can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself
Julie - I agree that there are times when Hicks’ performance has the emotional integrity we’re talking about here, and times when it clearly doesn’t - and doesn’t even seem to be the goal. I could speculate on the reasons, but it would be mere speculation. A few that I think, in my ignorance, might apply are: inexperience in getting to that mental place in the studio (or lack of time to develop the material live before going to the studio), compromises that introduced material that didn’t inspire that sort of emotional connection, stylistic compromises that hampered that sort of interpretation, opting for fan interaction rather than internal focus, road fatigue. Who knows? His road up to this point is unusual enough that it might account for some of the differences you’re seeing between him and other artists, other people may not be seeing the differences as starkly as you.
But he’s a young artist on a new path. The telling thing will be what decisions he makes next, both on the road this summer and in his next album. Personally, I felt the spring tour was emotionally quite strong, though sometimes much more than others. What I hope and think I’m seeing is that will and resources are starting to move together even more in this direction, I’m basing that on recent audio and video, but I’ve not yet seen a performance on the summer tour. I’d be interested in hearing from those who have.
Your question is interesting, and certainly not off-topic for this blog, but it is off-topic for this post. I’m happy to have you compare instances of him hitting the emotional mark and ones where it didn’t happen for you- preferably with some sound snips to listen to - I’d love to delve into that and figure out why one performance of a song hit me hard and another performance of the same song did not (assuming it’s not something irrelevant, like my own mood). In fact, I’d like to encourage everyone commenting here to offer sound clips that illustrate your point, if it’s possible.
But getting any deeper into the whys at this point will derail this discussion, I’m
afraid. Perhaps on a future discussion, if we can find a way to ground it in fact, we can pursue it further. Is it a mark he is only sometimes capable of hitting? Or are there external factors? But I frankly have no stomach for more discussion of contract demands or fan expectations, or guesses about his internal motivation. If there is another angle to approach it on, let’s do that in the future.
In meantime, I’d appreciate it if people get back on topic: what makes for an emotionally authentic performance, in particular, what does that look like in Hicks’ music, what’s happening musically and emotionally when it is happening. Thanks.
As requested, I will try and stay on topic. What makes for an emotionally authentic performance? (Do you like the way I restated the subject? I learned that in 10th grede English class. It was a GREAT way to add to the required word count. But, I digress.) To me it is raw emotion, either by voice or by instrument that causes musical satisfaction. Example: Janis Joplin’s plea to “Take Another Little Piece Of My (her) Heart” or Joe Cocker’s clear yearning to see his “Baby (who has) done wrote him a letter”. Stevie Ray Vaughn and Jeff Healey are the two that come to mind that illicit the greatest response from with only the plucking of guitar strings, although Floyd Cramer and his piano have been known to move me at times.
The reaction I have had to Hicks doesn’t happen to me often although I have been captivated by many artists. Someone who elicited this type of reaction from me years ago was Janis Joplin. I’ve mentioned I was at Woodstock. Here is a clip from a number she did there. Even in the midst of her trying to orchestrate her feelings with drugs - Janis was raw — her heart bled when she sang and as I’d listen to her I’d look down and realize I was bleeding too.
First link is woodstock
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBJnoMP1Uyc&mode=related&search=
The second clip is from a Toronto performance in 1970.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjD4eWEUgMM&mode=related&search=
I was 14 at Woodstock and she ripped me open when I heard her. All these years later I see these clips; I’m a lot older, I look at her singing -she’s just a little girl - and yet my reaction is almost exactly the same — if anything its stronger now. It’s a phenomenon that is felt much more readily than it can be explained. It’s timeless and age independent — its a soul thing.
An Emotioanlly Authentic Performance. In Beyonce’s “Irreplaceable” and Carrie Underwood”s “Before He Cheats” they describe how I wish I would react to a broken heart. Yes, I would love to think I would “carve my damn name in to the fools leather seats.” But in truth I would be an emotional mess. In Taylor Hicks, “The Fall” he more honestly relates the complexities that go along with falling in love. In fact depending on how he sings it the song seems more upbeat and at other times, the emotions are sad and lonely.
You ask for sound clips, I hate to show my ignorance but until my thirteen year old son gets home and shows me how to do that you’ll have to settle for a link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9fUTdF9qoc
By the By; This request to remain on topic sounds vaguely familiar to me. Intellectually it makes perfectly good sense, but I have always suspected it goes against some basic human nature or perhaps our tendency to stray is a product of our modern day 15 second attention span. Here’s wishing you luck and my sincere hope I can keep my violations down to oh lets say a few dozen or so…
Julie! I concur. Brilliantly said! (I am only referring to those comments that you made that were on topic, of course - nothing more.) It IS quite subjective. Much like beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Feelings are in the heart of those who are doing the feeling. OH. Taylor makes it do what it do, and he do it so well. He feels it, so we’s feels it. Dig it?
Althea, I am surprised and pleased that a request to stay on topic is only vaguely familiar to you. I’d like to think it is because you have had the pleasure of only existing on boards where commenters freely observe the rules of netiquette, so that such requests were not necessary. Unfortunately, such places are rare.
For others, in my opinion, the question of when and how a musical event causes an emotional response is a vastly different question than why a performer would sometimes choose a different mode of expression, to please execs, fans or whomever - to discuss those questions adequately, I’d want factual information about the opinions of the artist, execs and fans in question. Since the initial question has barely been tapped, it particularly doesn’t seem necessary to wander off on side issues. Hicks’ emotional interpretatiion is only the first aspect of his music that I’m wanting to discuss. Perhaps the other questions will fit better in future posts.
If the topic at hand is of limited interest, one is always free to just read, ignore, go find another topic here of more interest, or post at a message board. I’ve started deleting off-topic comments, but am leaving those in that came in before my first request to return to topic. If they become a distraction to new commenters, I’ll delete those as well.
To me………..this is the shiznik (emotionally speaking)…[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3vE_whyhOQ](of course, not sure this is allowed. I’m sure I will find out shortly.)
OK.. Well, that didn’t work worth a crap……sorry……won’t ever do it again. I promise.
I’ve never really been able to put this into words beyond using the standard words like “emotion.” For me it goes beyond words to a place where i’m no longer thinking but i’m feeling. I know it when it when I hear it, but I can’t really describe why one thing will move me and something else will not, even when logically I should be moved because it’s the ‘type’ of thing I enjoy. A good example of this is the Janis Joplin tribute that Joss Stone and Melissa Etheridge gave at an awards ceremony (see link below, sorry, don’t know what ceremony, don’t care to look it up.) Joss comes out singing and she’s doing a passable job, then Melissa begins and from the first note out of her mouth i’m on the floor in a puddle. They’re both singing Janis music, but one moves me in a way that I can’t describe and one bores me to tears. Now, people rave about Joss but i’ve never been a fan. Her delivery is dead and she dull to me, but I ’should’ like her because she used to sing the kind of music I enjoy. Why the discrepancy? I attribute it to not only the voice, but the ability to be authentic. Do I believe the emotion that the singer is trying to portray? If I don’t believe that you’re feeling what’s coming out of your mouth, I won’t feel it either.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ef-f-l2Pbn8
**I just noticed Julie referenced this above as I was about to hit submit. Exactly right, it’s not really something you can nail down. It’s a subjective feeling, not a grounded fact that everyone will agree upon. Ok, here’s a little bit of fact. Something else that helps authenticity is my vocal preference. I’ve always been partial to voices that sound like they’re being scraped across sandpaper. Joe Cocker, Janis Joplin, Elvis Costello, Ray LaMontagne, Beth Hart, Taylor Hicks; there’s something about this sound that lends itself to pain.
Wow, there was a lot of posting going on while I was typing my reply. I’m so slow…and I seem to be referencing a post by Julie that’s now disappeared?
So…never mind that.
Shaggy, I love the side by side Joss and Melissa comparison. I get your different emotional reaction. What is different in the delivery that’s causing that? I don’t believe in magic, so I think there’s something actually in the way they’re effecting the sound waves that evokes the different responses. Sure it’s subjective, but for your subjective taste, what elements are moving and which ones are boring?
See, I see this question similar to liking or hating a painting. We may not all like the same things, but we can each say what our reaction to a certain color or form is
I don’t know anything about sound waves, that’s above my head, but I do think it’s in the delivery. Like I said, one sounds authentic, and one sounds like she’s up there ‘acting’ the emotions of the song. I watch Joss and it’s like she’s going through the motions of the emotions. And then when Melissa starts to sing, damn, she’s up there with her bald head from chemo, singing strong and confident, and you just know she knows exactly what this song is all about. Her performance comes across so powerful yet fun and almost masculine… I swear it makes me almost want to turn gay for the woman, it’s that good.
It’s authentic connection to what the lyrics say, instead of just acting out the lyrics with all these affected hand gestures to the head, and bobbing up and down, and all the melisma, and all the other crap that goes along with trying too hard.
I’m babbling…it’s just so hard to pin down.
I was being flip about soundwaves, but I am wondering what you are hearing that’s different. Not doubting it a bit, but wondering what it is - something in the vocal color, something in the tempo, or what? You’re describing some of what you’re seeing, but I bet you’d get the same feeling just listening. There’s something that’s conveying that emotion to your ear.
I’m going to try listening to it without watching to see what it does to me, because I have trouble really getting full impact if I’m watching - I often close my eyes at concerts for this same reason. (I don’t, however, recommend this at the House of Blues on the GA floor after 3 gin and tonics - thank God for packed crowds and Brownian motion)
It is hard to pin down. And if I analyze my response too much, will it not in some way lessen the emtional impact? Will it then become too intellectual? Just as the delivery comes from the gut, so does my reaction. There is something to be said about mystery… not knowing why, but maybe just for some of us. My husband would want to know why!
And about a connection to lyrics, can you reconize it even if you don’t understand the words? People who like opera do. This is not opera, but Jacques Brel was pretty good at being authentic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POGegLVKjdQ
Is it the authentic connection by the performer to what the lyrics say, or is it an authentic connecton by the listener to what the lyrics say, or both? Is our reaction to certain performances in response to previous experiences with the performer, or can we feel the same level of response to someone we have heard for the first time?
I love Poison. I love hearing Poison and seeing them in concert. Is this due to the fact that they were a big part of my teenage years? If I heard them for the first time today, would I have the same response to their songs or performance? Would the first few bars of Unskinny Bop hold the same appeal?
What - Interestingly, I wasn’t quite as offended by Joss by just listening without watching, but I was still more moved by Melissa by just listening. I felt it more in my gut, I found myself moving along with the music, something I wasn’t doing while Joss was singing, and I was clenching my teeth, something I do when I feel something deep in my gut (in that good, emotive way) It’s a visceral thing, can’t explain it beyond that. It’s the way she sounds, the gritty, grainy voice, the strained delivery, the imperfectness of it that makes it sound so real. And the phrasing, it’s just better.
GoodTime - Certainly we enjoy a performer when we’re more familiar with them, or at least I do, but we can also be moved by someone we’ve never heard before. Taylor is a perfect example of this. Many of his fans became fans after hearing just his audition. I am one of them. For me it’s definitely an authentic connection of the performer to the lyrics. Whether the 1st time or the 1001st, doesn’t matter.
Well, my post went “poof”. I was just wondering if analyzing too much the emotional response we have to art somehow lessens its impact. But enough already!
About lyrics and connection to lyrics, can you regonize how authentic Jacques Brel’s performances were, even though most of you won’t understand the words?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POGegLVKjdQ
Maybe not so much this particular performance, just something about this song — and Tracy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Orv_F2HV4gk
mama - I didn’t poof your post - I’ll go see if it’s in spam. brb
ETA: voilá - don’t know why, but sometimes youtube links are treated as spam, and sometimes not.
Ha, well, thank you, What! I figured I’d just hit the wrong key. It wouldn’t be the first time.
I just listened to this recording, as I have so many times. And it transported me yet again to that vulnerable place in a man’s soul where he feels the pain of being left behind by his woman. Is it the minor chord? The plaintive voice? The echoing, pulsating “I know, I KNOW, I know, I KNOW”? The simple repititious guitar lick? The haunting, non-melodic harmonica riff…? Is it one or all of these that takes me there? What makes this performance more authentic, and produces a more authentic response in me, than hundreds of other “Sunshines” I must have heard over the years.
I don’t know.
Truth is, I’ve decided I’m not good at analyzing the “why” or “how” of it in terms of a particular musical element. I’m not dissing the effort — I just don’t know how to do it. But I do think it’s about connection — the artist connecting with and “living” the song in that moment as a good actor “lives” his role. There doesn’t have to be real heartbreak in the artist’s present life, but there does have to be a willingness to remember and explore real heartbreak for the moment of the song.
That’s the best I can do.
Robin - all of those elements are ones that contribute to the emotion for me. It’s probably not coincidence that you mention those as opposed to the thousands of other things going on that don’t stand out. You say you can’t tell if it’s one or all that contribute. For me, as each pass through my head, I can feel the nature of my response shift, just as I’d take in individual lines in the lyric. They all contribute, but they all say different things. I can’t always articulate what they say, but I can detect in my response that feeling as the connection is made.
I like your connection to acting in describing that willingness to bare yourself and live the emotion you’re trying to convey. I know there are different “schools” of acting that talk about this specifically, but don’t know the particulars. But I can imagine a difference between portraying an emotion and reliving the emotion. A very different internal task, and, I would imagine, a very different experience for the audience.
Here you go, DLMD:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXq7H1pym1w
Dear what,
Insomniac that I am too… Taylor saying at the end:
…Don’t go nowhere.. the night has just begun… Listening to this at 3:30 in the morning, and it’s been so long since I heard it…. I first just have to thank you for posting it… really extraordinary…
“…What’s an example, from this song or another, that shows that?”… Earlier this evening, before I came over here, I posted a link at the BB to a performance that indeed reached me on a real solar plexus level –
Ray LaMontagne & Damien Rice doing “To Love Somebody” - on a French television program a few months ago…
Watching it reminds me of listening to this performance of Taylor’s you’ve presented us with…:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=d0rGr0N3gOk
I just wish I could have “watched” Taylor sing this Ain’t No Sunshine, either on a video or in person, which takes the experience of “listening” to a deeper gut level somehow.. know what I mean?
Interesting kinesthetic experiences… like how my whole perspective on Taylor Hicks transformed when I was “with him” performing at the Warfield last month… A different world than television viewing and CD/iPod listening…
I appreciate c2what… thanks again for being here… at all hours of the day and night…
>>So I’m wondering, what happens in a performance that creates an emotional transfer? When it happens, it’s art, not magic.>>
Hmmmm, well, its art on the part of the musician but its magic from the listener’s perspective IMO. The performances or the songs an artist does, where he or she can take me into that mystical land between reality and something else, well thats always been magic for me. Its a feeling that always brings tears to my eyes when it happens (which is rare) and the tears are from the sheer emotional experience of it all. The performer has touched a place in me where no one goes, not even me and so the awakening of whatever it is that he or she awakens inside me is overwhelming. Patty Griffin can do that to me with her song “When It Dont Come Easy” and Taylor can do it to me in several songs but the one which always comes to my mind is an obscure clip. maybe 45 seconds (?) of “What’s Going On” by Marvin Gaye. I think it was MJ who captured that. The audio was crap after those first initial notes but the feeling that he conveyed in just those few seconds of that song made me weep and gave me chills because when he pleaded in the first verse…mother, motherrrrrrrr, there’s far too many of you crying. With his hand clenched closely to his heart…brother, brother, brotherrrrr…there’s far too many of you dying. Shit, I cant even type it without getting emotional.
Well, for me, thats magic.
Hi Dingo! I don’t know if I’ve seen that particular “What’s Going On” clip, but I’m always impressed by the conviction Taylor can bring to lyrics about social pain — not just personal pain.
**I just noticed Julie referenced this above as I was about to hit submit. Exactly right, it’s not really something you can nail down. It’s a subjective feeling, not a grounded fact that everyone will agree upon.
Wow, there was a lot of posting going on while I was typing my reply. I’m so slow…and I seem to be referencing a post by Julie that’s now disappeared?
Sadly my post was too controversial, and got poofed. Quelle surprise. It’s a shame, especially since many readers seemed interested in what I said.
For others, in my opinion, the question of when and how a musical event causes an emotional response is a vastly different question than why a performer would sometimes choose a different mode of expression, to please execs, fans or whomever -
I totally disagree. This seems to be the exact same question, just approached from the side, as it were. Maybe that is why I’m so annoyed that you called me out and then deleted my post. Personally, I feel that I’m on topic.
The fact that some performances ooze emotion and real-ness and others don’t is key to addressing the question of where that emotion comes from, which was your original topic. My point is that there are performances where Hicks is extremely “emotional” and others where he’s not at all, almost like he’s two people. I did not bring up record execs, you did. I was talking emotion vs. lack of emotion, and questioning how one person can deliver such different performances.
You’ve got a smart blog going here. I hope it doesn’t get ruined by micromanagement. If readers want to discuss, it seems to behoove you to let them discuss. That’s the only time you’ll get real answers.
It’s “what’s” blog. If “what” leans heavy on the ANALytical. That’s their thing. If people are interested in your topics they can visit your blog. Easy, no?
Real answers? Real to “who” you? Maybe not “What”.
Good luck with your blog “What”. This isn’t my thing but I respect your desire to fight for your place and enjoyment.
Good point, debunot. I’m moving my question to my own blog. Click on my name and join me there if anyone cares to.
Bye, “what”. Good luck with this.
What? What? What did I miss? I vote for off topic leaniency!!! I’m pretty sure what is going to change his mind. C’mon what!!! Or I guess I could move it to my side of the blogbox since I’m a rebel and enjoy off topic to the max as long as it’s off-topic interesting and not off-topic boring - but I don’t really cover the guy this blog is about and other people might find that boring. OFF TOPIC LEANIENCY OFF TOPIC LEANIENCY. Go what go what go what what.
Off topic leaniency!!! This is bogus!!! This is America!! Free off topic speech as long as it’s not fan girly and your comments aren’t annoying!!! Come on!!!!
whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat ???
God, asstral, when did you become such a whiner?
Julie, I didn’t call you out, I was just responding to your post. At the time I wrote it, yours was the only one that had taken a switch from the original question (actually I think there may have been one moderation that I just hadn’t seen yet, but I’m not sure). I responded to your post because it was the only one on that question that I had seen - the others were on topic at the time.
The issue wasn’t controversy, it was topicality. What’s the nature of an emotionally charged performance vs. why does an artist sometimes do such a performance and sometimes not? I have no problem in principle with the second question, i just was interested in the first. My original question was not where does the emotion come from, it was how is it conveyed to us - what musical events evoke emotion.
And like I said, the other question is not out of place for this blog, it just wasn’t the question I’d put forward. So maybe I was cranky, 3 or 4 comments in to see the discussion hijacked.
But clearly asstral is interested in this question, so I’ll let him moderate it. Here’s my own personal answer to it: Some artists aren’t capable of giving an emotionally authentic performance. For those that are, they sometimes choose not to, either consciously or as a side-effect of another artistic decision. Why they make this choice, I have no clue. I offered a range of possible speculations up thread. I’m sure there are others. So talk about it here, or elsewhere. It’s not worth the annoyance.
As you’ve no doubt seen, asstral’s bottom line is “no fangirliness” - he’s sensitive that way. My bottom line is “discuss ideas, not people” - should be easy enough on this topic.
I think a poster called ‘gc fan’ said it best when she said, “as an artist we learn along the way to connect the head to the heart and then later to the soul…” Anyone who can carry a tune can sing a song. Some can even do it well. But not just anyone can connect the head to the heart to the soul…and then put it out there for everyone to see. That’s the emotional transfer, the connection, the magic.
Sweet!!! Team Ass! Thanks what and for the record i’ve always been a whiner.
Less analysis and less anal(sass ) Let’s just enjoy what Taylor has to offer and externally smile or internally reflect.
It’s entertainment : can’t we just be entertained without the angst.
I do realize that one of the purposes of this site is to gather those who would like to delve into the music of Taylor Hicks by analysing every nuance. That’s fine, I understand it and can appreciate it , but I just find it exhausting .
Taylor always puts me in a happy, magical place and I like it there.
Well Cath. You must not have any astrological signs ruled by the planet of mercury!
Right now, I could really use a happy, magical place and sure fire way of getting there. Maybe there’s something in the cupboard.
Ah -thought you didn’t believe in magic. You know magic is really just a phenomenon for which we have yet the tools to explain. Well I could easily write about yesterday’s topic — you know the one we started out with but I find myself in a fugue state— has the original topic become off topic now? Don’t mind me my cupboard is bare — but my thoughts are many.
asstral, it’s a rising in uranus, not mercury
debunot oh me know me astrological planet. mercury is the planet of communication and analyzation uranus is the lack of mercury.
On a more serious note, I think one has to be realistically aware of what it takes to spill your guts. It’s not easy and it’s also not an easy place to live. If an artist was going to spill their guts 24/7 - really they would not be very happy and maybe end up like Elliott Smith. There must be a balance. It can’t be all pain, pain, pain all the time. It’s too much for any one person to endure. For it is Light in the day and Dark at night. It can’t be just one or the other all the time.
Asstral — you just finished making the nexus of the point I was about to make. I think the artists would die if they tore themselves that wide open every second of every show. I also think the audience could not take it — it would be massive sensory overload: the intrinsic value would be lost. We need the dark to see the light. We need the lighter moments to see the deeper. The ribbon of light that issues when someone cracks the door an inch and lets us view their soul gets our attention by contrast. The artists who offer this do not offer it every moment of every song. It’s a journey and occasionally we round a bend-together and for an instant we are slayed to our guts by the raw exchange. Then both the artist and the listener gently move away to recover. For me those moments of intimacy are not confined to sad songs — sometimes it is in the raw abandon of joy. Hicks does that too. I’ve been thinking of artists who have struck me like this. I’m a real Eric Clapton fan. I’ve killed myself trying to play some of his licks. He has some amazing songs that are in form so much more complicated and musically challenging than the one he wrote when he’s baby son died “tears in heaven”– but it was watching him do that song live shortly after he wrote it that constituted the only totally raw time I have ever seen Clapton. He has since done the song many times and has his armor on but that one night—-it wasn’t like that — his armor fell to ground as he played and sang and I sobbed through the whole song. That gets us back to how much the artist feels the emotion he/she is putting out there that is the make or break. That new powerhouse kid, Grace Potter hits me like this with some of her work. It’s almost a Joplin thing for me with her though her voice is actually better. A common ground seems to be when the artist leaves the venue and goes deeply inside to a personal space and almost carelessly leaves the door open for us to follow for an instant. That’s when it happens.
I think it comes down to our inability to be “on” all the time. In my own profession, I have days when I just know that I’m connecting and I can see the effect it has on those around me. But there are many days when - for whatever reason - I can’t find that connection. I may be tired, or worried about something, or not feeling well. Any performer has those same “problems.” That Hicks can so often transcend those problems when he performs speaks to his committment to his craft. He somehow seems better able than most to let the music over-ride the mundane and release him - and his audience - to the level of the sublime.
I agree with the direction you guys are going on it, but wonder if it isn’t also a bit of this: starting out, you may not fully realize which of your talents is the one that makes you really stand out, and you might set it aside some or sometimes use it in relatively trivial ways. But then something, maybe maturity, maybe just some time to finally have your brain to yourself for minute, reminds you of what you’re trying to do and which of your talents is really going to get you there.
a frivolous metaphor
Then I must be listening to the sweet deep spirit of Ben Harper now a days. He must be dead. I’ve never seen the herbman throw down a false performance. Pick a tube any tube.
Disagree! Disagree! I think Ben Harper is much more melancholy then pained.
I think we are having some trouble with language here. My post was not addressing a real vs. false performance. My post was addressing a certain raw depth that is not always reached by an artist even in a great performance. If we take my own post as the example let me assure Debunot and Clapton that I have never seen him lay down a performance that was not powerful, professional and real. My comments are not about an artist having a good night vs an off night. That was not the part of the thread to which I was responding. I was talking about those occasional times when you and the artist pass into a new dimension of intimacy of feeling and listening. Sorry for the confusion.
Oooh, Oooh, pick me, pick me…Pained doesn’t = authentic. Amos Lee and Ray LaMontagne are melancholy and authentic. Michael Bolton can play pained and he pains me.
Ben Harper is an authentic mystical talisman of talent. Play me.
Terminology update: when I use the term “pained” I am referring to vulnerable and raw, taking it to another level of depth - such as the performance which is the topic of this post. See, I think RL can be incredibly pained, his performance of Crazy would be my example of that. Paul Simon to me is more often then not melancholy. I’m not sure if I’ve ever heard Michael Bolton be pained, but I have to be honest and say I’m not sure if I’ve ever even heard Michael Bolton. Is he the dude with the sax?
Here you go asstral:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=J_TEHtGRPIo
First time I heard Hicks live: I got back to my hotel room and had the TV on while I was emailing some friends about the performance. On the TV, Michael Bolton was talking the entire 20 miinutes or so I was emailing about his new hair cut. Somehow that all seemed fitting at the time.
based on your definition of pained
RL pained
James Brown pained
Damien Rice melancholy
Ben Harper Omnipotent God of groove, funk, soul, root, blues…
Michael Boulton is the dude in the elevator speakers.
Deburight. Damien Rice very very melancholy and he does it well man
Thanks for the vid What. I pretty much knew as soon as I saw the chilled champagne glass I was going to love that song. But at least now I know what real love “looks like”. I’ve clearly never had anything close.
See what happens when we over anal-ize? Lots of words.
My proof that emotion does not equal pain is Jeff Buckley:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFxQ5DYqgvw
Even lip-synching to a song that was produced in a recording studio, he is raw, real, edgy, pure, vulnerable, powerful…call it what you will. He does it to me every time. Every single time. Now that’s a musician.
And for the record, he did it to me BEFORE his death, so don’t even start…
On the subject of pained singing, I was listening to a snippet of an Elvis Costello interview today and he was talking about his singing style. He said he intentionally sings out of range. He says singing out of range creates strain, which creates intense emotion, some respond to it, some find it oppressive, depends on what you’re looking for. (paraphrased from what I remembered) I think he’s quite right. It’s his strained delivery I definitely respond to. His natural range is baritone and when he sings in that range it’s nice and soothing, and yes, melancholy, but not the gut-wrentching type of emotion that he usually wrings from me. As I think about it, this is what I like about many of my favorites, and it’s when they get really strained that I find myself most moved.
thanks for the video, Julie.
What’s becoming clearer to me in all of this discussion is that we don’t just all have different tastes, I think we all have different ways of listening. Nothing wrong with that, it just is one of the facets of the dialogue. Hearing this guy for the first time, I was even more accutely aware of the fact that my emotional response to it was in constant fluxuation as the music kept saying different things.
But I’m curious about this statement: “Even lip-synching to a song that was produced in a recording studio, he is raw, real, edgy, pure, vulnerable, powerful”
As usual for me, I listened without watching, so the lip-synching is a non-factor in my impression of the performance. So I’m wondering if by saying “even” you are stressing the fact that it’s a studio recording that achieves for you this edgy performance, or is it just the straight forward reading of your comment, that that emotional force is achieved even when lip-synching.
If it’s the former, I can identify with the sentiment. If it’s the latter, I can’t, because the visual isn’t a part of the musical experience (and in this case, it apparently wasn’t part of the musical production, either)
Hmmm Jeff Buckley. Well, here’s the thing…Jeff Buckley’s sound in my opinion is indeed vulnerable….but a suffering type pain is not something I personally feel from him. He’s intense yes, but not quite comparable since I’m pretty certain it’s a lot safer to be that vulnerable (all the time)when it doesn’t open up a door to an overwhelming amount of pain. So depending on what is hiding in pandora’s box, musicians/humans will react differently.
What, I meant that he is this edgy and powerful in a video which isn’t live. So I’m saying two things: first, that watching his face and body as he ’sings’ causes an emotional response on my part, even when he isn’t singing. And second, if he can achieve this power and rawness in a studio recording, then the ‘live’ factor doesn’t necessarily contribute to whether a song conveys that oomph we’ve been talking about or not. It can be done in a recording. And that blows me away.
Sorry, I’m not feeling very eloquent today. Hope that clarified what I was saying about JB…
And Astral, are you insinuating that Jeff is (gasp) faking his vulnerability?
First of all Jewlie, it’s ASStral! Don’t let it happen again.
No, I’m not insinuating any such thing. To me vulnerability means no walls, no guards, just being open. What I am saying is that usually people who’s cups are overflowing so to speak, have a more difficult time being vulnerable. Often the sound of someone’s voice, if you are keenly perceptive can be like a crystal ball. I was insinuating that Jeff Buckley has a vastly different internal life then the musician this discussion is about. So vulnerability might come easier to JB since the stakes might be quite different.
Totally clarifies it, Julie. I can get the response to the visual, it’s like responding to a good actor (and I don’t mean that in a derogatory sense) - just another art form for conveying feeling.
But yeah, I think “live” is, in general, neither necessary nor sufficient. I would imagine (and I’m just blowing smoke here) that it depends on the artist somewhat. While all probably are capable of that really “on” performance in either situation, there may be some that find the feed of the audience helps get them there, and there may be some that find the isolation of the studio is a better help.
On the audience side though, the listener also has their own biases. I get one kind of musical kick from a live show, and another kind from the audio alone in the dark.
Asstral, it’s JULIE, and don’t forget it again. Oh, who’s = who is, whose = belonging to who.
What the hell was the topic again?
I spun asstralic circles around you baybee! Another for Team Ass! Julie, let’s keep the heat as intelligent as possible - typo point outs are like taking candy from a baby - if you wanna wrestle let’s go for some high mental mud wrestling. Don’t make me have to play in the mental ghetto. My brain is too classy.
Ya think?
What Taylor does is his art. He stays true to it.
To me “art” would mean the inner most essence of our beings. When we create art, in any form, whether it would be music, paintings, scultures, etc., we are creating something. We create an expression of our inner selves. It could be our joy, our anger, our turmoil…the beauty of it is that it is a part of ourselves that the world can see. In some ways its quite frightening because you are allowing yourself to be exposed to whatever the world will see, and giving them license to react. Art and the creation of it, I consider art to be the bravest of human endeavors.
Many times Taylor Hicks is called a cover artist, but by my definition a cover artist is someone who just sings the song the same way as the original artist has done with little or no interpretation or deviation from the original version. Therefore Taylor Hicks is MUCH more than a simple cover artist. Taylor interprets the music that he sings, whether it be an “original tune” or a cover. I find myself consistently liking his versions of older songs better than the originals. He takes something and makes it is own by channeling that music through what I perceive to be a very deep and intuitive soul. He nurtures the music and brings it to places that few of us would ever hope to understand.
“…I think it’s time for me to actually start talking
about Taylor Hicks’ music on this blog.” It must be time
we all prepare ourselves to attain the strength
necessary to rise up to receive one capable of reaching
souls.
I wasn’t really thinking of anything quite so rapturous. More like, time to quit farting around with the layout.