favorite song or song that is just in your head right now

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I love carrie underwood. This song is great!
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Mother Ocean wrote:
I always wonder though....what singer today could walk out on a stage....alone in a spotlight...and blow us away with just pure talent. No special effects...no elaborate costumes (made from meat, or any other material)....just heart and soul and a voice.

Here is an example may be, for me at least .
It's an "angry song" by Bob Dylan. I like very much this version..
( Note : I am not mad at anyone ..I just post this song because I like it and she is one of my idols)

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P.S. @Mother Ocean .. I listened to "Don't give up" and I agree with you . I like this version more than P. Gabriel's version.

Joan Baez has a voice like no other...she is not, however, a singer of today. She belongs to another time. In our country her voice and activism inspired us to protest unjust wars and fight for civil rights. I heard her sing an entire concert accompanied by just her guitar and a piano. No lasers...no fireworks...just her voice. The hairs stood up on the back of my neck.

I am talking about the singers on the radio and video today. I have heated conversations with kids about singers and songs. Most call rap and hip-hop artists "singers".... I just shake my head. I can't tell you how many times I have blown a gasket when someone says Michael Buble is "Just Like" Frank Sinatra!! YIKES!! But I am fascinated that Frank is still the standard by which singers are measured. No doubt there are singers with voices...but not that timeless style. Not that "Thing" that will make new generations listen to their music in 50 years.

I am talking about those from when I was twenty as well. The 80's had people with their own style...Chrissie Hynde, Deborah Harry, Bruce Springsteen to name some of my favorites...but nothing earth changing. There was Whitney Houston but she chose to be a bad girl and make cocaine her friend. There are people in every decade who had the voice...or the new move...or the over the top production but not that thing....that thing you can't put your finger on.

I think...the only male singer today...now that my Luther Vandross has left us...with near that kind of talent is John Legend...and maybe Carrie Underwood for the girls. They both show moments of having that something extra. Most singers today can be easily replaced by the "new flavor of the month" from one of the many TV shows cramming "Talent" down our throats. Don't get me wrong, I am entertained by many today...it would just be nice if they knew the difference between what is popular and what is truly great.

I guess maybe we don't see that in the individual performer now because the emphasis is on making things bigger louder.....and more outrageous than the last video...for the only purpose of selling more records. I think there will always be those who start a new style...or trend...but no one yet has that "thing"....I wish I had better word for it.

Do you really think in 50 years...you will have a singer that someone will say is "just like" Micheal Buble, Justin Bieber and say "now that's how to sing"? No...but there will be those who will still be compared to Sinatra, Ella, Billie, Joan or Joni...in order to gauge their talent.

I am sure my girls will look back and laugh at some of their favorite singers...like I do at loving the Monkees, and Devo..... I also hope there is someone they can look at and know they saw greatness.

Just saying....no...let Ella say it...just close your eyes and feel her sing....

I think a TRUE talent can do both. The singers you were discussing may have had more of a focus of doing that, but i wonder if they can turn on the entertainment if they had to. I am sure some of them can and that would make some of them great singers. For example, if you take colbie c., she is a good singer, but not an entertainer at all. She is only half of the talent described.

However, I can point out some talents that can do both. For example, here is Kelly Clarkson....singing to a room....accapella.....and having the rooms attention. I also know she can put on quite a show.


Here is Carrie Underwoods american idols audition who also rocks vocally, and now is an amazing entertainer.


Leona Lewis is another artist that can pull off both sides of it and shows both sides. Here is her song that shows her voice.


Also, i disagree fireworks is not even close to her best. But here is her showing her voice......


I would be interested to see you show the entertainment from the singers you are thinking of (minus pink). Maybe you should try to look a little deeper than the entertainment and you will find the amazing singers. I guarantee you will find more than you think.

I love so much to talk about music, singers and songs. Maybe because I'm "OLD" I love singers 70th and 80th and 50-60 with the Master par excellence Elvis. Maybe today there aren't those Master who can make a change in music and introduce a powerful new musical genre.

I like all singers you both talked. Thanks this is a good way, to me, to talk sharing the different opinions.

Kisses

You want to have these people…Ella, Frank..et al…to come here now and entertain like today’s “artists” (and I use that term loosely) and see how they would compare? You think that Ella, Frank, Nat, Billie...didn't have talent and entertain? When those entertainer’s performed their audience were entertained!! They had no need for all the production and the pyrotechnics….it was that “it” factor that blew their audiences away. It was the fact that their audiences were...I don’t know, more sophisticated…educated…imaginative enough to know just what it was they were witnessing.

Of course with today’s technology, production and marketing the performances of those masters would be presented to us far better….but there is no need to improve on their talents…no need to make video’s showing us the meaning of what they are singing…audiences just had to hear the words, feel what was in their voices and how they phased the lyrics….used their imaginations…were moved…were transported to where ever they wanted to go….they were entertained. Why would you want to add to that a light show…blaring sound systems and exploding backdrops? The only down side of that era is there is no "videos" of the same caliber of the present of these singers to put up beside the singers of today....the technology just wasn't available...but rest assured that when you listen to those singer's recordings...you are essentially hearing them "live". No over dubbing....no manipulating their sound.

Your examples are talented for sure and I like all three very much. What I am saying about so many singers today…and there are SO many singers today...and for the last 20 years...how much of their art is a team of producers, marketing executives and technical wizards molding them and making them fit into whatever packaging will sell the most and how much is it the true to the core talent and charisma of the artist? Could they stand on a stage, in front of a microphone with a band or orchestra behind them and entertain and maintain the career they know now…I don’t think so. Not with the success those others had. Do they have that extra thing that will set the same standard for future entertainers to strive for like those others. I don’t think so. Is that their fault or the fault of the recording companies lowering those standards just to sell more records or is it the audiences who's tastes have been influenced by trends, blinded by the lights and the glitter and not educated enough to know what is possible? As long as we follow the crowd...maybe no one will notice...and soon human voices will be replaces all together with electronic simulations set to the best damn 3-D images...watched in darkened rooms...in the comfort of out homes...who needs talent..who needs imagination....

You and I had this discussion when I went through my Michael Bolton stage. I agree with you. Ella, Etta James, Billie Holiday, Frank, Tony Bennett all were pioneers and standards were higher then. You didn't make it if you could not stand on your own. Today we are fooled so many times into thinking someone has more talent then they do. Especially the kids. What else would explain the whole Miley Cyrus thing? The emphasis on what is cool and not what is talent is overwhelming. My son is a musician and he was always playing Benny Goodman and Fats Waller when his friends were playing Guns and Roses or Jay-Z. He was considered odd. That might have been a genetic issue and not just his taste in music, but that is beside the point. LOL!!

I am a huge Kelly Clarkson fan. I have noticed that she has changed her style several times since she won on Idol. I am not sure if it was her choice or her management. I think if she had been back in the day and allowed to just present her talent to the public in her basic form - she would have been a star. I feel that they have almost over marketed her today and it was not necessary.

I do think there are some today with basic talent. Their talent is marginally better then the next singer and because of technology and how many teenaged kids can be enticed into buying their CD's, they are a success. That is our faults for not exposing our children to the arts in school as we should in order for them to be more aware of what is talent and what is fad.

But, that is yet another discussion that you and I have had with others!! LOL!!

So I agree with you and disagree! How's that for sitting on the fence?

You can sit on my fence anytime baby!! LOL!!

I think you misunderstand me. I am not talking about the voice...or singing ability...I am talking about the extra something that I have not seen very often in the last 20 or so years. That thing that made people forget the performers were singing songs written by others but rather the notes and words were coing from within them...or that they were even singing to others. I wish I could put a word to it..but I can't. Stage presence? Originality? Magic? I don't know...

Kelly...maybe..she had just enough of that girl next door thing right after American Idol...her songs did sound like they were coming from her heart...then she changed to the hard edged sound...which I like...but somehow the heart is no there as much....

As far as entertaining...if you are talking about big stage productions as the performer "entertaining" well....those stage production are thought up for the most part by someone other than the performer...choreographed by a lighting producer and the list goes on...that has nothing to do with the performer's ability to entertain...that is precisely what I would like the "artist" of today to try to do without....

come on...is this not magic in it's purest form?


Touch this Buble...if you last this long....

I guess it all comes down to the fact artists of today are not given the chance to grow and showcase their talents like to old masters. The focus today is to be as big of a star as fast as possible. Singers and performers are not allowed to be just artists...they have to be spectacular....over the top.....on top of the charts or it's the next flavor of the month. So much goes into "packaging" today's singers and bands that sometimes who they are and just how deep their talent is gets lost.
I can see Carrie Underwood singing with Patsy Cline. I can See Pink singing with Janis Joplin....I can see Alicia Keys singing with Billie Holiday ....and some others.

I tend to look at all art from a Painter's perspective. There are all kinds of painters out there. Most just paint paintings to go with peoples couches...all technique and no heart. More emphasis is placed on what sells. Usually these paintings are just a different variation on the same theme. (Some just paint enough to get a job teaching..."those who can't....teach" ) While every once in a while some are allowed to let their heart and soul shine through. To me most performers out there put on a persona and sell their "art" to the masses....and don't let their heart and soul show through. God forbid they ever change their selling sound or change directions...what ever fills the arenas over and over again...different variation of the same ole theme...."Couch Painters".

I think I should change my perspective...visual arts are not the performing arts and does not have the same criteria. Joni Mitchell is a singer/songwriter and a equally brilliant painter. She was once said at a concert (a concert that I attended by the way) when the audience were calling out songs for her to play...." That's one thing that's always, like, been a difference between, like, the performing arts, and being a painter, you know. A painter does a painting, and he paints it, and that's it, you know. He has the joy of creating it, it hangs on a wall, and somebody buys it, and maybe somebody buys it again, or maybe nobody buys it and it sits up in a loft somewhere until he dies. But he never, you know, nobody ever, nobody ever said to Van Gogh, 'Paint a Starry Night again, man!' You know? He painted it and that was it."

Vincent's heart, soul and life where in his paintings....and he only sold one.....Wonder what the Marketing agencies and the promoters would do with him today? I shutter to think.

I totally agree with you MO, positive and negative sides of the Modern Age.
I don't know what fortune Vincent would have.
I just know that when I saw his paintings for the first time.. I felt something that I had never felt before . I could not get my eyes off of his paintings . I was captured in a kind of magic and I still go into raptures over his paintings.

I have a question I wonder .. why ? Why the shortage of talents?
It is not a matter of inspiration I think, human sensitiveness can’t be changed through the centuries, but that inspiration can’t grow up , fantasy can’t grow up.
And if it was only a matter of “time” ? Where is the time to cultivate talent, to study, to fantasize?
Too many things to do, too many nice and funny ways we have to spend our time, too many comforts, and no one likes sacrifices.
Who knows .. I just wonder.

Ah!! The famous Joni Mitchell quote!! You have that in your paint box! You are such a Hippy at heart! LOL!! Yes, today is mass production and selling to the masses. Talent is just an afterthought!

Here is my present Favorite. Love me some Bruno Mars! He can be mass produced for me anytime! Such a cutie!!

Let's get back to playing some good music.

I love bruno and i love this song! Thanks for sharing

Because these two artists are going to be honored at the GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) Awards [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] I think I will let them both sing a bit. Thanks Ricky and Kristin!!!

WOW!!! Do you know Mo, when I love Ricky!!! I'm so happy for that.

Vivi la vita loca

Thanks for sharing Mother,
I like Ricky Martin very much but I didn't now Kristin .. Beautiful voice ..

I love kristin! She actually played on the broadway show wicked. i so wish i could have seen it

I never liked much Dido, but I heard yesterday this song on a tv show and I liked it very much. Just wanted to share.
It 's just a thought ....only a thought ....that many may have I think , and I have too .. sometimes..

Good song Minnie!!! A little bit melancholy, but so sweet!! I didn't know that song. Thanks for sharing it!!

Good song. I tend to like melancholy songs. Never heard this one. Do you need a hug?

Hope you are ok my friend. good song!

OH OH !
Yes, HL, hug me...LOL !


Thanks girls. Everything's ok .. it was just a song that I liked but I can't deny that when I take stock of my life.. there are not many things that are truly mine, only mine.
I am not sad about that .. I just observe, but I am very happy the same, I swear.

paperinik wrote:

yellowsmileyfaces wrote:I love carrie underwood. This song is great!
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Good sweet song. I liked it. Thanks.

I choose this one, in my morning
Carrie Underwood - I'll Stand By You
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I love that song and I love the way she sings it! Carrie underwood is amazing!