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Whitney Houston.


bubinga5

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An amazing voice and talent. Such a shame to lose her. Her voice would literally make the hairs on my neck stand and its not a style of music i normally listen to but incredible talent will do that to you no matter what style it might be.

Great choice

Dave

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1 hour ago, mikel said:

Hell of a voice but all the yodeling and vocal gymnastics put me off. Most times, for me, less is more.

Agreed. Impressively powerful voice but often to the detriment of the song. I found her material generally bland; given her obvious talent I’d have liked to have heard her do a really rootsy, soul album. Crack session band,  Memphis studio, could’ve been awesome.

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2 hours ago, mikel said:

Hell of a voice but all the yodeling and vocal gymnastics put me off. Most times, for me, less is more.

Agree that some of the later stuff could get a bit like that, but for me her first couple of albums were truly outstanding, full of great songs demonstrating an amazing vocal talent. It grates on me a bit when Whitney gets lumped in with Maria Carey etc as a vocal gymnast, she was so much more and had such a sad end to her far too short life. I saw her live in concert in Monaco just before things started going awry for her and she was incredible.

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In 2010 she was on a tour, it was plagued with health deterioration and I recall a few shocking videos came out where it was obvious that WH wasn’t at her best.

Her band ended up in my shop in Manchester and they were really fed up, their gear was all in storage and they had had issues with soundcheck delays, cancellations across the entire tour.

They bought some instruments just to get them through, keep them playing while they waited for the call to say she would or wouldn’t be pulling the dates as they basically travelled around...waiting. 
 

Think they played 2 dates in Manchester and she cut one performance short and then was really off colour and gruff/weak on the other.

Then the videos came thick and fast, I’m sure there were folks demanding refunds.

She was at a real low ebb.

Tragic. And I had always admired her talent, and absolutely always fancied her, a very beautiful lady.

They're doing one of those really creepy Holographic arena tours in 2020. 

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18 hours ago, casapete said:

Agree that some of the later stuff could get a bit like that, but for me her first couple of albums were truly outstanding, full of great songs demonstrating an amazing vocal talent. It grates on me a bit when Whitney gets lumped in with Maria Carey etc as a vocal gymnast, she was so much more and had such a sad end to her far too short life. 

 How I saw it (or heard it) as well.

👍

 

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To me she was Year Zero for the  horrible style of vocal gymnastics perpetrated on us by the likes of Mariah Carey and the myriad of anonymous X Factor drones wanting to be like her. Sure she had the range , timbre etc but her material was very meh.  I detest her version of I Will Always Love You. It's only when you hear the Dolly Parton original you realise how much of the soul and feeling Houston had sucked out of it.

Edited by Barking Spiders
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16 hours ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

I feel exactly the same way about Nothing Compares 2 U. Whenever I hear ‘her’ recording of it, it just makes my skin crawl. The live version performed by Prince and The New Power Generation, featuring the wonderful Rosie Gaines, is also superb.

Yep, with you there all the way.  It may be though I've always found SoC so irritatingly right-on and self-righteous that it brings out my inner Tory boy from the recesses of the darkest part of my soul and so taint my view of her music

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23 hours ago, Barking Spiders said:

To me she was Year Zero for the  horrible style of vocal gymnastics perpetrated on us by the likes of Mariah Carey and the myriad of anonymous X Factor drones wanting to be like her.

I think Year Zero for this vocal style is buried way back in the black gospel tradition, but Aretha Franklin put it into the mainstream in the mid 60's. The difference was, she could sound good doing the vocal gymnastics, many others don't.

There is much to like about the likes of Whitney Houston and Chaka Khan (mostly their bands) but those vocals are always a turn off for me. Whitney goes from good to "shouty" at the drop of a hat and Chaka just shrieks her way through too many songs!!

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On ‎04‎/‎11‎/‎2019 at 11:09, Barking Spiders said:

I Will Always Love You. It's only when you hear the Dolly Parton original you realise how much of the soul and feeling Houston had sucked out of it.

Dolly's version makes me fill up. Whitney's version makes me switch it off.

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