Did Paul's Voice Really Change?
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Paul was in Argentina in 2010. Last time he was here. His voice was a little...rough, didn't sound nice. I think Paul learnt to control his limitations. He can't sing "Jet" as he used to sing it in the 70's, but he sang it in that way when he was here. He has a great band and the sound is so good that you can forget his voice for a while, but when he tries to reach the higher tones of his best songs... here comes the problem. His band is actually more relevant in the voice part. When he plays Helter Skelter, the band sing louder than Paul. That's conscience.
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His voice might have gotten a little beating, hear how he sings on "Wings Over Amercia", "The Concerts for Kampuchea". It's rock & roll like there's no tomorrow, McCartney has never learned to sing, like technically correct by a singing teacher, to protect his voice. He is self-taught. Fortunately... I would not be without "Long Tall Sally" or... plenty of songs. And it doesn't matter, songs like "Early Days" shows that he can use whatever tired or old sound of his voice creatively and artistically meaningful.
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Anyway, to my ears, he sounds better now than in Tripping The Live Fantastic. I don't know what happened in that time but he couldn't sing well. We can't expect to hear an artist with the same voice for ever. Run Devil Run was his last awesome vocal performance. I still don't believe how could he sing in that way. I mean, listen any song from Flowers In The Dirt and he sounds better ten years later!
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WingsOfMacca:
Anyway, to my ears, he sounds better now than in Tripping The Live Fantastic. I don't know what happened in that time but he couldn't sing well. We can't expect to hear an artist with the same voice for ever. Run Devil Run was his last awesome vocal performance. I still don't believe how could he sing in that way. I mean, listen any song from Flowers In The Dirt and he sounds better ten years later!
What I'm taking from this is that you're quantifying the quality of Paul's voice by his rock/screaming voice exclusively
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Billy Joel still sounds fantastic. Paul's voice has changed quite a bit in the past few years.
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rich n:
WingsOfMacca:
Anyway, to my ears, he sounds better now than in Tripping The Live Fantastic. I don't know what happened in that time but he couldn't sing well. We can't expect to hear an artist with the same voice for ever. Run Devil Run was his last awesome vocal performance. I still don't believe how could he sing in that way. I mean, listen any song from Flowers In The Dirt and he sounds better ten years later!
What I'm taking from this is that you're quantifying the quality of Paul's voice by his rock/screaming voice exclusively
Not just that, because Paul is not a great "screamer" right now, and I still believe he sings better now.
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I think his voice is still great. There are wrinkles and traces of life lived in it. He doesn't need to sound like a boy band singer for my part. A man is okay. He is 72.
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Paul sounds great for a 72 year old. But he does not sing as well as he did in 1993 or 1989. People who say he does never got to see him back then and want his current voice to be as strong as it used to be. It isn't. I was there!
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The thing with a singing voice I think is that it needs to be in tune with whatever the song is about. There has to be a balance. from my own listening experience has this less to do with strength, but rather the ability to open up and express something, to interpret the song. dare to be vulnerable, a smooth voice is not necessarily better than a rough. Like Dylan, his voice is very rough, but it goes straight to the heart. McCartney's rarely been raw, like Lennon in "Mother", he's a bit more pop I think, but he's still proven that there are life as a pop and rock singer, not only after 30, but even after 70.
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Hendrix Ibsen:
The thing with a singing voice I think is that it needs to be in tune with whatever the song is about. There has to be a balance. from my own listening experience has this less to do with strength, but rather the ability to open up and express something, to interpret the song. dare to be vulnerable, a smooth voice is not necessarily better than a rough. Like Dylan, his voice is very rough, but it goes straight to the heart. McCartney's rarely been raw, like Lennon in "Mother", he's a bit more pop I think, but he's still proven that there are life as a pop and rock singer, not only after 30, but even after 70.
Yes. Still, he sang Maybe I'm Amazed much better in 1990 than in 2015.
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Yes now I haven't heard it but it might have something with where he is in life too? How much he believes in what he sings? I think "Yesterday" is a great song but it's not my favorite Beatles song, I actually find it more believable when he sings it later in life, from the 2002 tour and onwards.
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Hendrix Ibsen:
Yes now I haven't heard it but it might have something with where he is in life too? How much he believes in what he sings? I think "Yesterday" is a great song but it's not my favorite Beatles song, I actually find it more believable when he sings it later in life, from the 2002 tour and onwards.
When was the first time you saw Paul in concert?
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1989, in Drammenshallen. It was the first concert on the 1989/90 tour. Hey, that was a great concert! But I also remember my buddy, who stood beside me, he said that McCartney uses much effort, when he sings, we thought this was cool, that he was involved and gave everything, but this may have damaged his voice? I've thought about it later. he sang with so much power. No wonder his voice is a little scruffy in later years...
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Hendrix Ibsen:
1989, in Drammenshallen. It was the first concert on the 1989/90 tour. Hey, that was a great concert! But I also remember my buddy, who stood beside me, he said that McCartney uses much effort, when he sings, we thought this was cool, that he was involved and gave everything, but this may have damaged his voice? I've thought about it later. he sang with so much power. No wonder his voice is a little scruffy in later years...
Yeah, I can see that when a singer gets older, the words they sing take on a different meaning. Still, Paul's songs, even the Beatle ones, are pretty timeless. He was 24 when he wrote Yesterday which has words a 75 year old probably should be singing.
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RMartinez:
Hendrix Ibsen:
1989, in Drammenshallen. It was the first concert on the 1989/90 tour. Hey, that was a great concert! But I also remember my buddy, who stood beside me, he said that McCartney uses much effort, when he sings, we thought this was cool, that he was involved and gave everything, but this may have damaged his voice? I've thought about it later. he sang with so much power. No wonder his voice is a little scruffy in later years...
Yeah, I can see that when a singer gets older, the words they sing take on a different meaning. Still, Paul's songs, even the Beatle ones, are pretty timeless. He was 24 when he wrote Yesterday which has words a 75 year old probably should be singing.
Wrote it when he was 22. He was still 22, just shy of 23 when he recorded Yesterday in June 1965. I believe the song was about his mother so it makes sense. ("I said something wrong, now I long for yesterday.") Remember how he said to Mike, "What will we do without her money?"
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Yeah, I'm very fond of the version of "Yesterday" on the "Back in the US" live album. I've always thought it was a heartfelt song, also with The Beatles, but I don't mind the more scruffy voice when he sings it in later years.
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Nancy R:
RMartinez:
Hendrix Ibsen:
1989, in Drammenshallen. It was the first concert on the 1989/90 tour. Hey, that was a great concert! But I also remember my buddy, who stood beside me, he said that McCartney uses much effort, when he sings, we thought this was cool, that he was involved and gave everything, but this may have damaged his voice? I've thought about it later. he sang with so much power. No wonder his voice is a little scruffy in later years...
Yeah, I can see that when a singer gets older, the words they sing take on a different meaning. Still, Paul's songs, even the Beatle ones, are pretty timeless. He was 24 when he wrote Yesterday which has words a 75 year old probably should be singing.
Wrote it when he was 22. He was still 22, just shy of 23 when he recorded Yesterday in June 1965. I believe the song was about his mother so it makes sense. ("I said something wrong, now I long for yesterday.") Remember how he said to Mike, "What will we do without her money?"
I don't think it was about his mom. It was originally about scrambled eggs, then he just needed some words.
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Hendrix Ibsen:
Yes now I haven't heard it but it might have something with where he is in life too? How much he believes in what he sings? I think "Yesterday" is a great song but it's not my favorite Beatles song, I actually find it more believable when he sings it later in life, from the 2002 tour and onwards.
About a year ago someone on Steve Hoffman's forums posted 2 clips of Paul singing "Yesterday": a 1965 TV appearance and a concert clip from 2010 or so. The differences were fascinating. On strictly technical terms, Paul sounded infinitely better in '65. The young McCartney's voice was a thing of remarkable beauty. But the more recent performance, rougher and scratchier though it was, was vastly more compelling. This was a person who could sing, "how I long for yesterday" and mean it. We do forget, sometimes, that Paul is a man who has lived through an awful lot of grief and loss, with many of the people who mattered most in his life dying way, way too young. That experience changes you at a deep level, and you could hear it in the older Paul's rendition of this song that everyone knows by heart. Paul's voice is not what it was. Aging is a fact of life. But he still can be an incredibly compelling performer -- at times more so than when he was young, even if his tone isn't as pure.
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More than any other track, I think this is a good example of Paul's singing in recent years. And its wonderful, Paul couldn't have sung it any better, or with any more emotion, at any point in his career.
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Yes I agree Bruce, it's easier to see the success, it's almost like a fairy tale, smash hit after smash hit, But I would think that beside this, which is his professional life, he lives his own life also, like everyone else. I read an interview with his son, James, where he admitted drug problems, but it's not such things Paul talks about in public, you almost forget that he is human, and not superhuman. He also lives a life of worries and losses. Linda, John, George... But you almost forget, because he is a pop music genius.