Sometimes it's kind of depressing to see Paul get older
-
I like seeing Paul get older. I like seeing everybody get older.
-
toris:
moptops:
Bruce M.:
JoeySmith:
We could only hope Paul will look and sound as good as Dylan who is a few years older than Paul and still touring.
Dylan's only a year older. And his current voice has been compared (accurately, I'd say) to a death rattle.
Bob Dylan looks like a cross between Vincent Price and Eve Arden...and his voice sounds like absolute s**t.
Dylan is fortunate.... his voice always sounded like shite, so that's his only point of comparison.... so nobody (well, me) bats an eyelid that he sounds the same, well, more than a tad worse... as in "c*rap voice" (if not unique)... "still can't sing". "Shite" for me. Now, I think Paul Simon is a great songwriter, but not much of a "versatile" singer... the beauty for him is all these years later, he's singing the same..... "nice", as in never really set a standard that would be judged in 30-40 + years. Voice never suffered 'cos it never really had to stretch to the same extents as others (but Graceland a brilliant album on all fronts, and I respect the man). Of course, this all makes it the harder for those with the brilliant voices that will always be judged on their prime.... Paul M, and had he lived longer, Freddie M.... Oh, and Elvis. But those last two never got the chance. Would love to know how they were doin' though all these years later..... My point.... the Great Voices (Paul front and central in his peak) will always be the ones that suffer in comparison.
Paul Simon was on the Colbert Show recently and he could not hit the higher notes at all! Colbert did the higher stuff. PS can't sing his old songs like he used to at all! I know Garfunkel sang the really high stuff, but I'm talking about Paul's part!
-
toris:
moptops:
Bruce M.:
JoeySmith:
We could only hope Paul will look and sound as good as Dylan who is a few years older than Paul and still touring.
Dylan's only a year older. And his current voice has been compared (accurately, I'd say) to a death rattle.
Bob Dylan looks like a cross between Vincent Price and Eve Arden...and his voice sounds like absolute s**t.
Dylan is fortunate.... his voice always sounded like shite, so that's his only point of comparison.... so nobody (well, me) bats an eyelid that he sounds the same, well, more than a tad worse... as in "c*rap voice" (if not unique)... "still can't sing". "Shite" for me. Now, I think Paul Simon is a great songwriter, but not much of a "versatile" singer... the beauty for him is all these years later, he's singing the same..... "nice", as in never really set a standard that would be judged in 30-40 + years. Voice never suffered 'cos it never really had to stretch to the same extents as others (but Graceland a brilliant album on all fronts, and I respect the man). Of course, this all makes it the harder for those with the brilliant voices that will always be judged on their prime.... Paul M, and had he lived longer, Freddie M.... Oh, and Elvis. But those last two never got the chance. Would love to know how they were doin' though all these years later..... My point.... the Great Voices (Paul front and central in his peak) will always be the ones that suffer in comparison.
More than having a good voice. Selling a song is an art. Some folks with "bad" voices can do that. Example: Dylan can still be compelling live, but those instances are few and far between. Old Bob's just too worn out. Even when Sinatra's voice was crap, he could sell a song better than anyone on the planet. When Paul's voice finally goes - he won't have that same fallback position. Paul is a singer - not a storyteller.
-
Some of Paul's songs tell stories..."Only Mama Knows," "Rocky Raccoon," "Eleanor Rigby" reads like a mini-novella, "Jenny Wren" perhaps, "Morse Moose and the Grey Goose," even "Dress Me Up Like a Robber" sounds like a chilling tale of a girl who got up with the wrong guy and vanished, foul play probably, "She's Given Up Talking" one of his sociology/story songs, perhaps, and there are some others I think. How about that one from "Memory Almost Full" which chillingly describes a man's suicide.
-
Nancy R:
toris:
moptops:
Bruce M.:
JoeySmith:
We could only hope Paul will look and sound as good as Dylan who is a few years older than Paul and still touring.
Dylan's only a year older. And his current voice has been compared (accurately, I'd say) to a death rattle.
Bob Dylan looks like a cross between Vincent Price and Eve Arden...and his voice sounds like absolute s**t.
Dylan is fortunate.... his voice always sounded like shite, so that's his only point of comparison.... so nobody (well, me) bats an eyelid that he sounds the same, well, more than a tad worse... as in "c*rap voice" (if not unique)... "still can't sing". "Shite" for me. Now, I think Paul Simon is a great songwriter, but not much of a "versatile" singer... the beauty for him is all these years later, he's singing the same..... "nice", as in never really set a standard that would be judged in 30-40 + years. Voice never suffered 'cos it never really had to stretch to the same extents as others (but Graceland a brilliant album on all fronts, and I respect the man). Of course, this all makes it the harder for those with the brilliant voices that will always be judged on their prime.... Paul M, and had he lived longer, Freddie M.... Oh, and Elvis. But those last two never got the chance. Would love to know how they were doin' though all these years later..... My point.... the Great Voices (Paul front and central in his peak) will always be the ones that suffer in comparison.
Paul Simon was on the Colbert Show recently and he could not hit the higher notes at all! Colbert did the higher stuff. PS can't sing his old songs like he used to at all! I know Garfunkel sang the really high stuff, but I'm talking about Paul's part!
I saw him recently in some concert thing on cable. Sounded really good, but no doubt he'd prepped his voice ahead of time. Then again, maybe it was an older concert than I thought....
-
Paul is one of the best storytellers of the world!Don´t joke with me!Paul is at first as always since 1963 a songwriter (like that little great tune that rock around the world"Fourfiveseconds")and is a truly master instrumentalist,bas player acoustic whatever...He always can choose a better way(the better song in Diana Krall latest effort is Paul song!!)
-
carlos guerreiro:
Paul is one of the best storytellers of the world!Don´t joke with me!Paul is at first as always since 1963 a songwriter (like that little great tune that rock around the world"Fourfiveseconds")and is a truly master instrumentalist,bas player acoustic whatever...He always can choose a better way(the better song in Diana Krall latest effort is Paul song!!)
Are you Paul McCartney???
-
carlos guerreiro:
Paul is one of the best storytellers of the world!Don´t joke with me!Paul is at first as always since 1963 a songwriter (like that little great tune that rock around the world"Fourfiveseconds")and is a truly master instrumentalist,bas player acoustic whatever...He always can choose a better way(the better song in Diana Krall latest effort is Paul song!!)
Paul is a genius singer/songwriter and a stellar musician. A storyteller he is NOT. I don't think you understand the subtle difference. Just a handful of examples: Sinatra, Dylan, Ives, Hazlewood, Cash...even Katie Melua are storytellers.
-
carlos guerreiro:
Paul is one of the best storytellers of the world!Don´t joke with me!Paul is at first as always since 1963 a songwriter (like that little great tune that rock around the world"Fourfiveseconds")and is a truly master instrumentalist,bas player acoustic whatever...He always can choose a better way(the better song in Diana Krall latest effort is Paul song!!)
Hang on! "I don't know how many of you know George was..." "I wrote this song when there was a lot of troubles in the South of America in the 60's..." "...hey man, is Eric out there?" "I'm very proud a lot of people say they learned to speak English listening to Beatles records..." "...big Russian guy comes up to me shakes my hand and says Hello Goodbye." "This is the very same guitar I played on the record in the 60's..." He IS a great storyteller!
-
moptops:
carlos guerreiro:
Paul is one of the best storytellers of the world!Don´t joke with me!Paul is at first as always since 1963 a songwriter (like that little great tune that rock around the world"Fourfiveseconds")and is a truly master instrumentalist,bas player acoustic whatever...He always can choose a better way(the better song in Diana Krall latest effort is Paul song!!)
Hang on! "I don't know how many of you know George was..." "I wrote this song when there was a lot of troubles in the South of America in the 60's..." "...hey man, is Eric out there?" "I'm very proud a lot of people say they learned to speak English listening to Beatles records..." "...big Russian guy comes up to me shakes my hand and says Hello Goodbye." "This is the very same guitar I played on the record in the 60's..." He IS a great storyteller!
-
moptops:
carlos guerreiro:
Paul is one of the best storytellers of the world!Don´t joke with me!Paul is at first as always since 1963 a songwriter (like that little great tune that rock around the world"Fourfiveseconds")and is a truly master instrumentalist,bas player acoustic whatever...He always can choose a better way(the better song in Diana Krall latest effort is Paul song!!)
Paul is a genius singer/songwriter and a stellar musician. A storyteller he is NOT. I don't think you understand the subtle difference. Just a handful of examples: Sinatra, Dylan, Ives, Hazlewood, Cash...even Katie Melua are storytellers.
But Robert, what about Rocky Raccoon?
-
"Another Day" seems like a "story song" to me as he describes his main character, the girl, and her typical day and her sad affair with a fickle fly by night love 'em and leave 'em type of guy.
-
moptops:
Paul is a genius singer/songwriter and a stellar musician. A storyteller he is NOT. I don't think you understand the subtle difference. Just a handful of examples: Sinatra, Dylan, Ives, Hazlewood, Cash...even Katie Melua are storytellers.
Paul is a wonderful storyteller. Maybe not the best in the world, but he tells stories.
-
IMO, Joni Mitchell is the best singer-storyteller. Paul is a brilliant melody writer, and can write very good lyrics to fit those melodies. But I don't think he could write something like "Song for Sharon", which is just an incredible song-story. Hell, Billy Joel is a better storyteller than Paul. But Paul changed the game from the beginning. He has more fame and will go down in history as being a legend more so than Bob Dylan, Billy Joel, Joni Mitchell, etc.
-
(shrugs) Beats me why some don't acknowledge he tells stories in some of his songs. I mentioned several in previous posts.
-
...because for me, he is a singer of songs. He'll never be remembered as a "storyteller" singer like some others named in this thread, (Croce, McLean are others) because quite frankly he's just an above average interpreter of lyrics. Listen to Don's Vincent, Katie's I Cried For You or Cash's take on Hurt; some of Amy Winehouse at her early best like Someone To Watch Over Me...these can move me to tears. Sinatra sings a song and makes it his own: when his heart aches because a "gal who got away" drove him to the bottle, I hear the story and I believe him: he makes it real. When Paul released KOTB, I enjoyed it. I didn't believe any of what he sang, it was Paul singing standards, and enjoyable. Compare Paul's On A Slow Boat To China with Rosemary Clooney and Bing Crosby's live 1970's version from London's Palladium. Paul delivers stories yes, but he's not a masterful interpreter of stories. It's just not the way Paul operates, and that's fine. He's the master of what HE does (or used to be) but he's not a storyteller singer and I know there are many who agree with me because they understand what I mean by that.
-
moptops:
...because for me, he is a singer of songs. He'll never be remembered as a "storyteller" singer like some others named in this thread, (Croce, McLean are others) because quite frankly he's just an above average interpreter of lyrics. Listen to Don's Vincent, Katie's I Cried For You or Cash's take on Hurt; some of Amy Winehouse at her early best like Someone To Watch Over Me...these can move me to tears. Sinatra sings a song and makes it his own: when his heart aches because a "gal who got away" drove him to the bottle, I hear the story and I believe him: he makes it real. When Paul released KOTB, I enjoyed it. I didn't believe any of what he sang, it was Paul singing standards, and enjoyable. Compare Paul's On A Slow Boat To China with Rosemary Clooney and Bing Crosby's live 1970's version from London's Palladium. Paul delivers stories yes, but he's not a masterful interpreter of stories. It's just not the way Paul operates, and that's fine. He's the master of what HE does (or used to be) but he's not a storyteller singer and I know there are many who agree with me because they understand what I mean by that.
Paul is too guarded for that. That is OK. I think John Lennon was great at wearing his heart on his sleeve, I was just listening to No Reply and I'm A Loser, he really does. Suzy might mean Paul spins a great yarn, ie he invents people and circumstances and sings about them, like Lovely Rita, Paperback Writer, and Eleanor Rigby. He does that great, but again, they are made up people and made up emotions. I love those songs, but Paul is at his most brilliant on tunes like For No One, Let It Be and Hey Jude, when he really gives us a glimpse into his soul.
-
moptops:
...because for me, he is a singer of songs. He'll never be remembered as a "storyteller" singer like some others named in this thread, (Croce, McLean are others) because quite frankly he's just an above average interpreter of lyrics. Listen to Don's Vincent, Katie's I Cried For You or Cash's take on Hurt; some of Amy Winehouse at her early best like Someone To Watch Over Me...these can move me to tears. Sinatra sings a song and makes it his own: when his heart aches because a "gal who got away" drove him to the bottle, I hear the story and I believe him: he makes it real. When Paul released KOTB, I enjoyed it. I didn't believe any of what he sang, it was Paul singing standards, and enjoyable. Compare Paul's On A Slow Boat To China with Rosemary Clooney and Bing Crosby's live 1970's version from London's Palladium. Paul delivers stories yes, but he's not a masterful interpreter of stories. It's just not the way Paul operates, and that's fine. He's the master of what HE does (or used to be) but he's not a storyteller singer and I know there are many who agree with me because they understand what I mean by that.
It's even more creative and special when a songwriter tells stories in his or her own original songs he or she composed, I think. Although I get what Moptops is saying--some are masterful interpreters of other people's original songs and really make the listener feel and believe what they're singing--I think Macca has done this, too. I don't believe Sinatra, for example, more than Macca when he sings. That's just my personal reaction.--SUSY
-
I don't know why my statement was inserted inside those quotes from Moptops, I hope it is easily read there but some may have missed it. I wrote I think it is "even more creative and special when a songwriter tells stories in his own original songs he composed. Although I get what moptops is saying--some singers are masters at interpreting others' songs and really make the listener feel and believe what they're singing--I think Macca has done this, too. I don't believe Sinatra, for example, more than Paul, when he sings. That's just my personal reaction."
-
RMartinez:
moptops:
...because for me, he is a singer of songs. He'll never be remembered as a "storyteller" singer like some others named in this thread, (Croce, McLean are others) because quite frankly he's just an above average interpreter of lyrics. Listen to Don's Vincent, Katie's I Cried For You or Cash's take on Hurt; some of Amy Winehouse at her early best like Someone To Watch Over Me...these can move me to tears. Sinatra sings a song and makes it his own: when his heart aches because a "gal who got away" drove him to the bottle, I hear the story and I believe him: he makes it real. When Paul released KOTB, I enjoyed it. I didn't believe any of what he sang, it was Paul singing standards, and enjoyable. Compare Paul's On A Slow Boat To China with Rosemary Clooney and Bing Crosby's live 1970's version from London's Palladium. Paul delivers stories yes, but he's not a masterful interpreter of stories. It's just not the way Paul operates, and that's fine. He's the master of what HE does (or used to be) but he's not a storyteller singer and I know there are many who agree with me because they understand what I mean by that.
Paul is too guarded for that. That is OK. I think John Lennon was great at wearing his heart on his sleeve, I was just listening to No Reply and I'm A Loser, he really does. Suzy might mean Paul spins a great yarn, ie he invents people and circumstances and sings about them, like Lovely Rita, Paperback Writer, and Eleanor Rigby. He does that great, but again, they are made up people and made up emotions. I love those songs, but Paul is at his most brilliant on tunes like For No One, Let It Be and Hey Jude, when he really gives us a glimpse into his soul.
Yes those are my thoughts. I can see where Susy and others are coming from though.