>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>There are lots of terrific singers who don't have great voices. Louis Armstrong, Billy Holiday, Tom Waits, Steven Tyrell, Dr. John and on and on. Yes, Johnny Cash is a perfect choice. The thing is they all worked out how to sing the song so that the song mattered. Never did they sing as though the singer was all that was important. That was my problem with Houston. Same with Streisand, Dion, and others of that ilk. I just can't listen to them in spite of the fact that they all have wonderful vocal chords. I just don't find their renditions at all interesting. Boring, in fact. As far as I'm concerned, they may as well all be Barry Manilow. ;)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Same page. And I add Ricki Lee Jones and Leon Redbone
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>And in Dr. John's case I still would rather he shut up and play. Great piano doesn't need vocals.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>( Maria Muldaur and Lydia Pense - great voices but no chance of them wanting to do Celine Dion covers <s> )
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Agreed on all of those (other than Lydia Pense who I am not familiar with). I would plug Dr. John's rendition of "Such a Night" at The Last Waltz to you but don't need to because I know you were there ;-)
>>>>>>
>>>>>>My Leon Redbone CD is on the dryer now, in the on deck circle for the next car trip....
>>>>>
>>>>>For great voice with great renditions you guys should google (or youtube) Ivan Rebroff, for example the song "The Nightingale" would be a great example or something like that (I know the songs mostly on Spanish, as I grew up with Rebroff's greatest fan (my dad) who had all his records, some of them in different editions (he would look for him in any country he visited and buy the record even if he already had it) and or formats (Magazine, Open Tape?, Cassette, LP, CD).
>>>>>
>>>>>
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvbNXBh9mUU (I can not watch youtube, hopefully is the right one)
>>>>
>>>>The man can sing. He's also quite a performer. While I was at youtube, I watched his French version of Tevye singing "If I Were a Rich Man". Excellent.
>>>
>>>That was one of my father's favourite songs from him, so I grew up listening to it.
>>
>>What a voice. Opera is not really my thing but you can't help being impressed.
>>
>>Now here is a little story about the FoxGang. Back in the CompuServe days I became friends with Stuart Somerville, who also lived in Vancouver. He was a regular on the FoxForum and we hung out together a lot at a DevCon in San Diego, the one where VFP 3 was launched, and stayed in touch. It turned out Stuart was an opera buff. Not just that, he was friends with the English soprano Jane Eaglen from when she would post on the opera forum under a pseudonym. Occasionally he would fly to one of her performances and one of them was at the Lyric Opera in Chicago. We had dinner in the Loop before the show. I did not go to the performance -- he must have figured that as a hopeless rock and roller it would have been lost on me -- but he emailed me the next day that they had shared a cab to the hotel afterward. (NOTHING was implied beyond that). So now I guess we know there are at least three opera fans among FoxPro developers.
>
> I have to admit that opera is lost on me. I appreciate a good voice and a good song. If it's operatic, then that's fine with me. I even have a few CDs around here by opera singers, but to actually sit and appreciate a full blown opera from beginning to end is beyond me. Give me Les Mis anytime.
We are on the same page. I can appreciate it in small doses but am nowhere near the real buffs. They will pay lots of money to attend complete presentations of The Ring, which goes on for four full evenings. As I'm sure you know, that opera is where the phrase "when the fat lady sings" comes from.
It's good to have my connectivity back. AT&T internet service was whacked for close to 18 hours in the Chicago area.
