Credo
"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." -- John Paul Jones
"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Caesar and Cleopatra"
"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friedrich Nietzsche
"A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."--Edmund Burke
“You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”--General Sir Charles Napier
"Μολὼν λαβέ" -- Leonidas
"Blogito Ergo Sum" -- Neptunus Lex
Thanks for that thought-provoking article. I’ve read several explanations for why her effect is so powerful and all of them have seemed to have an element of truth. But they were all so cynical. I like this explanation very much.
Btw, here she is, 10 years ago when her local newspaper made a charity CD: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wxy8bLzsCfM&feature=related It’s proof she’s a genuine artist (can sing more than just Le Mis)
Lex, this cynic watched and listened and I am unashamed to say that along with the huge grin was the tears. Susan Boyle has a gift that no other living being can match or surpass.
You should listen, Lex, you truly should. No one should pass up something of beauty just because so many others have not passed it by.
Not religious but I must salute the writer of that opinion piece, he used a contemporary issue to go back to his message very well.
And now I’m back watching Do You Hear the People Sing, I love that song….
Found this on youtube, love it for the variety of nations: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUCZywEwbvo&feature=related
A fabulous reminder, if one is needed, that what is proffered as beauty and grace is often a sad imitation of both. I’m thinking what gets passed off as chic in popular culture so often. Give me honesty like Ms. Boyle over spoiled brat inherited money driven, publicity agent fueled, mis-behavior addicted fame mongers like Paris Hilton anyday.
Special place in heaven for her ilk. The others, I’d guess not so much.
Sim- Enjoyed the link.
FBL- Same.
Thanks, Dust.
Lex … Thanks so much for linking that fabulous/homely/completely charming, absolutely unique creature, so that I could hear her again. I’ve known some like her, since I studied singing and did some professionally back in the ’60s, but they are always stunning … a real gift from God to lowly human hearts.
See … we are very lucky. Just not very often.
Marianne
I’ve listened to Ms Boyle’s rendition of I Dreamed a Dream several times each day since it first landed on You Tube.
I would like to just listen to her sing without the background noise (cheering, eye rolls, “you didn’t expect that, did you?”, whatever). I’d love to hear her sing it on You Tube again (or heck, I’d buy a CD) without the idiotic background chatter. Haven’t been able to find that though. I’ve never heard the song done better…never ever. Not even close.
In the same vein, check out the Paul Potts auditions for the same show. They both show what I understand is the way people with such voices treat that gift….by talking about “it” as a sort of separate thing. Whatever, it’s almost like watching an athletic performance to see the use of the voice like this – inspiring.
For a totally 180 alternate take on the Boyle phenomenon read “Spengler” in the Asia Times @
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/KD21Ad01.html
SteveC … classical singing, and that includes most ‘show singing,’ is very definitely an athletic performance. If you ever have the chance to be backstage after an opera performance or a musical, you’ll see a lot of physically exhausted, sweaty people, mostly triumphant that they ‘did good’ and made glorious music even though it was a tough tough workout. It always looks so easy from out front. It’s supposed to…
And boyoboy, are they hungry afterward!
Marianne.
yes indeedy.
learning to belt is an eye opener when you get it. I’m teaching my 10-year old daughter how to sing from her diaphragm, much to the chagrin of her chorus instructor
Many of my friends are surprised to learn I have an Equity card. They just think that because I am politically somewhat to the right of Attilla, that I have no appreciation for theatre, or music.
Then they are shocked when I tell them I was a music major with a classical studies minor. Throws them for a loop when they realize that some right-wing knuckle dragger has read Procopius, and can also belt out some Delta blues.
I try and remind them that a liberal arts education has nothing to do with being liberal, or a leftist. Heh.
I’d love to hear you sing…..
Marianne,
I agree completly. I’ve sung in choirs most of my adult life; and a two hour performance is very much like a workout (especially when singing with an orchestra).
Virgil,
I’m lost as to Spengler’s point. In China little children strive to become musicians with 500 times the effort of Boyle but few will succeed? No kidding? Um…okay? That doesn’t mean Boyle is mediocre as the article would imply…though I suppose it’s part and parcel to being a writer for the Asia times.
I’m sure Italy (as I’m half-Italian) had 500 Marilyn Monroe equivalents back in the day (they still do), but only Annette Funicello made good because the actual Italian equivalents were starving and working in brothels (and then Heller made a fortune writing about them). Okay, point is what? Don’t live in the third world country? I’m sure somewhere in Kenya during the ‘age of reason’ there very likely lived a person who, if not working a subsistence living, might have discovered the concept of gravity and had an appreciation for math even before Newton, but he was so darned hamstrung by poverty and working 23 hours a day he couldn’t take advantage of the fact. The point being?
My husband’s parents came over from Cuba. Maybe of his relatives (can’t imagine they’re so entirely different than he is…his parents have genius IQs and so does he) would love to be equally successful in America but, well, they’re all stuck in Cuba under a dictatorship. The end. Sucks for them. Doesn’t mean those who succeed in the west are mediocre. Apparently we aren’t so bleeping mediocre or everyone else in the world wouldn’t be trying so desparately hard to emulate us. I hear the Chinese acrobats are huge in china (actually, I went to China and saw them. They were amazing)
This post isn’t intended to be personal, but good grief! I did live in Asia for a year and they’re messed up. Good for them for practicing piano and singing, but they should lay off of Boyle.
Liz/
Wouldn’t argue with anything you said, but if I were a bettin’ man–and I am–I would bet that what Spengler is REALLY worried about is not so much his (mis)evaluation of Boyle’s talents but the MTV /reality tv Jay Lenno “Jay Walking” All-Star generation that will soon be swamped by the disciplined, educated minds of Asia represented by it’s youth and their dedication to the discipline of the piano, music, math and other difficult mental processes. And that the social construct that is the United States of America to which all still yet aspire to come to live and work is really a not-yet-decayed shell developed by a previous generation that exists only because of momentum–a momentum that will eventually slow–is slowing– as the sociocultural intellectual fuel and work ethic that propelled America has burned out in a previous stage and now the orbital ballistics of the unpowered/underpowered nation that is America is in rapid decay and that this nation has passed it’s apogee, and is headed, indeed hurtling, down the other side of the ballistic arc of history.
“The East is Red.”
I don’t know. Such an old argument/misconception. When I went to Korea, I was set to see an ‘advanced’ society. I taught English at their elementary schools…after teaching science for a short time in ours. Their math scores were far beyond ours…best in the world. What I found was a society that couldn’t patch a roof or raise a house correctly. Their children are no different from ours. Their engineers don’t know how to create anything original.
Yes, their math scores might be top-notch, but they don’t have the imagination to succeed. Too much academics stiffles creativity.
Fifteen years later, I can’t imagine it’s so much different now than then. The mythos of Asian engineering supremacy is identical today as it was then.
I’d tell Spengler he should watch his own back. Writers are as easy to substitute as singers. Arguably far more easy. Can’t those Chinese write? Yes, they can…they can write as well as they can play the piano. That has been the case for years, so why are we reading his articles rather than theirs?
Liz,
I’m a big fan of Honda motors, it’s a company of engineers, by engineers, and the cars and motorcycles are only a way of paying for the effort.
That said, while Honda has very good engineering and has some some very innovative methods to overcoming problems, of the Japanese engineers I’ve met they lack one thing. Hubris.
Americans and Germans will shout, stamp their feet, break pencils, and otherwise make their displeasure known. They are full of confidence of their own abilities. They argue, they whiteboard out problems and they come up with solutions.
The Japanese, indeed most Asians if I might paint with a broad brush, do not. They tend to seek a concensus, they feel a part of the whole rather than as individuals, they are creative but stifle the individual effort in favor of the shared group.
There is nothing behind this save culture. As soon as those engineers are released into an environment where their culture can be dismissed and they can rise to their own level of competence, they will exceed our greatest expectations.
Engineers tend to be type-A personalities. The Japanese do not have a type-A culture. The influx of skilled engineers from Asia once this cultural tie is broken will do wonders for human life on this planet.
The repercussions in jobs, economics, national standing?
I don’t even want to speculate.
— Max
My wife and my oldest daughter asked me to teach them how to play piano. I told then that I couldn’t, even though I put myself through college playing piano bars and nightclubs.
Tried to explain that I had so many bad habits that I just couldn’t do it. If they would take piano from a classical instructor for a year or two, then I’d be able to teach them all the shortcuts. Circle of fifths, jazz scales, progressions, minors and majors, etc.
The big problem with most music programs is that they teach you all the basics, but it’s like flying. You can be technically proficient, but if it isn’t in your soul, then you are just a meat-based player piano.
People say that the eyes are the windows to the soul, but they don’t understand that music is the soul’s voice, and if you aren’t singing and/or playing from the soul, it’s just so much noise. It might sound pretty, but it ain’t music.
There’s a world of difference between flying and driving a bus through the air. Same with music. Many learn how to play. few learn how to perform.
Respects,
AW1Tim/
Some soulful musings between your two posts. Damn, didn’t know you had it in you. I may be a man of many dubious talents, but music ain’t one of them–no how, no way, unh, unh–and I’m supremely jealous of you bastards. My wife (and son, thank God) has all the rhythm in this family.
A gift from the Gods indeed. Have to get you down to New Orleans for Jazz-Fest or some such thing and sneak you on-stage what to perform for the multitudes! (heh)
Or better yet in one of a few sleazy neighborhood bars I know and frequent, erm, have heard about.
http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/showbiz/britains_got_talent/299403/Britainrsquos-Got-Talentrsquos-Hairy-Angel-Susan-Boyle-turned-down-invite-to-Correspondents-Dinner-where-she-would-have-met-President-Barack-Obama.html
By Douglas Wight, 10/05/2009
SUSAN Boyle turned down the chance of a dream dinner date with President Barack in Washington . . . to stay at home and wash her hair, we can reveal.
Britain’s Got Talent’s Hairy Angel confessed to being TOO NERVOUS to meet the American president – her most famous fan – at a glittering star-studded bash.
A source told us: “She was shocked and thrilled by the invite – but it was all too much too soon for her so she said No.”
“She has been told President Obama has seen clips of her on TV and loved her singing. And she is delighted.
“But instead she’ll have no doubt stayed in with her cat Pebbles, washed her hair and watched Britain’s Got Talent on telly.”
American TV networks all fell over themselves to give her a special invitation to the prestigious annual Correspondents Dinner which took place in Washington DC last night. President Obama was guest of honour and invitations are like gold dust.
Dowdy spinster Susan – who captured hearts around the world when she sang I Dreamed a Dream from Les Miserables – would have rubbed shoulders with the rich and famous including Hollywood A-listers at the five-star Hilton Hotel . . . and the President
“Dowdy spinster Susan – who captured hearts around the world when she sang I Dreamed a Dream from Les Miserables – would have rubbed shoulders with the rich and famous including Hollywood A-listers at the five-star Hilton Hotel . . . and the President”
No. The “A-listers” would have gotten the chance to rub shoulders with a real person – someone who is not impressed with themselves.
They missed out.
Susan didn’t miss a thing.
Marianne,
Would love to hear some of your singing. Got any demos or recordings?
Best,
Dust
AW1Tim and Dust … Two musical soulmates at once, gosh! I’m gobsmacked, as our versatile and kindly host says. My husband says I do have recordings which have been gathering dust [pardon, Dust] in the library cabinets, but I’ll be blessed if I know how to put them on the ‘Net for email. I’ll check with the wonderful Jared, our computer whiz. Maybe he can tell me.
And bless you both for your interest. You’ve made a somewhat dreary week better.
Marianne
Marianne/
If “Music hath charms” this savage beast would love to be charmed by your warbling also–might prevent me–if only momentarily–from acting so beastly. Hit up Lex for my e-mail and add me to your list along with AW1Tim and Dust.
PS: When we lived in Louisville one of our best friends was a couple whose wife was an Opera singer from Nashville who sang with the Kentucky Opera, so know what you mean!
Umm Hmm, the MMSSFC (Marianne Matthews Super Secret Fan Club) is at work again.
Would be most enjoyable to hear some of your singing Mrs. M.
Regards,
Send a copy to me, here in the Badger’s Den, please.
Outstanding! I lookforward to it!
I’d never watched American Idol and while I had read of Boyle’s story, had not seen the video clip until now. It resonates with so many because, in a few short minutes, it demonstrates the the triumph of substance over style. People who were betting on her failure were proved wrong. Effort and perseverance can lead someone from humble origins to something great and who doesn’t like to see a true life “Rocky Balboa” story come to life?
Thanks for that link Lex. I’d heard tiny bits of her on the radio but not seen the actual video of that TV debut. Put a bright spot in a somewhat difficult day.
American Idol, Dances With the Stars, so far as I’m concerned it’s The Gong Show only it lasts for an hour or two instead of 30 minutes.
Be that as it may, there are, on occassion, true gems to be found, undiscovered seams of raw talent and beauty to uncover and display to the world. If these shows provide such a service, I suppose I can stand reading a book while they play and others watch.
As for a claim that she’s not that good, that thousands of better singers work each day while she gets her name in the spotlight, well, that’s nothing unknown to any band you’ll find working a seedy bar every weeknight in New York, LA, or any college campus town waiting to be discovered, waiting for their big break.
I’ve often joked with friends that I am a man of many talents, most of them undiscovered.
Watching Susan perform was inspiring. Maybe I can’t carry a tune even if given a bucket, perhaps I have no sense of rhythm, and while I learned 25 years ago that I’d never be a rock star when I discovered that I have no musical talent, I’ve picked up that guitar again.
Not that I might do well with it, but that I’ll know enough to teach my kid the fundamentals. Maybe she’ll be blessed with the talents I lack.
It’s been nearly 20 years since I put that guitar away. Haven’t even thought of it much. Just another bit of kit in storage from the last time we moved almost 15 years ago.
Turns out that $100 I spent back in the ’70′s has appreciated.
It’s a ’58 Les Paul. I don’t care how good she gets and how pathetic I may be, the only way she’s getting this guitar is in my will.
I may have no talent, doesn’t mean I can’t compensate with some good tools.
It is interesting to note that Axl Rose, of Guns and Roses fame, learned to sing in the Pentecostal church he attended as a youth. He speaks and sings as a baritone, but can sing as a bass, baritone, tenor and sorpano.
Elvis Presley learned to sing in church, if I recall correctly.
Seems to me there’s a lot of talent out there Hollywood will never see save but on occassion. And a lot of it is to be found in your local churches.
So let American Idol and Dances with the Stars and the Gong Show have their run in the sun. Seems to me a sunday morning in church is bound to find you more inspiration than an hour in front fo the tube will.
Must be one reason more and more are unplugging the darned thing.
– Max
Max, best in-person singer I ever heard was a friend of a friend who belted out the best “New York, New York” I’ve heard from a female, while we were doing a wake in a karaoke bar in Beverly Hills on Wilshire. And it was before the drinks had their effect on my listening ability, if you are going to wonder. I asked her about her singing and was she using that talent; she said, yes, she was a performer in ‘Hollywood.’ But, then she told me: There are “a thousand” people in entertainment who can do what she did, and more, and better. Makes me wonder what the heck it takes to succeed – because this girl was really something.
AW1
Gadzooks, your flight crew musta had some interesting conversations on those 8 hr drone-ettes at 500 ft. You ever lug aboard a Yamaha electric piano and serenade the crew in back? Jeopardy with Tim – “I’ll take Procopious for $500″. Right, who da heck is he – he wasn’t in any of my ocean engineering courses. I’m showing my total lack of liberal arts education I admit.
And Max – after 4 years in Japan my observation was that the Japanese were terrible at inventing, but wonderfully adept at improving. I have a PowerPoint presentation called Shift Happens that I will forward to Lex. Maybe he can post.
heh,
yeah, I had a Fender Rhodes back then. It was the state of the art for portable keyboards, but was heavy as all get out. I wouldn’t have wanted to try and wrestle that beast up the ladder and into the tube, that’s for sure.
Procopius was a court scribe under the Byzantine Emperor Justinian. He also accompanied one of Byzantium’s most famous generals, Belisarius, on several campaigns. His 8-volume history is full of insights into life in both the court and the army on campaign, and details not otherwhere found.
You have to have a certain history geekness to read all that stuff…..
AWTim,
You might have been able to get a Wurlitzer Series 100 electric KB aboard a P3. Nice and small, and a great funky sound.
In our ASCAC, STC John Rice had and played one. It was great for 12-18 hour watches when we weren’t prosecuting targets or ran out of fresh reel-to-reel tapes from the ship’s store.
Best tune ever on that axe was “What’s I say?” by Ray Charles.
In our era, all “tensions” were erased by singing Temptations, Sam and Dave, Percy Sledge, Otis Redding and James Brouwn tunes.
Somebody must have forgotten the music in the early 70s when the riots broke out aboard ships at sea, but that’s another topic.
You know, Richard Carpenter played a Wurlitzer electric piano, and it’s unique sound was the basis for many of The Carpenter’s big hits.
music is the soul’s voice
Tim – that’ s probably the best description of how I feel about music, that I’ve ever heard.
I too play the piano – not at your level; I can sight-read music even if it’s not all that accurate without lots of practice.
Music is such a huge part of my life that I can’t stand silence too often; I have to at least have some music going in the background.
Susan Boyle spoke to the soul. She touched the bullied, unconfident, shy person that exists in all of us. No matter how old we are, what we’ve achieved (or not) in life. She has a powerful gift; I hope the “industry” doesn’t warp it too much.
I think her recording of Cry Me a River to be exceptional.
As someone has already commented, the cheers and eye rolling detract from her performance of the Les Mis tune.
But, having said that, the whole controversy about changing her homely/frumpy appearance seems a distraction. Aren’t performers supposed to change their appearance for their role?
If she were to be hired for a rendition of Cats wouldn’t she be expected to appear in costume?
All performers appear in “costume.”
Come on, a good hair dresser and a pluck of the eyebrows wouldn’t hurt.
Susan Boyle may not be a very good looking woman but she has an angelic voice. .