Character of voice overcomes actual vocal talent?

1 Though I enjoyed Fleetwood Mac as a band, I was never a big fan of Stevie Nicks, and I never thought she had a particularly great voice. Time and life have had an effect on her voice, and it is now even less inspiring than it was. But people can be very forgiving of their heroes, and that's a nice thing to happen.

2 I like that an international star is willing to work with a school band. That would be a great thrill for them. Would it help their musical carers? Maybe, but most likely not.

3 I don't like it that she took centre stage. Stevie's role is not to be the star, but to help the band members be the stars. I think I would have liked it better had she been part of the backing vocal ensemble, with someone else taking the lead. Or maybe she could have shared the lead with someone.

4 I thought the band was pretty good for a school band. I like that they didn't overplay, and kept it tight and simple.
 
gecko zzed said:
1 Though I enjoyed Fleetwood Mac as a band, I was never a big fan of Stevie Nicks, and I never thought she had a particularly great voice. Time and life have had an effect on her voice, and it is now even less inspiring than it was. But people can be very forgiving of their heroes, and that's a nice thing to happen.

2 I like that an international star is willing to work with a school band. That would be a great thrill for them. Would it help their musical carers? Maybe, but most likely not.

3 I don't like it that she took centre stage. Stevie's role is not to be the star, but to help the band members be the stars. I think I would have liked it better had she been part of the backing vocal ensemble, with someone else taking the lead. Or maybe she could have shared the lead with someone.

4 I thought the band was pretty good for a school band. I like that they didn't overplay, and kept it tight and simple.
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I find it great that people that have had success in the popular music industry go out of their way to help others. That is really cool.

I do find it personally disturbing when they do it for their own benefit, or out of their own ego. Which is what I felt from this particular case.

So I agree with you an all points.

Especially point #3. That is what made me say to myself WTF? That felt like unsupported arrogance to me. And an inappropriate venue to place it...
 
I barely noticed Stevie Nicks...I was too busy watching all the different faces the lead guitarist was making!

I also agree with what gecko said, especially point 1. The aging process has not been kind to her voice. However, I also wonder if she was having problems with her IEM--I noticed her trying to adjust it in the first few bars and not being able to hear your monitors properly can cause some pretty big problems.

On the topic of IEMs and RF in general, they had an awful lot of channels going, assuming each member of the band had an IEM as well, plus RF feeds for all the string instruments output.

I'm not sure there was really any option other than having her take centre stage though. To a large extent she would have even it had been Fleetwood Mac backing her up. The only other option I can think of might have been turning it into a duet with a student doing the other lead vocal, but...
 
Bobbsy said:
I'm not sure there was really any option other than having her take centre stage though. To a large extent she would have even it had been Fleetwood Mac backing her up. The only other option I can think of might have been turning it into a duet with a student doing the other lead vocal, but...
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Yeah.. She's the sole celebrity in a room full of kids. Her being there in the first place is the story.
She also happens to have an abrasive presence (and voice) that's easy to dislike. All she has to do to earn our wrath is walk into the room.

But I agree with everything else Gecko said.
 
Stevie Nicks: I'm gonna go surprise some kids and sing with them.

Kids: Who the fuck is this nasty old lady?
 
It seemed like monitor problems, I've seen too many recent fan shot live videos that were sung well to think that she's just lost it.

It would have seemed odd if the lead singer in any situation would have been anywhere other than front and center. Phil Collins did the same thing a while back, he was front and center too.

I am not a Stevie fan. I think she sings like a billie goat, but I think the assessment was a little harsh.
 
I don't like the song, don't like her voice (then or now) :)
But it was a hit and she was the singer, and singers are usually up front and center. Can't fault her for taking center stage.

The band is predominantly a cover band. I would think it would be an honor for them to be the house band for an artist who originally performed a song that they are covering. :D

Stevie? Yeah, she's getting old and it shows in more ways than one.
:D
 
Farview said:
I think she sings like a billie goat.
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She was easy on the eyes when she was young and that probably got her the gig in the first place...but I too felt she had a sheep type quality to her voice back in the day...so yeah Billie Goat works...
 
Disclaimer: I didn't have time to watch the linked video... but...

Character of voice trumping vocal talent? It's not like that's new. Jimi Hendrix couldn't sing worth a crap (he even admitted as much himself). Kurt Cobain had a terrible voice. There's different aesthetics to music, and not all of them call for being a perfectly trained vocalist. If you had an opera singer singing for the Jimi Hendrix Experience it would have been really really REALLY stupid. In fact, when I hear someone doing covers of Hendrix and they have perfect pitch, it comes across as really fake, yuppie, watered down and soulless. If someone has "the right" character to their voice, it can trump virtuosity any day... unless you're holding vocal clinics for music nerds or something.
 
I was never a fan of her voice per se, but in the right song at the right time... Rumours was one of the great albums of the 70s, and "Landslide" is about as perfect as a song can get. Her solo stuff was like nails on chalkboard for me. Her voice has not aged well. I saw her and Lindsay perform on Austin City Limits maybe a decade ago. His playing was as great as ever. Her voice...well, I felt sorry for her.

Where else should the singer stand but front and center?
 
I've always liked her voice. It has a folksy aspect about it that is unique. She's not a virtuoso - so what. That style of music doesn't require it.

Good for her to do this for these kids. You'd have to be trying pretty hard to see this as some sort of selfish thing. She put herself out there and took a risk, and put a decent level of effort into the performance. Looked to me like she was trying to have an on-stage connection with those kids and they seemed to enjoy it. When I was a kid, I dreamed about the chance to do something like this with Fugazi or the Ramones or the Dead Kennedys.
 
MrUserNameIV said:
Jimi Hendrix couldn't sing worth a crap (he even admitted as much himself). Kurt Cobain had a terrible voice.
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Have you ever had ANYTHING worthwhile to say or made any contribution of note on this forum? You don't half spout some amazing torrents of absolute wank, most of the time.
 
Character of voice overcomes actual vocal talent...

Well what "good" is, like beauty, is in the eyes...or in this case the ears of the beholder.

I know a really good, classically trained opera singer who related going to a Rod Stewart concert and just about puked...referenced cats in heat :D.....and yet Rod's got the mansion and a yacht and she's singing for peanuts and beer
 
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