Whitney Houston in Central Park taping for Good Morning America- Page 2

[best12bars]

Posted: 9/2/09 at 9:53am

I don't know why she didn't take this opportunity (or rather Clive take this opportunity) to reinvent Whitney Houston into a modern-day Billie Holliday. Let the rough voice be the guide to the type of music she should be singing now. Instead of cranking out tired and barely "new" Diane Warren crap, have her try something completely different. Not old standards, necessarily, but a different sound.

Too late. The comeback was ill-conceived, and everyone is doing the comparison. She should have tried to be a new person, not a new Whitney.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/2/09 at 9:54am

The hoopla is that once upo a time, the woman once possessed one of the truly great pop-vocal voices of our lifetimes, up there--and I say this without bombast--with Garland, Streisand, Sinatra and Fitzgerald.

[Jane2]

Posted: 9/2/09 at 10:05am

But PJ, none of the greats you mentioned totally lost their voice and came back to herald it.

[best12bars]

Posted: 9/2/09 at 10:10am

She didn't, PJ. At least not in my opinion. She had an incredible instrument, but it always lacked the real soul that those other singers you mentioned had. Still, she had prowess. And it was never put to use better than when she sang the Star-Spangled Banner during the first Gulf War. Breathtaking! But I always preferred her uptempos to her ballads, because they didn't demand much in the "true feeling" department. Her ballads were always sung with an amazing voice. A pure instrument. But "nobody was home."

Take away that brilliant voice now, and you have someone who is being revealed as having very little connection to her material. This isn't new at all. It's just being exposed now, since her audience can't be lulled or fooled into thinking she's thinking while singing. She's not. She never has been.

When she first arrived on the scene, I didn't like her. I said, "she's a Star Search singer." All flash and flare and no content. I don't think I was wrong.

I figured she might have learned how to put her "history" into her singing now. She's been through a lot. And the voice shows it. But sadly, she still can't connect to the material.

The difference with Liza and Judy, and an aging Ella, Billie, and Frank, is that they ALWAYS could connect to the material. So when the voices faded a bit, we still had their "soul" in the material. We could hear the person. Sometimes, it was even more effective than when they had the "pure instrument." They could always interpret a song, even when hoarse. Even when tired, or old. THAT's what I call a "singer." As opposed to someone who has a "good voice." They are not the same thing.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 9/2/09 at 10:47am

I also think she's been oversinging since The Bodyguard soundtrack. She was blowing out her voice every time she sang that "I Will Always Love You". Her earlier stuff had much better vocal technique.

That said, the crack pipe didnt help...nor did yelling "Bobby!"

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 9/2/09 at 11:00am

Honestly, Whitney, I'm happy for you. I'm happy that you got your little "comeback", and I'm happy that you have the self-confidence to (in an unprecedented move) price every single one of the "I'm back from the brink and I'll tell you about it songs" on your mediocre new album at the higher price of $1.29.

But honestly, I don't know how much sympathy I can really have for you as I listen to your new songs about how horrible your life was and how strong you are now. YOU chose to take part in a demeaning reality show. YOU got yourself into a horrible marraige and didn't take steps to get yourself out. YOU were a crazy, flaky b****.

And most importantly, YOU took those drugs. Nobody forced that coke up your nose. YOU dug yourself into a hole, and I'm happy for you that you climbed out of it. But don't expect people to give you sympathy when you caterwaul about how life just ain't fair.

Side note: "Million Dollar Bill" is the only song on your album I can listen to, and not because your voice sounds good on it.

[uncageg]

Posted: 9/2/09 at 11:12am

I am just catching the last 1/2 hour of GMA. She just "sang" "I look to You". She sounded awful. Before beginning the song she said "I'm going to try to do this". Did they say that she was under the weather or something? As I am typing this, she is singing "I'm Every Woman" and it is evident that they used some recorded vocals in the very beginning.

Jane and best, I agree with you. I have never been a "fan" of Whitney's. I own 3 of her later CD's. I purchased "The Bodyguard" and "My Love...". I was given her last CD before this new one. I rarely listen to any of them. What I wonder is what is going on with her? I saw a few live performances by her and she sounded much better than today. it seems that they would have done everything possible to make sure she was in, at least, decent vocal shape for this performance. If they are even thinking of a tour, this performance did nothing to help sell tickets.

best, when she first came on the scene I didn't care for her either. But it was because of her music. I didn't even find her "flashy". At the time, you rarely heard her in a black club but they played her all the time in the predominately white gay clubs. Most blacks I knew thought she was too white and too pop and felt she really had no soul. If I remember correctly, as it was a long time and many cocktails ago(!), you mostly heard her ballads on the black stations. Rarely her upbeat stuff. A lot of people feel she tried to "rectify" that with the "My Love is Your Love" CD. It's not a bad CD but it was a bit too late to pull in the black listeners. She was already beginning her spiral downward.

Type of music aside, she had one of the greatest voices out there. And I think that even with the condition her voice is in now, she couldn't even pull off a modern day Billie Holiday. I still don't think she would connect to the music. That's just my opinion.

Since Bobby Brown, she has changed. I read somewhere a while ago that the Whitney that we saw during the Bobby days was the real Whitney. Can't put her down for being who she wants to be but I just don't feel that she is as into performing as much as she was years ago. And even then, I never really felt she was totally into it. Just my random thoughts.

[supportivemom]

Posted: 9/2/09 at 12:14pm

I thought she was emotional during "I Turn To You" because she was singing it to her mother. I gave her the benefit of the doubt. I was just so disappointed. Her backup singers were doing all of the singing and she was doing a lot of talking and screaming. Her voice is just not there anymore. She does have stage presence and her daughter did not get her singing genes. I'm with besty- I would love her to chose songs that use her raspy voice and the grit she has survived.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/2/09 at 3:05pm

Her TV debut, singing "Home" from The Wiz on the Merv Griffin Show, 4/29/85:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecA3w33Muk4



And back when she almost had it all...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK_2FdJtjeE

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 9/2/09 at 3:23pm

Wasnt she drunk at last year's grammys? I remember her slurring her words and looking like she didnt know where she was. She presented Jennifer Hudson her grammy.

edited to include drunken clip:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8bea6_whitney-houston-at-the-2009-grammy_shortfilms

Updated On: 9/2/09 at 03:23 PM

[uncageg]

Posted: 9/2/09 at 3:28pm

I remember that and she sure appeared to be. Although at times,to me, it doesn't seem to be alcohol that is the problem. If there is a problem.

[Jane2]

Posted: 9/2/09 at 5:33pm

" it seems that they would have done everything possible to make sure she was in, at least, decent vocal shape for this performance."

Unca, I think if they could, they would, but she can't get into decent vocal shape if she has no voice left. I'm thinking that what we saw was the best she can do.

"I would love her to chose songs that use her raspy voice and the grit she has survived."

As for me, mom, I probably wouldn't use the word survived, as though it were something out of her control. She chose to do everything she did

[supportivemom]

Posted: 9/2/09 at 6:20pm

Yeah- I get your point Jane. I should have put all the grit she has gone through!

[uncageg]

Posted: 9/2/09 at 6:28pm

Jane, I was kind of basing that statement on the performance I saw her give at an Oscar party this past year. She sounded way better than she did on GMA.

[Jane2]

Posted: 9/2/09 at 6:30pm

Really, uncageg? Well, maybe that's a good thing. Maybe she can work on her voice and get some of it back?

[BroomstickBoy]

Posted: 9/3/09 at 12:34am

A quasi-comeback solely for career profit for Clive Davis is not a comeback. In order to have a comeback, you have to GO AWAY COMPLETELY first. That's why it is a COME. BACK.

Britney did not have a comeback, we just patted her on the back for taking her meds and not acting like a spoiled redneck brat. Folks are giving the revisionist history version of Whitney the same thing. She's not back. Our Whitney is gone.

None of these performers/artists/whatever we're calling them now have really achieved a comeback. They haven't earned it because none of them have taken responsibility on their own terms to acknowledge and accept their mistakes that they made on their own volition. Because they are SPOILED (to quote Mommy Dearest, "You spoiled it just like I spoiled you!). It's true, because they have been given all this success and they let it break them down and they decided to stay there with all the pieces at the bottom. The artist, and media, will just continue glamorizing what could be a personal triumph for the sake of "show business".

Okay. There's my rant. I'm done glorifying my own opinion through pompousity.

Updated On: 9/3/09 at 12:34 AM

[best12bars]

Posted: 9/3/09 at 10:00am

I'm not about to listen to her new subpar songs, when I found most of her older song stylings subpar to begin with ... so someone please enlighten me.

Isn't this album mosty about how she "made it through" and she's "not gonna let it happen again?" She's "standing tall" and she "survived the storm?"

If you think about it, that's not saying much of anything at all---other than, "Look at me! I can still walk."

To quote my favorite movie, The Wizard of Oz, "What have you learned, Dorothy?"

Are any of these songs about things she's learned? Or are they all just cocky ballads about proudly living through her bad days? A brick wall can live through a storm and still be standing.

It's still a brick wall.

[Jane2]

Posted: 9/3/09 at 10:11am

I thought she was pretty good in her day. But what I object to the most is when a celeb starts drinking, taking drugs, getting into sick relatioships, then hitting bottom, supposedly getting past it, and then making news by acting like they accomplished something worthy of worldwide praise and adoration.

[uncageg]

Posted: 9/3/09 at 10:22am

best12, she streamed the full cd on her website last week. That's how I heard it. There are a lot of references to what "she went through" and and some "be strong" stuff. It's not a collection of ballads. It is pretty much mid-tempo stuff. There are actually some songs on it that I do like. But the problem I have are her vocals. It is actually produced pretty well and I actually wouldn't go as far as to call the songs subpar, just her vocals. As I listened to it, I thought that if her voice was closer to what it was and she could still hit those high notes, I would possibly buy this cd. Or at least the songs that I like.