Voices

I was listening to Blind Willie Johnson (the Dark Was The Night CD). His “normal” singing voice is actually a pleasant tenor, but he sings most of his songs in a growling, raspy baritone. It reminded me of Tom Waits, whose voice seems as consciously constructed as his songs (which - when it comes to Tom, at least - is not a bad thing). Compare the lighter timbre of Closing Time, say, with Small Change. We’re not talking Jim Nabors or Crazy Guggenheim here (the distorted and wacky talking voice coupled with an angelic singing one), but the intentional construction of a rough-toned singing voice. I wonder if Waits was listening to Blind Willie J. when he started experimenting with his voice? And then I was listening to Marianne Faithfull’s 20th Century Blues (her cabaret act, featuring Brecht/Weill songs) – now there’s one whiskey and smoke voice that sounds like it was earned.

On the general subject of voices, I was recently gifted with Garcia Plays Dylan – a two disc set of Jerry Garcia’s interpretations of Dylan songs. The tracks are all live, and assembled from a variety of Garcia sources; mostly the Jerry Garcia Band with a few Dead tracks, some work with Merle Saunders, and even a cut from The Legion of Mary. Truth to tell, I’m not a big Dead fan. I don’t believe there are more than a handful of artists capable of improvising on a song effectively for more than 10 minutes, and the vast majority of those are jazz musicians (there are others, like John Fahey and Sandy Bull, and musicians from other traditions, including raga and gamelan); by and large, the Dead don't make my list. The Dead’s playing has always struck me as being far too self-indulgent AND their voices are uniformly undistinguished (this isn’t to say they’re not good; their two peak studio albums – Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty – have long been favorites of mine; their voices work far better in close harmony, which they can do very well; their songbook is outstanding).

Garcia’s voice in particular is wispy and lacks an edge. This makes it hard for him to put across a lot of Dylan’s work; his take on “Positively 4th Street”, for example, is almost apologetic when it should be searing and bitter. He’s better off sticking to material like “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” or “I Shall Be Released” …and a little more discipline on the instrumental breaks would also be welcome.

And then it was Neil Young’s 60th birthday – lots of airplay on my commute. Young is another artist whose work I respect deeply – ace guitarist, fine songwriter – but whom I don’t listen to much because of his voice. I just don’t dig it. I wouldn’t call it nails on a blackboard, but it’s close. Even so, there are some Young songs that I’ve included in sets, like “Unknown Legend”, his bolero, “The Ways of Love”, and “Needle and the Damage Done”. I even own Harvest and Mirror Ball, but I can only take him in small doses most of time. It's just a personal thing though, so happy 60th Neil, and long may you run.