keepingfaith

Tell me somethin' good ..... THANKS!

I love Kind of Hush because it's the only song on the album that speaks to a pure happiness in love. It's a happy happy joy joy fun fun song. The others express an array of hopefulness, longing, looking, crying, worrying, desperation, introspection, helplessness, imagination, and devotion to varying degrees. Kind of Hush is just upbeat, uptempo, and happily declaring a mutual love to the whole world. I like that a lot. And for some reason, this song makes me conduct the orchestra, or BE the orchestra. I swear I do a mini-version of Jerry Lewis listening to this one. I just can't help it.

Maybe it was meant to be a duet all along and Clay recorded it in mind to have someone take the lead in several places. It could have been recorded in a variety of ways by Clay and then fit with the other singer. Who knows? The one thing I do know and love about this duet is that Clay's voice dominates it, and beautifully so. I'm completely charmed by his voice and how her's intertwines so sweetly with his.

The Voice -- Linda Eder Official Fan Newsletter Dream Duet I ripped out the above link and quote from LdyJ's earlier post of the entire interview. At the "Dream Duet" link is this quote from Linda Eder: Billy Stein is Linda's keyboardist who is also a record producer and has a recording studio in Manhattan, where she recorded her part of the duet while Clay was in the control room. Linda Eder and Billy Stein

Get that party started, Couchie! Happy happy birthday to you. So I see now that two of my favorite people are born on June 18th -- Couch Tomato and Paul McCartney!

jmh, yes I love the arrangement with the key changes, which keeps it from being a re-voiced clone of the original. But I have a question. Didn't I hear, or read, Clay or Linda say in one of these recent interviews (maybe Linda's newsletter?) that he had first recorded the song and she came into the studio later and recorded her part, and that Linda, herself, worked out the harmonies she sang? Anyway, unless I read it wrong, I'm thinking Clay recorded this as a solo in Hamburg and then the decision was made to make it a duet and Linda was called in. From early interviews, I was under the impression that Clay and Linda recorded this together in the studio, but now I hear him saying that he was IN the studio when she recorded her part to his prerecorded vocals. Hence, I have listened to this by focusing my hearing on Clay's voice only. I think it would have worked without Linda because his voice is dominant in the song, not to mention AMAZING, but as I said above, she was frosting on the cake.

I don't even know if there's anything I can say about Crying. Clay sings the cake out of it and Linda frosts the cake. Fortunately, nobody left it out in the rain! It's so different from every other version I've heard of this song, the key changes, the harmonies, and whole arrangement is new, and it took a couple of listens to not be jarred by the originality of it, but now I'm home. One last thing before I leave Suspicious Minds. For years and years, I've been completely in love with the last 20 bars of With Or Without You by U2. After Bono does his final incantation and The Edge kicks in and the simple riff repeats to the end ... it's been one of my favorite 30-seconds in music. It's not complicated, there's no analytical reason for it, the other parts of the song do nothing for me, but that ending slays me, and I don't know or care why. I'm feeling that way now about the ending of Suspicious Minds. I don't think I can analyze it because it just hits me, like those last 20 bars of With Or Without You. And I love it more with every listen. I could never skip it because I wait in eager anticipation for that ending. Everything about it is perfect. It carries the whole song for me. And, Kim, no, you're not alone. I don't skip Clay. Actually there was one song I occasionally skipped on ATDW, but I'll not disclose it for fear of being tarred and feathered. Once in a while I skipped Grace of God on OMWH. But so far on Tried & True I love it all and I love it in sequence. There's a few that I find weaker than others in certain ways, but then there's compensation in other areas on those cuts that make them essential. I've got more to say about that later, especially when we get to A Kind of Hush. This album is a unified, finished masterpiece in every regard. It really defies analytics, but that's never stopped me before.

No reason to hurry. The M&G sweepstakes begin tomorrow and go on for two weeks before the drawing for 5 winners per venue. They specifically say that entering early is no better than entering late because it's strictly a random drawing.

And one more thing about Suspicious Minds (two actually)..... In a couple of places he sings, "We can't go OWN together" -- and in one place right before the big "I love you too much, BAYBEH" he sings "Why cain't ya see." Went to lunch with Sis and she had Tried & True playing when I got in the car. She shushed me during What Kind of Fool Am I. A week ago she told me she didn't like it so much because she missed the slower more dramatic "give a damn" version ... and today she shushes me and admits that it's gotten to her and she really loves Clay's version. That's the way he works.

Just read on MSNBC that the Pigez is trying to diffuse the uproar over showing pixilated shots of Miley Cyrus's crotch and saying she wasn't wearing underwear, by saying the whole thing was faked. People were talking about things like distribution of child porn because she's 17. He's in a pretty pickle now, isn't he? Having to admit he's a complete FAKE and that he doctors photographs to create scandalous stories, in order to stay out of jail! Karma is a beauty. Also not in the category of 'if you can't say something nice' -- I thought Christina Aguilera did a horrible and self-indulgent job on the National Anthem at the NBA game last night. It just went on and on and the warbling became unbearable to me after a while. For God's sake, it's the National Anthem, not the OTT encore performance of your cancelled tour, Christina! I like to actually be able to recognize The Star Spangled Banner when I hear it.

Ha ha, and I love everything about "Every Night", especially the live version. Hope he sings it again this year! I'm apparently a sucker for those little add-on lines that contain the word "Mama" -- I love the part in John Lennon's Nobody Told Me when he follows the line "strange days indeed" with "most peculiar, Mama."

So far, SM may be the most "controversial" song on the CD from personal experience. My DIL's mother adores it. It's her favorite on the album and she says she's always loved this song and it's been one of her top favorites since the 60's. My sister skips it as it's the one song she doesn't like. Me? I'm not an Elvis fan, but did enjoy watching the clack of this from JBT. I enjoy the T&T version even more because of the arrangement of the last minute or so of the song. It's the only fade-out ending on the album, and I do like fade-out, though they require alteration when sung live. The ending of this version makes it Clay's own. In McCartney's first solo album he sang a song called "Every Night" that wouldn't have been my favorite at all, except he did this little aside --"believe me, Mama" -- that I became addicted to hearing. Those three words made it an all-time favorite. As for SM, the, I love you too much, BAYBEH is just that kind of thing. AND, the way he sings "trap" the couple of times before amd after that climax phrase is quivering. It's not melisma at all. It's magnificent control-isma, or something equally fine. Also, from an analytical standpoint, I think this song is perfectly positioned between UM and Crying. There needs to be a SM or something like it right there in that spot. It's needed to relieve the heaviness after Unchained Melody; and the beginning vocal of Crying would not be quite as stunning without coming off an uptempo song. It's the changes that are striking when listening to the tracks in succession.

Okay, LdyJ ,,, as if you had to twist my arm! Ha! He's so, so, CLAY in this one.

Final from HDD: 12 38 CLAY AIKEN DECCA 11,259 -43% TRIED AND TRUE That's actually better than I anticipated. YAY!

Okay, I have a big fat opinion about Unchained Melody that relates to Crying as well, and started for me with Falling. Here goes: I wasn't so crazy about the song Falling on OMWH, but the thing that made me love it was that Clay dropped that blasted hard "g" in "ing" and sang "Fallin'" and that sounded natural to me. Clay doesn't speak "inG" and I prefer that he not sing it either. Now, in Unchained Melody, the FIRST thing that got my attention was at the very beginning when he says, "my darlin', I hunger for your touch." It's the same "darlin'" he used with that precious baby in Afghanistan and just melts my heart. Then he totally blows me away with Crying which is actually now "Cry-yin" all the way through, and includes, "But darlin' what can I do" -- it's all too much!! Damn I love it so. I like people to sing in their natural vernacular. One of the best things about the Beatles was that they didn't try to Americanize their vocals and they started a trend with the British groups. And Willie Nelson doesn't sound like he's from any place but Texas. Clay just sounds more authentically himself by dropping the over-pronunciated g's. And, to me, it's just overtly sexy. Being back at my office today is a piece of cake. It's seems to be Celebrate Sandy Day. And then there's lunch with friends at noon, and back home at 3 o'clock. I can do this!

Never thought I'd hear myself say, Hooray I'm going back to work today, but after a month that's what I'm saying. I predict when it stops being half-days I'll have a new view of the situation. Re Clay's phrasing, that's part of his magnificent vocal charm. When I watched the clack of him singing UM during the JBT, I was struck by the first couple of "I need your love"'s -- so deep, so sexy, so conversational and connected. It remade the song for me. I love that he's kept that in "his version" on T&T and it's part of what makes it "his version" to me as much as the dynamic "I need your love" 's at the end. Clay is gifted at phrasing lyrics in a song, and it's true of every single thing he does on Tried & True.

Okay, okay, so I made up that stuff about Beethoven's 7th. It's MY favorite. It's the happiest thing he ever wrote. I listened to it earlier tonight for maybe the 1,000th time. My sense of humor must be inscrutable in print. I'm so over the top that my friends in RL actually laugh at me a lot. I mix in my OTT with some honest opinion on a messageboard and it's just obtuse. (Though I really meant the stuff about Michael Buble ... and Peggy Lee's Is That All There Is ... and the amazing incomparable angel Nina Simone -- however, ....... nobody puts LadyJ in the corner.)

To be honest, I'm not interested that much in what Clay's favorites are. I know that he's my favorite, and he's his own favorite, so we have that in common. I just refuse to listen to Buble, and I'm not much of a Sinatra fan either, although I do like some of the songs he recorded, including One For My Baby. When it comes to It Was A Very Good Year, no matter who sings it I dislike that song immensely and intensely. It's right up there in gross creepiness with Peggy Lee's Is That All There Is? Clay is entitled to have his preferences in music. So was Beethoven. Beethoven's 5th and 9th Symphonies are the gold standard of the greatest music ever written, yet Beethoven preferred his 7th. What was up with that??? I could care less that Beethoven preferred the 7th, or that Clay likes Buble's version of Feeling Good, when everybody knows that Nina Simone owns that song into eternity (don't they?). But then if it were my list, the Nina Simone on it would be Just In Time, so there you go.

There are days when It's Impossible is my favorite on the CD and I think this is one of those days. I don't remember this song at all before Clay sang it at the Gala, but that doesn't surprise me because in 1970 I was listening to The Doors, The Moody Blues, Led Zeppelin, CSN etc. etc. et al. That I don't remember a Perry Como song is easy to accept. On this song, I love Clay's voice, his phrasing, the classy embellishments, the flugelhorn, the sexy slow dance in the moonlight quality, just all of it. Short and sweet -- I'll love this song forever.

Randomitis: Yesterday I took my most gorgeous and precious granddaughter shopping, and I was jamming out Mack the Knife on the car stereo. Maybe because it was murderous hot in Houston. Anyway, I parked, got out, and the BMW passing me in the parking lot was blaring Sinatra's NY NY. It was a moment of pure retro, and maybe a sign of the times? My granddaughter is so much fun, and so sweet. When she was four and visited, she wanted to go to the candy store and to Toy R Us: When she and my grandson visited a few years later, they wanted to go to the Astros game: This time she shows up looking like this: I asked her what she wanted to do Saturday and she said, "Before anything, I want to see Nana and Papa." Awwwwwwww: Pardon my indulgence here, but I'm really proud of her, and not because she has physical gifts, or a brilliant mind, but because she's so kind and caring at 16. She was just wonderful with my mom and dad. When we went to eat, she was holding my mother's hand, and flirting with my 90 year old dad, which made his year!

Thanks, Kim. That was a great recap. I was reading back to a list I made after the Raleigh show of all the songs ... did "I'll Take Romance" disappear into the ether? No one ever mentions it. Did "Who's Sorry Now" include any of the banter about the fan who rode the bus from Nebraska? LdyJ, I know you are thrilled that "In My Life" is on the CD. I have too many emotions about that song -- namely falling to pieces hearing it played on the late news the night John Lennon was killed. For years I couldn't listen to that song without going back to that place. Maybe Clay will exchange the sadness with a new feeling. It's such a beautiful song.

Two things right now .... 1. That blog is my favorite of all time. I'm just mush for him and can't wait to send PBS some money in his honor tonight. Not as much as I would like, but enough to satisfy me. Here's to all the former NJU's, like me. *clink* 2. To CT and LJ, my insurmountable obstacles have vanished in the haze of the Texas sun. I'm back on, BAYBEE! Now, I did cancel my reservation at the Silver Legacy (and they wanted to make sure I wasn't cancelling to reserve at the promo rate, so I don't feel like I can do that, in good conscience.) Does anyone have an extra bed, or can I team up with someone to share a new reservation? I don't need a whole room for my lonesome. But that's not something I need to worry about today, is it! I AM ECSTATIC. Because of everything.

I have a store/stock report for those interested. I took #4 granddaughter around to look for sunglasses and beach towels in advance of her Cancun vacation, and to pick up a few goodies for #2 granddaughter arriving for a short visit tomorrow. First to Walmart and there were three regular copies of T&T in the alpha bin in front of his name card. I moved one to the New Release rack (if Susan Boyle is still a new release, Clay needs to be up there), purchased one, and went on my way to Target. I was really disturbed to find no Tried and Trues at Target -- nothing on the wall, and although there were name cards in the alpha bin for both the Regular and Deluxe CDs, it was empty. This really ticked me off, so I continued with the shopping, but had I been there on my own I would have left the store in disgust. On heading to check out later I walked right in front of the New Releases rack at the front of the CD section and, glory be, there it was, fully stocked. I was so excited I had to buy another one. He just looks so forlorn on that cover I have to pick him up and take him home. I wonder if this is a potential problem?

Speaking of soundtrack, today I was at the store for about 15 minutes and while there I heard Rosanna, followed by Kyrie, both by the original artists. I thought WOW two songs Clay sang that make me think of HIM, not them, and the third song was ... This Is The Night. Now can that be coincidence? It made me all gooey inside. I watched my DVR of Access Hollywood today and they did a promo of Clay Aiken's interview, which they said will be on "tomorrow" and whether that's Saturday or Monday I'm not sure. The promo shown was with him discussing Ricky Martin and Elton John, which aren't on either the online interview or the vaulted one. He looks wonderful in what I've seen. I remember when fans were up in arms because he said crap and crotch. Now we're up to shit and asshole, and he threw in a damn for good measure. It's a brand new world. I never cared for Mack The Knife when Bobby Darin did it. I was a kid and a big fan of Splish Splash and Dream Lover, old Mackie wasn't anything I could relate to. But .... I was bitch-slapped by that monster note that he sang on Idol. It blew my "shit" away. In fact, it flat out stunned me. I knew at that moment he was going to be a star forever. So, I rather enjoy the song now for what it represents for Clay, in my mind. I knew a few people who weren't fans of Clay on Season 2 until that stunning last note of Mack the Knife that filled the room and went on forever. For me that song is primarily connected to Clay Aiken. You better lock your doors and call the law, babe, Clay Aiken's back in town singing about Macheath!

That's my favorite phrase of the song, but this is the first time I've considered the dancing connotation. That's funny! I love those words because I'm a devotee of the way Clay enunciates "my errrright foot from my left." I love it, I love it, I love it. This song is so much a remake of the original arrangement, but Clay's unique phrasing make it original, all the way through. I listened to Johnny's version the other day to freshen my memory, and while I love his tone and range, I'm already attached for life to Clay's phrasing. It's conversationally intimate. Just a quick personal response about the People magazine review that compares Clay to Buble. To preface my comments, I want to make it clear that I am a serious political junkie and have been since about age five. However, I have never mingled art and politics to the point that I don't like somebody's work based on their personal lives, associations, or political views, until Michael Buble. As liberal as I am, some of my favorite actors and musicians are quite conservative; and there are liberal artists that I just can't appreciate and don't support. So, saying that, Michael Buble has moved into a category of one -- someone that I wouldn't consider listening to or supporting based on his political views and associations. You just can't be bosom buddies with Glenn Beck in real life and get my support. Apparently that's where I draw the line. I remember Beck when he was first on the radio here in Texas years ago, when I was first exposed to his raging ignorance, intense racism and dangerous homophobia. He was a fearmonger then and remains so today. I started writing to the FCC about him seven or eight years ago. Apparently you can't say curse words that are just words on the radio without huge fines, but people like Beck can blatantly lie at the expense of real people and groups of people, and make every effort to incite hatred and even violence toward them, with absolute inpunity. So if Michael Buble wants to call Glenn Beck a close friend and socialize with him and his family, that's his business. It's my business to say NO WAY TO BUBLE. I didn't buy grapes and lettuce for periods of time either.