Okay, so I didn't want to get all crazy with just exactly what the duet between Rufus Wainwright and Ben Folds on "Careless Whisper" meant to me as a music appreciator. So I purposely held off on some explanation of why it was a train wreck, yet brilliant.
Basically, you're not going to find two songwriters of our generation finer than Ben Folds and Rufus Wainwright. No, you're not. Shut up.
Take what has been popular in the last ten years: Creed, Nickelback, Staind. If you listed off the finer songwriters you'd come up with a list of - not in this order - Joe Pernice (I'm not kidding), Bono, Jeff Tweedy, Ryan Adams, and it's about here where you get in to Rufus Wainwright and Ben Folds.
Collaborations on stage in live venues just don't happen anymore. I'm saying that with an air of someone who has seen a number of great collaborations on stage. This is not the case. I can't say with any certainty that at any time have there been performances between two extremely popular singer/songwriters since BB King and U2 performed "When Love Comes To Town" on Rattle and Hum in 1989.
Rap is a genre that understands that, even if it's two moderately popular rappers, will people at least give it a listen. Rock has not understood this. It's like if Damien Rice and David Gray got together and did a song (first we would have to rid the world of razorblades, because that would be one sad song), Damien Rice is afraid people would abandon his side for David Gray's and vice versa.
So what makes the Rufus Wainwright and Ben Folds special is, not only is this an enormously wonderful song - I don't care how much you question the validity of my sexuality, it's still a good song - but it's two giants singing together on the same stage, which is rare in and of itself.
My Wife Almost Left Me (And Still Might)
1 year ago
3 comments:
So the trainwreck was because it just didn't turn out good? I'm sorry I'm still missing it. I mean I appreciate the value of having two great artists collaborate and I am not questioning their talent or your sexuality - but that really was NOT good.
I don't know demosthenes. listen again. i'll grant you that the combination is kind of jarring at first because the two voices each have such distinctive timbre to them, but once you get past the sort of initial grating quality to their harmony, there's some real good stuff there.
Ok granted, it wasn't as bad the second time. I guess I read that it was going to be a trainwreck and tuned my ears accordingly.
I liked it better the second time and concede that it is not the worst thing I have ever heard, but I still definitely did not like the second voice (whicher guy that is) who comes in on the duet. Several places in the song he attempts to hit high rangy notes that he just doesn't quite nail. In fairness - I could certainly NOT do better.
And maybe he can. I'm willing to chalk that up to the fact that to the nature of a live performance. And yet I feel stupid because as much as I reread your post, I am still not sure I understand why you called it a trainwreck. I get that you are praising the collaboration of two great songwriters, but I don't get the trainwrck reference - which was the initial source of my bias.
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