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Posted on 03/24/2006 9:00:43 PM PST by silent_jonny
Taylor could have PERFORMED that song. The problem with Elliot is that he can sing, but he cannot connect with the audience the way Taylor can. Taylor could have made that song bigger than life. And yes, with something that technically complex. If you listen closely, Taylor does not miss notes often. He is rarely "pitchy". He would not have carbon-copied Freddy Mercury, but he could have made it his own.
OMG!! I would LOOOVE Monkees night!!!
The stuff Taylor sings is technically simpler than what Elliott sings. Taylor seems to impress people with his spazzy retarded over the hill white guy rocker act but he simply does not stray far outside of any vocal range so I guess it is easy not to miss when the bar isn't set that high.
I have enjoyed reading everyone's analysis of last night's show. It's a testimony to the enduring love of a great band like Queen and a phenomenal performer like Freddie Mercury.
Here are my thoughts for whatever they are worth:
I thought last night was very entertaining and thought everyone turned in surprisingly pleasing performances. These are in no particular order.
Bucky- Sweet, Bucky. I love that husky quality in his voice. I really enjoyed the countrified Fat Bottom Girls. Nice kid, good voice, but definitely NOT the next American Idol. With only 8 left, his number is just about up.
Ace- I usually don't like Ace at all. I hate his gay falsetto stuff. But, I must say, I may be one of the only people that actually kind of enjoyed his performance. It was different for him, and I didn't find him repulsive, for once.
Katharine- I hate to say this, but I think this will be another bottom 3 week for her. She is my favorite, she is beautiful and has a fantastic voice. She just has a hard time really connecting with the audience, and after all, that't how you sell records. She is always just sitting on the verge of something great, but just can't get there.
Kellie- I can't believe I'm saying this, but pretty nice job with a seriously difficult song and arrangement. However, I hate the antics she puts on. The grabbing of the head, tussling the hair thing, YUK! She always looks like she's trying to hard. I also HATE how she sings words with extra letters in them. Over emphasizing y's. Anyone else notice this? It's excrutiating. If she could lose that quality in here singing, she'd sound much better.
Paris- Same goes for her words. Something odd in the way she sings. It sounds like she has a sore throat or something. Her facial expressions remind me of what a cat looks like after they have been sniffing something. That open mouth thing they do. I can't quite describe it, but it's odd. I know most think she is a great singer, even the Queen guys, but I just don't see it, never have. Probably, it's just me.
Taylor- Good song choice for him, enjoyable and entertaining performance. I just can't help myself for liking him. He makes me smile. Is he the next Idol, probably not, but should have a good career after the show.
Elliott- I'm in love with Elliott. He has a beautiful and pure voice which if nurtured, could put him in the ranks of Luther and Marvin, IMHO. You don't have to be gorgeous and hip to sell records, but you do to be an Idol, that's Elliott's difficulty. I thought this performance was wonderful! It was very different for him, he looked much more at ease, and I found it to be very pleasing. Elliott would fit well and be marketable . in a group setting with lead vocals like a Boys to Men, etc. However, it would be selling him short. He's way to good to share. I think the way to go for him is solo R&B.
Chris- Probably a decent song choice for his style. I really like Chris, but I don't find him very versatile. He is starting to get a little boring to me. I really want him to have a break away performance and show us another Walk the Line blow out. I'm not sure Chris is the next AI.
LMAO! High praise, indeed.
Re: Paris it was just too low for her, IMO. In the little rehearsal clip they showed she sounded great and I said to my husband, "Oh no! She's going to do really good!" Then her actual performance wasn't as good. Like others have said, it's like she didn't "get" the song. It seemed like she missed the target on intensity and got harshness instead.
Yep. Different strokes for different folks. That's what makes this show so darn fun.
My thoughts exactly.......he lost me on that one....;-)
Nope. Only Chris and Taylor could do it. The rest would be funny as hell to watch try. Huge difference in being a singer and an artist.
I am culling different opinions that I AGREE WITH on various idol boards and posting them here I couldn;t have said them better myself.....These opinions are essentially mine ( as a Taylor Hicks fan ).
I’ve been thinking about Simon’s response to Taylor. (And I hope this isn’t redundant to something discussed earlier — in which case by all means ignore it!)
For starters, I don’t believe at all that Simon is stupid or lacks musical taste.
I do believe, though, that his musical taste is fairly narrow, because it is constrained by his business taste. I believe further that he often subordinates intelligence to cleverness, which aren’t at all the same thing. And as far as AI — and specifically Taylor — is concerned, I believe that he has become lazy.
Simon’s response to Taylor last night was, I thought, quite revealing. “That was just *ridiculous*” (or however he phrased it): it’s about as useful to a performer as something Paula would say in Backwards World. What I read into the response (unfairly maybe, because no one knows what’s in Simon’s heart/head for real) is that Simon has given up this season. He might just as well have waved a hand vaguely and said, “Whatever!” QUE SERA SERA.
Think about it. When he and his partner(s) came up with the UK version of Idol, they came up with a gold mine. Certainly Simon himself knows — or knew — the pop music business. And he knew how to milk the machinery that drives the business (witness the acts he produced and promoted in the early ’90s). The whole Idol franchise works on the idea that you can take that machinery and feed into it undiscovered talent, nominally “voted on” by the TV audience but in actuality packaged and delivered in a way to help ensure the “votes” would deliver the ideal form of talent. (That’s “ideal” in terms of what the machine can process.)
On top of the (future) income to be derived from the top “winners” of the “competition,” there was all the (present) income to be derived from a wildly successful commercial television venture.
I can easily see Simon and his partner(s) clapping their hands in delight at their own ingenuity — their own intelligence, yes, but primarily their own cleverness. What a wonderful wonderful idea they’d come up with! It would be self-sustaining! It would roll on forever! It would feed not just the machine, it would feed THEM!
Really, there was only one thing that could go wrong with the whole scheme. They had to have confidence in their ability to channel the voting in the desired direction, of course. But in order to maintain whatever credibility the quote-unquote “voting” might have for the audience, they had to report the voting results in an at least superficially impartial way.
(They made one other mistake, too, although there was no easy technological way around it: they allowed a theoretically infinite number of votes to be cast by every voter. If you’ve got five voters and can convince 3 that your contestant deserves their votes, your desired outcome is assured — unless the two other voters are able and motivated to vote as much as they want. Whoops.)
I can easily see, regarding Taylor Hick's style(s), the rightness of all the comparisons which people have made, from Elvis to really obscure (to me!) musicians at the other end of the scale.
I don’t, though, believe Taylor represents a musical revolution — something the world has never seen, something destined to alter the course of cultural history, and so on.
Rather, what I see in Taylor — and in all our responses to him — is the focus of a REVOLT: a revolt of an audience sick of being spoon-fed by an industry which appears to lack all sense of taste or discrimination. (Actually, make that two industries: music and TV.)
The Idol machine can’t deal with a revolt. It assumes the ongoing compliance (masquerading as “participation”) of the audience. In the face of a revolt, the best it can do is sigh, sputter, and with Simon exclaim, “Ridiculous !" ( ADD the DRUNK metaphor to it, whichhe used more than once in so many weeks already ).
You could almost see in Taylor’s face this week and with his quick response, after Simon finally shut his pie hole, of dial 07 that HE is getting sick of the judges and their inane inconsistencies.
I also LOVE the role that Ryan has taken; it seems to me he and Taylor have a connection. From the 1st song Levon when they did that wonderfully quirky little dance, to the Takin' It to The Streets signature move, to defending his fashion style after Simon mauled him after singing Trouble, Ryan has been Taylors defender and I suspect friend.
My impression from Simon last night was that he was saying “No matter what you do, and no matter what I say, America loves you, so what’s the point?! I praise you, and people vote for you in droves; I slam you, and they vote for you even more.” ( NOTE FOLKS --- Taylor has ALWAYS BEEN NUMBER 1 EVERY WEEK IN ANY PHONE CALL STATISTICS YOU TAKE -- DialIdol, Land Line from AT&T ).
I think this also carried over into his comments to Paris. I think that is why he was so terse with her. I think that he was still flustered by the audience’s response to Taylor. You’re right - he’s given up.
IMO, another thing that plays into that is that his chosen challenger for Taylor - Chris - is appealing to a narrower and narrower group, rather than a wider and wider one. He keeps wanting these others to have a “moment”…he wanted Chris to have one but he clearly didn’t. He tried to “almost” manufacture one for McPhee but it didn’t fly. To me, he was in effect saying, aren’t ANY of you going to sack up and try to take Taylor on? And they aren’t doing it.
So, it is Soul Patrol vs The AI Powers That Be. It remains to be seen who will win --- The Elite, or the masses.
Makes for very interesting reality show if you ask me.
I did get a huge laugh out of this line, "it’s about as useful to a performer as something Paula would say in Backwards World."
ROTFL!
LMFAO!!!!! Beyonce last week and Janet this week.
To Simon:
Welcome my son, welcome to the machine.
Where have you been?
It's alright we know where you've been.
You've been in the pipeline, filling in time,
Provided with toys and 'Scouting for Boys'.
You brought a guitar to punish your ma,
And you didn't like school, and you
know you're nobody's fool,
So welcome to the machine.
Welcome my son, welcome to the machine.
What did you dream?
It's alright we told you what to dream.
You dreamed of a big star,
He played a mean guitar,
He always ate in the Steak Bar.
He loved to drive in his Jaguar.
So welcome to the Machine.
Ah but it's not a question of what he has done someplace else, it's what he's done on this show. Frankly I think he's a fun act and great to see at a club. He has some talent and he has certainly shown it. I just haven't seen him really dominate anything vocally.
I have to agree. From what you have seen on TV of Taylor Hicks, can anyone honestly say that he should be the next "American Idol"?
The fact that apparently he does better playing at clubs than he performs on the show reinforces the opinion that he isn't cut out for being a "pop star".
I remember last year he wasn't hot on Carrie and it was obvious and then the final night, he had to admit she nailed it and would probably win! And now her first single just went TRIPLE PLATNIUM....I hope he backs off on Taylor....I thought he did great last night - even if he did almost end up on his big ole butt! I like him and I'm just po'd that I only got through once but I guess that's a good thing! (Ugh, now I'm starting to sound like Martha Stewart!) I've got my fingers crossed that either Ace or Paris (hopefully Paris) gets the big old boot tonight!
If AI is about finding a Pop star then they are screwed because there isn't one on here. McPhee and Paris are the only two that fit that category and neither are ready to be Stars. Pickle is country singer with no cross over ability and you can slot Chris into his own genre.
Hi. I work for American Idol and would be so fired if Anyone involved in the show ever found out that I was writing on this board. Which is why I took many precautions in how my letter here made it to this board. It wasn't an easy task. But after finding out what I have, I'm quitting anyway. I just can't talk until then, but I see that I need to speak now. After reading so much of the board, I just had to reply to some of the recent posts. There are certain things I think the public has a right to know and that is that yes, the show is now rigged. Only season one was as is. Bo was the actual winner last year by pulling in more votes. But the show did not want to go with a Rocker. The Show has since received many hate letters about the fact that Bo did not win because A.I just did not want to support a Rocker. Meanwhile, they still had to stick there noses into his debut album because they will do Anything to make as much money as possible until the show itself is found out as a Fraud. So, after receiving all the letters about Bo, and Constantine too, They already knew exactly what they were looking for before the season even began and before you, the viewers even had a chance to pick a favorite. Originally, Ace was their choice because he has the Constantine look. But he is no Constantine when it comes to vocals. Only in face value does he compare to him. So as of right now, you are correct. There plans are to give Chris the win. Sad part is that no one even likes him nearly as much as they did Bo. They Loved Bo, they just didn't want to go with a Rocker. Which is why it was given to Country Carrie. But since Chris is the closest thing to a rocker that they could find this year, they want to go with him, and he knows this and has gotten away with things no other contestant has ever gotten away with and he has gotten very cocky about the whole thing. The ONLY way this will NOT happen is if you good people keep up your posts about KNOWING all about the fix. They have people, where that is their job ... to just sit their and read A.I message boards and watch what you all say in A.I chat rooms. How do you think they know what is being said? And about the false rumors some people start? They are watching. Always watching. This is how some of the posts have been brought to my attention. But the ONLY rumors that I've read that need to be corrected are the following:
Katherine is not pregnant.
Neither Ryan or Ace are gay (both straight)
and if Kellie is faking being stupid, then she is really good, because I personally haven't witnessed one moment of her having a clue unless it had to do with boys. She is a lot more trampy than you would think. Beyonce's father does manage Beyonce's career and knows Paris' family, so he is already looking to sign her.
Yes, Bucky is married,
Elliott is diabetic, ,p> Taylor is gray & has been for years,
Chris has no children of his own, just married into kids and his wife did just have a hysterectomy.
Everything else I have read on here is true. So I have read a few posts myself. But there is one particular post that really struck a cord with me. The one about "Handing Chris the show on a silver platter" or something to that effect. If it is still there, I will post this on that thread as well. That person is smart because they have really figured out a lot of the ways that the show cheats. --Shoving the ones A.I wants to win down your throats, giving them sob stories, giving them all the face time in the commercials, giving them light laser shows and extra help for there stage performance and you are so right about them possibly putting Chris in the bottom Three one week, just to throw you off and then get more people to vote for him the following week.-- It's all a big game to them and yes, even the phone lines. The idols all DO have more than one line each. So you are correct on that as well. All they have to do is shut off a few of the other contestants lines and you will call for that favorite of yours and it will be busy, leaving you to assume that your favorite is doing well. When in fact, there lines have been cut from 4 to 2. Whereas, the one they want to win will have 6 lines open. It's all about Money. Did any of you know that A.I even owns the phone lines you vote on every week?? MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY ... MONEY!!
And just for the record, these so-called SOB stories are NOT all True, in fact some of the ones with these so-called sob stories are NOT very nice people, regardless of what the camera led you to believe. Seeing them playing with their children or crying cause they got through to the next round cause they have nothing else in there lives and it's there dream YADDA
It is A Dream Come True for each and every one of them. You don't need a sob story shoved down your throat if you are actually a good singer! Elliott may have mentioned that he is somewhat deaf in one ear. But he is NOT the one who said he is a diabetic. That was dug up by real news people. Elliott did NOT try to use it for sympathy votes. The show sees him as ugly, unmarketable and no threat to their chosen winner. That is why he is there, because they saw him as no threat. But wrong, because Elliott has a huge fan base, regardless to the fact that he was in the bottom 3 last week. But if anyone is really getting them nervous, it is Taylor Hicks. The man who honestly deserves to win this competition. You should hear him sing in person. It's brilliance. All they really loved was the fact that he is a young man with gray hair and they knew the whole 'young guy with gray hair thing' would cause a stir. Has anyone mentioned Taylor's real mother? No. Could there be an actual story there? You wouldn't know because Taylor wouldn't mention a sob story and either would the show because they don't want you knowing too much about a guy who is already doing well. They just had no idea he was as good a singer as they see he actually is now and they NEVER thought some gray haired guy would get such a large fan base. So they dropped the ball on that one cause Hicks is very loved and he is the nicest guy you would ever want to meet. As is Bucky, he is sweet as sugar. He is adorable, good hearted and They took him in because he has a rocker/country thing going on, but they still felt his vocals wouldn't be good enough to beat out their choice. So he is what you would call Chris' main competition as far as Rock goes this year.
But they want Bucky to go soon so that all the attention and focus will go to Chris.
Paris = nepotism and there is really nothing else that needs to be said there.
Mandisa was taken in cause you can't look that girl in the face and tell her that she can't sing. But still, they knew that the fact that she is a heavy set girl would also cause some controversy. Which is why she was strictly throw off for shock value. She has nothing against gay people! We all know she was the best female singer there. But they do that every year with a great one just for shock value. That way, their show will be all the talk at the water cooler the next day. Mandisa also has a beautiful heart. Unlike Katherine, who was horrible during Hollywood week and often forgot her words. But they let her through because of her looks and NEVER showed how bitchy she actual is. Her fights with former contestants and her conceited, cocky attitude were edited out of the show so that all you saw was a wholesome looking pretty girl who can sing a little.
Simon told Carrie very early on that she was going to sell a lot of records. And, I believe he said that she would sell more than anyone else would.
There is that. I have been pretty disappointed this year with the caliber of finalist.
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