Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

No question McDonald HURLS his notes well. Don't like his style (if you can call it that) or material. Yup. Personal taste.

Michael certainly hits the notes, but I find it difficult to hear the lyrics. I'll give him credit, he hits the notes, but the story he tells gets lost, at least for me.

Contrast his voice with that of Don Henley who does not have the tonality of McDonald but you can hear and hang on every word.

But I digress as we move into the 1970s and beyond, so will stop here.

Peter: I think Neil Young consistently wins the award for writing songs that are just a bit out of his vocal range. But I do love most of his songs. Now, if you're talking irritating, let me offer two of my all time aggravating singers, one from the '60s and one still active: Janis Joplin (and I use the term "singer" loosely with her) and Stevie Nicks. Janis just plain couldn't sing. Croak, perhaps. Shout, perhaps. Stevie has a better voice than Janis did, but I still wouldn't call her a singer -- if you close your eyes and listen to her, you can easily envision Granny from the Warners Brothers Tweety Bird cartoons. Try it.

Yes Dave, Stevie Nicks has a voice that could be classed as irritating but it is also unique and has a quality to it that was in my view the primary reason Fleetwood Mac emerged from the Peter Green days and became such a force. I am not a big fan but there are certain songs that have that certain something you or should I say I, can't really analyse why but just feel compelled to listen to Sara is a classic example, sung by probably anyone else just an average song but the delivery by Nicks makes it special.

The thing about Janis, Neil, Dylan and countless others from the period, their voices had little to do with vocal quality and everything to do with style, uniqueness and soul. There is no mistaking these artists when they utter the first syllable of a song. Obviously, you don't have to have a great voice to sing a great song.

Meatwood Flack were better left in the Green Days (Peter Green, that is), IMO. Stevie Nickers is just too aerie-twee for my taste, spinning around like a waterspout in a fabric store, arms extended--Puh-leeze. Her voice, unamplified, would get lost in the rustle of all that dirndl or crinoline or whatever the hell she's collected that day from Fabrics-R-Us...

Janis, who irritates me a lot too (everytime I hear her, I find myself thinking, "now just what is that dame bitchin' about this time?"

Then I remember that she was voted "Ugliest GUY" in her high school class. That would do it.

But her voice is in the finest tradition of female blues shouters (ref: Bessie Smith, as many articles of the time will tell you!) with amazing expression, projection, and range.

Guys... let's all send Paul Fleetwood Mac CD's for X-Mas... and big posters of Stevie Nicks!

Does anyone remember Second City's Rick Moranis doing his Michael McDonald impression? It's the 'Backup Vocals On Christopher Cross' Big Hit' sketch...it sums up McD's career better than I could.

Humm... what about Freddie Garrity from "Freddie & the Dreamers"? Say, 'sometimes sweetness is more bitter than bitterness'... NOM.
PS: i kind of like Janis' vocals - at times, on "Little bit of my heart", for instance. Stevie Nicks - yuck. Well, some may like her...

Bob, it would be a waste, since all that kind of thing could be used in my fireplace. Although the CDs would stink up the house either way, played or burned...

IMO, of course.

All in good fun, Paul!

If I were to do that, you'd be well within your rights to ship crates of AC/DC paraphernalia to me...

Dane, the Rick Moranis sketch -- is that the one where they're doing "Ride Like The Wind" and and Moranis (as McD) is putzing around outside the sound booth, doing various things, then he RUNS into the booth just in time to do the "..such a long way to go..."? I think it even starts out with Moranis riding in a car to the studio...something like that.

Dang...I've got that somewhere on an old old Betamax tape. Now I have to go find it and see if I can fire up the old Beta machine. (Yes, I'm THAT old...)

Um, time for confessions here? I have ALL the SCTV shows on Beta.

So, three dinosaurs who still have Beta tapes!

Forgive me Father, for I have not binned!!