Karaoke Forums

That's easy...He prolly did one too many drugs in the 80's or he stopped using and now he can't sing.... ...I really don't know, maybe it was the sound guy that made him sound good????

_________________
Will sing or fish for food!!I'm not quite right!!

not practicine i guess

_________________
ROBDOG *WOOF WOOF*

Robdog - I hope you are right. I thought he had something wrong with his vocal chords the way he sounded.

Where is all seeing, or knowing Kappy? - He'll know.

_________________
[shadow=pink][glow=deepskyblue]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

The Perry of 25+ years ago was able to sing in first tenor range and handle their powerful emotionally based songs such as "Lights", "Stay Awhile", "Lovin Touchin Squeezin", and "Too Late".  Assuming he never had illnesses since that period, or throat probs, and placed such stress on his vocal chords when younger..even so, I doubt he'd still (at his current age) be able to sing that high tenor range, with the energy he once had.. Few males can sing in real voice that high as they get as old as Perry is now.. The body doesn't stay the same at 50.

As we age, our voice changes.. ANY illness would naturally drop his voice... Although Dan Fogelberg had a very high voice, around 2000 he had his tonsil's out.. That dropped his range close to 1/2 an octave..Damage to vocal chords is often permanent too. Fogelberg still sounds OK, yet he never exerted himself the way Perry exerted himself with Journey.  He couldn't possibly sing as high a register as he did around 1979 when they were huge, and he was half as old as he now is..   How many male voices 50+ can match the smoothness and higher rock tenor ranges of the teen and twenty year old rock singers anyway ?  Physical condition changes.. As do our vocal chords.. As we age, our voice usually deepens (even after the puberty change)

Journey when they were huge,  (around 1979 or-so) most likely did take it's toll on Perry.. A person can't do what he did indefineately... If he tried to "cover" his younger years, he's going to sound REALLY bad.

_________________
Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

I don't disagree with you Kappy...I know from my own experince that the voice continues to evolve as we age...but there's at least one case that comes to mind that makes me wonder a bit...

Steven Tyler, of Aerosmith

He pretty much sounds identical today as he did, what, 20-30 years ago...

Or would you just call him the exception that proves the generalization?

_________________
[glow=white][scroll]Live, laugh, and love today--just in case tomorrow doesn't make it[/scroll][/glow]

Hey webguru, what's up with the scrolling bit and my ID?  Interesting, that my id came up in your domain registration thingy....

Anyway,  there are alot of songs I flat-out cannot sing.  So I guess those would be the hardest.  But there are some which I attempt and "think" I can sing but are quite difficult.   My fav band-- AC/DC has some songs that are just hard, not only cause they're really high, but the tempo/pace of the singing is hard.  

You shook me all night long
For those about to rock
Back in Black


there's some Led Zeppelin stuff that's really hard to sing too.

Interesting bit on Journey and those types of singers.  How about Steven Tyler (Aerosmith), isn't he flirting with 60?  Yet it seems he's still able to sing pertty high -- prolly not as high as in the 70's though.

I think the difficulty in some congs comes from a few things--
speed of the singing and diction
timing -- breathing at the right time
range of the song
key changes

Hey...UncleFire...can I have my brain back?  

_________________
[glow=white][scroll]Live, laugh, and love today--just in case tomorrow doesn't make it[/scroll][/glow]

I didn't take it...but if I find it I'll send it your way....

(ok, I'm being dense... what d'ya mean by that?)  8-)

Read my post directly above yours...the whole Steven Tyler thing

_________________
[glow=white][scroll]Live, laugh, and love today--just in case tomorrow doesn't make it[/scroll][/glow]

duh-- I didn't see it... could be you posted as I was typing.

great minds think alike....     Gettin' my groove on....

Here's an interesting excerpt from an interview with Perry Jan '06.  Obviously he put tremendous strain on his vocal chords.



As to Tyler,  Not sure he can sing with the range he sang with 30 years ago. People Like McCartney, and Joe Walsh will always have relatively higher tenor voices...Yet would Tyler be able to handle the range he sang with to cover songs such as "Dream On" today ?  I doubt it.. Yet  honestly, I haven't heard him live in AGES... Have you heard him live, or in a studio during the past decade ?  I suppose my question is CAN HE sing as strong, and as high as he did 30 years back ?  Personally I don't know... If he can, he's one LUCKY SOB.... HEALTHY AS ALL HECK TOO !  Yet I seriously doubt he can do today, what he did 20-30 years ago.  To me he didn't sound the same late 80's as he did the decade before, yet I don't know...

There are guitarists that can play amazingly well AND fast at 60+ too, However other musicians become arthritic even get Carpal Tunnel after years of playing.. In an interview about 7 years ago with Lisa Sharken editor GP magazine, Steve Vai admitted he can't play with the speed that he played with even two years back, he's progressivley losing his dexterity... Due to age AND genetics.. He doesn't like to accept this, but must..It's not "in his head". He's not that old either of course. Certainly wasn't during this interview..

I asked someone who specialized in musician related injuries (yes this is an ACTUAL area of medicine) years back how guitarist's over 60 can play with speed and dexterity still, wide finger vibrato etc... The answers were interesting.... Some suffer tremendous pain afterwards, even during, yet opt to ignore it with meds, topicals..even a few drinks...  Other's, (albeit few) have an amazing genetic makeup, or just stay somewhat athletic and workout their WHOLE body....and stay in decent shape exercizing (rare exception to not lose speed and strength as they get that old however,  it's rare, not common, they pay a hefty price yet opt to make the trade-off)... Many use physical therapy methods such as warm/cold packs etc for swelling.. Yet THEY ALL must come to grips with the fact that bone density, muscle, endurance ALL change as we age and older folks are vulnerable to injuries they weren't in past years that heal VERY slowly if at all, consequently, they must pursue their art accordingly...they all must make certain adjustments. Sean Lane was a very fast guitar player til close to the time he died... Some just have it... Yet Sean was still very young.. I think 40 when he died ?  his reflexes hadn't started to decline but he was out of shape,  obese...

My guess is that Tyler is in amazing physical shape (DESPITE surviving the 60's and 70's), and has great medical folks behind him, perhaps naturopathic don't know..yet you can be sure he takes damn good care of himself.. Roger Daltrey has lost his voice, yet what amazes me is the Rolling Stones.... Most of them LOOK as healthy as they did in the 1960's.... which of course ISN'T healthy at all...HEHEHEHE, yet somehow they chug along...despite substance abuse to their bodies decades ago.

Who knows,  these might be people that would've lived to around 100 years of age under normal conditions, and now will only live til around 80... One never knows... Some go til they drop..

I think alot of these "old engines that still seem to burn just about anything" is lucky genetics, and modified life-style.. I haven't heard many interviews lately.. If you folks have heard interesting things regarding how these "older artists, even athletes" still do it, I'd be fascinated to hear...

_________________
Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Did Steve Perry sing the song that had the line "Oooooh Sherry, our Love .... goes on ... goes on ... ????

I THINK it was him... but I could be wrong ... but ... whoever that was ... Now THAT was range!!!  

I think you're right about age affecting range .. typically, STEVE. Just watch some of those "reunion" shows that they run on PBS during Pledge weeks.... Just saw one that had alot of the groups/singers from the 70/80 eras ... and it was amazing to hear the differences.  Very noticable was the lead singer of TDN.  WOW... he just can't sing like he used to.  And the Moody Blues now use some FEMALE backup singers to get to those higher notes they used to hit so easily.  

Personally... I have lost A LOT of range .. particularly in the last 10 years... of course.. what really KILLED my upper range was three cases of pneumonia in 2 yrs. times.  Since then ... I've never been able to get it back.  {Heavy Sigh} ...

Oh well... at least for Karaoke purposes I can key change .. that at least allows me to still sing "some" of those songs... though even that doesn't help with a few.

_________________
[shadow=tomato]If you want your significant other to pay attention to EVERY word you say::
  TALK IN YOUR SLEEP   [/shadow]  

Oh Sherry was Steve Perry

_________________
[glow=white][scroll]Live, laugh, and love today--just in case tomorrow doesn't make it[/scroll][/glow]

Which is a good point CCindy.  I saw Justin Hayward at MSG when he was about 15 years old, doing their material off've "A question of balance".. (I think)... He's actually still relatively young... probably only early early 50's... Yet they always used amazing orchestration too... They did some great sounding stuff with the London Symphony Orchestra... My guess is they still have alot of orchestration too, although Mellotron has come back with the "Pinder" model...so that would cover alot I suppose.... Another example of a band that lost it, yet came to life after really what seemed to be a first set that served only as a warmup is Fogerty.... CCR takes a LONG LONG time to get their act going... When I first heard CCR during a benefit a couple years back GOD...Was he badly out've tune at first, and the band sounded like "hackers" attempting to cover creedence....Yet after about 45 minutes, they fell together somehow...Yet they didn't start off that way...they were LOUSY..... Got good tho....

Another thought I had CCindy, was the Psychological aspects of working, and staying psychologically young, with a purpose.... How many of these musicians are transcending odd's because rather than feeling like has beens,  they are still touring and have a purpose in life ?   For some death begins after retirement (at least I've heard),  bordom and not feeling they have a purpose.... What better way is there to stay young than playing 60's and 70's rock ?  Hard work might be keeping these guys alive.... That and straight living.. For all we know, they might not've abused themselves that much more than some of us did in the "old days", they didn't have as much time to kill themselves as some might think....Sure they had their periods... Eric Clapton, and JT certainly didn't seem as though they'd be "around" long after around 1969 to the early 70's..I saw Clapton collapse on stage around '74. They carried him off. Yet even Garcia despite drug abuse and diabete's  played til his death... and THAT guy abused the &$*( out've himself...AND David Crosby (despite health issues) managed to play thru his 40's, and is still going with Jeff Pevar as guitarist... Some just don't cave in to illness either, they aren't what they were, but they use what they had and still have to stay alive and do their thing.. Gives them a purpose to live I guess.....Do they HAVE TO tour ?  I doubt it...Most have a few bucks stashed.. They aren't reckless like Mike Tyson who "easy come, easy go" made millions, and lost it VERY quickly..

_________________
Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Speaking of vocal wildness,  what's up with Frankie Valli <SP> these days ?  Anyone heard him ?  Is he still around, we were discussing him here a few months back, yet I don't recall....

_________________
Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Thanks, Squid!!  :hug:   Wasn't sure.. but thought so.  AMAZING voice he had.  Sad to hear he's "lost" it.  


I think you may be right, Steve.. psychologically.....touring, living a "cleaner" life style .. and simply keepin' on ... is probably really healthy for a lot of them and the PRIMARY motivator for why they still do it.  That.. and of course.. to keep those like us young. I'd pay Mucho Bucks to see the Moody Blues.. over some of today's high price tag \ horrible sounding groups.  I think to an extent they probably DO still need the income too.  People weren't always making the kind of money that today's artists make .... some of these guys wouldn't be recognized at the neighborhood 7-ll ... ya know?  Not so true of the music "talents" (and I use that term cautiously) of today.

And yes.. the Moody Blues do have some amazing CD's now... with orchestral backings.  A Night At REDROCK ... is probably my very fav.

_________________
[shadow=tomato]If you want your significant other to pay attention to EVERY word you say::
  TALK IN YOUR SLEEP   [/shadow]  

Not sure,  some might I suppose. I wouldn't know Steve Perry if his photo today was on my welcome screen. So you have a point there.. Haven't seen what he looks like in years....

_________________
Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Is this the guy ?  (2003)  He look's like an adult  :shock:   Wow...  even musicians get older looking  :(

(I wonder if that's his real hair,  I hope not...     )

_________________
Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

That's him!!  I IDOLIZED him...

Mainly, 'cause all the girls thought he was HOT!!  LMAO

(Yes, I had an almost one-track-mind even THAT far back!!  :whistle: )

_________________
[glow=white][scroll]Live, laugh, and love today--just in case tomorrow doesn't make it[/scroll][/glow]

For me, it would have to be Delta Goodrem's "Born To Try".  :shock:  :D