HOW he sings things

sabreman · Post by **sabreman** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 9:17 am

Watch Your Step is GREAT. I really like the way he sings that song too. I would like to hear more of that laid back vocal style (not over singing). You don't hear that much from EC. In fact I am not sure if there is another one in that vocal style.

VonOfterdingen · Post by **VonOfterdingen** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 11:29 am

My all time favorite is the way he sings. "They had known rogues and rascals and showbiz impresarios"
in 'American without tears'

Copenhagen Fan · Post by **Copenhagen Fan** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 3:08 am

I really dig the way he sings....."filled up his purse dictating verse while painting MASTERPIECES!!!!!!!!!!!!" in My Science Fiction Twin.

Another one I love (but can't quite sing myself is the bridge on The Name of This Thing Is Not Love..."He's trying hard to FORGET her..." almost impossible to hit that with full volume!!!!!

lostdog · Post by **lostdog** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 3:32 am

sabreman wrote:Watch Your Step is GREAT. I am not sure if there is another one in that vocal style.

I would say Secondary Modern is the blueprint for Watch Your Step. Love the way he sings 'blue to blue' - from croon to falsetto. Evidence (like Dylan singing Moonshiner) that he is a great, great singer.

SweetPear · Post by **SweetPear** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 8:59 pm

Wow, I'm impressed, lostdog. Secondary Modern is another one of his songs sung in that same vocal style.

SweetPear · Post by **SweetPear** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 9:05 pm

Somewhere around here somebody was talking about Imagination (is a Powerful Deceiver)......which I LOVE. I've played that song itself just repeatedly.....I like the way he sings it. I don't know if there's any proper term for it. Is it sung in a lower register or something?
Don't know, but it's one of my favorites.

anjabro · Post by **anjabro** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 7:34 am

That's one of my favourites too...I actually got a reply, back in the good old days of 'Ask Elvis' on the island board...I believe I asked why it was such a generally ignored part of his back catalogue,as I thought it was one of his best songs....He replied,' thanks for the compliment...I think that was a song I had to write on the way to writing Alison'....or something like that....I particularly like the ending of the other version on the FC demos, where he blows the guitar lead halfway through,and you can hear him gasp with disgust; He then sings the last two lines with the air of someone who knows he's already blown it, and that they're going to be doing another take anyway, so he really belts those lines out.

pophead2k · Post by **pophead2k** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 8:00 am

'She's Pulling Out the Pins' has that vocal quality that I really like- the hard 'p' sound on 'pulling out the pins' is good, classic EC delivery. Virtually every line of All the Rage is great too.

King Hoarse · Post by **King Hoarse** » Mon May 02, 2005 5:46 am

I always get goosebumps when he sings as loud as he can on a final word live, like on the CD version of Taking My Life In Your HAAAAAAANDS.

And it works on me even if the song isn't really emotional - he just wants to go as far as he can (example God's ComIIIIIIIIIIeah San Fran '96, Aging Gracefully boot).

StrictTime · Post by **StrictTime** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 4:11 pm

Sorry for digging up a two-year old thread, but I felt the need to add the way he sings 'cog' in Favourite Hour off of Brutal Youth.

*bows out to let this thread melt back into the backpages*

Lester Burnham · Post by **Lester Burnham** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 4:51 pm

Ooh, lots for me... off the top of my head:

"By blackening her name" - 'Sulky Girl'

"Iiii suppose you never said to her you were just in the way" - 'Blue Chair'

"Hoooooow I'd like to catch her when she's acting her age" - 'Human Touch'

"Two bits of kids with a bunch of sour grapessss" - 'Watch Your Step'

"You were happy when you were poor
And more honest and that's yourâ€¦
Alibi, alibi
Sister is a whore, brother isn't sure
Alibi, alibi
You don't fit the body that you're trapped in
Alibi, alibi
Papa's got a brand new
Alibi, alibi" - 'Alibi' (just the way he seethes "Alibi, alibi")

TX_Fan · Post by **TX_Fan** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 9:26 pm

Love this thread....thanks for digging it up.
There are probably hundreds of these for me.

"Even when you know it's over, it's too much to say" in "The Birds Will Still Be Singing" - you can almost feel his pain

"Try telling that to the desperate father who just squeezed the life from his only son" from "Tramp the Dirt Down" - makes me tear up every time I hear it

"held his head like a baby and said, it's OK if you cry" from "ATUB" still moves me.

"See, I'm only human, I want him to hurt..I want him..I want him to hurt" from "God Give Me Strength" - pretty amazing

"As you sometimes glimpse terrible faces in the fire" from "Couldn't call it unexpected" - Oh Man

Damn...I need to remember some of the more cheerful ones.

I could go on and on....but I won't for now

LessThanZero · Post by **LessThanZero** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 10:18 pm

It is all these things that make you mine.

There I go, beginning to fall.

Don't waste your tears, it's not as if I'm in chains. When you go to SCHOOL son, read my story in history books though they won't mention my name.

Neil. · Post by **Neil.** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 12:17 pm

StrictTime, I never understood that line 'cog consults the watch he cups in his hand' - what d'you reckon he's on about?

StrictTime · Post by **StrictTime** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 12:28 pm

I have no clue. I just love the way the word 'cog' is made into 2 syllables almost, I don't know if the word for it is 'lilted' or what. A cog is a part of a watch, that I know. The part that spins, if I'm not mistaken.

And No Coffee Table · Post by **And No Coffee Table** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 2:42 pm

I've never been totally sure if cog is even the correct lyric. There was a debate on the email list over whether it was pa or Cait at the time Brutal Youth was released. (The original CD did not include a lyric sheet.)

At this point I lean toward cog simply because it fits the watch reference, but it still doesn't sound quite right to me.

migdd · Post by **migdd** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 2:57 pm

Listen to the live version on My Flame Burns Blue. It sounds distinctly like Cait, rather than cog.

StrictTime · Post by **StrictTime** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 3:43 pm

If anything, sounds like cot to me. But I was never good at this kind of thing.

And No Coffee Table · Post by **And No Coffee Table** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 7:30 pm

Cait is pronounced like cot, at least in Ms. O'Riordan's case.

martinfoyle · Post by **martinfoyle** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 7:58 am

'Cot' is the way Elvis pronounces it since he's English. Around here CÃ¡it is pronounced Coyyt, due to the stress mark over the 'a'. Whatever, I'm sure Rocky, who's actually Nigerian, is too pushed about it as long you dont call her baby.

manoutoftime · Post by **manoutoftime** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 9:37 am

How to be dumb 'and beautiful people stampede to the doorway of the funniest fuckkker in the world'

end of Party Girl 'ohhh give you anything but time'

Human Hands 'checkmate in three moves in your head'

the throathy 'oh yes we're killing time ..' in Let them all talk

StrictTime · Post by **StrictTime** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 11:17 am

And No Coffee Table wrote:Cait is pronounced like cot, at least in Ms. O'Riordan's case.

You learn something new everyday. Around here it would probably be butchered to something sounding like cod anyway

thepopeofpop · Post by **thepopeofpop** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 7:37 am

migdd wrote:Listen to the live version on My Flame Burns Blue. It sounds distinctly like Cait, rather than cog.

It's cog in the sheet music for "Brutal Youth". Besides, as Cait is a 'she' - she wouldn't "consult the watch he cups in his hand" - unless there was a "crying game" aspect to their relationship.

As for how he sings things ... well there's so many things to choose from. Um... I'll say the entire performance of "Riot Act" - but in particular the "when the HEAT gets SUBTROPICAL" and "why do you talk such STUPID NONSENSE" bits. Particularly as he is talking to himself in the song!

Mikeh · Post by **Mikeh** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 9:26 am

I like the line "She was selling speed boats in a trade show when he met her" in When I Was Cruel. I remember one reviewer saying EC sang it as though it was the most dispicable job in the world.

Also, I love his voice on Damnation's Cellar, "there are murders to solve."

And No Coffee Table · Post by **And No Coffee Table** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 9:35 am

thepopeofpop wrote:It's cog in the sheet music for "Brutal Youth". Besides, as Cait is a 'she' - she wouldn't "consult the watch he cups in his hand" - unless there was a "crying game" aspect to their relationship.

The one consulting the watch doesn't necessarily have to be the one holding it.