That’s where Steve Perry comes in - that counter tenor voice reminding us of our girlhood. Women like to remember when they were girls, asexual beings with unrecognized longings. Not only the lower sexual voice, but lower body movements we just knew were dirty. I think that is why they pushed Josh Groban in his early work - a baritone by the way- to sing in his higher range, reaching for that tenor purity, appealing to young teenage girls and old teenage women. High-pitched voices are pure singing love songs that promise something more than sex. Analyzing baritones can be tricky.īut oh, the tenor - he is the guy in the white hat singing of unrequited or broken love. The dichotomy of lower register voices means baritones can also remind us of husbands, fathers, brothers - safe, comforting. And sometimes the baritone too - bad guy. Just the juicy parts of Peyton Place, and we didn’t understand those very well at all.ĭeeper voices can be more threatening. What the heck did we know about sex anyway. Early Frank Sinatra too, for a different generation - tapping into as yet, unknown sexual territory. Gene Pitney, Roy Orbison, and Del Shannon - all were soaring tenors that affected us in the same way. The boy didn’t really notice us but we knew if he would just look our way, love would burst forth and we would walk hand-in-hand to the sophomore dance in perfect non-sexual bliss. Just like the perfect (pre-zits and shaving) boy we had a crush on when we were 13-14 years old. He looks like a boy/kid having a blast on stage and wearing his heart on his sleeve. On the 1981 Houston “Escape” concert DVD, his joy at performing is palpable. Here is my other thought about why “The Voice” so appeals to us - it’s all about sex. He very well may be, but hey, we don’t know since we are not personally acquainted with the man. If someone can sing about those feelings so well, words and phrases that touch our hearts, then he must be above the petty jealousies and foibles that plague the rest of us mere mortals. In “What Was” we feel his pain as if it were our own. I have tried to interject some reason into the mix, but I am usually shot down in flames because I dare to say, “We don’t know him, the man he is now.”īecause Perry sings with such unadulterated emotions, he must be the guy in the music. And poor Stevie, life has been so cruel, father leaving, mother dying, former band dudes being dicks. If you’ve read any of the posts on the (unofficial) Steve Perry Facebook fan page you’ll notice a strong trend toward the thinking that Steve Perry must be a fabulous, warm, sweet and caring guy who loves everybody and adores his fans as much as they adore him. Now here is what I think about some of the over-the-top female fan stuff. I just hit repeat on the ol’ iPod and head out on the highway looking for my own Jesse. Jesse is movin’ slow through a town that doesn’t know him any more and Perry’s phrasing in that song conveys all the feelings of the restless rebel. The phrase “ridin’ slow-oo-oh” - man oh man. Another deft writer, the woman behind ( turned me onto this youtube video and I will be forever grateful. The song is a short-story masterpiece recorded live at the 1983 Budokan concert in Japan. The aforementioned “Open Arms” - and within “Still They Ride,” I find one of the finest emotional phrases in any Journey tune. It’s hard to explain but many of the old Journey songs affect me on a visceral level. If those other vocalists are not singing blah, they are shouting, trying for emotion - it is “look at me, I am singing loud so believe what I say.” And let’s not forget the vocal ad libs Perry uses to such great effect in his solo work and classic Journey releases, such as the powerful anthem “Mother, Father.” Each word is the same, with very little inflection. Many other performers just sing the song “flat.” Not out-of-tune flat, but rather with no emotion, no nice vibrato.
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