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Wednesday, March 20, 2013

My Favorite Beatles Song

Jimmy Iovine said it best:  The songs of Lennon/McCartney are perfect and there are no gimmicks needed.  This is the 3rd or 4th time the Lennon-McCartney song book has been a theme and I have been disappointed in prior years at the outright butchery of their work or the insipid performances.  Who can forget Kristy Lee Cook's country version of *Eight Days a Week?* If you can recall a similar debasement of a great  L/M song in prior years, feel free to add it to the comments. 

The show opens with the judges (Nicki managed to make it on time tonight) and Ryan and then out come the extras.  I am excited because it looks like Kree may have the pimp spot. 

The Idol fan tour save or whatever they called the contest between Aubrey/Brianna/Adrianna and Charlie Askew is announced before the performances and sadly, Aubrey/Brianna/Adrianna is going on tour.  El Boro for the tour audiences as she will be given a shlocky ballad to sing if she even gets a solo...probably the one she sang in the sing off that I cannot remember and I bet you can't either.  Oh well, love you Charlie. 

To my disappointment, Kree is first and now the best part of the show for me will be over in the first 7 minutes.  They talk about her parents dying and I wish they wouldn't dwell on that but if it gets her votes from the less cynical fans, I'm not going to complain.  She at least does not seem all maudlin and *feel sorry for me* about it so that is good.  She sings one of my favorite Beatle's songs *What Would You Do If I Sang Out of Tune* although I really remember the Joe Cocker version better than the Beatles version.  I'm a little worried when she starts that she is putting too much country in it but once she hits the chorus she has me sold.  Very very solid performance...that girl can belt it out and I'm glad she did tonight because her song last week was probably a little too tame for those who think good singing requires big glory notes.  She does the glory notes but I like to think they are *nuanced* to distinguish her from others who I don't like so well. 

Burnell, who I think is underappreciated, sings *Let It Be*.  He does not know the song.  How can that be?  New Orleans is not outer Mongolia!  Its a perfect song for him and he doesn't screw it up but he does put in too much melisma for me (can you tell I loathe melisma?).  For those of questionable musical taste he probably didn't do enough to *make the song his own* by adding more falshitto and runs.

At this point, I'm a pretty happy viewer because the first two (where they usually put the weaker performances) have done the songs justice if not more and it can only get better...right? 

Wrong.  Amber, who I usually love, does *She's Leaving Home*.  Jimmy thought she was incredible in their session and predicted a big night for her.  Well Jimmy, you were wrong.  Maybe it was the smoke blowing at her feet which reminded me that the wind blowing her hair and dress last week was cheesy too, or maybe it was because I think she changed the melody on the most poignant part of the chorus, or maybe it was because Whitney Houston sound alikes should stick to Whitney Houston songs, but I was disappointed.  I like Amber, I want her to do well, but this was a bust for me.  She has a great voice but I didn't like the *choices* she made with the frills, melisma and smoke and I think she completely lost the meaning of the song.  So, while the judges were complimentary (except for Nicki's crack about her lipstick), I was disappointed. 

Ok...here comes Lazaro.  Next to Curtis Finch, Jr., he is the least liked contestant on the AI forum boards.  Everyone thinks he is just getting votes because of his backstory and that he is a terrible singer.  He is singing *In My Life* which until the TV show Providence aired, was a relatively obscure Beatles song.  I wanted it sung at my wedding but in those days there was no You-tube or ability to download songs and you actually had to go to the music store and buy sheet music.  My soloist had never heard of the song and I never made it to the music store so...it wasn't sung at my wedding.  All of which is to say this probably IS my favorite Beatle's song and poor Lazaro really didn't sing it well.  I don't know if he is having trouble hearing the band and that is getting him off-key, if he is starting on the wrong key to begin with like Mariah and Keith think, if his nerves are getting to him or what.  When he said he just learned the song yesterday, that he had to change from another one at the last minute, that explains part of the problem.  My guess is that he was going to sing *Yesterday* until some bitch took it away from him.  So..poor Lazaro. 

Candice is just flat awesome no matter what she sings.  She has not had a bad performance at all.  She sings *Come Together* with its tricky lyrics and I loved it.  Carly Smithson did a good job of it in her season, but I think Candice did it better.  Sadly, I missed the last part because a pizza was wrongly delivered to my door by a pizza delivery guy who looked like Paul Jolley...I kid you not...and it took me awhile to decide if it was a mass murderer or someone innocent ringing the bell before I answered it.

So, up next is Paula Jo.  Now I'm beginning to change my mind about him.  Not his talent, but his person.  I think he is starting to look like a really nice guy.  But man..he has very little charisma and is really only happy when he can oversing!  When he tries to downplay it like he did with the first part of Eleanor Rigby, its just sort of painful to watch.  You know he is thinking...*let me get to the good part...let me get to the good part* so he can show off his glory notes.  He also has smoke billowing at his feet.  Some stupid producer evidently thought that billowing smoke was going to make the poignant songs more poignant or else Paula Jo and Amber are just cheesy people.  Anyway...his performance is not warmly received by the judges (Nicki called it safe, bland and forgettable) and I'm not sure Jimmy can save him this time.  Let me just say that David Cook he is not.

Angie comes out all in black leather with her hair flat ironed so maybe she is reading this blog...or maybe someone finally told her she looked like a Duggar daughter with the old hairdo.  Ryan tells us her highschool voted her *The Next American Idol*.  She says she wasn't popular in highschool which doesn't surprise me given her *me, me, me* attitude.   Jimmy says he was hard on her in the earlier sessions (news to Angie..she thought Jimmy LOVED her).  She sings *Yesterday*.  I think her voice is high, squeaky, breathy, and pitchy but the judges are in Angie Love Land and think she hung a second moon tonight.  She is trying to undersing it and be all sad but she too cannot wait to get to the part where she can belt it out and I think the belting part seemed too obvious and was a corny *choice* to make.  I thought it was pageanty at best and if it had been sung at a pageant she would have been named 5th runner up to the winner. 

Devin needs a comeback after his bland performance last week and he does *The Long and Winding Road*.  This is also one of my favorites (3rd favorite sung tonight...I'm sure I'm forgetting some) and he does well with it but I'm not sure its enough to bring him up in the rankings this week.  His military school backround will turn some viewers off.  I wonder what they think of his pointy hair at that school?  It seemed very pointy tonight and is so distracting to me...and I like the guy...so I suspect it is making those who don't like him even crazier. 

Janelle sings *I Will* which has to be an obscure Beatles song because I have never heard it before.  Or, maybe I am as stupid about the Beatles oeuvre as I am about Nicki Minaj's work.  Anyway, she countrifies it but it seems to suit the song so maybe I will look it up on Youtube and see how it was sung by the Beatles.  The judges really liked it and I'm glad for her as she is one sweet patootie. 

My predictions are that the bottom will contain Paula Jo and Devin and maybe Paula Jo going home.  There is an outside chance Lazaro could be in trouble but I think his fans will stick by him for another week. 

I think the top 3 will remain the same but I wouldn't mind seeing Janelle or Burnell replace the Duggar daughter. 

If you do not get the Duggar reference, look up Jim Bob and MIchelle Duggar and 19 Kids and Counting.  I was going to post a photo of one of the Duggar girls, but when I looked at them I realized that Angie's hair even out Duggars the Duggars!  They at least keep it out of their face!